Questions tagged [mead]
Mead is a fermented beverage that uses honey as the primary source of fermentable sugars.
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What do you get if you distill mead?
This is just out of curiosity...
I mean if you distill beer, you get whiskey... if you distill wine, you get cognac/brandy... if you distill fermented molasses, you get rum... if you distill ...
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What are some good online sources for recipes?
What are some good online sources for recipes? Please specify the type of recipes the site has (extract, all-grain, mead, cider, etc.).
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Concerns/Considerations for making mead with raw honey?
I may be able to source enough raw honey to make a batch of mead from it.
Are there any special concerns that I need to be aware of?
If I don't boil it, should I use campden tablets to control any ...
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Mead made from Agave nectar?
The health food store near me has a sale on dark Agave nectar such that 1 kg costs less than their average 1 kg of honey (usually it costs slightly more than honey). I noticed on the nutritional info ...
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why do you degas wine but not beer?
After reading this post, I was wondering why have I heard of people degassing wine, but never beer? Does one also need to degas mead?
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What to expect when making mead?
I've been brewing ales for almost two years (extract plus specialty grains), and I want to try my hands at making a mead. What should I expect to be different in the brewing process? Will there be a ...
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Alternative/homemade yeast nutrient?
I forgot to add nutrient to my must when I put it in my carboy the other day (first time brewing mead). I fear I won't be able to get to my homebrew store before it's too late, so I'm wondering if I ...
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Can I ferment mead without campden tablets?
I think that campden tablets lend an odor to my mead that requires my letting the wine breathe for a while. I get headaches from this too.
Assuming I'm right about this, would pasteurization of the ...
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Hibiscus mead changed color after adding yeast nutrient
I'm making an hibiscus-tea mead. The tea/honey mixture had a really nice red color. But after I added the yeast nutrient, the color turned black. The nutrient I'm using is LD Carlson Yeast Nutrient (...
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Possibly infected mead: is it worth keeping?
I tried making cherry mead again (the first time I tried this it got infected). I tried again yesterday, and it looks like I've got some sort of contamination ("infection").
This time I thought that ...
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Can I keep mead/wine in stainless steel bottles?
So what do you use for bottling? I'm really starting to look into stainless steel bottles. There are companies that make them (with customized artwork, no less) for conference shwag but you could ...
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Strange aftertaste in mead?
I've been making mead for a while and there's something I can't quite resolve. Some batches are said to have a strange, solvent-like or "turpentiney" after-taste. Most people don't seem to notice it ...
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What equipment do I need to start making mead?
What equipment do I need to start making mead at home?
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Cherry vinegar (was supposed to be mead)
Last week I started a cherry mead and discovered yesterday that it had turned to vinegar (and not even nice-tasting cherry-flavoured vinegar - it smelled and tasted awful, though the colour was great)....
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Yeast nutrient schedule for meads?
Somewhere I remember a mention that a "more-modern" technique in brewing meads involves a regular schedule of adding yeast nutrients while in the primary. I was never able to find the reference again ...
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Longevity of bottled mead
I have some mead in bottles, which have been stored in a reasonably cool, dark place for possibly as much as two years old. I had intended to leave it for about a year for bottle conditioning, but now ...
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When should I rack my mead?
I am making mead for the first time using honey from my hives. It has been going for 3-4 weeks and I'm not sure if it's time to rack it. The fermenting has been slow, which I think might be due to the ...
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My mead has no alcohol, but a lot of sediment
I started making my very first mead. I took 1kg of pure single-flower honey and 2.5L of water (actually, not tap water but a bottled one). According to the suggestions, I did:
Warm 1L up to almost 50 ...
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I have some "expired" mead yeast, is it still good?
I have some liquid mead yeast that has expired a couple years ago, according to the date on it. It has always been kept in the refrigerator. Could it be revived and used or do I need to buy some new ...
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Aging mead in a wood mini barrel
I just got this cheap wood barrel that was suppose to be for aging whiskey.
I want to age my mead in the wood mini barrel. What is the best practice for doing so considering the mini barrel shown ...
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Adding ginger to cider/cyser/mead
I've been dabbling with simple ciders in the past few years. I've been particularly enjoying those made with honey as an adjunct - I'm not sure whether it should be classified as a honey cider or a ...
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How to correct Mead with too much citrus?
I put 5 oranges into my first 5 gallon mead and after 3 weeks it tastes overpoweringly like grapefruit. I don't like grapefruit.
At 10 days, I racked 2 gallons into a carboy with 2 lb of mulberry (...
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How to sanitise cherries?
I intend to make a melomel based on a Polish trójniak with (sour) cherries. As we're in season, I will probably buy fresh fruit at my local grocery store or market. What I wonder about is how to best ...
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How to get rid of gas from mead?
I have brewed 5L of mead (1 part honey to 3 parts water). After 9 months I can no longer see any sedimentation in the bottle, however when I taste the mead I can feel it's a little sparkling (besides ...
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When to add fruits or berries into mead?
I'm getting a bit confused with adding fruits or berries into mead... Some recipes suggest adding it into the secondary (like purés). On other side there are multiple videos of people fermenting ...
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Banana Mead Yeast Suggestions
I'm planning to brew a banana mead, and would like to start fementation with a Belgian yeast so that it has a good strong banana nose. I will finish with a champagne yeast, so I'm not particularly ...
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Safe way to backsweet a braggot with honey?
