Been a bit busy of late......

Well, I posted about Banana mead, but since then, I was given more free banana's i.e. a whole case, 18kg in total.

So I mixed up a base must of honey and water, then shook the hell out of it, then just rinsed the bananas, topped and tailed some and started slicing them straight into the fermenter.

As you can see, the skins started browning quite quickly, and to be honest, it's always a mistake to make a batch like this. Once the ferment started, it blew the cap and airlock off it, at least once. Plus, trying to stir the batch through the neck of the ferment was rather a trying exercise. In the end, I just left it alone to do it's thing.

The whole point of this was to be able to see if I can compare the final taste of it, to the batch where I boiled the bananas and then just used the "juice" for the ferment.

The original batch I made, which was made with "boiled banana juice" is now reasonably clear and the extra sliced banana I added to it has sunk, which means it's probably time to rack it off the chunks of skinned, sliced banana that were added in the hope of making it "more bananery tasting". Whether it's worked or not I don't know.

Equally, after asking about using banana, Bob at "Winesathome" mentioned that when he did a brew with banana, he fermented on the fruit - but the result was a bit too bananery tasting (he's a wine judge, so would probably be looking for different things in a brew that me). Hence this batch being fermented on the fruit.

Here's what it looks like now. Just a thick layer of floating sludge and some bits of banana skin.

I suspect I'll have to run it through some sort of straining cloth, to remove the sludge/skins. I'll have to wait until I make my mind up.












That's not everything either. I was checking various DJ's of liquid, only to find that I still have 2 gallons of last years steam extracted elderberry juice. So I took that, and mixed in 4 litres of cheapo supermarket grape juice, and then started adding honey, until I got a reasonable gravity reading.

I got a reading of 1.070 after adding 2 kg of honey, and after having a read about, decided to add a further 1kg, which should give me a gravity of about 1.090 - but I can't confirm that, as the last kilo of honey was crystalised and despite giving it a good stir, I don't think it was all dissolved properly (not that that matters particularly - but I didn't really want to heat it up to dissolve it).

Also, I used a different yeast. I found a pack of BDX, that Brian gave me at last years Grapefest. A quick check of the link, suggests it should be a good one for an Elderberry/Grape juice mixed batch.

The only thing I know for certain, is that the fucker seems to foam like hell. I pitched the yeast, tuesday I think it was, there was no airlock activity wednesday or thursday, I forgot to check it yesterday, but this morning, it's started fermenting, the air space part of the bucket was coated with a thick layer of dark purple sediment and some of it had even bubbled out the air lock, and that's with a 3 gallon batch in a 27 litre bucket.

So now it's been swirled round to remove as much of the purple sediment (I want as much colour from the juice as I can get) and it's been aerated with the electric balloon whisk, and the first part of the nutrient has been added - I intended originally, to use 1 teaspoon of FermaidK and half a teaspoon of DAP a.k.a. di-ammonium phosphate. But a few questions about the yeast and I got a suggestion via Gotmead, to double it.

It's to do with some of these yeasts that are, apparently, good for "reds", being a bit on the "hungry" side, and needing more nutrients than a similar yeast for "whites" might require. They are known to show their displeasure at being "under fed" by going "stinky" - in other words, the yeast gets stressed and produces H2S (hydrogen sulphide - easily diagnosed as H2S smells of rotten eggs/farts).

It's now bubbling away just nicely........

My next move with "finished" mead.

What seems to have been a successful ferment with the traditional/weirdomel batch in the previous post, has galvanised me a bit.

I haven't been able to work out why I've felt so nonchalant about getting myself into gear and bottling some of the 18 gallons or so of various meads that are currently sitting in 1 gallon jars/DJ's under the stairs, but I think it's nervousness at the possibility that it'll taste like shit.

Well the traditional/weirdomel batch is the first time I've made a batch that has definite residual sugar in it. Last time I bottled a batch it was the first batch I made, which was Ok, but not brilliant (to be expected), but I just went ahead and started making batches - all of which have ended up under the stairs as I lost a bit of enthusiasm for making batches - I've made other stuff, but that's all sitting in fermenters/DJ's of various sizes as well.

Anyway, I'm confident that it doesn't matter if when I start mixing/blending the aged batches, that if my additions of honey do cause any hazing, I'm just gonna whack it with finings too clear it.

I might not actually bottle it immediately, just get it ready i.e. I'll blend 5 gallons in a large bucket, I'll stabilise it, then back sweeten it initially to 1.010 then taste. If it's sweet enough, and it doesn't haze with the back sweetening honey, I'll bottle that with the enolmatic with the filter in line. If it hazes, I'll just "fine" it and rack it back into the DJ's until the finings have done their thing then I'll bottle it.

