Bray's One Month Mead

I agree with Bray. Wait for now.

@ Pitman

If the gravity is 1.00 or below, go ahead and rack. Otherwise, wait it out.


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I just took a gravity reading and I missed the 2nd nutrient addition. Should I be worried or give it extra aging time? It is at 1.010 right now.

mythbustingpyro said:

I just took a gravity reading and I missed the 2nd nutrient addition. Should I be worried or give it extra aging time? It is at 1.010 right now.

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If it's still going, let it be. If it looks like it's slowed, just add the Fermaid K. It will likely finish either way. How does it taste?


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I think it will be good. Way more honey character than meads I made years ago. Way more floral. Still super hard to believe its countertop one month mead. So engrained to think mead takes years.


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Do most meads go dry and then get bottled or do you do some sort preservative / back sweetening? Loveofrose, what if anything do you do to prepare for bottling and do you do anything with the bottles after they have been corked?

All of my meads go dry initially. I then keep adding honey until the yeast give up if I want it sweeter.

I don't stabilize due to an allergy to sulfites, but you can if you desire.

For bottling, I sanitize everything. Store bottles at ambient temperature. Store on its side in the case of corked bottle.


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I recall you worked out a backsweetening with 1 gallon. Would you have a similar thing with 5 gallons?

It depends on what you are going for. If you want high ABV, add 5oz of honey every week until it stabilizes at the FG you want.

If you are shooting purely for a FG, then add honey to that FG over and over until the yeast give up.

Does that answer your question?


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Yes, I can manage that. I just thought I had remembered you had figured out to add *x* amount of honey one time for a specific sg and abv

Oh, I see. Well, for 5 gallons every 10 oz of honey raises the gravity by .005 points. For instance:

Let's say you want an FG of
1.01 = add 20 oz (1 lb 4 oz)
1.02 = add 40 oz (2.5 lbs)

Easy enough.


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loveofrose said:

If you step feed small amounts of honey now, you can backsweeten by virtue of the yeast giving up. Add 1/2 cup (12 oz) per gallon to make them give up around 15% ABV with a FG in the 1.01 range.

Adding multiple additions of smaller amounts (1 oz) at a time, I've reached 19% ABV with a FG of 1.02. I call it a sweet Sweet BOMM.


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loveofrose said:

I've hit 19% ABV before with Wyeast 1388. It was a special case because I step fed 1 oz of honey at a time and letting it go dry before the next addition. It took a long time (~2 months). By contrast, If you add 8 oz all at once after it goes dry, it gives up around 15%.

In the end, the 19% mead was understandably very alcoholic and needed oak to round it out. Still, the best sack mead I've ever had at 3 months in, so not bad at all.

Lately, I've been using a SG of 1.12 so that it finishes ~1.01. That's 3 lbs upfront instead of the standard 2.5 lbs. Keep everything else the same and it turns out quite well. Haven't started any higher than 1.12 yet. It's on the list!


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Found what I was remembering, would scaling this 8oz by 5 work the same?

Yep. It will work.


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"Adding multiple additions of smaller amounts (1 oz) at a time, I've reached 19% ABV with a FG of 1.02. I call it a sweet Sweet BOMM. "

But this took more than a month, right?

Oh yes. About 2 months. When you consider most sack meads need 1-2 years, it was completely worth it.

Look up Sweet BOMM on gotmead for the details of that wonderful brew. I can confirm it is repeatable in the 17-19% range.

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Okay, so excuse my newbness, but I have a mini batch of BOMM going and I'm hella excited about it. My first mead!

I mixed some local honey with Camden-treated tap water to an OG of 1.100, added DAP and Wyeast beer nutrient (I only have beer stuff so far) and cooled it to about 68 before pitching a decent-sized glob of WLP570 slurry. Held it at that temp for the first 3ish days, adding more DAP and nutrient the second day -- unfortunately I forgot to aerate initially beyond mixing, did shake it some second day. Then moved it to room temp (74-80 fluctuating) and left it alone for 3 weeks so far.

As of today it's at 1.012 or 1.013. Tastes good, lovely floral aroma, rather sweet and much more full bodied than I expected and with a slight bitter edge, but I expect crashing out suspended yeast will help with that.

Is this probably going to be my FG? Or is it stuck?

Well, it's not a BOMM unless you use Wyeast 1388. It is however a traditional mead. I'm glad to hear it turned out well. Other folks have not had great luck with that yeast. Your temperature control was likely key.

I really have no experience with WLP570. You'll just have to monitor the gravity weekly to see if it's stable.

Good Luck!


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Huh, I assumed they'd perform identically -- everything I can find in the beer world indicates they're the same strain. Well, I'll keep checking it and report back with my results.

I'm looking to do a 7% version of this. Local Michigan honey with 1388. Should I still pitch a vial, or only some of it? If half I might brew a 1g belgian.

Can washed mead yeast be reused, or is it stressed too much from the lack of nutrients and simple sugars? Can it be used for beer again, or just mead? What about cider?

pricelessbrewing said:

I'm looking to do a 7% version of this. Local Michigan honey with 1388. Should I still pitch a vial, or only some of it? If half I might brew a 1g belgian.

