First mead attempt

Ive been wanting to do a mead for a long time and ive finally gotten around to putting one together. Would apreciate some advice on the recipe.

20lbs honey
1gal pasturized apple juice (no preservatives)
2 cans frozen grape juice concentrate
1.5 tsp pectin enzyme
1 tsp yeast nutrient
3gallons water
5grams potassium carbonate
Whitelabs champange yeast

Should i dissolve the honey in warm water first? I figure ill probably need to warm/dissolve the grape juice and yeast nutrient in a gal of water, put that in the primary then dump everything else on top of it. If anyone has any tips or advice please feel free to chime in. Any help apreciated.

check out the sticky's in this (mead) forum. You'll learn a ton.

What size batch are you doing?

It's okay to use warm water to help dissolve the honey - but don't boil...

Get ready for a very long ferment and a very long time to drink!

I figured id do 5 gallons mostly cause thats what im used to with everything else.

some of the mead experts can weigh in, you may need more honey...

I have zero experience with using fruit juice concentrates...but they say to figure ~3-4 honey per gallon...

changed the recipe up top. 20gal honey, 5g potassium carbonate

Pimpfoot said:

changed the recipe up top. 20gal honey...

Click to expand...

Using your recipes and NOT including the frozen grape juice, your batch size will be 5.7 gallons at a SG ~1.132. Adding frozen grape juice will raise the SG higher.

FWIW, I would suggest that as a new mead maker you make a simple traditional mead for your first batch and keep the OG near 1.100. The lessons learned with that batch will help with future (more complex) meads... Just my 2¢...

good point hightest. I think ill cut out the grape juice. I just talked to the guys at my LHBS and they suggested the same thing. maybe cut the honey down to like 15lbs too.

Pimpfoot said:

good point hightest. I think ill cut out the grape juice. I just talked to the guys at my LHBS and they suggested the same thing. maybe cut the honey down to like 15lbs too.

Click to expand...

That will lower the OG to ~1.109, but the batch volume will be 5.27 gallons...