If my thinking is correct, I should at least have a reasonably consistent flavour and colour. I'll have to wait and see. I'll try and take some pics while I'm doing that.

Traditional (weirdomel) part 4

Ok, so it's the extra public holiday day, for the Queens diamond jubilee celebration (not that I've been celebrating it, as I'm a republican) and it's raining outside - no surprise there......

So I thought I'd get my finger out my arse and see how it's doing. It's doing bloody marvelously. It's not been bubbling for nearly a week now, but I've been a little nervous (not sure why) as to how and whether it's still going or not.

I've just taken a gravity reading and it's sitting at 1.010 - a drop of 130 points from the original 1.140 reading taken before I pitched the D21 yeast. That 130 point drop represents 17.6% ABV, which exceeds the 16% tolerance published by Lallemand in their yeast list.

It's not surprising, as the numbers in the list are for grape musts/wines, obviously all the nutrition and aeration has paid off.

The level on the bucket was telling me it was a total of 6 litres but obviously the gradations on Ritchies buckets aren't that accurate, as I got a full gallon DJ out of it (4.55 litres) and a 1 pint milk bottle. Both are full to just below the neck and there certainly wasn't nearly a litre of the must left in the bucket. Never mind, there's enough for me to let it settle and rack it off the lees once and top up from the milk bottle - which should do the trick enough for me to get it clear(ish).

Taste-wise, it's still got a little bit of sweetness to it, but about how I like it. If it should ferment a bit more now it's been moved out the primary, it doesn't matter, as I still have a half jar of the original honey I can back sweeten with. It's not quite as curious tasting as the original honey was - I'm thinking that it should turn out fine.

Traditional (weirdomel) part 3

Well the batch seems to have stopped bubbling, but without checking the gravity, I don't know whether it's still fermenting or not.

I have no idea about what this might come out tasting like, because unlike "Insomniac" over at Homebrewtalk, (he's the chap who located the honey in the first place and I went to the local branch of the same store and found it too), he made his batch up sooner than I did.

I just hope it doesn't taste too dusty/earthy, like the batch I made with "Italian Chestnut Honey". Which wasn't bad as just honey, but once it had been fermented there was a definite dusty/earthy taste to it - probably ok to use as part of a multi-honey batch, for a hint of the taste but not as a 100% batch.

I'll have to report back on how it's doing, because if the ferment has stopped, it will need to be racked off the lees, but at the moment it can stay where it is, with a nice protective layer of CO2 in the bucket.

I'm hoping that all the aeration I did and the staggered nutrient additions, it will have got to somewhere near the 16% ABV mark otherwise it might be too sweet - and if that is the case I'll probably just end up fortifying it with a brandy or whisky, then leaving it too age. I've still got half a jar of the original honey that was intended for back sweetening, but due to my cock up with the initial mixing of the must and it's high gravity (and wrong yeast......) I probably don't need to back sweeten - though hey!, many have reported yeasts exceeding their published alcohol tolerances. Which is fair enough, and entirely possible, given that the published data is for grape musts, which ferment differently and don't usually need much, if any, in the way of nutrition, unless the yeast is a "high maintenance" one that is prone to going stinky with out proper support.

We'll have to see eh !

Traditional (weirdomel) part 2

Ok, hands up, who's perfect ?..........

Not me.

After I mixed the batch up, I rehydrated a sachet of D21 (with hindsight, I should have used K1V-1116). Now as is my habit (being a little lazy), I sort of follow the instructions, but not always with total accuracy.

I didn't test the water temperature when rehydrating the yeast, I just made it hand hot and added about 100mls of the must and about 8 grammes of GoFerm. Once it had been sitting for about a half hour, there wasn't much, if any, foam or bubbling yeast on the top of the rehydration liquid, but I figured I'd left it too long for that - I now believe not (note too self, read up on making starters).

The yeast got pitched. The next day, there was no activity that I could see when I opened the bucket to see if I could work out what was going on. I just sanitised the electric balloon whisk and aerated the must. Having had a wank day at work the following day, I forgot to aerate the must. The day after that, I did my check i.e. I was only waiting to see some sign of fermentation commencing so I could add the FermaidK/DAP (1tsp/half tsp) mix..... nothing, so again, I figured just blitz the must again with the whisk as above.

On the fourth day, I did my check and still nada. "Bugger" thinks me, it looks like I've got a duff batch of yeast, either that or the high starting gravity has affected the yeast (I think it's called osmotic shock, I don't recall the exact phrase), so I'll have to probably pitch again at the weekend if it's not going tomorrow, but as an ill-thought out idea, given the high SG, I added a further teaspoon of GoFerm when I was whisking.

Tomorrow came (yesterday), and work fucked me over, I ran out of hours to get back and got stuck out, in a layby just of "the 25". So no check, nothing.

