Welcome to /r/mead!

I’m gonna do 1 gallon of traditional mead with the orange blossom honey and 1 gallon of cyser with the clover honey and apple juice. I plan to age the trad with the French oak cubes, and I’m gonna throw some cinnamon sticks into the cyser during secondary. I’m open to any and all ideas and advice, you guys were a huge help during my first brew. This is such a great community! Wish me luck!

Still exploring honeys to use, wanted to know what others use and why.

I'm planning on making Man Made Mead's blackberry mead. His recipe uses 40oz of honey and ends with a 13% ABV. Am I correct in assuming that I can cut the honey in half if I want to end with a ~6% ABV?

His full recipe is:

Blackberries (oz)-48

Honey (oz)-40

Fermaid O (g)-4.5

Pectic Enzyme

Water up to: (gallon)-1.5

Ok heres the situation. Made a batch of cherry blueberry mead. 1.5lbs blueberries, 1.25lbs cherries(tart). 3lbs honey, 1gal water, Ec118 yeast. Sg 1.072 fg .996. Racked out of bucket and filled 1 gal jar. Had alot leftover. Racked into second jar and it was about a half gallon. Ok so here's where I need help. Afyer I Racked into the second vessel I topped off with a half gal of water and 1/4 cup of honey gravity came up to 1.002. Can anyone help with what the dilution did to abv and what my abv would roughly be after? It did start fermenting again after adding the 1/4 cup honey.

Got a drinking horn a few years back as a gift but it ended up leaking (and the dogs went wild for the bone) so I replaced it with this ceramic skull for drinking my mead during DnD

My second batch. 3lb honey plus raisins and lemon peels. Everything was fine for about 2 weeks, and then a couple days ago this started happening. I racked it off the peels and raisins 2 days ago. Within about 24hr the bubbles get like this.

So I'm currently in the process of creating a fall themed mead a d I've come to post my recipe for tricks and tips. I added 250g of manuka honey 1g of grade a maple syrup 300g of pumpkin and 100g of cane sugar. After the primary fermentation was complete I did second fermentation of 250g of wildflower honey and along with that I added the following aromatics Crushed Almonds Cacao nibs Vanilla pod Star anise Homemade pumpkin spice Dried lemons After secondary fermentation was completed I stabalized it amd sweetened it with 900g of local honey the local honey comes from a region of eucalyptus trees and I thought that pair nicely. After that I added klarowin let it to clear after it was almost cleared I added french oak chips soaked in 4 roses bourbon to pair with it's vanilla flavor and adding slight caramel undertone that pairs nicely with the herbal manuka. And I added 1 half of a lemon peel grown in my back yard im currently waiting for the oak and lemon to finish so i could start aging it. Don't worry before making any delicious on adding stuff i have had a council of testers. My moto is that atheist 60 percent of the testers should agree with the idea. I dont know what I should add next because i feel like it's missing something ove been thinking on adding food grade essential oils to the mix but I'm not very experienced so idk. Any tips would be helpfully.

I'm in my final week of primary fermentation and wanted some tips and opinions on a few things before racking into secondary.

To start off, my setup's like this:

• 750ml reused champagne bottle(sanitized)
• balloon poked with a pin(both sanitized)
• 900ml white honey & water at a 1:9 ratio(bottle could only hold 800ml so I drank the remainder)
• 1/16 tsp active dry yeast
• tape to mark initial waterline

As you can tell this was a rather spontaneous project on my part so I only used what I immediately had on hand.

I started this late at night so the morning after I checked and there was a thin film that I promptly removed before adding a tsp of more honey, putting the total volume to just above 800ml. I underestimated the amount of honey needed before I bottled it but decided to role with it. It started fermenting well enough for the balloon to inflate so degassed it by widening the hole with a pin twice a day the first week then once a day the following week, gently swishing it to agitate the yeast each time.

