I didn't really see a single bit of difference between the Got Mead? site and my grandfather's book, outside of a lingo change. There's a little difference (the book told me to get a sacchometer too, but at the time I was kind of out of it, so I have to go back to get a secondary anyway), but it's basically all the same. Nutrients and energizers (with notes from grandfather about different fruits and whatnot), teas and acids, ph measurements (grandma was a chemist, so some of her notes are amazingly funny), and how to measure when is a proper time to rack and when to bottle.
Mead making, believe it or not, has been around long enough that forty years really isn't long enough to change anything but a few words.
And the mead is pretty much stuck fermenting at room temp (though it is running itself warm). So next time, before you decide to call someone's attempt at anything a waste of good honey, please at least try to be polite. I mean, seriously? A waste of honey? At the very least I'm going to get some good vinegar out of it, and I do go through vinegar on a regular basis (god I love a good salad, not to mention tempura dipping sauce), so it's not all bad. Just... a lot.
Wow, at least I know to ignore your advice from now on. I'd rather take the knowledge from a book, that's actually produced some amazing mead in the past, than from the internet that's produced nothing but some YouTube videos and some badly scripted web sites.
You honestly think that mead making has been revolutionized in the past forty years? Everything you just argued was in the book. Literally. You biatch about the scientific method of observation being new. Wow. Literally, wow.
Mental note: this is not the forum for asking for advice, at all.
Sorry to read that you feel slighted by Golddiggies advice/suggestions, personally, having just read it, it seems to me just some good, sensible points raised.
Anyway, some responses from my view.......
1. The yeast you mentioned ? Well if it was a "normal" sachet of wine yeast, then there's every likelihood it was fine. "They" are obliged to put "use by" dates on these things as they're classed as food products. The yeast is packed dry, often in neutral conditions, hence if you're at all concerned about one that is out of date, just make a yeast starter with it, if it starts foaming etc, then it's fine.
2. The addition of bread yeast, apart from it's use in the JAO recipe, is normally a non-starter, as it produces a huge amount of gas/foam and usually poops out at a lower alcohol level than normal. Though it's often used after it's been boiled in water to kill off any of it's fermenting ability, but added as nutrient.
3. The suggestion of using a hydrometer (from the book or gotmead ?) is good, as airlock bubble rate is a poor guide as to the state of the fermentation.
4. Yes, techniques have indeed changed, as there is now a lot more accurate info about how to manage a ferment, rather than the, seemingly, hit and miss methods of past times. Things like the types of yeast to get a certain (and consistently repeatable) result, staggered nutrient addition, aeration to a certain point/stage, among many. Not forgetting the effect of the amount of honey per gallon is likely to have on the yeast and nutrition regimes.
5. Hygiene suggestions haven't changed all that much, but the materials used have. The need to sanitise everything is paramount as a dilute honey mixture is the ideal medium for some wild yeast/fungi and other bacteria to thrive. Hence if the hygiene was carried out correctly as malkore pointed out, it was probably the acidity of carbonic (or another) acid generated by the ferment.
6. The rhubarb juice probably hasn't caused any problem, though it would depend on how much juice is used in the must, as to whether you'll be able to taste it or not. It is, as mutedog mentioned, quite acidic on it's own.
Finally, there is a lot of older information out there, in books etc, the only relatively up to date stuff I have is Ken Schramms book, "The Compleat Mead Maker", all of the other ones are out of print editions collected from various "used book" sources.
I do hope that you succeed as it'd be a shame if it didn't finish. Though in truth, if it did transpire that your batch is infected, it's transition to a honey vinegar isn't bad, just that you'd be safer not using any of the brewing jars, buckets etc as it's quite hard to get rid of acetobacter once it's present.
Good luck with your efforts and please try to locate a cheap hydrometer (normal wine making type) as it will let you know when the ferment has finished (don't believe that it's done just because it starts to clear etc). Bottling an unfinished ferment, however clear, is rather dangerous, as the bottles can become "bottle bombs", unless you've bottled in champagne or sparkling wine bottles and used the appropriate stoppers and wire cages etc.
Hope that helps some. There is good info here, it's quite a busy forum, though it's fair to point out that gotmead is just about the only one dedicated almost entirely to meads (and a lot of the gotmead troops also post here as well, me included).
regards
fatbloke
p.s. Oh and if/when you can confirm that the ferment has finished, it's entirely possible that the resulting brew will taste bloody horrible. that's often the case with meads, but it's still advisable to get to the end point of having a stable and clear product. Because meads are strange beasts, they often taste hideous when young, but some of the apparent "faults" with it, disappear after a period of ageing (I prefer to age mine in bulk, not in bottles). I tend to age mine for a minimum of 12 months, but it's entirely possible that you might get a drinkable mead in 6 months, or at the other extreme, a number of years (I've read that if it's not good in 7 to 8 years then it's not going to improve any after that).
