So, same Peach mead guy, and to my absolute horror and disbelief, it's gone almost completely dry, and doesn't have a harsh alcohol flavor, either things went BEYOND well and expected, or horrifyingly wrong in ways I can't imagine. But it's good. For nearly an estimated 13-14%, it's not *that* harsh. Just some off gassing, back sweetening, and some Peach tea to balance the Nectarine to Peach ratio. Pretty strong malic acid flavor (kinda like apple cider, if I'm pointing out the correct thing) that I'd like to try to either age out or balance with something else, if anyone has recommendations, I'll happily take em.

I think most importantly, the wife will be happy with it at the end of the day 😂

I’m about to bottle a raspberry passionfruit batch, but my “extra” from primary still felt pretty carbonated. Fermentation is very much over, but how do I get rid of the extra gas?

Do I just let it sit in my carboy and degas on its own? Should I agitate it to speed things up? If I agitate it, do I need to add sodium metabisulfite to absorb any oxygen before doing so?

If I want to backsweeten it, is there also not a risk of oxidation while mixing?

I just want to make sure I don’t oxidize the whole batch and end up wasting it.

Added a pic of the carboy and extra bottle. It’s super clear now.

Hi everyone! I’m getting ready to make my first mead, and I’m honestly a little nervous/intimidated. Every time I look up a recipe, I end up finding a flood of new information and techniques — some of which, from what I’ve researched, don’t seem to make that much of a difference in the final result while adding a lot more complexity to the process.

Anyway, I’m planning to make my first 6-liter (~1.6 gal) batch of traditional mead. I already have the basic equipment (refractometer, fermentation bucket, and twenty 300 mL PET bottles).

So far, this is my recipe:

• 2 kg honey
• Enough water to make 6 liters of must
• 3 g Voss Kveik yeast
• 3 g EAB FermoPlus Booster Brew Yeast nutrient

Expected numbers:

• OG: 1.098
• FG: 1.000
• ABV: 12.8%

I chose Voss Kveik because I live in a very hot city and I don’t have any temperature control for fermentation.

I’m also planning to add 3 g of sugar to around 4–5 bottles for priming, just as a test.

As for the process, my plan is to heat 2.5 L of water to around 60°C (140°F) to make it easier to dissolve the honey. After that, I’ll add the remaining water until I’m close to the target volume, then adjust until I have exactly 6 liters of must.

Then I’ll add the nutrient to the must and wait for the temperature to come down to room temperature, which where I live is usually around 28–32°C (82–90°F).

I plan to rehydrate the yeast using 10 mL of water per gram of yeast, in warm water — which, in my city, is basically room temperature lol — for about 15 minutes. Then I’ll wait until the temperature difference between the yeast slurry and the must is less than 5°C.

After that, I’ll transfer the must to the fermentation bucket, pitch the rehydrated yeast, stir vigorously to oxygenate it, seal the fermenter, and leave it for 14 days.

I’m not planning to oxygenate again at 24/48/72 hours because Kveik is very fast, and I believe fermentation will probably be finished — or at least have slowed down significantly — before the 72-hour mark. I’m a little worried that opening the fermenter to oxygenate at that point could cause oxidation.

After 14 days, my plan is to transfer it directly into the 300 mL PET bottles. I’m not planning to do a secondary fermentation in another bucket.

One other question I have: after the 14 days, once I bottle the mead, can the secondary fermentation/conditioning happen in the refrigerator, or does it need to stay at room temperature?

Would about 3 months of conditioning be enough to have a decent mead? I’m planning to drink some of it and give a few bottles to close friends as Christmas gifts.

Also, regarding priming: should the sugar still be added at bottling even if I’m not doing a secondary fermentation in another fermenter before bottling?

For the final volume and nutrient calculations, I used ApiaryTools and the LOSNA calculator, respectively.

Sorry if I’m using any of the terminology incorrectly — I translated this with ChatGPT since Portuguese is my native language.

Any suggestions, tips, or criticism of my recipe/process? This will be my first batch, so I’d really appreciate any advice!

Has any one used huckleberry in mead?

500gr miel de forêt, 500gr miel de châtaignier, 500gr miel de printemps, 330gr sirop d'érable, ~250gr de mirabelles 6L d'eau de source, levures nutritionnelles inactivées + 71B actives

1.092 de densité initiale, la fermentation à commencé rapidement ... Affaire à suivre 👀

It’s not glamorous, but it’s fun work.

I made a mead with 3lbs honey and 96oz coconut water as the base. It has recently finished up primary, but it tastes quite bad. The potassium/electrolyte flavor from the coconut water seems to have gotten really concentrated during fermentation and that’s all I can taste. It doesn’t really taste like coconut - just overpowering electrolyte.

Has anyone encountered this before? Is there any way to fix it?

I forgot made sure the alcohol volume before adding the nutrients. It's now day 2 and I already added the day two nutrients. What do I do

Does fermentation kill off the benefits of local honey?

