Fumbling in the dark

So I decided to try my had at home brewing. Not being much of a drinker, I was not that interested in brewing large batches of beer or cider as one batch would last almost a year.

I received a bottle of mead from my friend and really enjoyed it. So after looking further in to home brewing I thought I would give mead a try.

My first batch was such a disaster I had to throw it out ( did not know twisting the air lock out the bung would file small bits of rubber in to the mead ). I tried the vanilla mead a few months ago and all looked well. After three months ( racked it twice in that time ) it was still really cloudy. I tried some and it was fizzy as anything ( did not know to degas). Once i degassed it it tasted much nicer but not was sweet as I was hoping so I put another 400g of honey into it, which I think has restarted fermentation.

I have also tried the jaom to see how that would work. It looks ok for not ( once I cleaned up the mess of it over flowing).

Well I just wanted to share my fumbling first steps in to the world of home brew with all you lovely people.

I've made two batches of this mead and love it. http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/fast-cheap-mead-making.htm

Did you make a YouTube video of that? I think I have seen it before.

Nope, not me. That guy may have a video?
I even used a balloon as an airlock on the first batch.

Did it work out ok?

My jaom has a staring smell to it. It's a bit like plastic not sure if that's normal

It worked out okay. This second batch is much better, though.
Remember to try not to splash when transferring to secondary, ( maybe in a month or more), so you don't oxygenate your mead.

fatmalky said:

Did it work out ok?



My jaom has a staring smell to it. It's a bit like plastic not sure if that's normal

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Yeast will have different odors coming off during fermentation, and each type yeast will have its own unique smell. Just let it roll, and they will clean up after themselves.

Being a complet newbie here but why don't you want to put oxygen in it ? What does it do?

It will cause off flavors. Have you ever had a beer that has a taste like "wet cardboard"? Here's a link to a thread about this question. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=100173
Then again, before fermentation begins its okay. The yeast like it at the beginning.

In that case I might have ruined my vanilla mead. To degas it I shook the jug to get the gas out :smack: