Traditional Mead

One day I would like to consider myself a full-fledged Mazer. as for now I'm making my first four gallon batch of a traditional mead, with a sleight orange flavor to it.

Now, I've made meads before, about 10 or so. This will be my first BIG batch though, and I'm making a full plan and it goes something like this.

(This is me working from the recipe from the famous Shcramm book)

12 lbs of local Utah Clover honey.
3.5 gallons of water (2 gals chilled)
2 tsp yeast nutrient
1 tsp yeast energizer
1 packet of Lavlin D-47 White Wine Yeast

Then adding 2.5 lbs of orange in my secondary.

"No-heat" method

I'm also planning on making this a sack mead to increase the alcohol levels.
I'm using a brew belt as well to help maintain temperatures.

I'll watch the SG closely as well. but for now, the plan is two months in the primary. and two in the secondary.

I'll be bottling in some of my own handmade ceramic bottles.

I look forward to any suggestions to this plan or anything that should be taken away and why. Much love from Southern Utah.

I found Schramm's book to be helpful, too, in making my first (and so far only) mead.

Also, there is a subforum here at HBT on mead making. Go to the main menu and scroll down, you'll find it next to the subforums on wine and cider making.

The handmade ceramic bottles sound really interesting! Any picture links?

what's a "sack mead"?

PolishStout said:

what's a "sack mead"?

Click to expand...

http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/meadintro.php

Scroll down to the Vital Statistics table on that page.