Just made an experimental batch of chocolate braggot. About 60% various grain and 40% honey, OG 1.069, Safale S-04 yeast. We like to have some sweetness as well as mid-high carbonation in the final ...
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Mead Stuck Fermentation
So, I made a 5 gallon batch of mead on 10Apr2015. I used 17 lbs of pasteurized clover honey and 4 gallon of spring water (no-boil method). OG = 1.130. I used D47 Lalvin yeast (3 packs) with 1/4 tsps ...
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Does white honey have greater effect on gravity?
A few weeks ago I made my first mead (actually a braggot). I ordered a 12 lb bucket of raw honey. To my surprise, when I opened it the honey inside was a creamy, almost foamy opaque white. It didn't ...
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Orange juice stain the brew bucket, or even worse?
Hello fellow home brewers!
I am looking to begin an orange melomel tomorrow using this page as inspiration. After making some orange juice from the same oranges as the one's I will be using, I ...
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Adding pectic enzyme to mead
I do not have any pectic enzyme and want to start a mead batch today. Can it be added later as there is no supply distributor in my town
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Yeast, CO2 Toxicity with mead and beer
Degassing CO2 during early fermentation is important for wine and mead. But why not for beer?
I'm getting back into mead making and see plenty of references to degassing the must during early ...
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How does one apply nutrient to a mead brew
My wife discovered that the mead we are brewing smells a bit off, and a book we have on the topic suggest we may not have applied enough micronutrient. Any suggestions on getting more in? We have ...
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How to calculate ABV% with step feeding
I would like to make a high ABV mead, and plan to divide the honey into 3 or 4 increments for the yeast. This has to be done so that the yeast are not under stress from osmotic pressure. However, I ...
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Did my mead stall? What can I do?
Edits are in bold italics
This is my first mead and I know I've made more than a few mistakes up to this point in the process, but I'm hoping for a Mead Doctor to roll in and tell me what I can do ...
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How do I un-stuck a mead's fermentation?
Some relevant facts:
18 pounds of Trader Joe's Mesquite honey, water to 5 gallons, yeast nutrient and energizer (I think it was 1 teaspoon of each, but a computer failure ate my notes).
Yeast: Wyeast ...
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Semi-Sweet, Medium ABV, Sparkling Mead - Is it possible?
I may asking to much for a homegamer but is it possible to make semi-sweet/sweet mead carbonated?
I'm trying go for around 1.05 FG and 7%~10% ABV. This can be done easily fermenting dry then adding ...
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Would Lalvin's 71B-1122 make a good cyser?
From Lalvin's website:
...has the ability to metabolize high amounts (20% to 40%) of malic acid.
It also says that it produces "rounder, smoother..." wines. I'm thinking this would be a nice match ...
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Will accidentally shaking the mead lower the alcohol percentage?
I shook the mead during fermentation and I'm concerned that i may have hurt the yeast, causing it to produce less alcohol. Could this happen, or am i over thinking it?
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Mead is taking up space in my carboys. When can I bottle it?
So the mead I made six weeks ago did not taste great when I moved it into secondary. Plenty of solvent notes. I have big plans for lager season and want that secondary back. I'm planning on force ...
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Changing the PH of mead for fermenting necessary?
I’m currently creating a batch of mead.
I’ve watched a lot of videos about the process.
I’ve seen some people do it because they said you need to have it between 3.6 and 3.9 ph. And some just don’t ...
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Is there anything different I need to do to age a mead for an extreme amount of time?
I was thinking about doing a very long-term aging on a batch of mead. The original idea was that when I have children in the future, I'd brew a batch as soon as Jr. comes home, and age it until ...
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Recipes for Banana Mead
I was inspired to make a banana mead after reading Gravity's Rainbow. I have made mead before, and looked online for recipes, but all of them contain grape juice.
Is the grape juice there for some ...
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Stuck Mead Fermentation?
Obligatory: This is my first batch of Mead and I'm still learning the ropes. If I've made any critical mistakes, please point them out but do know: odds are, I had no idea of that particular issue.
I'...
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Neutralizing yeast prior to backsweetening
It’s coming up on the third week of secondary for my first mead batch and my intention was to sterilize the yeast culture with campden tablets and potassium sorbate. I added the correct dose of each ...
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FG too low to read
I bought a hydrometer to level up a bit my game, It works great for Initial Gravity measures, it has a range from 0.997 to 1.100. My problem comes when it finishes the fermentation, I get a very VERY ...
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How to approximate when half the sugar has been fermented
The EC-1118 datasheet suggests a procedure wherein you pitch the full amount of yeast in 10% of the total volume of your liquid, and let it ferment until approximately half the sugar is used up, and ...
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Best yeast for Mead
I have been making mead for close to 5 years now. I do my mead a little different than most. I use Safale US-05 dry ale yeast. I let it ferment for 3 weeks then I transfer out of the fermenting bucket....
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Mold or Floating Yeast?
There is floating debris in my mead—Is this a cause for concern?
Some context: I fermented honey water with Red Star Premier Blanc wine yeast, nearly 4 weeks ago. Two weeks ago, I transferred the mead ...
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Fruit Flies in Airlock. How can I Test if Mead is Okay?
In short After approximately 5.5 month my airlock full of vodka has lost 60% of its volume and now has trapped a couple dozen of fruit flies. Should I be concerned for my batch of Mead?
What methods ...
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