This morning, I got to have a look to see if anything has happened only to find, that not only has the bugger started fermenting, but that it's also dropped about 25 points i.e. on checking, the must gave me a gravity of 1.115! Ah well, I decided, not to worry. The delay in the batch starting was just a prolonged "lag phase". Though whether it was the wrong temperature at rehydration, or the high SG, or whatever, it's now underway.

I've just given it a good whisking, and added 1tsp of FermaidK and half tsp of DAP. I intend trying to remember to whisk daily, maybe to the 1/3rd or the 1/2 sugar break, I haven't decided yet. Probably the 1/2 break, because of the high gravity and that a 140 drop in gravity (presuming dry at 1.000) represents about 19% ABV - D21, from memory, is good for 16% - which is why I thought of the hindsight of using K1V-1116, it's tolerance is 18% and I saved half a jar of the tropical honey, which might turn out to have been unnecessary. We'll have to wait and see. If I can overdrive the yeast some, to achieve greater than 16%, then that'd be good. After all, I don't intend this being ready for drinking any time soon. Just to get it finished fermenting, back sweetened (after the ferment has finished as I'm gonna use more of the tropical honey if I need too), then cleared and ageing.

I suppose I didn't make sure about the temperature of the rehydration liquid, as I was being impatient! Can't say for certain, just that as with anything mead related, patience is a virtue.......

Traditional (weirdomel) batch.....

Ok, so I'm thinking of this as a traditional batch, but also as a "weirdomel" (a batch made with weird ingredients).

Now, I'm thinking both, because it's being made as a traditional, but what you can't see from the picture, is the other "blurb" on the label, including the honeys origin.

The jar details explain that it's honey collected from wild bees in the Miombo forests of north western Zambia. There's other marketing bollocks on the label as well, but if you want to know anything else, you can look it up at "Tropical Forest's" website.

Suffice to say that it's unusual enough for me to think of it as a "weirdomel". Despite the fact that I bought it in a local branch of Waitrose.

I bought 4 x 1lb jars a good few months ago, but have only just got round to starting it as a brew. Last night, I put the 4 jars into a sink of hot water, because it had crystalised some and I wanted it to run easily so it mixed up completely when I added the water.

Now I know that honey will vary in it's sugar content, but I was surprised to see a reading of about 1.060 once I'd mixed in about 3.5lb of the honey - though the relatively low reading may have been because I mixed it with a stick blender (sanitised) and hadn't waited long enough for it to settle. Seeing the low number I filled one of the jars with about another 1lb of the Blossom honey I got from Paynes last weekend. I mixed that and it still didn't seem to be reading much over about 1.080 - so I said bollocks to it and just scooped a pint jug out of the Blossom honey bucket and poured that in as well, mixing it with an electric whisk. I then just left the bucket fermenter sealed up over lunch.

When we got back, I took a reading and it's at about 1.140, which is rather high for my liking, but if I hadn't been so impatient, I would have done a better job of measuring both the honey and taking a gravity so it was a bit lower i.e. about the 1.120 mark. Never mind.

A gravity of 1.140, if it gets down to 1.000 would be about 19% ABV - I want a bit of residual sugar anyway, so I'm not fussed. I'm intending to manage this using the usual 2 part, staggered nutrient addition method, and while I'll try and aerate it twice a day, if it just gets aerated once a day, it should get somewhere near where I want it. I'm going to use D21 for the yeast.

The honey itself, isn't as sweet as some (too taste, that is) and has a sort of malty hint, plus a spiciness that I can't pinpoint, though it's not unpleasant.

Right, I'll close for now, as the yeast will have had long enough rehydrating in the GoFerm, must and water mix, so I'll report back how it's doing later on. Even if it does go pear shaped with the ferment and the starting gravity being that high, I can just run a restart, but using K1V-1116, which is also a good yeast for traditionals.......

Banana Mead Part 7

Ok, so here it is as it looks now.

I've just racked it off the lees into another 3 gallon (US) water cooler bottle, to which I added 4lb of banana (approximately 3lb when skinned), which was sliced - the object of which, is to make this brew more "bananery" tasting.

I took a gravity measurement before starting and it was sitting at 1.002, now as well as the banana that was added for flavour, I also added 4 vanilla pods - taken from my home made vanilla essence jar (the vanilla pods in the essence jar are just about 100 vanilla pods in high strength alcohol), so while they might not be as strong flavoured as "fresh" vanilla pods, they should be fine. I then added 5 ladles of "Blossom" (a.k.a. wild flower) honey, which has brought the gravity up to 1.022 - of course, that doesn't include the sugars in the banana, but I'm not fussed if it does carry on fermenting some, though I do suspect it might take a bit of time for that too occur.

