Questions tagged [mead]
Mead is a fermented beverage that uses honey as the primary source of fermentable sugars.
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Should I back-sweetening a very dry mead?
So, I made a batch (4.5 gallons) of show mead using 10lbs of locust honey. Starting gravity was 1.091
I used dry white wine yeast and fermentation went relevantly quick (with some help of potassium ...
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Going from Mead to Beer
I have a little bit of experience in making mead, I have a batch to be bottled in a few days. Now, I wanted to try to make beer next, where should I start?
What are the major differences between ...
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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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Creating a tincture extract question
Good afternoon, guys.
I never done tincturing before, and actually just saw a recipe for Capsicumel (jalapeno mead or methodology). The recipe states adding 2 peppers into the primary when the ABV ...
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Has My mead gone south?
This is rather my first time doing a mead. It has been a month since i put it up for fermentation. Its been locked in a relatively stable temperature and totally dark enviroment.
Today, after a full ...
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Why my mead is sparkling?
I just tasted my mead after 3 months of brewing and now it tastes ok, but it is sparkling, like champagne. It also tastes a little like it. Actually, i never tasted mead before so i don't know hot it ...
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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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What can have caused my mead to have the taste of yeast?
I brew my first mead one month ago. I've put 1 dose of honey for about 3.5 of water. Ended up with a 2 liters of must in a pet bottle. I've put 10 grams of yeast (the entire sachet).
Since i started, ...
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Airlock not pressurized, any explanation other than a leak?
I'm in the primary fermentation of mead, using one of these "big mouth bubbler" 5 gallon fermenters and an S airlock.
Initially, when the fermentation was really vigorous, the airlock behaved as ...
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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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Fruit mead - VERY vigorous fermentation
I have made several batches of meads, using different yeasts, with the same recipe. I then picked the yeast that made the best mead (IMO) and made some fruit meads. I followed the same recipe, but ...
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Did I mess up my mead?
I am attempting to make 1.5 liters of mead as a first go.
I was very lazy though and used a whole packet of lalvin 71b-1122 on such a small batch.
1 week has gone by. The color looks good but ...
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It is necessary to sanitize my wine thief after primary fermentation
I have made several batches of wine from kits and a few batches of mead. One of the things that must be done after primary fermentation is to test the specific gravity. The wine kits I have used ...
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Making Sweet Mead this weekend
guys, I'm planning to brew a sweet mead this weekend with 15-18 lbs of honey for a 5 gallon batch...
Here's my goal... I want it to be strong (15% or so) and sweet. I'm pretty much prepared, but ...
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Bentonite Haze in Mead
I have been doing mead for a few years on-and-off now, and have a few 25L batches that finished a 3 week primary and 3 week secondary ferment. There is still a tiny bit of bubbling inside, and I was ...
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How to raise pH (or lower acidity) of mead
I have a mead that I think has too high of an acid level. I am looking for ways to raise the pH or lower the acidity1.
Roughly 7 months ago, I made a 5 gal batch of mead. The original fermentation ...
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Is it necessary to top off wine in a carboy?
Inspired by Ron's post here, I'm wondering how necessary it is to top off a carboy of wine that is aging. I have 5 containers of mead/wine right now and they all have headspace. Not a ton but they ...
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Is there an Optimal Amount of Time to Leave Fruit in a Melomel's Primary or Secondary Fermentation?
I have read that some Mazers never let fruit sit in their fermenting wine or mead for more than two weeks while others will leave the cap for the entire time. Is there any measured science behind the ...
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Mead is infected/discolored
I brewed a sweet mead on February 24th, 2013, racked it to secondary on April 4th, 2013, and was getting ready to bottle it now (end of July). I had been out of town for a few weeks and when I came ...
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Pectic Enzyme in Secondary?
I am doing a melomel and am putting some mangos in primary and again into secondary a month later.
I was going to put pectic enzyme into primary, do I need to put additional into the secondary?
