Production of Ethanol by Fermentation: Mead

Introduction

The brewing of alcoholic beverages is quite ancient. The first written records to survive
into modern times already record a
vigorous commerce in beer. The Babyonian government (c 1800 BC) enforced standards
for beer and in that time period the
brewing of beer was almost exclusively a woman's occupation.

Beer is brewed from grains such as wheat, rice, and barley. First the grain is malted. This
involves soaking the grain in water and
allowing it to sprout. The sprouting process produces enzymes which will be used to
convert the starches in the grain into
fermentable sugars. After a few days, the sprouts are heated (thus killing them) and dried,
either in an oven or by setting them out
in the sun. At the end of this process what you have ar shriveled up little sprouts, loaded
with enzymes (called diastase) and with
much of their starch converted to sugars.

Next the malt is added to more grain and water in a process called mashing. In the mash,
the diastase enzyme from the malt
converts the starches in the non-malt grain into fermentable sugars, mostly maltose. The
temperature must be carefully controlled
for the enzymes to work most efficiently. The mashing process takes a couple of hours, at
the end of which the solids are filtered
out, leaving a solution rich in sugars called the wort. The wort is cooled and diluted with
water to achieve the desired
concentration of sugars. The cool wort is now ready for fermentation.

All of this work been simply to produce a solution of sugars in water. Any sugar can be
fermented to produce ethanol. If the sugar
is already present, we can skip the malting and mashing steps. Wine is made from fruit
juice, usually grapes or apples. The fruit is
pressed to release its juice, which is rich in the sugar fructose. Cane sugar, sucrose, can
also be fermented. But suppose you are
the first guy wandering around in the woods. Where are you going to get sugar? Honey!
Yes, the bees have been hard at work,
saving you the trouble of malting and mashing! The beverage produced by fermenting
honey is called mead.

Mead is a much more primitive beverage than beer or wine. Of all the alcoholic
beverages, it requires the least preparation prior to
fermentation. That is not to say that it is easy to produce a good-tasting mead. In fact it is
terribly easy to produce bad-tasting
mead. So even though mead is the simplest alcoholic beverage, it will still be a challenge
for you. The principle challenges are to
control the concentration of sugar in the must (akin to the wort for beer) and to ensure
that only the desired yeast (not bacteria)
thrive in the fermentation vessel.

Biology and Chemistry of Fermentation

The most important requirement for fermentation of alcohol is the presence of single-
celled organisms called yeast. Your first
priority is to make sure that yeast and only yeast is present in your must. Cleanliness is
the key to success in this requirement.
Bacteria also thrive in sugar-rich solutions and they produce acidic rather than alcoholic
wastes. Wash everything thoroughly to
avoid bacterial contamination.

Yeasts will undergo a three-part life cycle during the course of fermentation. In the
initial, aerobic phase, they have oxygen
available to them and completely respire any sugars present to carbon dioxide and water:
C6H12O6(aq) + 6 O2(g) ---> 6 CO2(g) + 6 H2O(l)
Aerobic conditions are what yeasts like best and if left to their own devices they will
happily convert all available sugars to carbon
dioxide and water, not alcohol.

Most organisms will die without access to oxygen. Yeasts prefer the presence of oxygen
but they have the ability to live without it.
In this phase, the anaerobic phase, they are only able to partially digest sugars:
C6H12O6(aq) ---> 2 CO2(g) + 2 C2H5OH(aq)
No oxygen is neccessary during this phase. In fact, if oxygen is present, the yeasts will
switch to aerobic respiration. The
compound C2H5OH is one member of the alcohol family, ethanol. In order to produce it,
we must have a sugar solution, protected
from both oxygen and bacteria, supporting an active yeast culture. Eventually, one of two
things will happen. Either the yeast will
consume all available sugar or the alcohol concentration will become so great that the
yeast can no longer thrive. If there is too
much honey, there will be sugar left over when the yeasts die of alcohol poisoning and
you will get a sweet mead, which is not a
disaster, but if your goal is to produce alcohol you will not have the maximum yield of
alcohol for the sugar you put in. If there is
not enough honey, the yeasts will starve before the alcohol level is at the toxic level
(toxic for yeasts, that is) and you will get
wimpy mead. Again, no catastrophe but not maximizing your yield of alcohol. If the
amount of honey is just right the poor yeasts
starve just as the mead is becoming alcoholic enough to kill them anyway. Such a mead
will have an alcohol content of 10-12%
and have very little sugar leftover. The yeasts enter a dormant phase and settle to the
bottom of the container, completing their life
cycle.

