Love your videos Mr. Fantasy.........quick questions........can you use Fleishmans bread yeast for your cherry recipe? I used it for your ancient orange recipe....
@epicfantasy Thank you very much Mr. Fantsy.......and please keep making new videos!! Give us updates and first pours!! Gonna try you cherry recipe with Fleishmans
@Ziggybrew yes, thats a good rule of thumb. You can always tinker with it from there by taking the fruit out early or leaving it longer . It adjusts the flavor.
Hi! After primary fermentation at about a couple of weeks, does it have the enough alcohol content to make you "fuzzy"? Or does that come along on the longer, secondary fermentation when you have racked it?
@epicfantasy I made some hard cider bout a year ago & I didn't drink it all yet so maybe I can wait. That needed 6 months to get really good, though I drank some a couple weeks after. Bubbled out the gas into another jug of water to keep contaminated air out. Just used tubing & gromits. You can do gallons at a time using gallon jugs. I'll have to try this mead.
Great videos, will definetly give mead making a go. Really want to try the orange mead recipe on your site. Have you ever thought about making cider? Would love to see a tutorial for cider particulary a pear cider would be great!
@TheMrGlenn224 Yes, good observation. I usually recommend beginners heat the honey and water. This is safer and more effective. But as you do more it will be quite ok to not heat the honey, as long as you have quality honey.
Thank you for all of the great videos. I just finished setting up my first batch of Strawberry melomel about 5 minutes ago. Here's hoping that it turns out alright.
Two questions, first, can someone explain the blueberry/apple/alternate fruits? is the recipe any different? or is it just the exchanging the cherries for the other fruits (just using the same 1 lb of fruit)? Secondly, where do you find jars like the one you are using? I've looked everywhere and cannot find them.
@SilexProductions Usually you can just replace the fruit with any kind of fruit. The jars are specific to brewing so you have to look up brewery supplies. Amazon has em.
great video i have a couple ?'s. First do you know about how much alcohol content you are getting in your final product. and second i have heard that a dry wine or mead has a higher alcohol content than that of a sweeter wine but i didnt know if that was true. anyhow thanks for a great how too. Im looking to get into winemaking myself.
@campusgolfchamp the alcohol level is something that can be tinkered with. usually around 12-14% is what I get. My experience has been that dry mead have a lower alcohol content.
I am not really sure about the sanitizing and how important it is to work clean. I mean sure there needs to be a general cleaning of all containers and stuff but for example the chopped cherries which you touched (I guess) would also be full of bacteria wouldn't they?
So how consequently should one be with working "steril"?
@Samcaracha Hi, I have made batches without sanitizing. But it is a risk. The thing about the cherries or any other fruit is that once it is all mixed you can add a campden tablet to it and that will sanitize it all. Then you wait 24 hours and pitch the yeast. Worth the effort and the campden tablets will cost five dollars.
@Samcaracha Usually you can either buy a liquid that cleans your fruits etc or here in Michigan the health dept recommends to clean your fruit with 1 cap uncented bleach to 5 gallons water and rinse all fruit before cutting slicing , clean the cutting board, knife, hands, to be used the same way.
Keeping foreign bacteria out of your mash is important at least it is to me.
Can you use dried cherries, like raisins, in the making of this particular wine? Would I have to use twice as much or about half? If I only used the dried cherries, would I still use the pectic enzyme?
@ReverantLoki Yes, you could use dried cherries. I would use a full pound of them. The pectic enzyme would be good but not mandatory. It never is, just helpful.
while oxygenating your must is a very improtant step, since oxygen is a nutrient to yeast, if you cannot get all of your honey dissolved into your must dont worry there is a method that some meaderys use called bottom feeding your yeast were they let their yeast feed off of the honey on the bottom of their primary fermenting vessel, if you oxygenate your must once or twice a day until the 1/3 sugar break it will eventually become dissolved into the mead.
Do you ever find it necessary to add pectic enzyme to your melomels to help break down the fruit? Or is the result pretty much the same either way? Thanks!