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How to Sterilize Bung and Hole while Maintaining a Strong Seal?
How do you sanitize and prepare a bung for stopping a carboy? While making sure that it will maintain a good seal and not POP off sometime later.
In depth
I removed and sterilized my bung and ...
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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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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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Lots of sanitizer sucked up into my mead, wondering if it's still safe to consume?
My power went out and I guess the house cooled enough during that time to suck about 1/4 gallon of sanitizer from the blowoff into my 1 gallon batch mead. It completely filled the headspace and ...
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How to bottle mead?
I have some mead fermenting. It is the first time doing it and I have no idea how would it be bottled. I have one sweet and one dry version
Should I use beer bottles that can resist pressure?
Is ...
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How much ginger should I add to my mead?
I'm using this recipe for a start
http://www.winepress.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=6114 (Joe Mattioli's Ancient Orange and Spice Mead)
1 gallon batch
3 1/2 lbs Clover or your choice honey or ...
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Mead and the balloon
When my husband gets up in the morning, the balloons are deflated. When I get up 3 hrs later, the balloons are inflated. They stay inflated all day. It has been more than 3 weeks. Is the mead ready to ...
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What advantages do I gain by putting my mead into a secondary before bottling?
I have always used a secondary fermentation container for my beers and meads in the past. Today I had a conversation with two different coworkers who mentioned they put their mead from the primary ...
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What should I do about this weird bubble in the sediment?
I brewed a batch of cider mead. Once fermentation was done, I put it in the fridge to let the sediment settle, and to let it clarify. After a few days, these weird bubbles formed in the sediment, ...
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A way get scum out when making mead without boiling?
Is there a way to get the scum out of the must when making mead without boiling? I used to vigorously boil the must and it would produce a lot of scum which was easily removed. I've since read that ...
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When using a drill whip to degas, how do I ensure I will not aerate the wine/mead?
Some my wine/meads have been a bit bubbly after bottling. I'm thinking the problem is I have not be degassing. If I use a drill whip, how do I ensure I will not bruise or aerate the brew?
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What are possible causes of a vegetal flavor in mead?
I recently entered my first mead into a BJCP-judged competition (mostly to get feedback), and all three judges reported a vegetal off-flavor in the mead. What could be the cause of this? The mead was ...
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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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How to proceed when step-feeding a mead
I am in the process of planning my next mead batch, and I wondered if it would be a good idea to step-feed this one since I am planning a high ABV (18%). How would I do this best?
My recipe looks ...
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Mead: Is it harmful to use a malt-based starter?
What are the effects of using a malt-based starter for a batch of mead?
I have seen recipes for making starters using honey, but here's the thing: Honey is expensive. Malt extract is cheap(er). I ...
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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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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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My yeast isn't floating at the top of my mead
I just made my first ever batch of mead. I used a stronger yeast (a wine yeast) and the package said to let it sit for about 15 minutes in 50ml of warm water. I did that and added the water and yeast ...
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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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Should I start mead fermentation at this time of year?
I would like to start a new batch of mead. However currently the air temperatures where I live can reach 30 degrees (Centigrade) and I have no air conditioning at home (so the temperature at home can ...
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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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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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How to safely remove mold from corks?
I have a mead that has been sitting bottled in a cool underground closet for about a year, and the corks appear to have some mold growing on the outside. Apparently the closet is a bit more moist ...
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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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mead - is shaking the bottle necessary
I have made 2 batches of mead that are now coming to maturity. One at 11 percent, aged for 18 months and one at 18 percent, aged for 3 years.
I notice that both are very clear, beautiful bouquet and ...
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Honey/Ginger Brew With Champagne Yeast
I got it in my head last weekend that I needed to homebrew again (it's been more than 10 years!), and so I boiled 4lbs of honey, 2lbs of ginger, 1lb of dark brown sugar and 1.5lbs of raisins (since ...
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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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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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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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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 ...