Basic Mead Recipe and Questions

I pulled a 1 gallon recipe that called for the following:

3 lbs honey
3 whole nutmegs crushed
1 Dejuiced lemon (use the meat)
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 pack wine or champagne yeast

Instructed to boil the water honey and nutmegs for 30 minutes, strain, then cool down to pitching temperature. Instructions say primary for 3-4 weeks, then enjoy.

OG was 1.082...do you treat mead the same as beer and bottle when fermentation has appeared to stop? Is there a FG I should be shooting for?

Also, if I want this to be wine like I'm assuming I just bottle...what if I put a carbonation drop in there? Do I get some sparkles?

cheezemm said:

I pulled a 1 gallon recipe that called for the following:

3 lbs honey
3 whole nutmegs crushed
1 Dejuiced lemon (use the meat)
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 pack wine or champagne yeast

Instructed to boil the water honey and nutmegs for 30 minutes, strain, then cool down to pitching temperature. Instructions say primary for 3-4 weeks, then enjoy.

OG was 1.082...do you treat mead the same as beer and bottle when fermentation has appeared to stop? Is there a FG I should be shooting for?

Also, if I want this to be wine like I'm assuming I just bottle...what if I put a carbonation drop in there? Do I get some sparkles?

Click to expand...

Well, the gravity you mention, and taking 1.000 as finished, will give 11.1% ABV, so if you wanted to carbonate it, then you could easily just use either honey or priming sugar in the bottle.

Some points......

As MeadWitch has already pointed out, with 3 whole nutmegs, you're probably gonna end up with nutmeg flavoured alcolhol, which won't be very nice as a lot of wine yeasts ferment to at least 14%, champagne yeast routinely go to 18%, so it will probably be dry as a buzzards arse and very strongly tasting of nutmeg i.e. undrinkable.

If you did remove as much of the nutmeg as possible, again as suggested by MeadWitch, then you'll still have a little flavour as some of it will have steeped into the must, but presuming there's not too much, then to bottle etc, priming with half a teaspoon of honey should do the trick but make sure that you only use champagne or sparkling wine bottles and don't bother to try and get away with crown caps if the bottles have the lip at the top to take them, make sure that you get the plastic stoppers and wire cages.

Why ? because as my point about the %ABV above shows, even once it's cleared etc, there will still be enough yeast cells left to digest all the sugars used in the priming and I'd suspect that only champagne/sparkling wine bottles with the plastic stoppers and wire cages will have the strength to take the pressure likely to be generated during the bottle priming/carbonation process.

You certainly don't want "bottle bombs". They're not nice.......

Also, not meaning to repeat the old refrain, but here it goes anyhow -- "You don't need to boil the honey."

Like MeadWitch and Rossnaree said, no need to boil honey and that's a whole lot of nutmeg.

Mead fermentations take longer than beer. Three or four weeks is not uncommon. Results vary, but FG 0.996-1.000 is common. Clarification also takes longer. Mead has a reputation of not tasting very good when it's young. It really improves with age. If you like the taste of your mead and you don't mind it being cloudy or sediment in the bottle, then go ahead and bottle early. If you have the patience, let it clarify and age at least a few months before bottling.

You can carbonate mead just like beer. Wine bottles with corks are fine for still meads. Carbonation requires a closure that will hold the pressure. Beer bottles with crown caps are fine. Champagne bottles with wired closures are not needed unless you want a very high level of carbonation. As long as your mead has fully fermented, the pressure built up through carbonation is related to the amount of sugar added at bottling. Add an amount of sugar like you would when making beer and you can use the same types of bottles and closures.

Well, the nutmegs called to be "chopped" so I just took a hammer to them just enough to break them open into basically quarters. They were in the boil for 30 minutes then strained out. I don't know what to expect (yikes!) Dang recipe book! Hopefully it's not too god awful, but at least you guys have my expectations down low enough that I won't be so bitterly disappointed that I won't try again!:cross:

I'll still wait until it fully ferments out then give it a try. Since this is such a small batch, I'll chalk it up to experience if it turns out nasty. I will probably end up bottling in beer bottles (half carbed, half not) just in order to get an idea.

Lesson learned:

Come to this website first before trying new things

Thanks for the replies!!!

Found a converted recipe, 3 "chopped" nutmegs=1/2 tsp of ground

Maybe I am ok? Eh, we'll see in a month or so...will update you guys

Ken Schramm has a recipe in The Compleat Meadmaker for a nutmeg metheglin. He commented that it took "two years to settle down, but is now a delight..."

At 3 nutmegs for one gallon, I would be worried about the toxic effects nutmeg possesses, not just the overpowering flavor contribution

realy nutmeg has toxic effects? I've never heard that ,plus I think he's ok because he only boiled the spices and let them infuse and then strained them out just like i do,using this method I noticed it needs abot 2-3 nutmegs per gallon to get the right flavor.

Took a sample of this yesterday and it's going to be fine. Apparently chopping up the nutmeg into quarters and only leaving it in for the 30 minutes before straining into primary didn't cause nutmeggagedon. We're still fermenting along and the mead is clearing quickly. Wife has requested it be sparkling so will be putting on crown caps and aging for that first spring time day out on the patio by the grill

Thank you for the advice, pictures will follow soon