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tommyg595

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This is the first time I have made Mead. Or any wine as a matter of fact. I've looked online and at YouTube videos, but not too many of them are very informative. I'm wondering if the Mead is suppose to be really yellowish orange in color and taste kinda like a light whiskey. (The stuff ya buy in the store don't taste anything like this and the store bought stuff is really clear too.) What I made has a great taste. Really sweet. Very aromatic. The question I have is. Is it suppose to taste of whiskey and be yellowish orange?

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How old is it?

What honey did you use?

Which yeast?

Meads can vary greatly, depending a lot on which yeast and especially the choice of honey.
 
What was the recipe and how long ago did you start it? Did you take any gravity readings? The color doesn't look bad, but the clarity seems lacking. It will have that hot like whiskey character until it ages out. 6 months to a year or more is how long it might take to mellow out.
 
The Mead is 3 weeks old. I have syphoned it off like the site said. The honey was from wall mart. Think it was clove. The yeast was for baking. But the site said it would work as well. I don't yet have a carboy or a airlock system. Like I said. I'm just starting. And I didn't use anything but honey yeast and water.
 
You'll notice it start to clear a lot more after 3 months or so. The color looks fine. Also remember that the store bought meads likely go through commercial grade filters to make it super clear faster.
The hot alcohol will age out after time. Unlike beer (generally speaking), it takes more time to make it great.
 
This mead is extremely young, likely not done fermenting. Honey is very low in nutrients, so without help it often cannot ferment out all the way. I have batches going now that are 5 months and still clearing(that used wine yeast and nutrients)

I would be worried about bottle bombs with this batch. The youngest I've bottled so far was 3 months old.
 
It stopped producing bubbles after about 2 and a half weeks. That's why I pulled it off. And I really don't know what a bottle bomb is. But I'm guessing the bottle will explode. Right. So, if its not done fermenting, what should I do with it? And where can I get a really recipe for Mead.
 
Order or buy. The Compleat Meadmaker. This is the correct spelling. It is the best book you will ever buy for making mead. It has a bunch of really good recipes included in it one of every type of mead. Not to mention detailed invaluable information about brewing fermenting ageing ph balance acidity history etc.
 
Do you have a homebrew store near you. If not, I would get online and order a few 1 gal jugs, some #6 stoppers and 3 piece airlocks. A hydrometer, an auto siphon and some tubing for racking are a must as well. Next you'll want some yeast nutrient and energizer, and finally some yeast. K1V-1116 or D47 would do fine. And of course the sanitizer of your choosing. I like starsan myself.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/1-gallon-glass-jug.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/rubber-stoppers-drilled.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/airlock-3-piece-type.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/hydrometer-triplescale.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/mini-auto-siphon.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/5-16-siphon-tubing-per-foot.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/yeast-nutrient.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/yeast-energizer.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/lalvin-wine-yeasts-5-grams-k1v-1116-montpellier.html
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/lalvin-wine-yeasts-5-grams-1cv-d-47-white-wine.html

Now for a simple recipe, I would go get 3 lbs of honey from your local farmers market if you have one near by. Orange blossom or wildflower would be good. Buckwheat is prob not a good choice. Also grab a gallon of spring water from the store rather than using tap water. No need to heat the honey other than warming it a little to ease dissolving. 3lbs in a 1 gallon batch should get you a gravity in the ballpark of 1.125, which is fine. Adding the nutrient and energizer gradually over the first 3 days is good for the yeast as well. I have a 2 gallong bucket I start the ferment in which makes stirring to degass and adding nutrient much easier. After the first few days of tending to it, you can then set it aside and siphon it off the sediment after a few weeks, and then as it needs it. After a few months it should clear nicely. You can add sorbate and sulfite to halt fermentation, or just wait it out and use your hydrometer the make sure the gravity is done dropping before bottling. You don't want yeast still going town and creating pressurized glass.

