Ask the Meadmaker Ep. 95 – Baby Hiccups

So, in this episode of Ask the Meadmaker, my baby has hiccups. She's going to be joining us because she does not want to be put down right now.

Welcome to Ask the Meadmaker, where I, Ricky the Meadmaker, with my assistant, baby Nora, answer your questions about mead making, mead drinking, mead brewing, and really any question you're willing to send us. 

Our first is an official answer. We have been getting lots of questions about Wyeast nutrient. What is the difference between their wine nutrient and their beer nutrient? And their official statement is it's the same thing. They call it wine nutrient, so wine makers use it and they call it beer nutrient so the beer makers use it but essentially, yeast is yeast and it needs the same nutrients. How cool is that? 

Our next question isn't a question. It's announcements, and two announcements for the price of one, which is free because these are non-monetized videos. Anyway, on the 15th of September 2017, I will be back behind the microphone doing stand-up about baby jokes, which is why Nora is so happy. My jokes are hilarious if you're under four months old, but I'm going to be telling them to grown-ups in a part of a comedy routine called Parental Advisory where the other stand-up comedians are not kid appropriate. But I will be, so we'll be releasing them here. Next thing is we are selling ale horn tankards, go down in the doobly doo below and reserve yours for Harvest Fest we only have 100 and they're going really fast. So, if you want to toast to the harvest at the Mead Hall this year, reserve it now. 

Nora wanted to stand up for this question and she still has the hiccups, which is actually a coincidence because it's about off-gassing. Jerry has a batch of mead that he made. And he saw bubbles before he even put the yeast in. But he had sulfited it. So, is this just the bubbles coming out from the potassium metabisulfite? The answer is probably not, maybe, but he sent me a photo and it definitely looks like initial yeast activity. He also sent me the photo a couple months ago. Sorry about that. I hope you re-sulfited and then pitched your yeast. 

Our next question comes from RoosterRooster which is crazy because I actually knew a guy named Rocket Rocket. It's his legal name. So, RoosterRooster, if that's not just like one of those internet names that people have, sent me an email, let me know. It'd be cool to know a RoosterRooster and a Rocket Rocket for you know, small values of cool. Anyway, he's just gotten into homebrewing, specifically made making, and he wanted to know if he can barrel-age his mead. And the answer is yes. And the second part of his question was what does he have to do to get the barrel ready? The answer is if it's a wine barrel you're using, you can use sulfur strips, which you ignite and throw in there and they kill the bacteria. If it's a whiskey barrel or another spirit barrel you're using, don't throw a sulfur strip in there, because your barrel will explode because of the ethanol vapor density. So, depending on what you're working with, I would do a quick Google search first, just to make sure you're using your barrel right. 

Our last question this week comes from Ivan who had a question about my conical fermenters. Do I carbonate in my tanks? If not, where do I carbonate, and if I carbonated my tanks, what PSI can they handle? The answer is all the carbonation is done in those fermenters. They can handle 15 PSI of pressure. That's pretty standard for the industry. I know one place had some custom tanks that could handle 40 PSI, but for the most part that's unnecessary unless you're doing a special type of carbonation. So, we force carbonate right in those tanks. I've discussed why in past episodes, but that is our last question this week, and I would send it off to Ricky with our Word of the Week, and he claims that we're out of words. I'll talk with him about it. 

Anyway, keep sending your questions. We'll get to them as soon as possible. Cheers