Irish Mead Finishing and Bottling - Second Part of Traditional Irish Mead
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- čas přidán 20. 08. 2024
- Today we finish and bottle our traditional Irish Mead. This process includes testing the gravity of the must to be sure the mead is ready to be racked. The racking process for mead, then bottling the mead. Taste tests too! Then our Traditional Irish Mead is put away for a while to age.
Authentic Traditional Irish Mead - Can we make One?: • Authentic Traditional ...
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Im adding a metheglin to my list to do. I just bottled my Christmas mead and wanted to share the recipe with you. It was 2.5 pounds of bocheted honey, 3 liters of Martinells apple cider, and raisins in secondary. After racking i added 1lb of dried organic cranberries. After that sat for 10 days i added 2 cinnamon sticks, 2 clove and 2 whole allspice and let all that sit for 10 more days. After racking again i let it sit for 3 months and bottled. Its really smoothing out and tastes like Christmas smells. Its 15% and I used EC1118. I clasify it as a spiced cyser bochel (bochel is a bochet with fruit and i made that term up). Would love to see this on your channel if youre so inclined. Thanks for unknowingly teaching me so much about brewing!
i’d still love to see this done! it sounds amazing.
"The cleaner of things!" I love it lol
I’m a mechanic and I’m washing my hands very frequently with some fairly strong cleaners. My hands will get cracked along some of my knuckles. I’ve been using O’Keefe’s Working Hands for years now and it works very well. I highly recommend it. I get it at the local Harbor Freight and one small can lasts me about 6 months. They have a bunch of products but I like the hand cream. It’s unscented and a little bit goes a long way.
Thanks, will look into it!
Law Offices of Vincent Gambini. LOVE THE SHIRT!
I was so excited for this it came alot sooner that I thought! Have I mentioned that this show is now my life? 😂😂 love your vids as always can't wait to see what's next!
LOL... thanks for watching!
Perfect timing! I am bottling 5 gallons of tropical Melomel, and 6 gallons of strawberry melomel. This will due for some viewing while I’m filling!
Good luck! How long have they been fermenting?
@@antonioj.2147 I have a 15 gallon primary fermenter that I started in April 2 2020, I racked into 3 carboys on october 2nd, 1 with 3 kilos of passion fruit dragon fruit mango and pineapple, 1 with 3 kg of strawberries, 1 with 3 kg of mango. Racked them off on the 12th, they stopped fermenting 3 days ago, so I cold crashed them for the last 3 days and they are nice and clear. Just finished bottling them now, but the mango still needs more time.
I use the Carlo Rossi jugs for my fermentation jugs and had a problem with the bungs. I eventually found that using a zip tie to hold it down worked wonders. Also love your channel. I found y’all a few weeks ago and haven’t stopped watching. Thanks for all the insight and tips!
Thanks for sharing
I just made my first few batches of mead yesterday!! YEAH, finally!! Went very smoothly from watching all your videos, thank you for sharing tips, suggestions and experiences. Gave me great confidence and the process was awesome, thank you!!
TIP: I found that using some of that green velcro tape (not actually sticky type tape) for use in gardening (its about 1/4-5/8ths inch wide works awesome for securing down your bungs on 1 gallon glass carboys. You can cut it to length even wrap it around the bung once and then secure through the loop handle. The velcro fastens securely and wont snap like rubber bands might.
Awesome! So glad to hear it!
I use Saran Wrap or Masking Tape to help hold the airlock in place.
Explain how you use it? Someone else said that too...
@@CitySteadingBrews Sure, wrap a piece of Masking Tape (it removes easily) around the outside of the bung and mouth of the carboy. Same with Sara Wrap, folding it to make a wide strip and wrap it around it's self.
This is such a unique flavor concept! One idea - you could have included the herb lemon balm instead of lemon peel to get those citrus notes without the (potentially overpowering) use of actual lemon. Lemon balm is another herb that has been grown in Ireland for centuries.
I use the peels so it won’t overpower and it still gives a great flavor.
