Noob Post- First Timer

Hey Folks, I am trying to make my first mead tomorrow and just wanted to run a few things by all you more experienced meaders. Going against everything I read here, I want to make a "show mead" as my first mead. For some reason, the spiced meads/cysers just arent appealing to me at*the moment.

I've had only two commercial meads...Redstone, and Meadery of the Rockies. The Redstone was substantially sweeter and I think I would like to make light to medium sweet mead. I would like to do 5 gallons. I have 17 pounds of local raw wildflower honey that I am picking up tomorrow. Will that amount of honey give me a semi sweet mead? I would like to keep it simple and let it ferment out and still have a bit of residual sweetness. I am going to pick up some yeast nutrient and yeast energizer at the LHBS tomomrrow as well.

I realize that mead making can and usually is a lot more involved, but can I end up with a good mead with just the honey, water, yeast, nutrient, and energizer?

I have a packet of Cote De Blanc in the fridge as well as a montrachet. Will one of these do? I would like to not use a liquid yeast if possible. Finally, is 75 degrees an acceptable fermenting temp?

Thanks for all the assistance with onslaught of questions. Im excited!

Monghetti said:

Hey Folks, I am trying to make my first mead tomorrow and just wanted to run a few things by all you more experienced meaders. Going against everything I read here, I want to make a "show mead" as my first mead. For some reason, the spiced meads/cysers just arent appealing to me at*the moment.

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ello ello! I too am fairly new to mead making but have been reading everything I can get my hands on. It helps when my brother decides to do something he goes all the way. He has been a tremendous help with how much he has learned.
As for the "Show Mead" there is nothing wrong with that. Most of the time, my understanding and from what I have seen, most fruit/spices in the primary barely come over once you rack it into the secondary. That isn't to say that nothing does come over...but what it is well drastically change what/if any do come over.
I rather like adding the fruit/spices, to ensure more of the flavour comes over, when I rack.

Monghetti said:

I would like to do 5 gallons. I have 17 pounds of local raw wildflower honey that I am picking up tomorrow. Will that amount of honey give me a semi sweet mead? I would like to keep it simple and let it ferment out and still have a bit of residual sweetness. I am going to pick up some yeast nutrient and yeast energizer at the LHBS tomomrrow as well.

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That seems, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, like a hell of a lot of Honey for 5 gallons. 2 Pounds is semi for a 1 gallon, and 3+ is sweet. I say start with 10-12 and back sweeten if necessary.

Monghetti said:

I realize that mead making can and usually is a lot more involved, but can I end up with a good mead with just the honey, water, yeast, nutrient, and energizer?

Click to expand...

Always remember....all mead basically start/started as Honey, Water, Yeast. Different honeys/yeast can drastically change the taste. You can certainly make something good like that

Monghetti said:

I have a packet of Cote De Blanc in the fridge as well as a montrachet. Will one of these do? I would like to not use a liquid yeast if possible. Finally, is 75 degrees an acceptable fermenting temp?

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Depends on the yeast. Different Yeast have different temperature ranges they will tolerate. Look up that particular one to be safe

Monghetti said:

Thanks for all the assistance with onslaught of questions. Im excited!

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Best of luck and cheers

thatnewguy said:

That seems, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, like a hell of a lot of Honey for 5 gallons. 2 Pounds is semi for a 1 gallon, and 3+ is sweet. I say start with 10-12 and back sweeten if necessary.

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I will correct you Schramm's book (The Compleat Mead Maker) says to use 12.5-14 lbs of honey for a medium show mead (10 for dry, 15-18 for sweet).

check out hightest's FAQ's on nutrient additions - he spent a lot of time putting together some good info.

If I had to choose between Cote de Blanc and Montrachet, I'd definitely use the Cote; but I'd rather use EC-1118 or D-47, but that's just me....

and remember, you're talking months to years here for premium flavor....

Unless you completely overwhelm the yeast with alcohol and sugars - it is likely that just about any amout of honey under 18-20# in 5 gallons will end up dry on it's own.

2 choices: kill the yeasties when it's at your desired sweetness, or let it dry out on it's own and backsweeten.

I can say for certain that 15# will give you a big rocket fuel flavor that will take long time to age. I'm now down in the 9-12# per batch mode and using the extra honey to backsweeten as needed.

Thanks for all the input everyone. I think I'll go with a yeast that can take the highest fermenting temps. I'll go with 15 pounds of honey for a medium to sweet mead. I will let it ferment out and kill the yeast and backsweeten if necessary. This will be a true test of patience. I'm going to try and bulk age it for close to year so I won't be tempted to tear into those bottles of jet fuel.

For some reason when I try to open one of Hightests FAQ's they open in a document as a bunch of symbols. Would someone be willing to copy and paste the section on nutrient additions?

Well I went for it! I bought 14 pounds of Colorado wildflower honey at a farmers market this morning for 30 bucks! I thought that was a pretty darn good deal!

I disolved the 14 pounds in 2.5 gallons of warm water. Topped off to 5.5 gallons. Rehydrated the E 1118 yeast in two oz warm water with 3/4 tsp of Go Ferm. Rehydrated the yeast for 15 minutes before adding it to the 80 degree must. (is it called must with mead or just wine?) I have the fermenter bucket sitting in a tub of water to maintain a more constant temp.

I plan on stirring gently/swirling almost daily and will add fermaid K at 1.075 SG. I think thats about all...Anything else I need to know?