Hopefully this helps you get a better result. Mead takes a long time so you really want to start off with high quality ingredients so all that waiting yeilds something worth waiting for :D
 
Thanks for the info. I just got into trying to make my own wine. So I kinda done this one really cheap. Just to try.
I have a small wine supply store a few towns over. But the guy that runs it really don't know much about Mead at all. There's a guy that sells honey from his honey farm. But I don't know really what kind it is. But its easy to find out.
Never heard anyone talk about a gravity check. What is it, what's it do.
 
You use a hydrometer and you take a specific gravity of a liquid. The reading you take before you ferment your must (the honey water and yeast mixture) is known as the original gravity or OG. you write this down and keep it. When your mead is done you take another gravity and this is known as your final gravity or FG. With these two numbers and the temperature of the liquid at the time of the gravity tests you can know what percent alcohol your mead. Beer. Or wine is. The original gravity can also tell you several things you will need to know. Certain yeast stands only like certain gravity so it can tell you if you need to add more water to bring the gravity down to make the original gravity good for your mead. Etc etc.
 
Ok. That make since. So what would you suggest for me to do with the Mead that I have. It sat for 3 weeks. It stopped bubbling. I've pulled it off. (syphoned it off) And now its in the refrigerator. It has a warming feeling when ya taste it. Smells good. Not so clear. (But I guess aging will help that part out. ) I guess what I'm asking is, should I through it out and start over or just wait it out and see what comes of it.
In mean time. Ill look for the proper ingredients and equipment to do it right.
Cause as of now. I'm using old clean wine bottles with a hole in the cap. A hose runs out of it into a glass of water, cause I don't have a airlock. And that's all I have for equipment.
 
The tubes in the caps into a chip of water is a home made sure lock really and I applaud you in being inventive. I finally recommend getting real equipment when you can. Also get the book the compleat meadmaker. That is the right spelling. Best book I ever bought. As far as the batch you have. Take it out of the fridge and reairlock it. Sitting at room temp for a long period will help the taste mature and clear it up as well. Also add me if you like and pm me anytime with questions I have a lot of free time on my hands.
 
Well too start with, read this! There's a lot too it, but it's worth the effort. Hell, even the recipe in chapter 6 i.e. Joe's Ancient Orange, is worth making. Just use a gallon of store bought spring water, take half out, mix up the other ingredients, then top it up to 3/4's full with some of the water removed, change the cap for a balloon with some pin holes in it and off you go.

Just keep the recipe as close to the original as possible, and then after 3 weeks or so, top it up to about an inch below the neck of the fermenter/water bottle, then wait for the fruit to drop to the bottom. It'll take about 3 months or so.

Once that's happened, you can drink it, but if you follow the guidance on "racking" you'll be able to siphon off the cleared brew gently, into bottles and stopper them and keep it for 6 months and it's even better.

Your existing batch ? Just keep it in the fridge, but loosen the cap once a week or so to make sure that any build up of pressure is released. Then just leave it alone until the sediment drops down to the bottom of the bottle. Which it will do, though it may take some time.

Also, any slight alcohol hot sort of taste that can be found in young meads will mellow. Just don't expect it to drop out in a few days.

Meads can be quite easy to make, but there's nothing quick about them.

The honey from the local bloke is likely to be better than the stuff from wherever it was that you bought it. Especially if it's raw and completely unprocessed. If it did have any wax or even bits of dead bee in it, those will either come out at racking time or float and be able to be spooned out (if you can get a spoon into the top of the fermenter). Raw, unprocessed honey, especially if there's no single type of plant grown in bulk locally, which would possibly give it a "varietal character", just means it'd be considered "wild flower" honey.

People bang on about varietals, but the only reason why they tend to be available is that it's general practice with US farming techniques, to have massive areas of a single crop type - think oranges and Florida, so that they move the hives around on trucks/trains at certain times to get bee pollination of a given crop, and bingo, varietal honey. Naturally, honey would be of a mixed plant nectar type, so if the local bloke just has his hives among a variety of different crops/plant sources, it'll likely just be wild flower type and if it tastes good then go for it.
 