I like the idea of lemon balm after more thought. We have used lemongrass before but not lemon balm :)
Quick note when I do florals or herbs I sanitize a nylon grandma sock tip over the end of my auto syphon keeps the floaters out and I get max yield
I know this is an older video but out of all the ones I’ve watched of yours, seeing you with the Rossi bottle makes me chuckle. I ended up using zip ties to hold the bungs down. Need to get me some rubber bungs. 😂
Rubber bands work to hold them!
nice new turkey baster, i like the length
try using an alcohol swab on the bung. it will sanitize it, obvs, and it will become dry for insertion.
That's a good idea too! I'm going to have to try that on those couple bungs I have that like no bottles at all.
I just started using my 2 gallon pale fermenter for whole fruit/high solids brews. That way I can put a full gallon of juice/liquid along with whatever I want to add, and still get most of a gallon when racking.
We were doing that. I just hate plastic buckets. We now use a 1.4 gallon to get 1 gallon. But as I said when we started this video, we didn't have any available.
Mead takes a long time to work itself dry. I tend to rack for 6-9 months, then bottle it for more time. I have racked for over a year and it produces a fantastic product, that is complex and well blended; it will also lose the 'barfiness' of honey at that time.
I totally agree with you that silicone bung suck.
I'm liking the new 1-2-3 punch format of the videos
Awesome, thank you!
4:35 That’s the angels taking their fair share!
Wouldn't it be the Fairies since this is Irish Mead?
@@mycrazylifewfawnlisette3582 You do bring forward a strong argument, I concede.
@@seannaesseannaes LoL
LOL
Have you ever thought of using a wine saver to “cork” your half-full bottles? I just got one with 6 stoppers. They are great for degassing too
Nah, we just chill them and drink them.
Zip ties work good to they won't slip off
#6 bungs on Amazon fit great in those Carlo Rossi bottles!
Good to know!
Starsan dries hands out like crazy, if you have cuts you can feel by how badly it stings if it's strong enough, if you ever wonder if "that's all I need to mix in?"
I've got a bunch of homemade elderflower cordial, so I might have to make this, gotta either buy or source heather tips though.
I'm definitely interested in this, I'm going to have to order ingredients online since I don't have any Heather that grows by my house.
@@mycrazylifewfawnlisette3582 it looks like heather tips are mainly flowers? So I'll have to buy them unless I fancy waiting until spring/summer.
@@RobertBuchanTerrey where are you from if you don't mind my asking?
@@RobertBuchanTerrey Where are you from if you don't mind my asking?
@@mycrazylifewfawnlisette3582 Mid-Wales, I've got Elderflower less than 200m from where I live, and hills covered in heather less than half an hour's drive away.
I made a super pretty white wine that is currently sitting after it's first rack. I used Moscato and Cotton Candy grapes. The smell is lovely and the taste is pleasant. I still can't get these 2 seeds out of my wine tho lol
Great clarity in spite of those seeds😁
Great as always. Love you guys!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I always have the same problem with bungs - even if I feel like I got them dry enough. I struggled with a rubber band, too... then I realized I can use zip ties - now I just do that every time and it keeps it in there tightly with no real effort
Oooh! I never thought of that. I'm definitely going to try that soon! I have a couple stoppers that just don't like any bottles.
But... they're one shot types of things.
@@CitySteadingBrews I push the little tab that makes them lock and undo them all the time.
They are just as reusable as rubber bands, good idea
But where are the Irish T-shirts from the last video😂? And also the channel is growing so much and you will reach 100k subs sooner than you think, congrats!
Can't wear the same shirts every day!
Been struggling with the silicon bung & rubber bands myself. A friend suggested using clingwrap/clingfilm which is foodgrade. Sounds interesting.
Using it how exactly?
@@CitySteadingBrews Wrap around the neck of the carboy & bung so it won't work loose. I've to try myself yet
I'm sure it's been said but just incase not drilling a hole with some hot glue in a cap works great for a DIY bubbler
Yup, I've seen all kinds of ways people made airlocks.