@ThomasCrown79 I almost always add pectic enzyme now. It does help, mostly to speed up the clearing. I think its well worth it. Probably increases flavor too.
how do you go about bottling your mead after, what was it, six months? there are lots of different bottles, like large glass ones with metal tops...or cork tops. and what did you say about a balloon instead of an airlock? i read it somewhere above.
i made a "honey only" mead, and it came out pretty good.
but i decided to make another one, and i used some other ingredients like tea, ginger, cinnamon...
that one was heavenly great... lol
but the first time i was going to make the mead, i didn't knew which yeast to use, so, i think it's easier to tell it like saccharomyces cerevisiae, so ppl can search not by market names. :]
@RomuloXK Grats on the mead! And thanks for the advice, you might be right about the yeast. It would also help when it comes to international viewers trying to find yeast.
@epicfantasy yeah, i found it by looking for the name of the yeast you used, and comparing it to other yeast, so i noticed that the yeast (saccharomyses cerevisae) was the fungus used to make beer and bread...
so im having some trouble with my yeast... i want to use a distillers yoeast which is supposed to let me get up to a 20% alc concentration but im not sure howmuch honey it will process. is there any way for me to figure out the ammount?
@panzuman Good question. I am not sure. Got me stumped. If I were to guess you could put an awful lot of honey because that % of alcohol is very high. That is a very high alcohol tolerance for a yeast.
@epicfantasy As this is my first timeI brought some realy cheap yeast and no nutrient (but i did add lumps of pear for nutrient substitute) although i used cheap ingredients i did do the process to the book, how long is the yeast supposed to "churn" for .. mine was noticeably churning for a week max then it just stopped and i have a load of crap in the bottom.. is a 4 days - weeks churning long enough or did the yeast die too soon? at the moment it smells like a bitter / vinegar is this normal?
@epicfantasy Pretty much same setup as you have in this vid, with an airlock (- not as good quality ingredience / yeast) I got wine yeast, i know this is not best but im wondering what the desired outcome will be... Im no pro but as wine is on average 17% i guess my mead will be too, or does it depend on how much water / vs yeast vs honey you put in that defines its acohol %
your instructions were confusing. Please explain more clearly on next projects like that. with the sifon and bubble thing and such as that. i get the ingridients part just not why you started with yeast first if it was put last.
@Demonichellfighter sorry, i will try to do better. It can get complex. I do have a complete tutorial about this on my website with pictures. That might be easier.
A friend in my re-enactment society made 24 gallons of cherry mead about nine years ago. The tannin from the cherries had steeped out, turning the mead murky brown, and making it so astringent, it literally glued his tongue to the roof of his mouth! Anyway, he left it to mature for seven years, then racked it off into bottles. The demijohns he used were black from the tannins, and a real bugger to clean, but the maturing had done its job, the mead was staggeringly delicious! It about 18%vol.
awesome project, i think im gonna give this a try.
when you say move it to another jug and sifon off the sediment, do you sifon it then put the bubbling cork thing back on it again? or are you just waiting for the sediment to fall to the bottom?
@yellowdogger When you rack the mead (siphon it off, into another vessel), you must place the airlock back in until the mead has completely finished fermenting, The buildup of carbon dioxide from fermentation will blow a solid stopper out of the demijohn (the glass vessel you see in the video). When its finished fermenting, you need to leave it to mature for at least 6 months, before you start drinking it. Once fermentations finished, its potable, but its best to age it first - its much nicer!
@yellowdogger When you siphon to a new jug you leave the cherries and sediment behind. But it is still fermenting so you have to but the bubbling cork on.
what can i use as an alternative for an airlock?
kopekdess 14 hours ago
@kopekdess Poke a pinhole in a balloon and use that. It works.
epicfantasy 2 hours ago
Love your videos Mr. Fantasy.........quick questions........can you use Fleishmans bread yeast for your cherry recipe? I used it for your ancient orange recipe....
mrjc12 2 weeks ago
@mrjc12 It sure would be ok!
epicfantasy 2 weeks ago
@epicfantasy Thank you very much Mr. Fantsy.......and please keep making new videos!! Give us updates and first pours!! Gonna try you cherry recipe with Fleishmans
mrjc12 2 weeks ago
Comment removed
mrjc12 2 weeks ago
With ANY fruit, is 1# per gallon a good rule of thumb? I have a lot of blackberries.
Ziggybrew 2 weeks ago
@Ziggybrew yes, thats a good rule of thumb. You can always tinker with it from there by taking the fruit out early or leaving it longer . It adjusts the flavor.
epicfantasy 2 weeks ago
Hi! After primary fermentation at about a couple of weeks, does it have the enough alcohol content to make you "fuzzy"? Or does that come along on the longer, secondary fermentation when you have racked it?
