In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about what to do with extra yeast, making spicy mead, alternative ways to de-gas mead, recipes for experimental batches, and more!
Further Reading:
Homebrew Recipes
Making Mead in Less Than 3 Weeks
Homebrew Recipes
Making Mead in Less Than 3 Weeks
Transcript
I was thinking of developing a signature look and I was going to do like, the one glove thing, and everyone's like, "Michael Jackson did that!" but he definitely didn't do it like this.
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 this week comes from William Garrett, who has a fascinating problem. He has been cultivating his own yeast. He takes it off the bottom, he does some washing, but he has too much! What to do with all of it? Well, that is a problem that very few of my viewers experience, having too much yeast, but there are ways to store it, and I could tell them to you, but it's better with pictures. A lot of people do it in sterilized, not sanitized, sterilized mason jars. And you can learn all about it online.
Our next question also comes from William and he has heard about people aging hot sauces in bourbon barrels, and he was wondering if he aged a bock beer in a barrel that used to be bourbon, but then was hot sauce, would that be a good idea? And maybe he could do it just by pouring some Sriracha into his bock. And the answer is you can man!
Our next question comes from Nouryang, someone on Instagram. And he also has a question about making spicy meads. He is having inconsistency when he puts peppers into his mead and do I have issues when I use different peppers? One batch is very spicy and the next is not?
The answer is yes, I've had major problems with that. One of the reasons we don't often make spicy meads here, but if you're looking for a solution, talk to William!
Our next question is fabulous. So, Jeremy has read about degassing on the internet. And he, like so many, is worried that if he opens his fermenter and degases or stirs, he'll introduce bacteria or something like that. So why not just put a Mento into it? And he said, not a real Mento, but something with a surface area like Mentos, like some etched glass or something. And man, I would not pay to see that, but if you send me a video of you doing it at home, I will add it to an Ask the Meadmaker.
Our last question this week comes from Ned and he wants to know if I'm ever going to post my experimental batches online. And the answer is no, because most of my experimental batches are like, "I got some Valkyries choice. Let's put some cinnamon sticks in there," which doesn't make for a great post. And also, the internet is full of meadmakers. Many of them, home meadmakers who are better than I am, posting their recipes and I do not need to add to that noise. But thank you for asking, Ned. That was our last question. Keep sending them over to them as soon as possible. Cheers.
