This week Steve Piatz joins me to discuss how to make a low gravity session mead including mead nutrients, backsweetening and how to spice or accent your mead. Using modern techniques, you can make a great session mead in as little as a few weeks.
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[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/beersmith/BSHB-175-Mead.mp3]Topics in This Week’s Episode (38:57)
- Today my guest is Steve Piatz. Steve is the 2008 Mead Maker of the Year and also the author of the book The Complete Guide to Mead Making (Amazon affiliate link).
- We start with a brief update of some of Steve’s mead making activities since his last podcast.
- Steve explains what a “session mead” is and how it is different than other types of mead.
- We discuss sweet vs dry finish, and agree that most meads need some sweetness (i.e are not best totally dry) or spices to balance them.
- We talk about a variety of methods for finishing a mead sweet including cold crashing, halting fermentation through filtration and backsweetening.
- Steve explains applying potassium sulfite and sulfate at the end of fermentation and also how to backsweeten.
- We discuss methods for adding fruit, spices, hops and other flavors, including why it is best to blend these in at the end.
- We talk a bit about the importance of nutrients, aeration and especially regular degassing during active fermentation
- Steve explains how you can ferment and finish a session mead in just a few weeks using modern nutrients and degassing
- He speaks for a few minutes at the end about his book on mead making (link above).
Sponsors
- Thank you to our sponsor Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine for sponsoring this episode. I encourage you to subscribe to their great magazine!
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Thanks to Robert Keifer for appearing on the show and also to you for listening!
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Related Beer Brewing Articles from BeerSmith:
- Mead Making with Steve Piatz – BeerSmith Podcast #214
- Mead Making with Steve Piatz – BeerSmith Podcast #150
- Mead Making with Michael Fairbrother – BeerSmith Podcast #88
- Making Mead with Michael Fairbrother – BeerSmith Podcast #65
- Making Mead with Curt Stock – BeerSmith Podcast 20
- Honey and Mead with Michael Fairbrother – BeerSmith Podcast #239
- Staggered Mead Nutrients and BeerSmith 3
- Mead Making with BeerSmith 3 Software
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Why can’t you pasturise?
When you’re talking about session Meads and stopping the fermentation you never mentioned putting the Mead in a bottle after it’s been carbonated in a keg and then give the bottle a hundred and eighty degree water bath to pasteurize the Mead and kill the yeast that way.