I’m so looking forward to the tasting videos! Both the one for the you g mead and the one after a year. Thanks for this series on Irish mead! I’m starting to wonder what herb people would have added to elderflowers to make a Flemish/Belgian version of this...
Love your channel i just started making mead and now hooked i got 5 different meads on the go at the moment a viking blood. A spiced orange. Strawberry and raspberry. And pinapple and mango. Hope thay go well. Was thinking of a of trying a moca flaver bit not shour how to make that as i heard using chocolate and coffee can be tricky
Coffee is easy. We did a coffee mead.
Wouldn't it be An idea to use a tea cloth (I think that is the name, basically a rather fine weaven cloth) to do the first racking and get the herbs out? It seems easier and you can squeeze the the liquid out of the herbs.
You can. I like keeping things very simple, and racking with a siphon is just ingrained into me by this point!
Never blame it on “your bung”! Lol!!!!
What size bung do you have that in? Is it a #6? I know I have the carlo rossi 4L and the #6 works just fine (but it is a different bottle, so I see nozzing I hear nozzing, I know nozzing.)
6.5 most likely.
@@CitySteadingBrews 6 may work better... haha
Hey Brian, you have often mentioned the term " pitching" yeast and where the term comes from. Been thinking , and well your yeast is generally in a pitcher which you dump in your must, so....
Brian loves his master baster doesn't he?
Have you tried the moldable silicone putty before to make custom bungs and such? I had to modify a lid for a demijohn and used some to make a seal on the lid and a grommet for the bung.
I have not, but I might try that for our Little Big Mouth Bubbler lids.
@@CitySteadingBrews I got mine from like makeyourownmolds.com. I've used it a couple of times, because my local home brew store keeps closing early. So far, I'm impressed. But, then again, I'm a novice.
Great video as always, looking forward to the tasting video
Coming soon!
Have you guys done an apricot wine or mead video? I searched and didn’t find one, but figured I’d check. My apricot tree will be fruiting soon, and based on the number of blossoms I’m going to be inundated with apricots so am planning ways to use them up. Wine seems like a fabulous use!
We have not... mostly due to not having fresh apricots available!
@@CitySteadingBrews oh shame! If I was closer I’d send you some, but they’d be well fermented by the time they got to you 😂
I’ve found another channel that has a fairly simple no nonsense recipe apart from using pectolase to clear it, so I guess I’ll follow his recipe. He did 2kg of fruit to a 5L batch and I’ll have way more fruit than that, so maybe I’ll try with and without the pectolase and see if it’s necessary. I can probably try out wine vs melomel too. As long as I get the apricots before the birds do! I think I’ve learned enough from you guys now to finally take the plunge even without it being your actual recipe.
Howdy guys, I really like your videos. Very informative and entertaining. I hope you maybe can tell me how well would ginger play with a mead recipe?
We did ginger mead... czcams.com/video/2JAGMCN5xWA/video.html
Thanks for the link. I watched the series before but reviewed it again. I have cancer and try to use any natural food or drink that may help me such as ginger, coffee, beets or numerous other things like honey. I’m going to make some of your recipe and see how I like it. Thanks for your helpful information and happy brewing 😁
Small thing I noticed is that you are multiplying your Original Gravity minus Final Gravity by 135. Everywhere I look says to multiply by 131 or 131.25 to get your final abv. Not much of a difference but can be a small difference of .2 - .5 . Anyways cool video
Yes, it's more accurate at higher gravities. 131.25 is good enough for beer.
@@CitySteadingBrews Interesting, i had never heard of that. i guess its all just approximate then
Homebrewing is all ‘close enough’ yeah.
Lol thought straining floaters was what the mo (stache) was for?
turn wibble upside down and put a lid on it should be a bit better not likley to have a fermenter slide off
Still less stable than the table.
Random question. What if you were to leave the carboy at a 45 degree angle while finishing primary fermentation? Then when you go to rack, you tip it the other way and don't have (or have less) sediment when racking off?
