1 gallon mead help

Hi folks this is my first time posting.so sure ,consider me a nube.I was wanting to find out if anyone had suggestions on making a gallon of mead.I mean as far as recipe and equipment goes.I saw a thing online that I saved that the guy used milk jugs.All he did was to leave the top unscrewed a bit to allow the air to escape.Would this do for a first time gallon batch?Please help

I've done it. You just don't want to age it in there, oxygen permeates through the plastic over time, and oxidizes the mead. But you can damn sure ferment it for a couple of months before you bottle it in glass.

For a basic recipe, just go with 2.5 pounds of honey topped up with spring water (for the minerals) to the shoulder of the jug. Shake the crap out of it to get some oxygen in it and make sure it's all mixed up. Use a cheap wine yeast, with nutrients. Keep it in the 60's for the first two weeks.

Or get one of those 3-packs of Fleishmann's from the grocery store. Put two of the packs in boiling water to kill it, then pour into the mead. Then follow the directions to rehydrate the 3rd pack, and use that to ferment. The yeast from pack 3 will use the two dead packs as nutrient, along with the minerals in the spring water, to ferment the honey.

It's that simple.

If you want to go adding more honey and other ingredients, it gets more complicated. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.

I'ld avoid milk jugs, they oxidize fast and are hard to seal. I use Carlos Rossi 4 liter wine carboys. Fit it with a #6 cork and an airlock and you can age your mead in them as long as you want and reuse them. Its worth the cash, you and if don't mind the wine you can have fun emptying them.

1. Most local homebrew shops will have some 1 gallon jugs.
2. Carlos Rossi. Belly up to the beast and knock a few down.
3. Craigslist. theres is someone, somewhere in memphis who just finished a bottle of Rossi and would happily let you have the jug.

As easy as these jugs are to find, I really think they are the way to go. Put of your brew for a day or two to track some down.

Also, having a bunch of one gallon jugs is great for trying a bunch of recipes with little risk. Buy a gallon of Honey (12#s or so) and you can get 4 different meads going at once. Or, buy 4 different types of honey and make the exact same recipe and see how the different types of honey impact the end result.

But, if worse comes to worse, milk jugs or grape juice jugs work well enough. just be sure to sanitize them really well.

bdub said:

1. Most local homebrew shops will have some 1 gallon jugs.
2. Carlos Rossi. Belly up to the beast and knock a few down.
3. Craigslist. theres is someone, somewhere in memphis who just finished a bottle of Rossi and would happily let you have the jug.

Click to expand...

+1 to all those options plus check out freecycle.


Also search Joe's Ancient Orange mead. Just make sure to use Fleischmann's yeast and not any other brand. I tried another brand and it took months to clear.

For about $11 you can buy a new 1 gallon glass jug (empty), stopper, airlock & a hydrometer. All of which you will likely use over & over again for years. Check out your LHBS. Regards, GF.

Keep an eye out if you have Rite-Aids in your area. A couple times a year they sell 4 packs of the 4L jugs for $30-35...and Paisano is a pretty good wine from them imho. I have my second mead in the primary 6 gallon better bottle now and am in the process of emptying my 5 carlo rossi jugs so I can make 5 different meads with it.

Midwest sells them for about $4 each. I picked up a box of 4 for $20, plus the stoppers and air locks I think ran me a total around $30 for the whole setup.