Questions tagged [mead]
Mead is a fermented beverage that uses honey as the primary source of fermentable sugars.
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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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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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My mead wont stay carbonated!
I have a strawberry mead that I am attempting to make sparkling. I added sugar drops to each bottle (Im bottling in 12 oz bottles) and after about a week it seems very carbonated but when I pop the ...
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First Time - Honey Mead questions
I am making Honey Mead for the first time soon, I will try making 2 1 gallon jugs. I have everything I need (Jugs, siphon, DAP, red star wine yeast, honey, sanitizer, carboy), but I want to make a ...
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Staggered sugar source addition: before or after racking?
I am currently set up to use a modified recipe for a sparkling oaked acerglyn with the following adjustments:
Reddit user Balathustrius's SNA schedule using Fermaid K, Fermaid O, and DAP
Additional ...
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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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Proper use of campden tablets in a recipe that calls for the staggered addition of a sugar source
I'm very new to all this, but is my intent to brew an oaked apple maple acerglyn by slightly altering this recipe. My plan is to brew about five gallons--as per the recipe--but utilize an appropriate ...
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Going past alcohol tolerance
I have recently started thinking of getting into make mead and decided on a nice 15% to start. I decided to oversweeten the batch because I don't want a real dry mead. I want to add berries to the ...
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Starting gravity reading when not all fermentables are dissolved
Is it possible to get a useful starting gravity reading when not everything is dissolved or suspended, but you know it ultimately will be?
Some context: In my pre-hydrometer days, I made a few cysers ...
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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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Mead: fermenting too cold
I'm brewing a big batch of Mead for my wedding, but in the coming months I've got two options, ferment at around 75° in my apartment, or throw it in a temp controlled fridge current being used to dry ...
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Mead made with bananas as a nutrient
I'm looking at what yeast need to live and nanners seem to have a fair bit of that. I have seen a lot of information on adding them for flavor. If nothing else I will be trying this soon and will ...
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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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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: is it time to bottling?
I have a few questions. I'm making mead for the first time. My mead is now brewing for 2 months (since 11th august), but I'm not sure if it's time to bottle it. That's because it is still sparking. I ...
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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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Should I avoid crystallized honey when making mead?
I've been making mead for while and have spotted some spots of crystallized honey occasionally. Today I started another one and realized that I got ~1kg of crystallized honey (16.66....% of total). I ...
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Sealing flip-top bottles with wax
I just started brewing a batch of mead (non-carbonated) and plan to bottle it in 1 L and 500 mL swing-top bottles.
Is there any advantage or disadvantage to sealing the swing-tops by dipping them in ...
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Is head space really necessary when bottling still mead?
I think most of us here leave a head space that is the space left when we pull the wand out of the bottle. So, if we are dealing with still mead is the head space really necessary? Would this space + ...
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Sweetness level for a dry mead
According to BJCP guide, a dry mead is a mead with FG approximately 0.995-1.010, and semi-sweet mead is 1.010-1.025.
I have a session/hydromel (with OG=1.050) mead finishing at 1.005. It is very ...
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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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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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Mead Aging - Pasteurize or not?
I never aged mead before, I usually just let them finish the fermentation, back-sweet with honey, bottle and drink in a few days/weeks.
I make my mead in glass bottles of 750ml, 1L and 1.5L (I don't ...
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Adding honey after initial fermentation
I have a few carboys with various mead concoctions. Unfortunately I didn't have enough starting sugar so I want to add some honey to restart and get my ABV above its current level of 4%. I don't have ...
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Floating fibres in Bochet mead
I made a Bochet style mead (burnt honey mead) and it's spent about a week bubbling away, but there's some strange fibrous floaties that I've never seen before, circulating around the must.
They ...
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Clarifying mead made from raw honey?
I have a mead in secondary right now. It's been there for about three weeks. It spent two weeks in primary. I was given the impression from my source material (The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm) ...
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Is there anyway to overcome thef potassium sorbate in apple cider to make it ferment
I have 5 gallons of apple cider that I an trying to ferment with 10 lbs.of clover honey 3.5 lbs. brown sugar to make cyser.the OG is 1.172 PH 3.6 and I can't get to ferment!I found out there is ...
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Mead Post-Fermentation and Bottling
I currently have a batch of mead fermenting and I'm a bit confused about the bottling process for a still mead. I would like to know the steps/process for treating the mead before bottling.
Should I ...
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Where to age mead, bottle or secondary fermenter?
What method is best to age honey wine?
There is a similar question where someone suggests that bulk aging is faster. Has anyone experienced this?