Could try. We do not have a convenient way to do that and I believe there's not enough space in the fermenter to do it.
Where's the white bucket of levitation? Jk I've jumped ahead
Is buying carlo rossi wine in 3 L the only way to get these containers? Cos if you start in a gallon jug and rack to a second 1 gallon you will have too much air space ? correct
Hi Brian, what is the diameter of the wine bottle? I may be able to pour a couple of those silicone bungs for you specifically for the neck of the wine bottle :-)
Could you wrap some cheese cloth over the pump intake so lessen the amount of floaties ?
Sure.
Could you rack it by pouring it through cheesecloth or something?
Not recommended. Pouring oxidizes it and cheesecloth won't really catch the lees.
What's your views on a screw cap with a hole made for an airlock instead of a bung you have to tie down?
Long as it seals, it's find.
can I reuse the star san by putting it in a closed container?
So yall fired wible? How is he gonna feed his family?
Funny.
Star san really dries out my hands and seems to peel of the top layer of my skin (ew gross). Bottling day wreaks havoc on my hands. I have enough dry skin issue with all the hand washing and hand sanitizer use at work. I wear gloves now if I'm going to be dunking my hands in sanitizer or use a spray bottle instead.
Oh no!
Do you use organic, wax free lemons? When I infused vodka every one would yell at me about using waxed store bought lemons. Thsnk you
I should.... but the alcohol pretty much kills anything, and the tiny amount of wax is washed off thoroughly before we zest.
I was drinking my blueberry malomel last night, it’s 14.9 abv. I had two glasses and thought hmmm this seems weaker maybe I miscalculated the abv. Then I stood up, noooope.
lol, funny how that works!
Is the equation different for mead than wine or cider? I thought the coefficient was supposed to be 131.25. Have I been doing it wrong? 😱
I found that 131.25 is accurate up to about 6% ABV. After that, the lower spgr of the ethanol makes it more and more inaccurate as the alcohol content rises. There's a very complex formula out there that is more accurate still, but, once we reach 18% or so, there's very minimal difference in that fomula and using 135 as a coefficient, so I just go with that. Even at lower ABV's, the difference is nearly non-existent and it closely matches 131.25 at those levels. So, short answer: it's more accurate!
Another question what if you like the smell of fresh flowers should you dry them?
Jsyk I live on Thailand and have access to lovely smelling flowers I wish I could send pics
Sure? Not sure what you’re asking really though.
I'm going to start my first brew in the next week or so, using your basic mead recipe, but I'm a little concerned I might run into trouble. I couldn't get the yeast you used in my country (not right now anyway) so I bought a packet of mead yeast from the same company I'm getting my equipment from, but upon further research I learned it had an 18% alcohol tolerance. Will this make a super dry mead using that recipe, or lead to issues when bottling? Will I need to pasteurise and back sweeten the brew with a yeast like this? And are there any alterations to the basic recipe you would recommend when using a higher alcohol tolerance yeast?
Sorry for the question barrage, but I've been inspired to take a shot at home brewing by your videos and I'm learning everything I can about it, and I've quickly come to realise that there is a lot I don't know!
It's all good.
Yes, it will go dry using this recipe. You can 'try' more honey, but it could stall and it will taste more of alcohol which may or may not be better.
Your idea of pasteurizing then sweetening is perfect and will work just fine.
@@CitySteadingBrews Awesome, thank you for the advice, and the recipe!
Thank you Derrica! You remembered about the dry hands. I also do a whole lot of outside work, gardening, digging, building ect. In the past I noticed soil under my nails will make them crack but it wasn't until I started brewing (more than one gallon at a time) that I noticed my hands will get dry n peeling. When I asked my mom she said hers will do that if she's scrubbing w Bar Keeper's Friend (amazing to get burnt of pans) so it was something chemical. Next time I had a brew day I noticed that my hands did it again the next day.
Do you have any suggestions for a good moisturizer?
