In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about dealing with young mead off-flavor, fermentation temperature for homebrewers vs. pros, suggested reading for meadmakers, and more!
Well, I'm flying solo this week. No Lillian. She's off at school for those of you who miss Lillian's episode, you should probably go watch it. The kid's an absolute whiz. The nice thing is, no Lillian, but I do have one of her cocktails. So, it's definitely the next best thing.
Welcome to Ask the meadmaker, where I, Ricky the Meadmaker, answer your questions about mead making, mead drinking, mead brewing, and really any question you're willing to send to me.
Our first question comes from Steve, and Steve has a mead with young mead off-flavor. He wanted to know if he takes that mead and he puts it back on a yeast cake, the leftover yeast at the bottom of a fermentation, could that yeast reuptake the off-flavors? The answer is I've heard of people bulk-aging on yeast for this exact reason, but I've never heard of someone transferring onto yeast for those purposes. And I think it definitely warrants an experiment.
Our next question also comes from Steve, because it's an important one that I should have addressed a long time ago. Do I start my batches at the temperature I say that they are fermenting at? If I say it's an 86˚F fermentation, do I start them at 86˚F? The answer is sort of. The metabolic activity heats up your fermentation as it goes. Now, I have these big, conical fermenters. They're about 1,000 gallons and I have to have a coolant to hold the temperature down. When you're making the decision about fermentation temperature, bear that activity in mind. If you are in an application where you cannot get rid of that heat, you can't put in an ice bath or a cooler, you have to be very mindful about starting your fermentations too warm.
Our next question comes from Scott. It's a very complicated question with a very easy answer. Scott has been following this show for a while, he's been reading my blogs online. He recently visited Maine Mead Works. In both locations - Maine Mead Works and at Groennfell - we are a three-week fermentation time. He was worrying that, see, we use a special strain of yeast at our facility and he's only using Lalvin. And they use Wyeast, but they also have a crazy, cool complicated fermentation system. And maybe there are things that big commercial facilities can do that you just can't do as a home brewer. And the thing is, he ended his question by saying, or am I overthinking this and a four-week fermentation is okay, and I should probably just relax? The answer is watch these episodes. Go on my blog, learn techniques. Four weeks is very impressive. Just relax.
David wants to know what books I recommend for home meadmakers. The answer is the complete works of Kurt Vonnegut. I actually know what question he was asking. Schramm's The Compleat Meadmaker and the complete works of Dickens.
Our last question comes from James and it's a reader. "Hi there. I have a question about your posted recipes in regard to fermentation. Have you adjusted the fermentation temperature for a homebrew scale? I know that at a commercial scale, you can ferment at higher temperatures due to the hydrostatic pressure suppressing phenols and esters. From a beer homebrewer's perspective, the temperatures you list are quite high." Hydrostatic suppression of phenols and esters is an amazingly nuanced understanding of the brewing process. It can happen with some yeasts and not others, due to where the metabolic activity actually occurs throughout the fermentation. Lager strains fermenting at the bottom, ale strains and wild yeast strains usually fermenting throughout the entire volume, but also in beer, krausening around the top. I think you may also be on the list this week of people that are overthinking it. Ferment at the temperature that works for you at home. Taste it. If you don't like the taste, play around with it. It's that simple. The reason we ferment so warm is we actually want a lot of those phenols and esters that come at higher temperatures. If you're getting the right amount at 82˚F instead of 86, I think you've got it right.
That's our last question this week. I just need to send it over to Ricky with our Word of the Week. Ricky. Thank you, Ricky. I'm back from word saying school. It was in Calgary, or as I like to call it, the Key West of Canada. This week's word is "pressure-safe." A lot of people are concerned about using pressure-safe vessels when they're brewing. Pressure-safe means that whatever the working pressure of your beverage is, it is rated for it. That means you need to use special bottles when you are carbonating in them, like force-carbing, or even using priming sugar. That's so that your bottles do not explode. A very important thing. Pressure-safe is our word the week, the end of our show. Keep sending your questions and I'll get to them as soon as possible. Cheers.