A crucial aspect aspect of home brewing is assuring that only the intended yeasts thrive
during the fermentation process. Once
made, the ethanol is susceptible to bacterial contamination. Bacteria are able to digest
ethanol, but they require oxygen to do so:
C2H5OH(aq) + O2(g) ---> CH3COOH(aq) + H2O(l)
This is why wine "goes sour" after it is opened. Acids have a sour taste. If this is done
intentionally, the result is vinegar, which is
typically 5% acetic acid in water. If bacteria are allowed to contaminate the must, they
will compete with the yeast for sugar and
alcohol. Your first line of defense is to sterilize everything which will come in contact
with the fermenting must. Wash everything
with soap in order to kill any bacteria and wild yeasts that may be present. We must also
ensure that no bacteria or wild yeasts
can contaminate the must once fermentation has started. Your second line of defense is to
protect the must from oxygen. We
could just seal the container, but the yeast produces carbon dioxide gas as well as ethanol
and a sealed bottle would eventually
explode from the pressure. Serious homebrewers use a fermentation lock to allow gas to
escape while preventing contamination.
We will simply use a loose-fitting cap to allow gas to escape. In additon, once the
fermentation is proceeding, you may cover this
loose cap with a clean, dry, cloth to prevent contamination by airborne microbes.

The Law

Please remember that it is illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to consume alcoholic
beverages. I have been in contact with Mr.
Ron Reynolds of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in Philadelphia. It is his
opinion that it is OK for everyone in the
class to participate in this project but that it is still illegal for those under 21 to drink the
product. Bummer about the drinking part
but be thankful that you are allowed to participate in the project. Anyway, mead gets
better with age (a year or more is best).
Imagine how good it will be by the time you are old enough to drink it!

Since February 1979 it has been legal for adults over 21 to brew not more than one
hundred gallons of beer each year ( thanks
Jimmy Carter!) for their own personal use. It is still illegal to sell homebrew or to serve it
to minors. It is also illegal to distill alcohol
for beverage purposes. See the alcohol project for more information.

Other Mead Pages

 Eric Garrison's guide to simple fermentation.
BeerNWine Hobby. Sells brewing supplies.
The Bee's Lees
Mead-Lover's Digest Readme file
Recipes for mead
Mead Maker's Page Good links to other stuff
Mead Made Easy An HTML book about mead
Barat's Mead Page An extensive set of mead instructions
Unicorn Unchained Meadery Lots of recipes

Books on Reserve

Brew Your Own Real Ale at Home

The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing

The Mead Quiz

The mead quiz consists of three question on any of the following topics.

Know which microorganisms produce ethanol from sugar.

Know which microorganisms produce acetic acid from ethanol.
Know the life cycle of the yeast.
Give the balanced chemical equation for the aerobic fermentation of glucose
Give the balanced chemical equation for the anaerobic fermentation of glucose.
Give the balanced chemical equation for the oxidation of ethanol to acetic acid.
Know the meanings of the terms malt and mash.
Know the meanings of the terms wort and must.
Know which sugars are fermented in making mead, wine, and beer.
Know what diastase is, what it does, and where it comes from.
Know what the law is for homebrewing.

Take a practice quiz online.

Instructions

To make mead in a 2 L plastic soft drink bottle you will need:

1.a 2 liter plastic bottle with cap, both scrupulously clean

2.clean water
3.12-16 ounces of honey (Do not take honey from the commons!)
4.about 5 mL of rehydrated yeast
5.one tablet of dried yeast extract

Procedure:
 1.Scrupulously clean everything with soap and water.
2.Pour honey into your bottle and add hot water untill the bottle is full to the shoulder.
3.Place cap on bottle and allow to cool to room temperature.
4.Estimate the potential alcohol content in your mead: percent alcohol = ounces honey /
liters mead (approximately). 16
ounces of honey in 1.75 liters of mead has a potential alcohol content of about 9%.
5.Bring your bottle to me. I will measure the sugar content using a hydrometer, add a
yeast nutrient tablet, and pitch the
yeast.
6.Once you get your innoculated bottle home, unscrew the cap and then screw it loosely
onto the bottle. Remember, you
want to allow carbon dioxide to escape while preventing oxygen and bacteria from
contaminating your mead.
7.Place bottle in a container to catch any overflowing foam.
8.Within 24 hours you should see foam in the bottle. This foam may "blow off" past the
cap and into the container in which
the bottle sits. This foam can be discarded.
9.At all times the cap must be loose enough to allow gas to escape but not so loose that
the cap is blown off.
10.Allow fermentation to proceed for 3-4 weeks. Yes, weeks! Be thankful, if you leave
out the yeast extract it can take
months!

You can get fancy by adding additional flavors and conditioners. You can also improve
the clarity of the mead by racking, that is,
siphoning off the dead yeast bodies which settle to the bottom. See the other mead pages
and books for advanced mead tips.

Criteria for Success

You can start your mead whenever you wish. But you should have passed the mead quiz
before you bring it in for evaluation. You
should plan on at least 4 weeks of fermentation.

I will evaluate your mead for quality and alcohol content. First I will smell your mead. If
it makes me gag (usually because of
bacterial contamination), you fail. I will then taste your mead. If it makes me gag (usually
because of bacterial contamination), you
fail. Finally, I will measure the alcohol content using a hydrometer. If it is less than 5%
alcohol, you fail.

The whole evaluation process should take no more than 5 minutes. If you fail any part,
you fail the entire project. You may,
however, try again until you pass.
Return