Someone had mentioned the O'Keeffe's Working Hands. I actually have that at my house I just put some on, my brew day was 2 days ago so mine are dry still. I'll let you know how it works.
I used the O'Keeffe's about an hour ago. Immediately I remember why I stopped using it and just put it in my closet. It makes my hands feel clammy (worth it if helpful) the back of my hands feel a little softer but I'm still all dry and peeling.
You might want to use gloves. Prevent contact with the solution that is irritating your skin.
@@Vykk_Draygo Thank you! I'll give it a try, my luck I'd get the solution in the gloves. LoL (my luck is not so funny tho). I honestly don't know why I didn't think of that.
Derica still struggles with this.
Great video as usual. Keep them coming. I have a question about some wine I bottled. I had two different ones, a banana wine and a pear wine. both had been in demijohns for 6 weeks, actually the banana was more like 8 weeks. But both had stopped doing anything but tasted to dry. So back sweetened both brews. And I decided to leave them both for another week after back sweetening just to be absolutely sure they were done and didnt start fermentation again, they didnt so I called it a day after a week and bottled all of it but not before syphoning into a bucket first and degassing. Now I can annoyingly undo screw lids on bottles and I get a little fiz.....but thats not the worst, I can live with that. What is really weird is I can smell (more so n the pear wine) a yeasty smell....what have I done wrong. Gutted so many bottles maybe useless/undrinkable or is it just a case of leaving it? I cant see how the smell will disappear?
Did you rack for conditioning/secondary?
Do they taste yeasty?
I was gifted a homemade pear wine. The guy who gave it to me had had it sitting and aging for YEARS, he didn't do a conditioning phase and it was wayyyy sweeter than I would have made it. I haven't made my own pear yet.
@@mycrazylifewfawnlisette3582 hi Fawn, yes both were started in fermenting buckets with said fruit in a bag and I mashed down and stired fruit for one week, then fruit removed and syphoned into demihohns off of leese then in demijohns for another 6 plus weeks, back sweetened and left for another week to check added sugar didn't restart fermentation
@@JosExotics I had never heard of demihohns or demijohns before (it's probably something I have seen before and didn't know the name or something I use and call a different name).
I personally don't know why they have a yeast smell to them. I forget if you said you degassed or not before you bottled. The fermenting gasses cause off smells. The next thing I would suggest is let them age more and see if it goes away.
Did you use additives? Or stay as natural as possible when you fermented?
I hope someone else can give you a better answer than I can. The only time I ever had a yeast smell was when moving from primary to conditioning and by the time I bottled it had disappeared by the time it was ready to bottle.
Demijohns are just carboys, Fawn.
WHAT! No jazz hands
I have a question. I have a gallon hard cider on the go (4.5l). I live in kenya and dont have access right now to any equipment, so this is going in a 5l water bottle with the cap as an airlock and bread yeast. I am confident I will have alcohol, taste TBC. But without any equipment, how do I know when it is done? Is there a point when i leave it too long in primary? I may or may not have to add a little more sugar after a week, I like it dry and I already added 500g sugar at the start - honestly did not taste too sweet, but I would prefer it to be dry rather than too sweet.
My thoughts are leave 'til there are no bubbles and add at least a week before racking/ conditioning.
Leaving it until it stops bubbling and then a few more days should work fine
Okay, first... adding more sugar is likely to make it sweet, not dry. If the yeast can't consume all you add, it will be sweet.
As for when it's done... that is mostly dependent on how much sugar and cider you added and what their readings are. I'd give it 6-8 weeks to be certain. bubbles are not a good indication of it being done.
Do you ever re-use your yeast? Yes or no and why?
Rarely, due to inconsistency.
Why not pour it through a coffee filter and catch the floaties and sediment?
It won't remove the sediment. czcams.com/video/amfzmKhkx54/video.html Just use a siphon.
Question: why did you use 135 as your correction factor? I generally use 131. its the difference of roughly 0.5%, but im just curious
Brian did a whole video on ABV and different formulas. Basically by the end of that he realized the higher the ABV% was the less accurate the x 131.25 was. So beer and cider 131 is good for but Wine and Mead the 135 is more accurate for.
