Bray's One Month Mead (BOMM)

Mead
1

Bray’s One Month Mead
I’ve developed a recipe for mead that is clear and delicious with no off flavours in less than one month. It was found during the Ale Yeast Experiment and Belgian Yeast Ale Experiment I posted over at gotmead.com. I screened over ten beer yeast to find a fast, clean ale yeast for mead. I’ll post the 1 & 5 gallon recipes.

Bray’s One Month Mead aka “the BOMM” - 1 gallon
No heat method.
Added Orange Blossom honey to SG of 1.096 in 1 gallon jugs.
Added 3/4 tsp of 1:2 DAP:Fermaid K; also, add this at 2/3 and 1/3 sugar break.
Add 3/4 tsp potassium carbonate.
Shake like hell to aerate.
Pitched Wyeast 1388 - Belgian Strong Ale activated overnight.
Aerate daily by shaking.
Pitching temperature 68 F, but the temperature in my house fluctuates from 70-80 F with no off flavors.

The BOMM - 5 gallons
Smack Wyeast 1388 pack for overnight.
Pitch into 1.5 liter starter with 6 oz honey and pinch of Go Ferm.
Put on stir plate for 2-3 days before pitching.

Add 1 gallon OB honey to 3.5 gallons water.
Use a drill powered mixer to mix honey.
Dose the following at must creation, 2/3, & 1/3 sugar break.
1 tbsp DAP + 2 tbsp Fermaid K
Add 3/4 tbsp potassium carbonate.
Stir again to aerate and add starter.
Add additional water to SG 1.096-1.1.

Degas daily for at least a week.

This mead is great at 24 days! Enjoy!

2

I know a one month mead recipe is hard to believe, but this mead recipe has now been repeated by another person over at gotmead. His fermentation temp was 78-80 F throughout the process.

He proclaimed it delicious at Day 18 after pitching!

If anyone needs help or has questions, just post here.

3

Update: I’ve tried the BOMM with OB, palmetto, and tupelo honey with awesome results. Especially the tupelo. Needed a little backsweetening, but is delicious in a month easy!

Next:
Decided to try a cyser with the BOMM protocol. Loosely based on Oskaar’s Mutiny on the Bounty cyser with a BOMM twist!

Start with 1 gallon of sprouts apple cider.
Remove 2.33 cup of juice to compensate for the volume of the other ingredients.
Added 2.4 oz dark brown sugar, 1.6 oz dates, and 1.33 cups orange blossom honey.
Added 1/2 tsp pectinase.
Add 1/4 tsp DAP and 1/2 tsp of Fermaid K.
Add 1/6 tsp K2CO3
Shake like hell to mix honey and aerate.
SG - 1.094

Pitched a slurry of Wyeast 1388 from a recent ferment.

Plan for secondary:
Add 1 vanilla bean and 3 Hungarian oak cubes 1 week before bottling or to taste.

I’ll post how this turns out in a month!

4

The Cyser BOMM turned out wonderful in less than a month. The only thing I would do different is put the dates in a hop bag. They are stringy and difficult to get rid of.

The BOMM protocol has been very reproducable in mead, cyser, pyment, Methegelin, and melomels. Multiple folks are happy with it over at gotmead. Wyeast 1388 makes damn fine beer too!

Happy mazing!

5

I’m looking to start brewing mead, and this looks like a great way to try it for the first time in a 1 gallon jug. Only one question: Is this a dry or sweet mead?

6

It ferments dry following the protocol; however, at the end of fermentation, simply add more honey and allow the gravity to stabilize over a week or two. The yeast are close to max ABV at that point, so it shouldn’t drop very much.

7

Excellent, thanks!

8

Kinda curious how it can possibly be ready in a month. Is it the yeast?

I tried my first couple batches using 71B yeast, and it’s almost a year now and just really drinkable, to me.
I’d bottled in a month, and that was too soon, seeing as there is still a little sediment left in the bottom of the bottles.

9

Perhaps a bit of explanation is in order. I’ve been on a quest for delicious mead fast. Not “drinkable”. I mean “damn this is good”. My reasoning was that wine yeast have never had a selective process to be fusel free fast because most wines age for years. My logic was that beer yeast have been put through a fast product selection as I can produce high gravity beers very fast. Being the scientist I am, I applied the scientific method for finding what I wanted through screening yeast. I tested all yeast at high temperatures (70-80 F) and fermented honey only mead to dryness so that off flavors would be very apparent. So far, I’ve done the following experiments:

I’ve tested the following yeast in side by side identical Orange Blosson musts.
ALL TASTINGS DONE AT ONE MONTH AFTER PITCHING

Experiment 1 - Documented as “Ale Yeast Experiment” at gotmead:
Wyeast Dry Mead - Control wine yeast. Not bad, but needs 1-2 years age.
US-05, or Chico Strain - Very beer like but clean. No off flavors.
Safbrew S-33 - Extremely beer like and very tart. No off flavors.
Wyeast 1272 - Stuck at 1.05. Deemed unacceptable for mead.
Wyeast 3787 - Extremely tasty and soft with peach notes at one month. No off flavors Never clears even after extensive aging. This success led me to the Belgian Ale Experiment due to this being the only Belgian ale.