Many thanks
A concerned mead-loving student
Marsupium 3 weeks ago
@Marsupium It's not a good idea to drink the mead prematurely. Give it time.
epicfantasy 3 weeks ago
You recommend a champagne yeast instead of Lalvin D47?
neolexington 3 weeks ago
@neolexington yes, particularly when doing a mead with fruit in it.
epicfantasy 3 weeks ago
9 mo to a year? Mudda faka! you should start with that, the world is gonna end this year!
tblbaby 1 month ago
@tblbaby lol, ok. The world will end in 11 months so you will have two months to enjoy your mead!
epicfantasy 1 month ago 5
@epicfantasy I made some hard cider bout a year ago & I didn't drink it all yet so maybe I can wait. That needed 6 months to get really good, though I drank some a couple weeks after. Bubbled out the gas into another jug of water to keep contaminated air out. Just used tubing & gromits. You can do gallons at a time using gallon jugs. I'll have to try this mead.
tblbaby 1 month ago
do you sell your mead because i would buy it !!!
dead2master 1 month ago
Is there an alternative to using a carboy? I saw a video in which just a jug with a balloon on top was used, is this ok?
RichardH552 3 months ago
@RichardH552 yup, the jug and balloon method works!
epicfantasy 3 months ago
looks so tasty & delicious, thank you for this recipe. :)
lilyeve222 3 months ago
thanks for the video.. I have just started out making my on wine, But this looks interesting, thanks again for sharing.
james92y 5 months ago
Great videos, will definetly give mead making a go. Really want to try the orange mead recipe on your site. Have you ever thought about making cider? Would love to see a tutorial for cider particulary a pear cider would be great!
Gadge87 5 months ago in playlist Mead Making
On another of your videos ( easy mead-JAOM ) you heated the honey and water to 140 degrees. This one does not get heated. Is there a reason for that?
TheMrGlenn224 5 months ago
@TheMrGlenn224 Yes, good observation. I usually recommend beginners heat the honey and water. This is safer and more effective. But as you do more it will be quite ok to not heat the honey, as long as you have quality honey.
epicfantasy 5 months ago
Can you use frozen cherries ? Thawed .
MrGlenn224 5 months ago
@MrGlenn224 YEs
epicfantasy 5 months ago
Do you mean that it will be ready in 9 months to a year after bottling or is that including fermentation/racking time?
SudsY1979 6 months ago in playlist Mead Making
@SudsY1979 That includes fermenting/racking time. It should be ready about 9 months from the very first day you start. Good Luck!
epicfantasy 6 months ago
Comment removed
randon4life 6 months ago
Thank you for all of the great videos. I just finished setting up my first batch of Strawberry melomel about 5 minutes ago. Here's hoping that it turns out alright.
schobra1 7 months ago
It says 1lb of cherries. But it that before after pitting and stemming?
clcarlton 7 months ago
@clcarlton Either way is ok. I bought 1 pound of cherries then pitted and stemmed so definitely ended up with less than a pound.
epicfantasy 7 months ago
Two questions, first, can someone explain the blueberry/apple/alternate fruits? is the recipe any different? or is it just the exchanging the cherries for the other fruits (just using the same 1 lb of fruit)? Secondly, where do you find jars like the one you are using? I've looked everywhere and cannot find them.
SilexProductions 8 months ago
@SilexProductions Usually you can just replace the fruit with any kind of fruit. The jars are specific to brewing so you have to look up brewery supplies. Amazon has em.
epicfantasy 8 months ago
Could you make this with blue berrys? Or make a sour mead with green apples.
tinytomlinson 9 months ago
@tinytomlinson Yes, absolutely.
epicfantasy 9 months ago
When do you anderstend it is done, and i didn't anderstend what is it, wine or beer ? 10xx
kkrustev 9 months ago
@kkrustev Mead is a name given to wine that is made with honey rather than the normal fruits.
tinytomlinson 9 months ago
Comment removed
kkrustev 9 months ago
great video i have a couple ?'s. First do you know about how much alcohol content you are getting in your final product. and second i have heard that a dry wine or mead has a higher alcohol content than that of a sweeter wine but i didnt know if that was true. anyhow thanks for a great how too. Im looking to get into winemaking myself.
campusgolfchamp 9 months ago
@campusgolfchamp the alcohol level is something that can be tinkered with. usually around 12-14% is what I get. My experience has been that dry mead have a lower alcohol content.
epicfantasy 9 months ago
@epicfantasy thank man Im gonna have to try this one it sounds pretty damn good
campusgolfchamp 9 months ago
Hello there.