@@mycrazylifewfawnlisette3582 Thank you for the reply, im newer to the channel and there are a lot of videos to catch up on
@@erikhartwig6366 no problem. If you want to look for it, it's in the brew talks section.
Fawn has it right. I found that as you got into higher gravities, the lower spgr of ethanol made the 131.25 more and more inaccurate. The difference at low ABV's like 5% was nearly nothing. As we got higher though, it was off by as much as 1-2%. This coefficient is closer to accurate.
I just started my first batch of mead. I've tried looking through your backlog but i didn't see anything about sparkling mead. How would i go about making a sparkling mead?
We dod vids on carbonation. Any beer vid, dragons blood wine, spiced cider. Same principle.
@@CitySteadingBrews thank you so much!
Can you and would you use tree sap such as maple or black birch as an ingredient in mead making?
Sure but sap doesn’t have much sugar or flavor really. To be mead though you still need honey.
@@CitySteadingBrews
Sure I understand completely that mead by definition is honey wine. No honey... not mead. In using the sap do you think it would be best to reduce into natural syrup to increase flavor potential. Or would you say us slightly less honey and replace water with sap?
Would orange have been better for taste?
Better? Dunno, but it would be different. Lemon is a bit more of a traditional thing than orange to me.
How is it possible that you are bottling at 4 weeks? I’ve let things sit for 4 months till they looked clear as possible with no sediment forming in that final month, I bottle, and 3 months later there’s sediment in the bottle. My strawberry wine looks more suited to be a snow globe and it sat for 5 months. I even cold crashed that one!
I can't say why yours didn't clear other than different recipes work at different speeds as well as different yeasts, temps, environments, etc.
Where did you guys get the smaller glass carboy that you put the mead in for secondary?
It's a Carlo Rossi wine bottle. 3 liters.
@@CitySteadingBrews oh ok. Thanks. I've only ever seen the one gallon carlo rossi. I'll have to look around a little
I wonder if meade was introduced to Ireland via the vikings. They did do a good bit of settling there. Pretty sure Dublin is a viking settlement, unless I'm misremembering. My mom's maiden name "Doyle " is 12th most common in Ireland, and refers to vikings. Anyway, might be why you're having a hard time finding traditional Irish meade recipes and references. Maybe it's traditional viking meade. Just speculating, mind you.
What are the temps like down there my mead is about the same age it just isn't going anywhere cuz it's getting to cold in montana
We keep it in the house.... so, like 72-75f.
I keep it in my house too. the warmest place in my house is the living room the brew is staying at like 50 to 62 with the heater on its bad up here.
Is the cap on my pump for letting me touch the bottom
It's to keep a distance from lees so you don't just suck it all up when siphoning.
@@CitySteadingBrews thanks I saw it on one of your videos before I used it I tough i would check thanks again
My wife accidentally broke my hydrometer when I made my last batch, so I have no idea what the starting gravity was. Is there a way to calculate the ABV without it? It just hit 2 weeks of fermentation.
You can calculate the og if you know exactly how much sugar you put in. Then you can take the final gravity with a new hydrometer :)
@@Pownyan Awesome! Thanks!
As said, you can if you know what you added. If you could tell us exactly how much and what you added to what batch size, I can figure it out for you.
🍯🍺
Have y'all tried using powered drinks packs say even koolaid or something better.
Nope. They are all just chemicals.
@@CitySteadingBrews also explains why i haven't seen it with no one else. Love your channel working on the video's everyday after working night shift and really have picked up a ton of information. Keep up the great work and love the humor be safe till next time
I have to ask, when bottling; am I the only one that in place of half filling a bottle I just grab a stein/pint glass?
Nah, you can do that too :)
When are you gonna start inputting your data into a spread sheet? 😏
Erm... why?
No jazzhands!!!!!
There are jazzhands in the thumbnail. :D