Mead Making: Tips, Tricks, Recipes, and Advice

That's correct. If you didn't get a gravity reading before pitching your yeast, you have no way to calculate ABV unless you send it off to a lab for testing. Needless to say, Mead is usually a pretty high gravity beverage and if you got it down to 1.000, then the yeast did it's job. Judging by the description of the result, I'd say you are above 10% at the minimum.

Thank you, sir!

 

FYI:

ABV = (OG - FG) x 131

Basically, use your hydrometer on the mead prior to pitching the yeast and write it down where you won't lose it. Once you have completed the fermentation process (sometimes this is many months), you will use the hydrometer again and write that down as well.

Let's assume your Original Gravity before pitching the yeast was 1.110. After an extensive fermentation, let's say your Final Gravity reading was a 1.008.

ABV = (1.110 - 1.008) x 131
ABV = (.102) x 131
ABV = 13.362 %

Hope that helps.

 

God this thread makes me thirsty.

 

Question about the mead making specialists:

I finally managed to get my hand on some mead from local alcohol monopoly, but the stuff was basically honey wine, so it didn't have any CO2 in it. The taste was ok, but the liquid was too "winelike" for my taste.

So the question is that do you get some sparkles into these homemade meads? As is it closer to beer than wine?

I'm still on the verge if I want to try some brewing (as I really don't drink that much anymore, would like to, but other obligations are prohibiting this activity) or will I just settle for the occasional beers...

 

Thanks even further, that example helps a ton and explains the current results even if it's just an approximate guess from a typical starting point. It is at 1.0 right now, though wonder if I can find a more sensitive gauge seeing that you've posted an example in the thousandths. Mine is in tenths.

I shared small tasters of another 'early' bottle with a dozen folks at a dinner tonight and got some feedback: The taste was good but it had a slightly hard hit. The few elder (70+) wine drinkers with sensitive pallets who had never tried mead before seemingly didn't care for it by their polite lack of response. Another elder wine/mead drinker straight away approved. My younger brother mentioned he felt a sniff of what seemed like grain alcohol and highly recommended storing the rest until its appropriate due date. I agree. It was intended for Sept.

Side note: He also thought he heard somewhere (from his moonshine friends) of some dangers of drinking too early during the fermentation process. I don't know about that but it did hurt a little in quantity and will let it sit appropriately from now on.

I'm no specialist by any stretch (not even close), but my first batch here is very fizzy. It's not like a beer at all nor a typical wine, but most closely explained in my take as a quite heavy sparking white wine. Mid-season if describing sugars. The honey is not overbearing at all, and clearly delivers the cinnamon+ginger thrown in.

I use a glass carboy, Dhim I see uses a plastic, Grim may have more to add on that topic but both work. However, if you want to try a small experimental batch on a super budget I've seen an example that you can try using a 1 gallon (1.79 liter for you?) water jug with a balloon as an oxygen vent. Here's a post on that:
http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/fast-cheap-mead-making.htm


I'm going to use Dhim's suggestion of more honey and double the carboy time with batch 2 coming soon. Should end up heavier, and will also try filtering sediment a little further.

 

Give Pasteur Red a try. I found that it left less fusel alcohol while giving a bit fuller body.

 

I will have to give mead a shot when I get home in a couple months. Ive been brewing beers for a couple years now but never tried to make a mead.

 

I hate Sheo

 

I added spite when you weren't looking.

 

Here is my favorite 5 gallon mead recipe. Much trial and error went into its development.

12 pounds (1 gallon) raw single source honey. Black Sage was my all time favorite.
4 gallons spring water (not distilled, definitely not tap).
10 grams Lalvin D254. 2 packs of Pasteur Red will do nicely too if you can't find D254.
13 grams Go Ferm.
5 grams Fermaid K.

Prepare Must: Heat water to about 150F. Stir in honey. Let stand until temperature is below 100F.
Prepare the yeast with Go Ferm: heat 200ml water to 110F. Stir in the Go Ferm. Let stand until it drops to 104F. Stir in the yeast, breaking up any clumps. Let stand 20 minutes. Stir again, gently. Add 200ml of must.
Add yeast preparation to must in a 6 gallon food grade bucket or a 6 gallon carboy.
Check your gravity.
24 hours after adding yeast add 2.5 grams of Fermaid K.
When a third of the sugar is depleted add 2.5 grams of Fermaid K.
After 6 weeks rack to a 5 gallon carboy.
Age 6 weeks. Rack.
Age 6 months. Sample.
Age as needed.

 

Skjaldborg mead, like so much of our organization, is an ambitious project, rough around the edges in some ways, but deserving of our support and attention.

I will be returning home with some bottles.

 

I have never tried making mead, but I like trying it, and I have discovered pretty recently that there are meaderies which make less-sweet mead... now that I know about it, I am a big fan of the dry meads. How sweet do you all like your meads - does anyone else also like the drier varieties?

 

I tend to like both the drier and sweet meads. Lucky for me, there's a place 15 minutes from me that sells all sorts of meads and fruit wines.

http://www.meadery.com/

 

If one of you guys can figure this out and make a badass Borg mead like it, I will pay all the monies to make a massive Borg meetup happen. (Meaning I'll use all the Dihm monies to make it happen.)