My first Mead.

O.K. so here's where I'm at...

"Blackberry/ Blueberry Mead

Ingredients:
10 lbs SueBee: Premium Clover Honey
12 oz. Driscols Blackberries
1 Handful frozen blackberries
4.2 gallons purified water
2 pinches Fermaid- K
Champagne yeast (dry)

The Boil:
Soak honey containers in warm water to decrease viscosity. Heat 2 gallons water to 110 F. Remove from heat and add all honey, stirring continuously. Once all honey is dissolved, add 12 oz. Blackberries, put back on heat source and continue to gradually heat to 180 F over the course of 15 minutes. Remove white foam that builds up on surface about 3 times during the course of the boil. Remove from heat and cool immediately. Add 1 handful frozen blueberries to carboy. Once the must reaches 85 F transfer to carboy (including blackberries). Add the 2.2 remaining gallons of water to carboy, pitch yeast, and aerate by shaking for 3 minutes.

Fermentation:
Ferment at 70F in a dark place. After 7 days, rack to secondary off of berries. Continue to ferment at 70 F for………."


So right now Im at exactly one month into the fermentation and still have my mead in the secondary with a nice cake on the bottom. My question is.... What the hell do I do from here????

what's your current gravity reading?

And, next time; no need to heat the honey to 180 or boil it. That drives off flavor/aroma and heating is not needed as honey is pretty sanitary itself

havnt taken one since 7/20. It was 1.034.

Did you check the OG? From the recipe it seems a little low. You could have probably used another 5 pounds of honey. Also, I think next time you'll find you may want to increase the fruit by a factor of about 5 for real fruit flavor. On the plus side this should be ready to drink in a few short months.

AZ is right though - no need to boil or skim at all.

Take a gravity reading but you likely want to rack one last time and allow it to sit for 6 months or so before bottling.

O.G. was 1.072. That did seem quite low to me but seeing as though it's my first mead. I wasn't going to fiddle. About when should this third racking take place? And after bottling, does mead need to condition like bottled beer? I understand you don't carbonate mead but how much does it benefit from bottle conditioning? or is it drinkable (Mind you, I've never actually tasted the stuff before)?

It may be very hot, age will only improve mead. I've yet to drink a mead I've made, I started my first about a year ago.

I think at this low gravity it may actually be drinkable at 6 months but it'll be better after a year. For future reference, you might want to stick to as close to a range of 1.085 to 1.100 as possible. To me, this is the sweet spot for both mead and wine.

I like to do my final racking when fermentation has finished - at .095 or so - and then add potassium metabisulfite (1/4 tsp. per 5 gallons) to preserve it. Let it sit for as long as you can stand it and then bottle. Make sure your carboy is completely topped to avoid excessive oxidation.