Every day I checked how much the water level dropped to make sure it didn't drop below 800ml. At the end of every week I added an additional tsp of honey to bring the waterline to the top of the tape. After the second tsp of honey the bubbling had slowed considerably and the water level had more or less settled at 3/4 of the tape after which I stopped adding honey. There is still some bubbling but way less from what would be considered carbonating.

Now for the imprtant part, I don't have any stabilizers like k-meta or k-sorbate and decided against buying since there aren't any local homebrew stores near me and the cost of shipping for just these two items doesn't justify the purchase considering how little of it I'd need to use for this batch. Instead I plan on an unconventional approach of preheating the container(another reused wine bottle) followed by a steam bath at low heat since I don't have a pot big enough to submerge it in. My concern for this is that the bottle might break due to thermal shock so any opinions on how to go about this safer?

I plan to split this into two batches of 350ml each, backsweetening both with 400ml worth caramelised honey mixed in water brought to boil, so 200ml each. Then I will top both off with vodka or something similar to bring it to 750ml to account for the lower ABV.

Think this could work or should I just drink this batch now and start over with better prep?

My boyfriend just started fermenting his first batch of mead 2 weeks ago. He is very excited about it, and for Valentine’s Day I would like to get him something to help him develop this new interest. I have a very basic understanding of the process, so any advice is appreciated.

I have already used the honey locator to find and contact a local beekeeper. I plan on buying him enough honey for his next batch that he wants to start. He said he’d need 2.5lbs.

I also plan on buying “The Complete Guide to Making Mead: The Ingredients, Equipment, Processes, and Recipes for Crafting Honey Wine” by Steve Piatz (https://a.co/d/8ehB3zY)

Any other suggestions would be so appreciated! Thanks!

EDIT: He is using 1 gallon carboys, thought that might be helpful? Also, this first batch is made from a kit from Craft-a-brew, but he would like to start doing it fully himself.

Some good friends of mine just got engaged and I reckon the wedding won’t be for a year or so. I had the idea to take a crack at a “wedding mead,” and if it comes out any good I’ll give it to them for the wedding. I’m looking for inspiration or recipes that y’all might have/know of. I was thinking something light, sweet, and fruity, but honestly I’ve only thought about this for 30 minutes or so, so I’m wide open to ideas. Thanks in advance. :)

Hi, first time posting/beginner at brewing. I completed two batches of mead so far, one gallon/3lb honey each (one Buckwheat, one clover) both started early January and are in secondary for two weeks or so. I didn't do any type of fruit or flavorings during primary since I wanted to get used to the process and see which honey I liked the most. Both fermented well, have cleared quickly and there weren't any issues, except flavor. My clover batch is great and I already enjoy its flavor, although it is a bit fleeting, Im debating on something herbal for it. On the other hand, the buckwheat tastes like a barn, which I heard but didnt believe at first. I think I can salvage it and I have some ideas, most likely cinnamon, maple syrup and maybe oak, but I was curious if there were any tried and true flavorings people go with for these? TIA

Weird floater, yeast clump or infection of some kind?

I've got a few batches now that are fermenting quite slowly. I suspect its due to poor nutrient additions. curious if I should try adding more nutrients now or just let it ride.

using a kit from "must bee" 2.5 lbs of honey in a 1 gallon carboy.

Didn't get a SG, but probably around the 1.090 ish mark.

fermfed added when pitching the yeast and then a few days later (about 1/3 of a teaspoon each time)

d47 yeast.

at 2 weeks gravity was 1.064, at 3 weeks 1.050, now at 4 weeks 1.040. This seems slower than expected and at this rate primary will take about 2 months. should i try adding more nutrients to speed things up or did I already miss my chance? I've got fermaid O on hand.

Followed a recipe online for our second ever attempt at mead. Needless to say our process needs refining somewhat

Hi all, So we are finishing up our school bus conversion and thinking about making mead on the road. My experience is only with brewing beer and some mead. I know fermentation with the beer shouldn’t be disrupted/ shaken up.

Let’s say we drive with the bus and hit bumps, take turns etc Is that okay for mead ?

Really inexperienced with mead so just looking for insight if this is possible.