great answer dude. do you have a favorite recipe you could give me? its going to be my first one (something for the lady). she wants it dry and sparkling.... any ideas?
I like to use the KISS principle for most of my mead recipes. So simply find some honey that you LOVE the flavor of and use that as your base. Use the
Got Mead calculator to get an idea of how much to mix up. Be sure to take an OG of it though. If you're looking to go more on the dry side, then mix it light. Such as a gallon (12#) of honey along with 3 gallons of water, then 4 TSP of Fermax and 2TSP of yeast energizer. Hit with pure O2 (if you have the ability) or shake the ever loving F out of the must to oxygenate at the start. IMO/IME, pure O2 will get you there far faster, easier, and without tossing your back out.
Rehydrate the yeast (try Lalvin D47 for your first batch, since this should go to about 14%) and pitch it in as per instructions for the yeast. Check on it the following day to see if there's anything going on. Don't just go by airlock movement, shine a light onto the surface of the must. If you see tiny bubbles on the surface, then the yeast is starting to do things. You could have a few days lag phase, but you should start to get excess CO2 build-up within 24-48 hours. Depending on what you use to ferment in, and how well it seals up, will determine if the airlock rocks or not.
Let it go until it's completely done fermenting (that could be 1-2 months later) and has started to clear. Give it another few weeks from when you think it's ready and rack to a clean, sanitized vessel. Leave the cake in the bottom behind. Check every month, or two, and rack as needed. Don't rack more often then once a month (two being better). After about 9 months, you can THINK about bottling. I suggest letting it go longer though.
Take a taste sample BEFORE you even think about back-sweetening it. Many times, you'll back-sweeten a batch of mead early, only to have it become too sweet later.
I have a batch that I let age a solid year in carboy. The last ~5 weeks of that with oak cubes in it. I bottled it without adding ANY chemicals to stabilize it and then set it aside. I've been having some of it from time to time and it's getting better and better with age. It did finish sweet (around 1.020-1.026) but it's so damned smooth, and good, it's unreal. Plus, it's 18% ABV.
I used Lalvin EC-1118 on the batch (I know there's a hater out there, but if you give it TIME, it produces a great mead).
I also have three batches in bulk right now. One is a 14% maple mead (grade B maple syrup) that smells divine. Another is a 14% traditional with local wildflower honey. The honey was from a mid-season harvest and is very light in flavor, and color (not what I had hoped for). The third is the base for my mocha madness mkII mead. It's at 21% and has yet to get any flavor elements added to it. That's my first batch fermented with liquid yeast (Wyeast Eau de Vie) and it took about three months to finish fermenting. I'll be starting the flavor additions sometime in September. I won't bottle it for at least 18-24 months from the start. The others could be bottled around Thanksgiving time (maybe).
BTW, if you want to try some of my oaked 2010 vintage mead, let me know.