Experiment 2 - Belgian Ale Experiment documented at gotmead:
Wyeast 3787 - Control, same as above.
Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison - pretty sulfury and funky. After 2 months it was better and still better than wine yeast.
Wyeast 3463 Forbidden Fruit - Crapped out at 1.02, but was a very good sweet mead. No off flavors. Highly suggested for sweet mead.
Wyeast 3522 Ardennes - Nearly the same as 3463, but not quite as good.
Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale - Very soft, clean flavor. Velvety with some peach notes. Very good as soon as the ferment is done. Crystal clear before the month is out. At three months, it is some of the best dry mead I’ve had. Does not taste like beer! Tastes like mead!

Group 3 - Varietal Honey Test
All Wyeast 1388 but the following honey were used to ensure that the success was not orange blossom honey specific.
Orange Blossom - Still very good dry. Repeatable results.
Palmetto - Very complex and tasty. I like this one backsweetened to 1.005.
Tupelo - Completely in love with this one. Backsweetened to 1.01.

I also have tested a Cyser using the BOMM method that is extremely good. Best cyser I’ve ever made in fact. Others at gotmead are in progress with a pyment and a JAOM BOMM. Results are not in yet, but it looks good so far.

Hope that helps explain all the work behind creating this recipe. I am currently in testing for making a perfect BOMM by adding tannins for body, vanilla bean for full flavor, and acid blend (post ferment) to brighten the flavor. All of this is posted over at gotmead.com.
I am ever on the the quest for the perfect mead!

10

[quote=“loveofrose”]Perhaps a bit of explanation is in order. I’ve been on a quest for delicious mead fast. Not “drinkable”. I mean “damn this is good”. My reasoning was that wine yeast have never had a selective process to be fusel free fast because most wines age for years. My logic was that beer yeast have been put through a fast product selection as I can produce high gravity beers very fast. Being the scientist I am, I applied the scientific method for finding what I wanted through screening yeast. I tested all yeast at high temperatures (70-80 F) and fermented honey only mead to dryness so that off flavors would be very apparent. So far, I’ve done the following experiments:

I’ve tested the following yeast in side by side identical Orange Blosson musts.
ALL TASTINGS DONE AT ONE MONTH AFTER PITCHING

Experiment 1 - Documented as “Ale Yeast Experiment” at gotmead:
Wyeast Dry Mead - Control wine yeast. Not bad, but needs 1-2 years age.
US-05, or Chico Strain - Very beer like but clean. No off flavors.
Safbrew S-33 - Extremely beer like and very tart. No off flavors.
Wyeast 1272 - Stuck at 1.05. Deemed unacceptable for mead.
Wyeast 3787 - Extremely tasty and soft with peach notes at one month. No off flavors Never clears even after extensive aging. This success led me to the Belgian Ale Experiment due to this being the only Belgian ale.

Experiment 2 - Belgian Ale Experiment documented at gotmead:
Wyeast 3787 - Control, same as above.
Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison - pretty sulfury and funky. After 2 months it was better and still better than wine yeast.
Wyeast 3463 Forbidden Fruit - Crapped out at 1.02, but was a very good sweet mead. No off flavors. Highly suggested for sweet mead.
Wyeast 3522 Ardennes - Nearly the same as 3463, but not quite as good.
Wyeast 1388 Belgian Strong Ale - Very soft, clean flavor. Velvety with some peach notes. Very good as soon as the ferment is done. Crystal clear before the month is out. At three months, it is some of the best dry mead I’ve had. Does not taste like beer! Tastes like mead!

Group 3 - Varietal Honey Test
All Wyeast 1388 but the following honey were used to ensure that the success was not orange blossom honey specific.
Orange Blossom - Still very good dry. Repeatable results.
Palmetto - Very complex and tasty. I like this one backsweetened to 1.005.
Tupelo - Completely in love with this one. Backsweetened to 1.01.

I also have tested a Cyser using the BOMM method that is extremely good. Best cyser I’ve ever made in fact. Others at gotmead are in progress with a pyment and a JAOM BOMM. Results are not in yet, but it looks good so far.