I am not really sure about the sanitizing and how important it is to work clean. I mean sure there needs to be a general cleaning of all containers and stuff but for example the chopped cherries which you touched (I guess) would also be full of bacteria wouldn't they?
So how consequently should one be with working "steril"?
Thanks!
Sam
Samcaracha 10 months ago
@Samcaracha Hi, I have made batches without sanitizing. But it is a risk. The thing about the cherries or any other fruit is that once it is all mixed you can add a campden tablet to it and that will sanitize it all. Then you wait 24 hours and pitch the yeast. Worth the effort and the campden tablets will cost five dollars.
epicfantasy 10 months ago
@Samcaracha Usually you can either buy a liquid that cleans your fruits etc or here in Michigan the health dept recommends to clean your fruit with 1 cap uncented bleach to 5 gallons water and rinse all fruit before cutting slicing , clean the cutting board, knife, hands, to be used the same way.
Keeping foreign bacteria out of your mash is important at least it is to me.
VoodooIrons 9 months ago
Comment removed
Adol666 11 months ago
Or if you speak English you could sterilise things first.
TheNorseLegend 1 year ago
Can you use dried cherries, like raisins, in the making of this particular wine? Would I have to use twice as much or about half? If I only used the dried cherries, would I still use the pectic enzyme?
ReverantLoki 1 year ago
@ReverantLoki Yes, you could use dried cherries. I would use a full pound of them. The pectic enzyme would be good but not mandatory. It never is, just helpful.
epicfantasy 1 year ago
while oxygenating your must is a very improtant step, since oxygen is a nutrient to yeast, if you cannot get all of your honey dissolved into your must dont worry there is a method that some meaderys use called bottom feeding your yeast were they let their yeast feed off of the honey on the bottom of their primary fermenting vessel, if you oxygenate your must once or twice a day until the 1/3 sugar break it will eventually become dissolved into the mead.
MrDrinkMead 1 year ago
@MrDrinkMead wow, thanks for the excellent advice!
epicfantasy 1 year ago
Do you ever find it necessary to add pectic enzyme to your melomels to help break down the fruit? Or is the result pretty much the same either way? Thanks!
ThomasCrown79 1 year ago
@ThomasCrown79 I almost always add pectic enzyme now. It does help, mostly to speed up the clearing. I think its well worth it. Probably increases flavor too.
epicfantasy 1 year ago
how do you go about bottling your mead after, what was it, six months? there are lots of different bottles, like large glass ones with metal tops...or cork tops. and what did you say about a balloon instead of an airlock? i read it somewhere above.
irishbabe4494 1 year ago
@irishbabe4494 Ihave a vid here on my channel showing how to bottle.
epicfantasy 1 year ago
i made a "honey only" mead, and it came out pretty good.
but i decided to make another one, and i used some other ingredients like tea, ginger, cinnamon...
that one was heavenly great... lol
but the first time i was going to make the mead, i didn't knew which yeast to use, so, i think it's easier to tell it like saccharomyces cerevisiae, so ppl can search not by market names. :]
RomuloXK 1 year ago
@RomuloXK Grats on the mead! And thanks for the advice, you might be right about the yeast. It would also help when it comes to international viewers trying to find yeast.
epicfantasy 1 year ago
@epicfantasy yeah, i found it by looking for the name of the yeast you used, and comparing it to other yeast, so i noticed that the yeast (saccharomyses cerevisae) was the fungus used to make beer and bread...
it comes out delicious. hehe.
RomuloXK 1 year ago
Wow I haven't had fresh cherries in a while. *mouth waters*
I hate those milkshake cherries. Just not the same.
