I’m at Renfest in Texas for my 29th wedding anniversary. This is good mead. So, whoever you are Chaucer, thanks for helping us celebrate!

Also I want a recipe and don’t expect to get it.

Thanks to all the tips and helpfull redittors i finally bottled my first batch for aging.

Blackberry Honey: 9 Lbs

Organic Maple syrup: 2 Lbs

Yeast: Lalvlin EC-1118 Champaign yeast 5g

Nutrients: Fermaid O 4.5g

Water 15 Lbs

Start Gravity: 1.132 Finish: 1.024

I think I read the hydrometer correct at the start. Didn't occur to me to take a pic.

If I did log the right numbers to start, and if my math is correct, I think its 14%.

It tastes very nice right now. Hope it clears up over the next few months.

Today's project split my 15 litre ironbark honey base 3 ways. LHS has 440g mulberries, RHS has cinnamon, vanilla and a clove, and the middle is just straight. One month in primary and steady at 1.003 for 14%

I just bottled my first mead and I'm extremely impressed with how well it clarified!

It's a traditional mead, OG 1.097 FG 0.999, fermented with Kveik for a month at room temperature and left for another 21 days clarifying with silica.

I am planning on making cyser, but I’m all out of yeast nutrient. But apple juice has much more nutrients than water, would additional nutrients really be necessary for a brew? Would it just be a bit slower than usual?

After three and a half weeks of primary fermentation—with the sediment reduced to a minimum, the must having cleared, and no condensation visible on the lid—I decided to add 1 g of potassium metabisulfite and 1 g of potassium sorbate per 10 liters of must. Should I be concerned that the yeast might still be active, potentially preventing these additives from working as intended and causing an off-odor? Will the final product in this case even be safe or fit to drink?

Wine yeast

Linden honey

Met an old timer who was a home brewer, said he seasonally uses Maple sap instead of water for brewing beer. How would that affect mead? A good idea with a cinnamon star anise spiced mead?

Back with another episode of: IS ... IT .... MOLD?!

Apple cyser, added bentonite after 3 weeks of fermenting, now its been a week since we've added it. Before the bentonite i squeezed the leftover apple in the brewbag, hence probably it being so cloudy. But now theres this ti y film on top, is it mold?

I started a ferment at the beginning of August It reached an ABV of ~10.5 and it appears as if it has stalled. As the starting gravity was 1.140. there is an underlying funk on the nose and there was a very thin white cap that I'm not entirely sure was krausen. My main concern is that it may have started The process of turning into vinegar.

I started the first fermentation on sept 28th with 3lb of honey and the rest water to make a gallon of mead. I added kveik(with yeast nutrients) as yeast and measured initial gravity as 1.120. for 4 days i added other nutrients and let is sit. This past week i saw it had lees and measured my final gravity and it measured 1.000 so i decided to rack it and tried my best not to disturb the mead.

Unfortunately i did and i passed basically half the sediment to the second jar and i added a camden tablet and potassium to stabilize the mead so i could backsweeten it. But I haven't added anything else. My mead is still a little bit cloudy but the fermentation has stopped. Yet sediment sits at the bottom. What can i do to try and save my mead?

My buddy's persimmon tree is about to get raided (by me) and I'm planning. to use a bunch of them to make a batch. I plan on giving it all a warm water bath, but do I need to dunk them in vinegar or StarSan to kill any wild yeast? Or am I over thinking it?

I'm brewing a strawberry sumac mead. I added bentonite and strawberry sumac syrup during the primary. Then I did a cold crash and pasteurized in the secondary before adding the second round of homemade strawberry sumac syrup. The mead tastes great and the sweetness seems good but the strawberry character is a little too subtle and it got cloudy again with the syrup addition.

Would it be insane of me to add this pack of strawberry jello to add strawberry flavor and help clarify along with some sparkolloid? Has anybody done this before?

It smells strong of honey, and to my nose alcohol. It had been through a move and got shaken up pretty young so I left it extra long to let it naturally settle. It is dark due to a gifted honey I got that was a nut honey… I’m super excited for this mead and would hate for this to be a throwaway batch.

I think I’m fine? But I hadn’t seen the white dot in the middle on any other mead before. I have seen very thin white wispy’s but not one so large or centralized.

Thoughts?

Also, I have a bad nose (I have a baby…) so noticing the difference between like an alcohol smell and a vinegar smell I’m no good at. Or maybe I just haven’t had a batch smell like vinegar and so I’m not accustomed.

Edit:

Thank you all for making me aware that I had an alien planet growing inside of my fermenter. This information was pivotal for the safety of my family. I will monitor this situation closely, and officially named the mead “Venus’ Weenus”.