Hope that helps explain all the work behind creating this recipe. I am currently in testing for making a perfect BOMM by adding tannins for body, vanilla bean for full flavor, and acid blend (post ferment) to brighten the flavor. All of this is posted over at gotmead.com.
I am ever on the the quest for the perfect mead![/quote]

Thanks. This helps, especially seeing as I’m not known for my patience!
Ordered the yeast, and I’m def gonna give this a whirl with some raspberry honey I have at the house.

11

Reading through the tread, I presume that even the 5gal batch is a “no heat” method. Easy enough.

Another question: It’s ready in 24d, but how long will it keep? Is this something that should be consumed within several weeks or months, or will it last for over a year (even though it doesn’t take a year)?

Thanks!

12

This mead improves with age as all mead does. So far, up to a year it improves. I don’t have any older than that yet to tell you when it starts to decline.

The difference is it starts out much better than wine yeast based mead.

Better brewing through science!

13

pretty impressive research. thanks

14

I usually hang at homebrewtalk and gotmead forums, but I thought I would come back to give some updates and new tried and true recipes for all the mazers here.
Enjoy!

BOMM Recipe - 1 gallon
(Updated for clarity & post fermentation options)

Start with 1 gallon spring water.
Remove 1/2 cup water to compensate for smack pack volume.
Draw line on jugs at this water level.
Remove an additional 3.2 cups of water from jug (757 ml).
Add Orange Blossom honey (or your favorite varietal honey) back to line.
-About 2.5 lbs. SG 1.099ish.

Add 1/4 tsp DAP and 1/2 tsp of Fermaid K. Add these again at 2/3 (1.066) & 1/3 (1.033) sugar break.
-These are nutrients you can get at homebrew shops or Amazon. Diammonium phosphate (DAP) is a free nitrogen source. Fermaid K contains vitamins, minerals, and trace nutrients. Honey is very deficient in nutrients so you need both to prevent fusel production.

Add 1/4 tsp K2CO3. One time addition.
-Potassium carbonate (K2CO3) is preferred due to high K+ levels, but potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) will work fine. This is for pH buffering and to provide K+ for the yeast.

Shake with the top on until honey is fully dissolved. It will require some effort! You’re earning your mead!
Add activated Wyeast 1388 yeast smacked for about 2 hours.
No water in airlock for 7 days or the gravity falls below 1.033. Whichever comes first, add water or vodka to airlock.
Ferments dry in about a week.

NOTE: Wyeast 1388 is NOT sensitive to temperature. Temperatures of 65-80 F all yield clean mead free of fusels. The yeast do ferment the fastest at 68 F however.

Post Fermentation (Optional!)
Add 1 vanilla bean, 3 cubes American Medium toast and 2 cubes French Medium toast oak for 2-4 weeks to taste.

You can also step feed small additions of honey until the yeast give up to sweeten. Just be sure your gravity is stable over several weeks to avoid bottle bombs!

I’ve also had good luck racking on 3-5 pounds of frozen berries to make a melomel.

JAO All Natural BOMM - 1 gallon
Note: This is a hybrid recipe for those who cannot obtain the nutrients needed for a BOMM or want a much faster JAOM.

Start with 1 gallon spring water.
Remove 1.5 cup water and draw a line at this water level.
Remove 4.66 cups of water.
Add honey back to previous line (3.5 lbs).
-Sue Bee Raw Honey is fine or your favorite varietal honey.
Add zest and fruit of one organic Valencia orange, minimal pith. If you like pith bitterness, add 1/4 of the orange pith.
~25 raisins (a small box)
1/2 cup of dried currants for additional K+ and nutrients.
1/2 small clove
1/2 cinnamon stick
1/8 whole nutmeg and 1 allspice berry
1 vanilla bean
Smack pack of Wyeast 1388 activated for 2 hours.

This mead may or may not be clear in a month, but is perfectly drinkable in a month.

If you really want it clear, apply SuperKleer according to directions. Afterwards, cold crash for a week. Bottle the semi-clear mead and it will clear in the bottles in a matter of weeks.

Using the highly technical pin pricked balloon airlock for JAOM authenticity!

Cyser BOMM - 1 gallon
Start with 1 gallon of sprouts apple cider.
Remove 2.33 cup of juice to compensate for volume of othe ingredients.
Added 2.4 oz dark brown sugar, 1.6 oz dates, and 1.33 cups orange blossom honey.
Added 1/2 tsp pectinase.
Add 1/4 tsp DAP and 1/2 tsp of Fermaid K.
Add 3/4 tsp K2CO3
Shake like hell to mix honey and aerate.
SG - 1.094

Add 1 smack pack of Wyeast 1388.

After it reaches 1.000, rack into secondary.

In secondary:
Add 1 vanilla bean and 5 medium toast Hungarian oak cubes 1 month before bottling or to taste.

Better brewing through science!

15

Excellent thread! I’m going to try your recipe on my next batch. I’ll see how it does with mead as well as brandy.