Edit: I found another similar question, one answer ...
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Mead turn moldy?
First mead attempt. Think it went moldy but looking for other opinions. Made it four weeks ago. Racked last week. Thinking about second racking. About 1/4" yeast sediment so far and little to no ...
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How long can mead store when not temperature controlled?
I was given 10 gallons of homebrewed mead in a carboy. It was made by my brother-in-law and his friend almost 10 years ago. His friend moved away and he's kept the mead in the carboy, in a box (so ...
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First brew: dry hopped mead, probably stuck. How to best proceed?
I'm on day 9 of my first attempt at home brewing (1 gallon batch), and based on my measurements on day 5 and today it appears to be stuck at 1.010
Original Gravity was 1.065
Kind of just went gung-...
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My mead tastes sour. Did I make honey wine or is it spoiled?
My mead tastes sour like dry white wine!
I made a batch of mead this January, just under 10L.
It was made from honey that had fermented a bit (I got it cheap), but I boiled it with the water, so that ...
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Degassing and it's effects on yeast
I'm wondering if degassing and removing the suspended CO2 (a part of, and a percentage of the wine) changes the totals for ABV% as it applies to yeast tolerance. It seems that by degassing you would ...
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Sulfur Smell from Fermentor
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20 lbs. Forest Honey
12 lbs. Blueberries
water to 6 gallons
5 grams of D-47
4 tsp. Fermaid K + DAP
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After the initial vigorous fermentation, I ...
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Sour, almost bitter mead
I made my first batch of mead a few years ago, and it tasted like nail-polish remover when I first tasted it. I put it away and forgot about it, then pulled it out about 6 months later when looking ...
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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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Pomagranate mead color
I've been fermenting my pomagranate mead for about 2 weeks now and I'm planning on racking it in a week. My question is why does my mead have a brown red color? Is this a normal colour for pomagranate ...
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Mead keeps separating... HELP!
I just created a pomagranate mead and now it is separating it's self...
Ingredients:
49 oz pomagranate Puree
6 lbs Clover Honey
2 tsp Acid Blend
3 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1 tsp Grape ...
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How many volumes CO2 will push out a champagne cork?
I'm bottling a mead to pass out around Christmas time. I know mead isn't traditionally carbonated, but I want that satisfying cork pop and super effervescence. I have a floor champagne corker and an ...
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Off smell in my mead
I recently started brewing mead and during my first racking I noticed a chemically smell that had a alcohol vinyl smell. I can't figure out if my mead has turned or not. I did another racking today ...
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What would cause bottle-carbonation to fail?
I made a Hydromel (beer-strength mead) around 5% using champagne yeast. After fermentation I split it into a few small batches... some I added ginger, some I added orange zest, some remained un-...
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Should I use Fermaid-O or Fermaid-K while fermenting mead?
I've been making a mead for last two years, and a huge supporter of staggered nutrients additions to mead where you use Go-Ferm to rehydrate the yeast, adjust pH level with potassium carbonate, and ...
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Fermenting mead: low vs high temperature
I'm planning to make a batch of dry show mead (white wine experience).
I have Lalvin 71B-1122 Narbonne yeast, and fermentation temperature range for it is from 59-89° F (15-30°C).
Lets say how ...
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Freshly Pitched Yeast at top of Must
I'm making some homemade mead and I just pitched my yeast. My must has quite the gradient to it. The top is a light brown where the yeast is then it fades to golden toward the bottom. Should I attempt ...
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What type of yeast to use for a low ABV mead?
I'm looking to experiment making a low-alcohol mead (i.e. under 8% ABV). In terms of buying a sachet of yeast I can see standard beer/cider/wine variants and obviously for brewing there are loads of ...
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How to make a mead beer/ale
Mead (in the UK at least) seems to generally be made as a wine, typically flat around 12% ABV.
I'm interested in making more of a beer/ale type drink... carbonated, around 5% ABV, by fermenting honey ...
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Will this recipe make drinkable mead?
I want to make mead, but lack any real equipment/skill. I have done "wine" and "mead" before, but only at the "hooch" level of quality and control. All I have access to is a siphon tube and ~2L ...
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How often can I rack?
Okay, so I made a really sweet mead with 18 lbs clover honey, so it's pretty dark. Do you have to rack more often to try to clear meads with more honey? And also, how often can I rack, and how many ...
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Must won't ferment, too sour?
I prepared a must for a mead last weekend (recipe below) and after a whole week there has been no fermentation activity. I took a pH reading and it came in at 4.4 - is it likely that the must is ...
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