Pineapple Coconut Melomel (Mead) - Lag phase is over

Today at lunch I came home and saw the air lock giving me a bubble every 10 seconds or so.  From my perspective that means its ready for some junk food!

I added 4g of Fermaid-K and 2g of DAP both mixed into some water then poured into the must.  Gave it a good stir and closed everything back up.  Time to get back to work!

Pineapple Coconut Melomel (Mead) - Brew day Pictures and Process!

First, some research:

• Here is a link to the GotMead site where one of the resident gurus of mead discusses pineapple mead:  http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8306
• And another...  http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12045
• One more...  http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9398

What did "I" learn from this.  My three gallons of juice in 5 gallons of mead may result in too little pineapple. Then again I plan to help counteract that by doing the fermentation under low temps (58F) and using a neutral yeast (EC-1118).  Overall I'm still full ahead go!

This is how the brew day went down:

I popped my honey into the microwave!  Oh god no!  I know a lot of sources say to gently warm the honey in a water bath and not to use a microwave.  I don't understand why not.  I've always used to microwave and had zero problems.  You mileage may vary.  Anyways, 10 lbs of honey for 4 minutes at high power did the trick and just warmed the honey enough to get it nice and thin.

Here is a shot of the honey water mixture with the stick blender in there whipping the shit out of it.

On to the next! Pineapple Coconut Melomel (Mead)

Alrighty then!

Since my primary fermentation vessel is free I decided to start something.  And what I've chosen is a pineapple coconut melomel.  Yummy! I was inspired by this video.  I don't have their recipe but I'll wing it on my own...

 This is something that my wife is going to enjoy.

Strawberry Melomel #2 - Racked...

Its been a while so here's what when down...

5/3 8:00AM - Started to smell really bad again.  A lot of H2S is being produced.  The big problem is that I don't have time to add any nutrients.

5/3 2:00PM - The smell started to dissipate on its own.  I'm just going to let it go and splash rack/ copper it when its finished...

5/5 9:00PM - The SG measures @ 1.002, pH @ 3.5.  Its dry now so I'm going to rack it off the gross lees.

As it turns out this shit smells... like shit.  That H2S is strong.  So I racked it through 10 feet of 3/8" copper tubing and splashed it into a 6 gallon Better Bottle.  The total yield was low. This didn't even come close to filling the carboy.  A good 5-6" of sludge was left in the bottom of the bucket.

I used a hose clamp to slow the flow through the copper pipe that should have given it enough time to react with the nasty.  I hope it did.

Added 1.5g of K-Meta and 2.5 tsp of Bentonite.  I also added 1/3 gallon of spring water to help make up for the loss...

I'll rack it in one month on 6/5.

Strawberry Mead #2

The smell is still gone.  Awesome!

Punched the fruit cap tonight at around 6:00PM.  Measured the SG @ 1.018, pH @ 3.5, Temperature @ 63F.

The taste is rough and young.  There is a bit of an off medicinal flavor... hopefully this will drop out with the yeast when they go dormant.  At this rate the bulk of the fermentation should be over in the next 3-4 days.  Then I'll let it clear out for a week or two and rack it off the bulk lees.

Strawberry mead #2

Measured SG @ 1.029  pH @ 3.4 Temperature @ 63F.
Taste is better than last time.  Less bitter.  Fruitier...

Strawberry Melomel #2 - The Stink Returns...

This AM the smell was back...  I'm at a loss here.  But since the last couple of time the smell was reduced significantly with a little nutrient addition, I'm going to do it again.  Added 2g of Fermaid-K and 2g of DAP.  Punched the cap and took a sample.

SG=1.042
pH=3.4
Temperature=63F

Sensory:  The taste is becoming noticeably bitter.  I assume this is because of the stressed yeast...  I hope this clears up after some aging.