In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about his thoughts on liquid yeast, when to oxygenate, the quantity of yeast nutrient he recommends in his recipes, using brewing salts, and shares more data on the “olive brine” off flavor.
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As a new dad, I need to make sure that all of my shoots of Ask the Meadmaker even more efficient. I've cut a lot of the editing out, but I realized I was doing a bunch of things I didn't need to do. I was getting really pretty before it. And you guys can see me as I am. I mean, I was just out working on the grounds of redbrick and I think I look fine. The other big thing I was doing was I was making a cocktail, like a cool meat cocktail for myself to hold. It's like oh my god, I can just drink out of the bottle.
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.
I am not in fact, drinking an entire bottle of Mythic gin. I just took two swings during the break. And now I'm on to mead. Our first question comes from David, and he was going through our recipes, and he wants to know, if I really meant to keep the yeast nutrient addition the same regardless of the original gravity, how much sugar there was how much potential alcohol there was? The answer is yes, not because that's the best way, but because it's the easiest way.
Our next question comes from Christopher, who says I gather that you recommend dry yeast instead of liquid yeast, but I'm a liquid yeast user. Now that is not quite true. We use dry yeast currently, but we actually started our production with Wyeast liquid mead strain, and we absolutely love it. The reason I advocate for dry yeast is it's less expensive. It's not better or worse. It's just less expensive, which means when you're getting started making mead, it's less of a risk of a last batch. But what he really wants to know is when he's building up a starter, that means he's taking yeast, adding honey and water and building up that yeast colony, do I recommend oxygenating every time you add more honey and water? The answer is it's a little complicated. It depends on whether you're just making a starter. So, you're just going to take that yeast and make a batch. Or if you're going to be building up to five gallons, and that's going to be your mead. The answer is for the first one, you probably are better off doing Puro 2, build that yeast colony, and on the second one, you're going to have some oxidized flavors in the final mead. It's not going to be terrible, but I would say just add the honey and water as gently as possible in that case.
Good news, everyone. We have more data. Another professional meet maker has written to me and said "Hello, Ricky." Good start. "Since we have last met, I have been making mead like a madman." I know this man. I am not going to share his name because he does everything like a madman. "Yet I have run into one common thread on anything below 8% that I've brewed. All my friends I let taste sparkling hydromels get a briny green olive flavor." There it is again. "This is across more than seven yeast strains, wild, lab, etc. Multiple fruits, ginger and so on. Anything above in ABV still, it isn't there. The only common thread would be my use of Fermaid O. Any help here would be appreciated because I can't seem to shake this problem and I think that this might be it." This is one more piece of evidence. Fermaid O and Fermaid K are great nutrients, but there is mounting evidence that too much nitrogen in a low alcohol content mead that lack nitrogen uptake during the initial yeast turnaround may be the source of that briny flavor.
Brewing salts! Ed wants to know about brewing salts. What are they? He knows, but maybe you don't. Brewing salts are mineral additions that you put into your wort when you're making a beer to help replicate the water profile of the region of the world that that beer originally came from. You can do things like add sulfites to dry it out, perceived dryness, and all sorts of things like that. He wants to know, is there a reason to use them in mead? Now, this is a cool one because in answer to the last one, and to his, you could actually use a yeast nutrient that has minerals in it. Again, not a shill for the Wyeast company. They do not pay me anything. I pay them a lot of money. But I love their use nutrient because it already has a mineral profile built right into it. But if you don't want to do that, I'd say go ahead. Play around with brewing salts. You can really add some depth to your mead with a little bit of minerality.
Our last question this week comes from S. Snudden. And it's neat because it's a whole bunch of questions but listen carefully. I'm going to read them and you are going to see the trick. “Why did you choose D47 when switching from your house yeast? Did you experiment with other common yeasts in craft mead? If so, how did they affect the product? For example, maybe craft meads are more delicate, So, 71B's ester may come across too strong in craft needs, or EC1118 may strip too much flavor.” There are question marks at the ends of all of those. But that last sentence is the answer to his own question. Yes, we experimented with a bunch of different yeast. I did for years and years and years of the homebrew and then again professionally. And 71B's esters come through a little too strong in a light mead, and EC1118, which is a champagne strain, strips too much flavor. So, correct. Thank you for your question.
And also, if you're watching this on the day that it came out, it's national mead day, which is a holiday up there with like, hug your librarian day, which may or may not exist. It probably does now that I've said it on the internet. So, in honor of this ancient holiday, I am not doing a word of the week this week.
Keep sending your questions and I'll get to them as soon as possible. Cheers.