Can washed mead yeast be reused, or is it stressed too much from the lack of nutrients and simple sugars? Can it be used for beer again, or just mead? What about cider?

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Pitch the whole vial and use the suggested nutrients. Just cut the honey down for your desired final ABV.

The yeast can be reused many times and works well for cysers and ciders.


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pricelessbrewing said:

I'm looking to do a 7% version of this. Local Michigan honey with 1388. Should I still pitch a vial, or only some of it? If half I might brew a 1g belgian.

Can washed mead yeast be reused, or is it stressed too much from the lack of nutrients and simple sugars? Can it be used for beer again, or just mead? What about cider?

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Why not make a 1L starter and pitch 1/2 to the mead and 1/2 to the Belgian?

^That would work too.


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Love of rose would the lower sugar content of tupelo make a difference? Also what part of FL are you from. We make honey and sell from Tampa north.

jtstitzel said:

Love of rose would the lower sugar content of tupelo make a difference? Also what part of FL are you from. We make honey and sell from Tampa north.

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Make a difference in what? I don't understand the question.

I live in Texas, but I'm originally from Georgia. If you ship, I'll buy. Any website?


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I'm new so bare with me but I thought you needed a lot of sugar for the fermentation? When I say knew I mean I'm attempting my first ever mead/ home brew this weekend kind of new.

As far as shipping I am currently trying to get my old school father-in-law to set up a website so we can easily ship out of state.

My understanding is that the sugar content essentially controls you're finishing alcohol content as long as you don't pass your yeast tolerance. We measure the sugar content by "points" on a hydrometer.

There is such thing as non-fermentables affecting gravity points but to my knowledge, they dont play much into mead.

Most honeys have a similar fermentable content (although the percent of specific types of sugars will vary) and yield similar gravities if added at the same weight. The exception to that is if the honey has a high moisture content.

2.5-3 lbs of tupelo honey per gallon make a wonderful BOMM that I'm quite fond of.


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I'll have to try your recipe with our three kinds. Still I'm particular to the orange blossom over the tupelo.

Hey LoR or anyone else who has an answer - what is your water profile?

Lately for brewing I've been using reverse osmosis water. It's delicious to drink, no off-flavors, not metallic, no stink! But yeast are living organisms, do you think the lack of literally any minerals in the water is a bad idea?

Or is DAP + Nutrient enough to cover this problem?

(Just got funding for a 60# bucket and boy am I excited!)

I use Ozarka spring water. You can look up the PDF with average mineral content in google. Trace minerals are definitely required. I am uncertain if the nutrient would cover all that is needed. I would do a side by side of spring and RO water to see if performance is the same.


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my first mead is looking great and starting to clear. some thing i just thought about as i haven't had mead of any sort before... is it served chilled?

I serve this mead chilled, but try it both ways and see what you like best.


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I'm very excited about trying this recipe, but I'm about to go crazy trying to find DAP, Fermaid-K and Potassium bicarbonate in one place. I finally just ordered some Fermaid-K from Morebeer, and I found a somewhat local place that has potassium bicarbonate. The local place only has DAP mixed with urea. Is this OK, or do I need it without the urea?

You can get all at morebeer.com. Look again.




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Quick question, if i turned this into a melomel by throwing in some fruit(in my case one gallon was Blueberry, 1 gallon was Blackberry, and another gallon was a mix of the two)

Any thoughts on how much honey i would need to add to get it up to a semi sweet level? With it finishing at 1.004 its pretty dry, not horrible but i think some extra sweetness would bring the fruit out more i just have no idea how much to add.

A good rule of thumb is that 2 oz (by weight) of honey raises the gravity by .005 points. After a week, it dissolves into solution. Faster if you mix.


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loveofrose said:

A good rule of thumb is that 2 oz (by weight) of honey raises the gravity by .005 points. After a week, it dissolves into solution. Faster if you mix.


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2oz per gallon?

FuzzeWuzze said:

2oz per gallon?

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Yes. That is what I meant.


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We started 2 bee colonies this year and have harvested over 100lbs of honey thus far. It taste amazing and is super dark. Figured we had enough to eat and wanted to do something else with the honey and I found this thread.

I'm an experienced beer maker and bottle most/all of my beer. My question is how to bottle mead? I've gone through 38 pages without a clear understanding and figured I'd just ask.

So once I hit my FG and assuming I don't want carbonation and may backsweeten a few bottles, do I bottle in wine bottles with cork or beer bottles with a cap? Will the BOMM age better in a wine bottle with cork?

Sorry if i missed this at any point in the thread.
Thanks for the help. This has been an interesting red.

If you carbonate, beer or champagne bottles. If you don't carbonate, any type bottle you have is fine.

A warning though. By carbonation, I mean let the mead hit 1.00 or below, then add priming sugar. For backsweetening, you have 2 options.

1. Treat with sulphites to stop the yeast, then add honey to your desired FG, clear, and bottle. I don't do this method for allergy reasons, so other folks will have to give you the details.

2. Step feeding. Add honey to your desired FG. Let it ferment. Add again and repeat until the yeast give up.



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