So…I’m making a traditional mead with orange blossom this weekend. I use RO water - should I be adding any salts to the water?
Also, does mead create a large krausen? Concerned about having enough head space in my fermenter.
Cheers!
Don’t know enough to speak on water; I’ve only got one batch under my belt and I just used tap water for it.
I didn’t have any krausen, but it did foam up enough to overflow the fermentor once while I was degassing it.
Per the folks at an NHC mead panel, water with some alkalinity will keep the pH up which is good for the yeast. With RO water and honey you will get a low pH that the yeast will drive lower. You could add potassium carbonate as you go to keep the pH up - measure and adjust.
I think that was Steve Piatz that said that.His water was fairly alkline.
I’ll second the comment regarding krausen. You should have very little, but if you don’t allow yourself much head space then you’ll want to degas very slowly. If you do the staggered nutrient addition approach, make sure to degas before adding the nutrients otherwise it could foam up like adding sugar to a bottle of soda.
Calcium and other minerals are important for yeast health - no idea what level you have in your water. But if it’s good for beer it should be fine for mead.
You’ll definitely want to check and raise the pH. It’ll drop pretty quickly with RO water. Some honey types are more acidic than others. Potassium bicarbonate is pretty user-friendly, and doesn’t have as strong of a taste as calcium carbonate.