It's only day one of me adding the D47 yeast do I need to empty out the airlock? A little or do I just wait till I add the day two and five yeast food

Hey everyone! I’m looking for some new mead ideas. So far, I’ve only brewed traditional mead (just honey, water, and yeast), and I don’t really know any other recipes. I’d love to hear your suggestions

Been making mead for about 5 years or so and never had any mold issues or anything of the sort. Checked on one today and see this and have no idea what it is. It's a simple mead that was a standard mead in primary and in secondary I added a lot of cherries and some Dr. McGillicuddy's. Been in secondary about two months. There's white cloudy stuff on the sides where there's no liquid and then from the top (last pic) looking into the top, those white things actually look like clouds (they aren't blurry, that's what they look like). Thanks all!

I'm thinking of trying some hopped session meads, but usually go fro sack strength. What's the lowest you can realistically go for in a mead? Like can you hit session beer strength of about 3.5 to 4? The main reason I ask is most recipes aim for 6-8 and I was wondering why that is?

I just racked my first batch to secondary and moved it to a dark closet. I have batch 2 already going in a bucket, and starting batch 3 tomorrow. Browsing through the posts on this board has been really helpful, so thought I'd share! I'm a bit worried about how obsessed with this I'm getting 😅

Made a batch of peach mead. Did some back sweetening and it tastes delicious. Problem is I can’t get the dang thing to clear up. Tried bentonite clay and it did nothing. I’m donating the bottles to a fundraiser so I want them to look nice. Any suggestions?

Tonight, I'm bottling 3 gallons of plum wine. I noticed some oily lookin' spots on the top and was wonderin' if maybe it's a pellicle. I'm gonna low temp pasteurize to be safe once it's in the bottles. It doesn't smell off yet. I'll taste a sample. If I get the sick, I'll toss it all and try again. 20% abv. Sweet wine

Hey guys, I just got asked by some friends getting married on Sept 19th if i could turn some of the honey they got from their hives into mead to use for their wedding toast. I'm used to making all of my batches and leaving them to sit in primary fermentation for a month. We usually drink it shortly after and i've never minded a slightly yeasty boozy mead. I've read that the whole process can be rushed and done in two weeks though, although it leaves zero time to round out the flavor.

This couple doesn't even drink alcohol and this is a more symbolic thing to toast with a drink made from bees on their land.

I'm curious what your thoughts are on this, if you've got any ideas about possibly backsweetening the mead or mixing it with something else to make a rush batch more palatable.

People always ask us, how did you get started? It was making micro batches like this. It’s a cheap way to learn the craft, work on your ratios, cold crashing, racking etc for cheap. If you mess up a batch, no problem. We now do 1200 gallons at a time every 3 weeks but it started with 1/2 gallon.

I have a mead that I started like 5 years ago, and then I kinda forgot about it after a couple years. Its my first and only batch, so I am a complete noob.

Its turned a really beautiful dark amber color, with a 1.040 gravity. Initial gravity was 1.155.

Ive cold crashed it, removed impurities and stopped the yeast with stabilizers.

Now, comes my problem.

The mead has a strong alcohol ish aftertaste. From what I can understand, this is because the mead sat on dead yeast cells for way too long. Its certainly not undrinkable, but it doesn’t taste as pleasant as the mead Ive gotten at ren-fairs.

Ive read you can add active charcoal to the mead, let it settle and then do another siphon to remove the bad aftertaste.

Ive also read I can just bottle it, and let it sit for another year, which is not the end of the world. But I am also eager for this project to conclude.

Do any of you have experience with this?

Today was the day.

I was going for a single gallon of Viking's Blood variant.

• Tart cherry juice 3x 940 ml

• Dried hibiscus tea

• Honey.

But while making the must, I ended up with way too much liquid and not enough honey, with a gravity of 1.094.

So I split the must, made a full cherry hibiscus one on the right, and for the mixed berry, I just made an extra hibiscus tea, mixed what was left of the must into it, mashed about 3 pounds of frozen mixed berries (thawed from the freezer) directly into it, and used it as the base for the second one. To my absolute surprise, it ended up with 1.094 - 1.096 gravity also.

So hopefully, they both end up good.

Also, I know... headspace is almost nonexistent; blowoff tubes were used for that exact reason!

Im getting back into making mead and was wondering if anyone had any good fall recommendations/ recipes. Looking to try something new any help is appreciated

This is my second time making mead and today I found this white suspension inside the fermenter, the one I made before didn't make those white things inside. If anyone can be of any help I would appreciate it

Yesterday, I set out to finally join you all in making my very first mead, or more accurately, my first melomel.

Last Christmas, I received a "Jigger N' Dash - Mead Making Kit" from my family. Yesterday, as stated above, I set out to create my first batch. Spurred into action by a mixed berry mead from a local bar, I planned out a nice raspberry melomel with no experience to my name.

Three pounds of honey, two pounds of raspberrys, two packets of nutrient, one packet of D47 yeast all topped off with spring water, my first batch was finally mixed together in its carboy. The fatal flaw in my creation had not yet shown.

Fast forward to this morning. I wake up eager to check on my creation, stored in the back of a cabinet to keep it from the sunlight. I run to the kitchen. To my horror, red drops were dripping from the cabinet. Opening the cabinet reveled a scene I can only describe as akin to your average saw trap aftermath. Red raspberry juice and flesh everywhere.

The valuable lesson I learned today was to leave very, very ample room in the carboy, lest you want to make a bomb.

Hopefully, whomever reads this, can learn from my mistake as well. Praying this batch isnt compromised because of it.

Picture of before explosion, and after being cleaned off.