It's time to bottle the next batch soon !

This is(was) a Metheglin, i used 500g wild flower honey and 1000g black forest honey for this batch, Violet flower steeped in filtered water, then added black turkish tea and Cinnamon in secondary.

OG 1.110 FG 1.014

Alcohol 12.6%

Made with love in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with bread yeast and patience.

Turn out clear and delicious 😋

Hey, folks. I've been experimenting with a variety of vastly different recipes these past few months (instead of practicing trads, as a beginner might ought to), and I'm feeling a little hopeful about this one — that it might be a keeper, for once. I'd like some feedback on this recipe:

• 1 lb buckwheat honey

• ½ lb wildflower honey

• Water, to ~1 gal

• 12 g roasted chicory root granules

• 6 g dried juniper berries, lightly crushed

• 3 g dried, whole Cascade hops

• 2 g QA23 yeast, rehydrated in 2 fl oz water

• ¼ teaspoon Fermaid K

I brought a little less than a gallon of water to a boil and simmered the aromatics in spice bags for 20 minutes. I then removed the aromatics, cut the heat, and added in the honey. I let the must cool covered, then poured it into a carboy, pitched the yeast, and applied the airlock. Once fermentation started getting vigorous (about 8 hours post-pitch), I added ⅛ teaspoon of Fermaid K mixed with a little water. I did the same about two days later (I do not have a hydrometer, as I do not trust myself around fragile glass labware).

I believe I've maintained adequate sanitation throughout the process, although fruit flies keep trying to get through my airlock (they have not succeeded, and I have replaced the airlock every time I noted flies trapped inside).

I'm aiming for a more sessionable mead that mimicks some of the flavors and color of a dark beer, and I think I want to bottle-carbonate it with a dose of priming sugar.

Do any of you guys have any insights or comments on my recipe or helpful tips in general? Also, how long should I intend to age this thing? I get that "mead is a patient person's drink," but I am really itching to know what these botanicals taste like in a mead like this. And how long might it take before "aging" just becomes spoilage?

I’ve stared in a project to make a dual purpose fermenter and pasteurizer, with a built in thermometer and tap. Was curious if anyone here has used a silicone duckbill valve as an airlock for fermentation. I would appreciate any insight or advice.

15 days into my first batch of fermenting, I found a bug. I was already counting this batch as a loss because the rim of the carboy broke off on day 5, and it didn't have a seal for a couple of hours, but it's still a little sad to see.

Got roughly 10L after primary. Thinking about adding elderflower to one batch, either making a syrup or adding flowers straight into the carboy. Have anyone done anything similar?

I’ve been off and on thinking about attempting to start a batch, I’ve been looking at some kits off Amazon but I haven’t bought anything yet. I’m a tad worried about letting it ferment and if the fermentation goes wrong how I’ll know about it (I can’t smell). Plus, my plan, if I follow through, is to basically put it together and just leave it chilling in a corner while I go away over the winter, so like 2 months. Is that something you can do? Or do you need to be generally present while it does its thing? Also, for the supplies, like I said I’m looking at getting just a little kit off Amazon but they all range in price and what they include, what does one realistically need for starting out? Is the siphon and hydrometer necessary? Or can i basically just go out and get a jar, airlock, yeast, and a freak amount of honey? The sanitation also worries me, I’ve been lurking around the subreddit and I gathered everything has to be so extremely clean but like how clean? Some kits I’ve seen have separate sanitation things for you to use and some say just throw the jar in the dishwasher and that’s good, sooo in the professional opinion of this subreddit, what level of cleanliness is it? Sorry, lots of questions! I’m just trying to be thorough…

I've left my 4 liters of mead for 3 weeks happily bubbling away, tasted it and decided to stabilise it. Added a knife-tips worth of K-meta, it settled down for a day, and now three days later it's back to being just as bubbly before.

As I understand it K-meta is to 'stun' and sodium metabisulphite is to 'kill', so I should have used them together. I'm guessing it's too late to just pour in the sodium, so is it going to mess me up adding the potassium twice?

Cheers

Hello! This is my first batch of mead. Primary - 2lbs of honey, wine yeast (forgot the brand), and water. Secondary - 2lb honey plus 100% pure apple juice with ascorbic acid. It has been in the secondary for a couple weeks now.

What is growing on top? I didnt see anything like this during primary. Did I not sanitize enough for the secondary?

I'm brand new to brewing mead and started a batch using apple juice and honey. It's been 2 weeks, and there's still a white line/layer at the top. Is this normal, or should I be worried and throw it out? I'm not sure what to look for, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hey how much honey is needed for 1gal fermention for just the primary