Vanilla Mead

Mine finished a little sweet due to a poor yeast sub on my part. The vanilla notes are not as strong as I expected they would be and its still a little hot (2 years old this month). I think it would be considerbly better if it would have fermented drier, and possibly if the starting gravity was just a little lower.

If you get grade B beans, snip off about 1/2 inch on the ends, and stand them upright in about an inch of vodka for 2 or 3 weeks. They will re-hydrate nicely. Then delicately cut them into 1 inch pieces so as not to squeeze out the caviar and put them in your must. When I infuse my liqueurs, I use at least 2-3 beans per quart. I would think it would work out adjusting up to meet the gallon or 5 gallon size.

Oh, and the dark stuff at the bottom of the jar? Thats pure vanilla extract. Use it too!

Hello, I'm new here and to Mead making. I have made a five gallon batch of this recipe using 12 pounds of regular unprocessed honey, spring water and the rest of the recommended ingredients in the recipe, except for the nutrient. I had a 1.082 specific gravity at start up. The bubbling started within hours and was quite busy. Its on the 9th day of the first fermentation and is still bubbling at 20 times a minute, you can see many bubbles traveling from the liquid bottom to the top of the liquid. Should I rack it as recommended..? I would like this to be drier and higher alcohol and not as sweet, I want my wife to enjoy this, she not much for sweet wines or beverages. I plan on racking this into two, 2.5 gallon carboys from the first fermentation single 5 gallon carboy it's in. I don't have a problem with being patient with this process....what would anyone recommend....

21 days in primary is fine. Then rack and add you vanilla beans.