Thanks alot for the help and insight. I plan on going out this weekend and finding the things I need to make the Mead right.
Ill be starting another batch the first of the month. I'm only making 2 gallons batches at a time. Now I have to find a wine supply store and get the stuff. Looked on line for the stuff and none of it seems expensive.
 
Carlos Rossi wine jugs fit a #6 stopper. It's cheap wine but the glass makes about 8 bottles of wine. I use them for recipe experiments.
 
Got a dumb question here. If you don't think the alcohol content of your wine is high enough. Can you put more yeast and sugar in it and will it start fermenting again.
 
Yes in theory. But your yeast may not be able to handle it depending on the strain. You also need nutrients for the yeast to sustain high abv. Like DAP, diammonia phosphate
 
I don't know what the rules are here about linking to another forum, but the Mead Newbee Guide on GotMead is one of the best. Also, check out the Joe's Ancient Orange Mead recipe as a good starter.

Within that guide is everything you need to know to start, including the answer to the questions you've asked here.

ETA: Missed that FatBloke posted that link too .. sorry about that.
 
Thanks... ill look that site up.
And Thanks to all that have helped me. I have found a wine making store 9 miles from my house today. That has everything ya all are talking about. So I'm gonna be seeing him really soon.
I plan on making all sorts of different Mead's. And posting my finds. (once I figure it all out)
Thanks again.
 
Thanks... ill look that site up.
And Thanks to all that have helped me. I have found a wine making store 9 miles from my house today. That has everything ya all are talking about. So I'm gonna be seeing him really soon.
I plan on making all sorts of different Mead's. And posting my finds. (once I figure it all out)
Thanks again.
Excellent. Nearly as close as my local home brew shop (about 4 miles).

Your only caveat will be the same as here (most likely). Read here and over at gotmead forums. HBS all try to be helpful, but they're also there too sell stuff.

Yet most of then know diddly squat about making meads. They presume that the similarities to wine making are enough. They're not.

Wine making is closer to meads than beer making, but there's many routine practices that we use that are frowned on by wine and beer people.

Honey isn't malt, honey isn't crushed grape, honey isn't just liquid sugar. So ask where you know that people who make meads hang out and are likely to have more than the vaguest of ideas about its making.

More importantly, patience.........
 
I never knew what Mead was till I went to Florida over spring break this year. There was a wine tasting at one of the places me and my wife went to. And they had something called Pirates Mead. Very good. That's what's kinda sparked this interest. It didn't taste of wine like all the rest did. It was good.
I looked at the other web site. GotMead. But didn't have the time to really look at it fully. But thata be my next stop today on the web road.
 
Hahahaha wait until you find out out about melomels! and than herbs, and cinnamon, and.............. Welcome aboard!
 
Oh yeah. Melomels. What are they? And where would ya find them? And can ya buy them in the stores?
 
A melomel is any mead with fruit in it. If it has Apple its a cyser. Grapes its a pyment. Spices make it a metheglin
 
Oh. Ok. I actually have some fresh apple Mead going right now. Its been fermenting for about 3 weeks or so. After talking to you about the Mead. I was going to leave it sit for 3 months before I pulled it off.
Its still fermenting really good. Ain't stopped bubbling since I started it.
Any pointers on it. I'm doing it the same as the Mead. Same yeast. But it has fresh apples in it from day one. The bubbles that come off the hose that I have in the cup of water, really sells of wine. Not like my other Mead or my apple wine I've started.
 
You could rack it off the sediment once the active ferment calms down rather than waiting 3 months if you want.
 
Ok. Whitout a hydrometer or being able to see the must. (Cause this one is in a 2 gal bucket.) How do I know if the major part of the ferment is done?
Should I go about it the same way I have with the other wine I've done? Just rack it off after 3 weeks. And hope all is well.
 
Wait. I should have a hydrometer by the end of this coming week. It can wait that long. It'll only be 5 weeks of the first fermentation process.
But now I have all new questions.
Since I wont know what the gravity was when I started. How would I go about finding out if the must droped off the major part of the fermentation?
 
When bubbles come out of the airlock less than once every other minute. Without an original gravity there is not really a tall way to know your abv. It's not the end of the world.
 

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