Hey guys. Wanted to share the finished product of my first batch of mead. Got 3 and a half bottles from this batch.

Mashed up 8 pounds of fresh cherries and extracted the juice and added it straight into the container followed by wildflower honey and spring water. 4 months of aging and then fermentation stopped. Added a Campden tab, then some potassium sorbate and then backsweetened once I confirmed no further fermentation. Chopped up a whole vanilla bean and put it in a spice bag and let it soak for a week. This batch is about 12%.

Have now bottled it and will let them continue to age a bit though I will likely have the half filed bottle first!

Hey yall! Been wanting to make mead for years now, finally bit the bullet :)

My house smells like blueberries a little bit and I’m loving it! Today makes 1 week since the ferment started!

Ingredients:

- Lalvin 71B

- 2 tablespoons bakers yeast boiled in a little water for a few mins as a nutritional supplement for my brewing yeast

- 1L pure, pasteurised blueberry juice

- 2k frozen blueberries, thawed, warmed and mashed

- 3KG Locally obtained pure Australian honey

- 3L spring water

Date mead

Pomegranate mead

Traditional

Violet flower mead

My 5th and 6th batches are more than halfway through fermentation, and they are both my first cysers. My previous 4 batches have all been classic meads just using different honey. And although I happily drank all 4 of them, I had no idea what sort of quality they were.

Obviously fermentation is the most important step in the process. But, let's just assume you pick the right yeast, use proper nutrients, and keep correct temperatures. Also, for simplification, let's discuss classic meads, since fruity meads have a lot more variables.

What other steps take a mead from being something that you drink to reduce how much you spend at the liquor store, to something award worthy? Is it just the right combination of spices, backsweetening, using oak blocks, etc. Or do things like how long before you rack it off the lees have a significant impact?

Last, I know taste will be subjective. But surely there are some universal steps that I can incorporate into my mead making that most award winning mead makers all do, that beginners might not worry about, or might simply be unaware of.

So the sparkolloid definitely helped clear this after a couple weeks but the sediment at the bottom is super thick. Is this done clearing and I have to just deal with it, or am I being impatient and it just needs more time to compress? Thanks!

A few months back a friend of mine gave me a 5G carboy and a few other supplies to help me get started with mead making as I told him I’ve wanted to try it for years.

When I was a teenager my parents made many stops at a place called “Minnesota Wild” which had to change its name after the later-formed hockey team took him to court for the trademark. He then changed the name to “Minnestalgia.”

He made about every mead there is stages from traditional to dark, dry to sweet and everything in between. I can still remember the smell of his building being intoxicating and how delicious those meads were. Ever since then I’ve had it in the back of my mind to make it someday.

So after mentioning this to a friend of mine and him gifting me some supplies I decided it was time to get serious.

I spent the last month or so binging City Stead, Man Made and whatever the channel with the honeycomb in the logo is (cannot remember at the moment). I pounded into my head the basics of the process and made myself a list of what I wanted to use.

So I decided on a triple berry melomel.

The basic recipe is
- 4lbs Blueberries
- 3lbs Mixed Berries (Blackberry/Raspberry/Blueberry)
- 10.5lbs Honey (I used inexpensive clover honey for the ferment and will backsweeten with some local honey)
- 10grams Lalvin 71B
- 26grams Fermaid-O (will dose in quarters)
- 5gallons water (I used filtered tap water)
- Pectic Enzyme

OG is 1.091 so hopefully I’ll hit about the 12%abv mark.

The flavor before adding yeast and nutrient is quite good so here’s hoping the ferment goes well!

I used a 5 gallon food safe bucket for the primary ferment and I’ll rack into my carboy once it’s done fermenting. After that I’ll stabilize with potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite. Then backsweeten.

I am SO EXCITED for this first batch!!!

A few fun pics, pay no mind to my messy table. I promise everything that touched the must was well sanitized in 1Step, including my hands.

I have bought the equipment needed for brewing mead, but I am struggling to find a recipe/correct ratio. Is there a general formula to follow with ratio of honey to water and then how many grams of yeast to add? As well as a simple step by step recipe. Would really appreciate any advice! Thanks :)

Been brewing apple mead for awhile now and got the recipe down pat. Im over in nj and we lost most of our apple crops. The orchard i use isnt doing pick your own but is selling uv pasture apple cider if I use this will it effect the taste at all. I was also going to spice it up with some fresh pressed cranberry juice as well

My first batch ended up tasting like cheap, crappy white wine, probably because I used Stockwell "honey" and forgot tannins.

This one stalled twice, pretty sure the yeast died at around 4%, transplanted a small fresh ferment into it around week four to try and revive it, and eventually ended up stopping the ferment at around gravity 1.044. lovely and sweet, slight syrup texture like how I love my mead. Only 8% abv but that's a nice session strength anyway.

Chuffed.

Could you please advise me on whether this krausen is normal? This is the state of my braggot 12 days after pitching the yeast (Kveik). On the 4th day, I added a secondary batch of raspberries, blueberries, juniper, and honey. Fermentation was very vigorous and healthy, creating a thick krausen on top, but it seems it refuses to settle; now, in the final stage of fermentation, clumps of it are extending down into the liquid. Is this normal? How should I handle it when bottling? Should I wait more time? From what I've read, a braggot made with Kveik should be ready in about 14 days.

I was just doing a quick hydrometer reading on my racked 6 week old peach mead. And I dropped the hydrometer into the wide mouth carboy - it hit the bottom and broke!! I know, I know, should clearly have been more careful. And now I have 4 gallons of mead with metal balls of indeterminate make as well as some glass in my carboy. I know I have to toss it all but DAMN! I’m soooo disappointed and pissed at myself.

