Hello all, this would be my first post on this forum.
I have been an every couple of months beer brewer for about 12 years now. I have also made a few good ciders ( and some notso good ones ) from both juice and picked apples and now I have decided to jump into mead.
Oh and I'm getting really good at raising huge colonies of spider mites, but not so good at growing healthy hops.
I curently am at the end of the primary for Northern Brewers Semi Sweet Artisianal kit using Wyeast 4783 Rudesheimer Yeast. OG: 1.080-1.083. In another bucket I have 3 Gallons of apple juice and 5 lbs of honey ( OG untested due to dropping hydrometer on floor after testing NB kit) at the end of primary that I threw on top of the leas from a batch of cider fermeted with cote des blancs. Wow talk about a fast start that was. 20 minutes tops before regular airlock activity.
The point is that I have a friend of a friend that wants mead. He works for a local bee joint and says that he will give me all the honey I can handle as long as he gets some mead back in turn.
He dropped off 3 5lbs jugs the other day. Honey is light to med color and good med flavor.
Do I want to use all 15 in a 5 gallon batch or should I lighten it up a little for the first run?
For the next month basement temp should still be pretty contsant low 60's.
Throw it on top of the Rudesheimer or Cote Des Blancs leas or start fresh with D-47?
Or even split it between all three? Which won't be much of an experiment at all because I can never seem to keep all data with the right batch through the end.
Thanks for the input.
I have been an every couple of months beer brewer for about 12 years now. I have also made a few good ciders ( and some notso good ones ) from both juice and picked apples and now I have decided to jump into mead.
Oh and I'm getting really good at raising huge colonies of spider mites, but not so good at growing healthy hops.
I curently am at the end of the primary for Northern Brewers Semi Sweet Artisianal kit using Wyeast 4783 Rudesheimer Yeast. OG: 1.080-1.083. In another bucket I have 3 Gallons of apple juice and 5 lbs of honey ( OG untested due to dropping hydrometer on floor after testing NB kit) at the end of primary that I threw on top of the leas from a batch of cider fermeted with cote des blancs. Wow talk about a fast start that was. 20 minutes tops before regular airlock activity.
The point is that I have a friend of a friend that wants mead. He works for a local bee joint and says that he will give me all the honey I can handle as long as he gets some mead back in turn.
He dropped off 3 5lbs jugs the other day. Honey is light to med color and good med flavor.
Do I want to use all 15 in a 5 gallon batch or should I lighten it up a little for the first run?
For the next month basement temp should still be pretty contsant low 60's.
Throw it on top of the Rudesheimer or Cote Des Blancs leas or start fresh with D-47?
Or even split it between all three? Which won't be much of an experiment at all because I can never seem to keep all data with the right batch through the end.
Thanks for the input.