Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

I know I promised to post some information on this topic, but never got around to listening to the old Brew Bubbas podcast I mentioned previously.  Then, this week, James Spenser interviewed someone on basic mead making and he mentioned this site.

http://home.comcast.net/~mzapx1/

On the site, I found basic information on meadmaking, which was excellent.  Additionally, I found this FAQ about nutrient additions and it explains it far better than I could.

http://home.comcast.net/~mzapx1/FAQ/SNAddition.pdf

I found more information about the staggered nutrient additions in last month's Zymergy (author was Kurt Stock, a past AHA mead-maker of the year).  The basic deal is you make a blend of yeast nutrient (66%) and yeast energizer (33%).  Then, for a five gallon batch, you add the following:

- 2/3 tsp of the blend just before pitching yeast
- 2/3 tsp of the blend 24 hours after fermentation started
- 2/3 tsp of the blend 48 hours after fermentation started
- 2/3 tsp of the blend after 30% of the total expected sugars have been consumed by the yeast ((OG - FG) * 0.7)

This is supposed to make the mead fermentation go a lot faster and cleaner.

Hope that helps.

Update on my mead, that followed this nutrient addition process.  As of last night, the airlock has slowed down to once per 30 seconds and I am 17 days into fermentation.  The process guidance says to keep it in the plastic primary for 4 weeks, but no longer, or you start to get oxidation problems.  Then, you rack it to a carboy and let it sit for two months or so, and you can rack it again and see how the flavors are developing.  I have been very suprised at the quick results so far, with a much better mead fermentation than I seen in the past.  Hopefully, this will result in a good drinkable mead prior to a year of aging.  I might even do more than one batch of mead a year.