The intention is to keep swirling the batch until the banana sinks and hopefully the batch will have cleared some as well.

So far, I haven't treated it with any sulphite or sorbate (as above to my current thoughts on any further fermentation), and I haven't treated it with any pectolase or even amylase (don't know whether banana has much, if any, pectin, but I'll keep amylase in mind as I understand that banana does have some starch - so if it doesn't clear, then I'll think about hitting it with one or both.....

Now I'm also hoping that taking the batch off the gross lees, will reduce any problems that can be caused by keeping a brew on 71B lees (I think I used 71B, I'll have to read back to check!). As I'm well aware that 71B isn't good for ageing on the lees and is known to impart some off flavours (from autolysis ?), so if it drops too much I'll have to rack it again, which would mean that I'd have to take it off the fruit etc and into glass.

Hence it's a bit "watch this space" for the next development.

Oh, and before I forget, when I washed out the original fermenter, I noticed that the lees wasn't very well compacted, and it was mainly of a granular appearance, and not just the usual "yeast coloured slime" that I'm familiar with. Why that might be I don't know, but I thought I'd better note it - I don't know whether it's of any import or not, or whether it's just something that occurs when banana is used in a primary ferment........

Banana Mead Part 6

When I got in after work on friday, I think it was, I took a gravity reading and it was about 1.000 and on a whim, decided to add the malt extract (runny brown stuff from the local health food store).

It only pushed the gravity back up to about 1.005 and it wasn't a 1lb jar either, it was 340 g - hopefully it'll still ferment out ok.

I'm thinking that when it's got a decent layer of sediment I'll just rack it and then put some more banana in there - probably just the fruit sliced up and leave it as I'd like to get a more bananery taste going, so when I eventually do back sweeten it, it'll have a hint of malt, a hint of vanilla and a reasonable amount of banana taste....

I'll have to wait and see won't I !

Banana Mead Part 5

Well, it's nearly finished already.

I tested it when we got back from lunch and it's reading about 1.005, which is about 11.5% ABV (if I've remembered my start details correctly), so there's some room for it to go further i.e. 71B is capable of about 14% ABV.

Now as I'd expected, it's not very "bananery" in taste, but that's mainly because all of the extracted flavour has been in primary fermentation. So one of the things I've decided I will be doing, will be to rack it off the sediment and onto some more banana.

What I haven't decided about yet, is whether I'm gonna augment the alcohol some with a bit more honey, or possibly change the flavour a bit by adding some vanilla as it goes quite well with banana.

Or I also have the option of adding a 1lb jar of malt extract, letting it do it's thing before back sweetening.

Of course, it's all rather "undecided" as this batch wasn't really planned because I wasn't expecting to be given the banana that prompted this batch (and I'm far too disorganised when it comes to my batches).

I do suspect that both the malt and vanilla would enhance the banana flavour if it's present in a large enough quantity. I suppose I'm unsure because so many of the recipes and brews that others make, I wouldn't - some wonderful ideas, but I just don't see the point in a lot of them. Perhaps because I'm not adventurous enough, I don't know......

Whether Banana Vanilla Malted mead is the way ahead ? Hum ? Dunno.........

Banana Mead Part 4

Ok, last night, when I checked the brew, there was plenty of foam showing, but the gravity test showed little, if any movement.

Tonight when I checked it, I could see not only plenty of foam but some yeast scum on the top of the inside of the fermenter, so I was happy that it was fermenting fine, and my concerns of the previous posts on this where unfounded, just that I suspect I'm correct in thinking that I should have left the must in a bucket for a day or two more to dissipate the sulphites more.

Either way, it's going well.

Both last night, and tonight, I've stirred the hell out of it and managed to generate foam eruptions twice. When I checked the gravity tonight, it was down to 1.070 - which is only 10 points from the 1/3rd sugar break, so I took about 750mls out of the fermenter and put it into the liquidiser once I'd sanitised it and ran it on slow to aerate the contents. At the same time I stirred the fermenter as well, to help remove some of the built up CO2. Once that was done (about 5 minutes of "aeration"), I thought "sod it" it's gonna steam past the 1/3rd break over night (probably), so I added 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of FermaidK and 3/4's teaspoon of DAP (di-ammonium phosphate) and stirred that in well, before pouring the 750mls of well aerated must back into the fermenter.

I'm gonna leave it for now.

Just for info, the ferment was well underway, until I stirred the hell out of it. If you look at "Machalel's" (he's ? - a newer member over at gotmead) video clip, that's about the same level of activity I was getting, just that my batch didn't look quite as impressive as my fermenter is a 3 US gallon water cooler bottle (I'll try and post a pic another time) coloured transparent blue, and my must is lighter in colour as his batch was "caramel banana", mine is just banana.

Right, that's it for now. TTFN