Brewing Master

Question:

I’m new to this group so excuse me if this has recently been covered. A couple weeks ago i decided to make my first brewing experience a prickly pear mead.  I rode my bike out in the country with a 12 inch blade, slicing off prickley pears and slinging them in my back pack as I went.  Got back with a ton and froze them.  Next I was able to come up with 2 gallons of mesquite honey from a local bee keeper.  I heated the prickley pears and the honey in 5 gallons to about 160 for a little while, added pectic enzyme, and some irish moss.  cooled, then pitched the yeast and some nutrient, then all into a carboy.   The yeast took nicely, blowing some fruit off for a couple days, and has now subsided.   Questions: Do I need to stir the mead to keep fruit from forming a cap on the top? If so, can I safetly stir it with a sanitized stainless steel rod, or do i just try to agitate it without opening the carboy? How do I know when its time to put it in a secondary fermenter? Could the answers to these questions also apply to brewing beers? any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance Let all be good

Response:

I’m new to this group so excuse me if this has recently been covered. A couple weeks ago i decided to make my first brewing experience a prickly pear mead.  I rode my bike out in the country with a 12 inch blade, slicing off prickley pears and slinging them in my back pack as I went.  Got back with a ton and froze them.  Next I was able to come up with 2 gallons of mesquite honey from a local bee keeper.  I heated the prickley pears and the honey in 5 gallons to about 160 for a little while, added pectic enzyme, and some irish moss.  cooled, then pitched the yeast and some nutrient, then all into a carboy.   The yeast took nicely, blowing some fruit off for a couple days, and has now subsided.  

when you say 2 gallons, do you mean gallons or pounds? 2 gallons of honey should equal about 24 pounds…that’s an awful lot for a 5 gallon batch….i hope you like you wine sweet! Questions: Do I need to stir the mead to keep fruit from forming a cap on the top?

don’t know If so, can I safetly stir it with a sanitized stainless steel rod, or do i just try to agitate it without opening the carboy?

if it’s fermenting, i think you will be okay to stir it with a santized something or other. How do I know when its time to put it in a secondary fermenter?

i’d rack it off the fruit after a week. also, try adding the fruit to your secondary next time. from what i understand, you’ll get a much better fruit flavor that way. Could the answers to these questions also apply to brewing beers?

i dont’t see why not. however, i am much more anal about sanitation and possiblility of infection with beer. i wouldn’t stir the ferminting beer for anything. also, that may introduce oxygen which may be bad. any advice will be greatly appreciated.

no problem. happy brewing, jonathan Email Solicitors and Spammers have forced me into this: to reply via email, please remove FriedSpam from mrpookey at mindspring dot friedspam dot com Just Say NO to Email Solicitation!

Response:

<SNIP with 2 gallons of mesquite honey from a local bee keeper.  I heated the prickley pears and the honey in 5 gallons

I hope that you want a SWEET mead!  Using 2 gallons of honey in a 5 gallon batch is about twice what I would use!  This batch is going to be sweet and will take a LONG time to finish fermenting (assuming that it doesn’t just get stuck along the way). Good luck and wassail! —                        Visit ‘The Meadery’ at:            http://www.mindspring.com/~mn.shapiro1/index.html                http://www.geocities.com/Paris/1265/index.html "If you drink melomel every day, you will live to be 150 years old, unless your wife shoots you." –Dr. Ferenc Androczi, Winemaker of the Little Hungary Winery

Response:

Just a word of advice, you more than likely killed the pectic enzyme by adding it before cooling…. Cheers, Dan

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