Noob mead making questions

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Maggo

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Hello All,

My brew kit pieces are starting to arrive and I have a few questions before I start my first batch (5 gallons).

1) I've seen on some website that I can use raisins and lemon peels as yeast nutrient and accelerator. Is that true? If not what can I use? I didn't buy any and my wife (the boss) said I have reached my spending limit ;)

2) I keep it in my fermentation bucket for 2 weeks then move it to a carboy for 3 months after bubbles stop? I seen differing ideas on that.

3) What temp should it ferment at? I've seen 65 to 80 and 70 to 80 degrees F. I'm planning on putting it in the basement but I'm in South Dakota and the basement stays closer to 65.

Any more advice for a new brewer would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
1) you should be fine without the commercial nutrients as the raisins can be used as nutrients, not sure about the lemon peel, though... Just be cautious with the gravity... An OG too high and the yeast will have a problem doing its job without high doses of nutrient/energizer...

In order to answer questions 2 and 3 it would be very helpful to know more about your recipe as it all depends on the ingredients and yeast...
 
Wills recipe is likely to finish dry as he suggests using the EC1118 instead of just bread yeast as per JAO recipe.

For additional nutrients you can just simmer or microwave a teaspoon of bread yeast in 50mls of water and then once its cooled you can add that......

Equally you could just make a straight batch of JAO as per the recipe and save the yeast for another batch. It should give you a decent result first time that is drinkable once the fruit has dropped but also improves with ageing.
 
First mead... Listen to fatbloke and do a JAOM. You'll be happier with the results.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys I really appreciate it. I think I will make a JOAM batch first. :)
 
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