Aresftfun 1 year ago
so im having some trouble with my yeast... i want to use a distillers yoeast which is supposed to let me get up to a 20% alc concentration but im not sure howmuch honey it will process. is there any way for me to figure out the ammount?
panzuman 1 year ago
@panzuman Good question. I am not sure. Got me stumped. If I were to guess you could put an awful lot of honey because that % of alcohol is very high. That is a very high alcohol tolerance for a yeast.
epicfantasy 1 year ago
@epicfantasy As this is my first timeI brought some realy cheap yeast and no nutrient (but i did add lumps of pear for nutrient substitute) although i used cheap ingredients i did do the process to the book, how long is the yeast supposed to "churn" for .. mine was noticeably churning for a week max then it just stopped and i have a load of crap in the bottom.. is a 4 days - weeks churning long enough or did the yeast die too soon? at the moment it smells like a bitter / vinegar is this normal?
favsncrap 1 year ago
@favsncrap The batch is probably ok. Thechurning is the big part of the initial ferment. Do you have an airlock on it or a balloon?
epicfantasy 1 year ago
@epicfantasy Pretty much same setup as you have in this vid, with an airlock (- not as good quality ingredience / yeast) I got wine yeast, i know this is not best but im wondering what the desired outcome will be... Im no pro but as wine is on average 17% i guess my mead will be too, or does it depend on how much water / vs yeast vs honey you put in that defines its acohol %
favsncrap 1 year ago
@epicfantasy yes it is and thats why i wish to use it :) it would have to be somwhere like 45 lbs of honey for 5 gallons
panzuman 1 year ago
your instructions were confusing. Please explain more clearly on next projects like that. with the sifon and bubble thing and such as that. i get the ingridients part just not why you started with yeast first if it was put last.
Demonichellfighter 1 year ago
@Demonichellfighter sorry, i will try to do better. It can get complex. I do have a complete tutorial about this on my website with pictures. That might be easier.
epicfantasy 1 year ago
@epicfantasy Yeah please ;) i could use step by step heh this looks taisty...
Demonichellfighter 1 year ago
What kind of water? Tap or distilled?
ItsThatGuy8669 1 year ago
@ItsThatGuy8669 distilled
epicfantasy 1 year ago
With the water you are adding...is it tap water?
Great vid as always! Will give this a try :)
socamoto 1 year ago
@socamoto You can use tap but I prefer not to because of possible chemicals and chlorine.
epicfantasy 1 year ago
@epicfantasy Thanks for the reply! Will be sure to try it out! What other tasty versions like this would be great for a beginner? (good success rate)
socamoto 1 year ago
would it work with blueberries?
Xythe43 1 year ago
@Xythe43 Absolutely, blueberries would be great!
epicfantasy 1 year ago
Sweeeet... er wait a minute....LOL
jimeronimo 1 year ago
A friend in my re-enactment society made 24 gallons of cherry mead about nine years ago. The tannin from the cherries had steeped out, turning the mead murky brown, and making it so astringent, it literally glued his tongue to the roof of his mouth! Anyway, he left it to mature for seven years, then racked it off into bottles. The demijohns he used were black from the tannins, and a real bugger to clean, but the maturing had done its job, the mead was staggeringly delicious! It about 18%vol.
gregarioushand 1 year ago
i would do it but i don't trust my self
aznguy11111 1 year ago
When you rinse, Do you rinse with tap water or bottle water ?
ThomasPaine3 1 year ago
@ThomasPaine3 Good point, I rinsed with tap water. But bottle would be better.
epicfantasy 1 year ago
@epicfantasy
I sent you a private message, Did you get it?
ThomasPaine3 1 year ago
very interesting :) Thanks
19NoNuM85 1 year ago
awesome project, i think im gonna give this a try.
when you say move it to another jug and sifon off the sediment, do you sifon it then put the bubbling cork thing back on it again? or are you just waiting for the sediment to fall to the bottom?
yellowdogger 1 year ago
@yellowdogger When you rack the mead (siphon it off, into another vessel), you must place the airlock back in until the mead has completely finished fermenting, The buildup of carbon dioxide from fermentation will blow a solid stopper out of the demijohn (the glass vessel you see in the video). When its finished fermenting, you need to leave it to mature for at least 6 months, before you start drinking it. Once fermentations finished, its potable, but its best to age it first - its much nicer!
gregarioushand 1 year ago
@gregarioushand thanks! nice comment!
epicfantasy 1 year ago
@yellowdogger When you siphon to a new jug you leave the cherries and sediment behind. But it is still fermenting so you have to but the bubbling cork on.
epicfantasy 1 year ago
well i know what im doing this weekend. great mead video keep them coming!
lastplaceracer 1 year ago
@Omigawd0Pie nom nom nom sounds correct
robot797 1 year ago