Talk:Infamous Bathtub Mead

I'll bet if you got some of Neil Gaiman's honey, the mead would taste of the most delicious dreams and starlight kisses. --Caryatid 12:15, 19 January 2010 (EST)

Huh. Despite pitching a full packet of yeast, my mead hasn't bubbled over in the meadsplosion you seem to get regularly. What temperature is the room where you're leaving the mead? That's the only thing I can think of that might be making the difference. My mead is currently sitting around 60F, and fermented very nicely, and quite vigorously, but didn't bomb out of the fermentation lock. Since my next batch will be around 9lbs of honey for a 3 gallon batch, I guess we'll see if the sugar content makes the difference. -Morrigu 14:19, 22 February 2010 (EST)

Even better, I only used half a packet of yeast and got the mead-splosion (1 full packet is for a 6 gallon batch). Here's what I probably do slightly differently than you: after making the must, I leave it on the stove to cool for 2 hours (at which time it's still quite warm). I don't do the ice-bath thing. I have a carboy with the amount of water I plan to use to top off the mead already sitting in it, and I dump in the proofed yeast. Then I pour in the still-hot must, and the temperature evens out to a really nice warm body temperature which really gets the yeast going. I got my setup going at 8pm and the next morning I usually have a mead-splosion and a nice robust yeast colony going. Another factor is what you leave in your carboy: I find that when my carboy is full of spices and other crap, it's extra food for the yeast. If you do a straight-up mead with no flavoring, you are much more likely to not have the mead splosion. --Ubernerd 11:10, 23 February 2010 (EST)

Also, I use a ratio of ~3lbs of honey to 1 gallon of water - not 1 gallon of mead. That means that in order to NOT have a ton of unused must left over after dissolving 9 lbs into 3 gallons, you have to account for the additional volume of the honey (you can soooooorta eyeball the total volume by knowing that the density of water is 8.33 lbs/gallon and honey is roughly 12 lbs/gallon). My ratio is much more like 7.5-8 lbs per 2.5 gallons of water, which comes up to roughly 3 gallons of must, with much less waste (and I save the unyeasted stuff that doesn't fit in the carboy in an airtight container for later use to top off the must after the first racking). But, the point of this whole comment was that sugar content doesn't seem to be a huge contributing factor to meadsplosion since my ratio was closer to your mead, which didn't explode. --Ubernerd 11:20, 23 February 2010 (EST)

Hrm. I think I did pitch at a slightly lower temperature than you do, though I'll say my fermentation did take off like mad. Another difference may be how much air space you leave in the head of your fermentation vessel. I fill my jug up to roughly the top of the inward curve, not all the way up to the neck. The fuller the bottle, the more likely the crazy fermentation will eject out the top. I'll have to see how my batch comes out, but I have the feeling that I'll be trying the putting the spices in the bottom method at some point too. -Morrigu 13:12, 23 February 2010 (EST)

Hahaha pitch. Like a tent. :) --Ubernerd 18:35, 23 February 2010 (EST)

Taken out of context, and with a little bit of creative editing, that gets extremely suggestive. Or dirty. Pitching a tent is the least of it.  ;) -Morrigu 15:14, 24 February 2010 (EST)