I will try the two concepts that I recently read about on the Beer and Wine Journal (www.beerandwinejournal.com and search "mead"). These were staggered nutrition addition and potassium addition. The article is written by Chris Colby with input from Ken Schramm so it should definitely be worth a try. So here we go........
Ingredients
2.2 L of home made elderberry juice
1.7 g of star anise
Water to 8.5 L
7.0 g of Fermaid K yeast nutrition
(2.5 g of DAP or di-ammoniumphosphate [(NH3)2PO4] ) If I can buy this !!
4.25 g of pot-ash or potassium carbonate [K2CO3]
7g Vinoferm, Bioferm Killer yeast
The elderberry juice was prepared this summer when the berries of my tree were ripe and black. The berries were picked so that no leaves or twigs were present. Then the berries were extracted on a fruit boiler where the berries are actually steamed. It takes about 1.4 kg of berries to make 1L of elderberry juice, So the juice that I am using comes from about 3 kg of berries.
When I had just made the juice I tried to make a tea of diluted juice and honey. Just small cups to adjust the taste. I came up with a 1:3 dilution and with a good bit of honey.
But there is a catch. Elderberries contains cyanogenic glycosides which releases prussic acid (HCN). The prussic acid can be removed by boiling for an extended time. Now I did not know this, so after my dilution tasting, I got really sick even though the berries had been steamed. I tried again, this time boiling the tea for 15 min and I was OK. Felt a bit like a guinea pig in my own food lab :o)
Secondly, I had rinsed the flasks for the juice with Atamon which is a solution of sodium benzoate. As stated on the bottle, Atamon looses it "power" when boiled (?). Benzoic acid is quite stable but perhaps it is removed by being dissolved in droplets of the water vapor.
So when preparing the mead I wanted to make absolutely sure that HCN and Atamon was boiled off. The 2.2 L of Elderberry juice was mixed with 2.5 L of water and boiled for 45min.
I was aiming at 1.7 g of star anise and I was just lucky to find one with that mass :o).The star anise was crushed to to increase the surface area and added during the last 15 min of the boiling. I added what corresponds to 0.2 g/L as I know it is a quite powerful taste. (1.7g / 8.5 L = 0.20 g/L)
Then the honey was added. Since it was quite solid (not stirred enough) I tried to heat the container in the kitchen sink but it was only enough to liquefy the surface of the honey but enough for the lump of honey to drop into the pot. The container was rinsed with the warm juice and then the pot was stirred till the honey was dissolved. I re-heated the pot to 72C removed the heat and left it for 10 min .
Then the must was poured into a 10 L fermenter and filled it up to 8.5L with cold tap water. Made my own markings just to make it easy for myself. Then I added the Potassium Carbonate and there was no foaming or bubbles which I expected since the must should be acidic enough turn the carbonate to CO2. The fermenter was left to cool on the balcony throughout the evening but I took it inside later so that the temperature would not drop below 20C.
Next morning the temperature was 23C, so just perfect. I prepared a yeast starter by just adding the yeast to 50 ml of tap water heated to 26C. When the yeast was hydrating the temperature was increasing which could be felt on the glass I used. The yeast was left like this for 12min
While the yeast was hydrating I added the first portion of Ferment K -> 2.0 g corresponding to 31 ppm YAN in the must. Addition is a bit lower than I wanted but I was simply not able to buy DAP (?!?#¤) in either of the two brew stores that I frequently visit.
The density was significantly above 1.120 (the max of my hydrometer) but I estimate it to be about 1.135.
pH was measured with strips but since the the must is quite colored it is really difficult to read the strip :o). Best guess is about 4-5.
Again it is now just time to wait for the bubbling.....
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