r/mead

It's strawberry season and I found them really cheap where I live. I have been putting off my first mead for some time now and I finally have the energy and time to start. Is a strawberry mead easy enough for a fisrt timer? Do you have a good recipe you can share?

Hello everyone,

Looking for some info on adding fruit to secondary. My understanding is that adding to secondary keeps more fruit character. Normally I add my fruit to primary but notice that I can’t taste any of the fruit taste (namely strawberries and mango are culprits)

Is the presumption in using fruit in secondary that the yeast is at its max alcohol level and therefore won’t ferment any more? My thought would be that adding fruit to yeast that still has upside in fermentation would just end up with the same taste… and take longer to finish. Do I need to pay attention to which yeast I am using for secondary fruit meads? I.e., better to go with lalvin d47 with lower max, than ec1118 that has lots of upside?

Thanks!

This is going to be my first time undertaking this recipe and I haven't the first clue what to do.

Every time I brew a batch (I started about 15 years ago), I set aside a small amount to add to a perpetual mixture in a carboy; basically, a drink that’s never emptied and slowly accumulates the leftovers from many batches.

From time to time, I pour myself a glass, but I never take more than half of what’s in there.

I tasted a little bit of it today, and it was really interesting: an open, very jammy bouquet on the nose. The attack was a bit medicinal, but the finish was incredibly long, reminding me of an old walnut wine.

Do you have this kind of experience too?

I know about bottle bombs. Not what I'm trying to do. Will be using beer bottles.

When we do beer we add fermentable sugars to get carbonation. I've done it in the past. Works great.

In this new place I am at the brewing space is cool. Runs about 15c right now and I will be using 71b yeast and going for 4.5 abv. I want to know at what residual specific gravity I can bottle safely.

Maybe I can’t and then I'll try controling the temperature tu ensure complete fermentation and I'll and just enough dextrose for carbonation.

What are your experiences with this?

Hi everyone! I am waiting on a few more materials to come in, then I'll be starting my first batch ever this weekend. Each thing I learn about brewing mead raises like 20 more questions, so I tried to eyeball a process that is simple enough, but covers all the basics and will let me try a few things out. My plan is to run this process for a few batches of "melomel", where flavors are added post-primary fermentation. If anything below seems out of whack, please let me know, and I will love you forever. Here goes:

1. Primary Fermentation

Create a must with 4 gallons of water and ~12lbs of honey in a 5-gallon carboy. Dry pitch 1 packet of 71B yeast. Add yeast nutrients on days 2, 4, 6 w/ hydrometer readings on those days.

Let primary fermentation roll until no visible airlock bubbles. Take hydrometer reading, then test every week until no change in gravity. I assume this part of the process will take ~1-2 months.

2. Secondary / Conditioning

Rack to two 2-gallon glass containers. Add fruit, spices, and herbs via mesh brewers bags. Leave for ~2 weeks. Swap for fresh brewers bags with the same ratio of fruit, spices, and herbs. Leave for another ~2 weeks. After removing the second round, test with hydrometer to see if gravity has changed at all. If so, let sit and test every ~week until there is no change in gravity. I assume this part will take a little over ~1 month.

(Note: I'm defaulting to 2 lbs fruit per gallon per bag, frozen and mashed)

3. Cold Crash / Bulk Aging

Swap the airlocks out for solid bungs/caps, then cold crash the 2-gallon containers for a week. I don't plan on using fining agents for the first batch to see how clear I can get it on its own (in time).

After that, rack to 3 tertiary 1-gallon carboys with solid caps and set those aside for 3-12 months (I plan on bottling at 3, 6, and 12 months respectively).

All in all, I estimate it will be ~6 months from pitching to bottling the first portion of the batch. I go from one ~4-gallon must to three 1-gallon containers assuming that a gallon will be lost to testing, racking, and fruit conditioning. If there's some extra, I do have half-gallon containers as well. Or I'll drink some before bulk aging :)

Sorry for the megapost, I'm just anxious af about starting and would appreciate even 1 other set of eyes more knowledgeable than my own!

I fermented the yeast in a small enclosed space for 2 weeks at room temperature, then I moved it to the fridge to cold crash it. I have now added orange peel and a split vanilla bean to a 5 liter carboy, then I racked the mead over to this and added stabilizer to kill fermentation. What do I do now? Do I put this back into the fridge or age it at room temperature?

When I racked from primary to secondary, I did notice some yeast wisps or whatever floating near the top, like a ring that detached from the top of the mead level. Hopefully this is nothing bad.

I intend to keep the orange peel and vanilla bean in the mead for about a week, then give it a taste. If I like it, then I will begin to backsweeten to taste and then finally bottle everything.

I made my first mead this year, and I don't know if I messed things up with my move to secondary.

I started my mead (honey only, no other flavors) early January. I moved it to a keg mid March. The OG was 1.120, and I got some consistent readings at 1.014, so I went ahead and moved it to a keg.

I have it in a keg for the next phase, but I'm not sure if I irrevocably messed things up here. I added potassium sorbate and campden to it because I didn't want it to explode my keg.

I'm letting it sit there for awhile. I have tasted it periodically, and it tastes great, but it's just murky as all getup. Will it every become clear, or will it be permanently murky?

I think I messed up. I misunderstood how much yeast to use. I'm making a session mead. 1.75 lbs of honey and I used 11.5 grams of safale us-05 yeast. Initial gravity was 1.066. It's been less than two hours and it's already bubbling and foaming and the foam is rising into the airlock. Did I ruin it?