My First Mead - Comment/Advise Please

[Rubber.Piggy]

Ok guys here's what I'm planning, I flogged Terry's great idea of using a 5L water drum to make a small volume.

1.5kg Honey
500ml Apricot Nectar (from a can)
50g grated ginger root
Juice of an Orange/Lemon (for some acid)
Nutrient Salts
Lalvin EC-118 Yeast

Planning to boil for 15mins, skim foam off, ferment.

I'm happy to have it take as long as it needs and I intend to leave it in the fermenter for most of that time. Should I rack it at some point?? I'm intending to leave the ginger in during fermentation, is this a good/bad idea?? I'm looking for a hint of ginger not over powering, what do you think of this ammount??

Thanks in advance
RP

[Terry]

Sounds nice!

My tastes would require less ginger but it would give it that spicy touch if that is what you are after. Since you are using fresh ginger and citrus, why not go the whole hog and use fresh fruit instead of canned? It is more labour intensive but the flavour of fresh as opposed to canned anything is so much better.

Enjoy.

Terry

[tyrone]

Yea Terry that is true but the canned is sterile

[Terry]

You are correct Tyrone, but what I would do is peel and slice the fruit and stew it, then use the juice. Alternatively put the stewed fruit in and after fermentation take the fruit out and put them in a jar and eat with ice cream. Yum.

[Dogger Dan]

Sounds good,

I wish I could trade some Meads with you guys, They sound really good

Dogger

[Rubber.Piggy]

Thanks for the comments guys. I'll let you know how it goes some months down the track.

I'm trying to get some fresh apricots, I'll be going to the market one more time before I put this down on the weekend so I'll try again. I might have to try a big (read, expensive) fruiterer.

Terry: If you were leaving the fruit in the ferementer you would still stew it seperately, and add to the wort?? That is, you wouldn't cook it up in the wort.

[Terry]

RP,

I don't suppose it would matter too much either way, as long as the fruit has a time on the boil to ensure there are no nasties in the fruit you can't see, as was mentioned earlier with the canned it is sterile but the fresh fruit is not.

Cheers,

Terry

[Dogger Dan]

I know everyone likes the fresh fruit.

However, freezing the fruit will decompartmentalize all the cells as water is less dence in its frozen state than in its liquid so it occupies more room frozen than liquid so it ruptures all the cells apart thus releasing the sugars and flavours from the fruit.

If you use fresh fruit you will have to mash it up to get the same effect.

I always freeze my fruit and then pasturize it with hot wort

Dogger

[Rubber.Piggy]

Well I'll be damned, looking in all the grocers and fruiterers and it was Coles who had fresh apricots.

Well it's down and bubbling away nicely 10h after pitching, now the waiting game. I'll update in a few months when I bottle.

Thanks for the tips guys. Dogger, I purreed this time but next time I might try buying the fruit a couple of days in advance and freezing it first, a little less hassle.

[tyrone]

How long will this take to ferment ?

[Rubber.Piggy]

I'll let you know when it's done

So far it's been going for two weeks and it's only really just slowed down. The literature I've read suggests it'll be done in 6 weeks, but considering the rate it's going and that I really want to make sure it's all feremtned out, I'm expecting to leave it for at least 12 weeks, likely a lot more.

[Scarfy]

i was wondering how this brew turned out? and if it turned out well how much water you used.
cheers

Scarfy

[Chris]

Haven't seen rubber.piggy in a long time Scarfy.

[gregb]

Yeah, he's been off the air both here and elsewhere for quite some time. RP, if you're out there say hi will ya.

Cheers,
Greg