UPDATE: I used a magnet as suggested and thoroughly swept the bottle of the carboy and I feel very confident that at least 98% stuck to the magnet. I’m going to rack my 4 gallons into a 3 gallon, leaving the bottom untouched and I am putting a fine mesh bag in the 3 gallon that the siphon hose will go into. My hope is that the glass bulb broke off largely in one piece and I’ll find it at the bottom of the 4 gallon when I clean it out. And that meanwhile the mesh will catch any larger slivers that might have made it through.

Not sure if this is dead yeast or something else. Haven't seen clumps like this before when fermenting. Everything was sanitized and the receipe is just honey and water.

Howdy yall, been makin mead a while, never made beer and want to make a braggot. I want to do a cherry chocolate porter sort of. I have a 3 gallon keg, I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to go ab this.

Right now my current plan as it stands is to make a 1.5 gallon must with cherry juice as a base combined with honey and starting gravity of ab 1.070 or so; and make a 1.5 gallon wort with a porter DME of ab the same gravity , and combine them and ferment them together.

I kinda want to use more cherry juice but idk if boiling it during the mash sounds very appealing sounds rather gross tbh , and ik this is rather experimental so I’m not quite sure what to expect in terms of everyone else and their experiences. I just want to create a nice 8-10% braggot that brings forward all the best parts of beer and mead and is fruity. Expecting this one to take some trial and error and appreciate any helpful tips ! Thx

For context: Couple months ago I got a ton of cherries from a friends garden and made a batch with them. Fermentation went well and it's been sitting for quite some time now. From experience with all my other batches (which were either pure honey or used frozen fruit) by now it should be quite clear, but it isn't. Still tastes good though.

I did some research and found on from several sources that fresh cherries and the like you need to put something called antigel in from the start to prevent the protein chains from building that make it cloudy. I evidently didn't do that because I didn't know.

I already tried using Kieselsol after siphoning it once but no real results. Do I have to accept that this one will remain a bit cloudy or are there still ways to help it, for example with that antigel?

I want to make a mead for some friends with the following items

Oranges

Grapefruit

Blueberries

Orange blossom honey

Elderflower

Ginger

I just need some help with some measurements on the ingredients. I plan on making a gallon for a start. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

this is a 5gal batch started today. I have 6lbs of honey,4lbs of cane sugar. testing around 80-82 I believe ot shoud yeald 10ish %. then added roughly 7lb of fruit (apples, peaches,and plums)

I added 1 1/2 tbsp of Fermaid O in 120f water then added two packets of IVC D47 yeast held in 110f water for 10min.

jar was sanitized beforehand and all suger and honey was completely deluted in water.

did i do everything right? and is there anything I should watch out for. any advice is greatly appreciated as its the first time ive attempted this.

I added 3,5 kilo of summer blossom honey and will use another 3,5 to 5kg of forest blossom honey in the second stage plus water to fill it up to 30 liters. The must was fermenting for 10 days with port yeast and yeast nutrition to complyete dry before pressing it today.

Working through my first ever batch cautiously and nervously! I recently stabilized with potassium metabisulphite, as well as potassium sorbate, and racked them to secondary containers! The air locks are still showing pressure release and it’s been well over a week since adding stabilizers. Did I just not use enough to properly stabilize? I want to eventually bottle and cork, but am worried about bottle bombs! Is it safe to assume they’re ready for bottling when the airlocks show no pressure?

I also have noticed this very fine sort of white film across the top of one or two bottles. Anyone have a guess what might that be? Cause for concern at all?? The other little particles are tea leaves that I couldn’t quite avoid while racking!

Thank you everyone for your help! Could NOT have made it this far without you all!

Working through my first mead, about 1.5 weeks into the fermenting process and numbers are looking good but I'm at a cross roads. I travel this weekend so whatever I do next will have to sit for a few days unattended. My SG is .001 off my target, so thinking I need to either stabilize and move in to a carboy before I leave, or let it rest and stabilize and move it when I get home. Interested in some thoughts and opinions, let's hear it!

Initial SG - 1.074

1 week SG - 1.014

1.5 week SG (today) - 0.999

Current Volume: 3 Gallons

Estimated %ABV: 10.12

Next steps: add 1.5 tsp potassium sorbate and 3 campden tablets to stabilize. Wait 24 hours. Rack to Glass Carboy with 4 lbs blueberries and 1/2 lemon peel for backsweetening. Age, taste, and rerack to clarify as needed

Option 1: Stabilize now, rack tomorrow and let it rest in glass carboy while I'm gone

Option 2: wait to stabilize until Sunday evening when I return

Cherry Bomb:

3lb 5oz honey
1lb fresh local cherries (removed at 2 weeks)
Spring water to 1 gallon

Added 3 cinnamon sticks for 3 days in secondary
Cinnamon flavor was way strong so I added 1/2 a split vanilla bean and the zest of 2 oranges. This batch I bulk pasteurized and back sweetened to 1.010. Finished at just over 16%. Not super happy with the flavor, the cinnamon is still overly present but that color!

My plumbs and peaches are growing and I was planning to make some mead. I just know that I've got to use some sort of yeast so it can eat the sugar and shit out alcohol. The plan was processing them into pulp, add the yeast and wait, but I know there are many things I don't know. Any link, video, YouTube channel, or any source will help. The fruit is green yet, but I want to be prepared when the time comes. I've got two 5 liters glass containers and nothing more.

Thanks to anyone in advance :)