First melomel

I am gearing up to attempt my first melomel. What should I expect from the fermentation? Does a big krausen form? I am planning on doing a 3 gal batch. Is a standard 6.5 gal carboy too big or should I use a 5 gal? I just don't want a massive explosion or anything and am not sure what to expect. Btw, I am using AZ_IPA award winning recipe, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/my-first-mead-well-melomel-whaddya-think-88924/ as my base. I am thinking 8 lbs of honey and 4 lbs of raspberries along with the other items he used. Any advice would be appreciated.

In my experience (3 batches with d-47) it doesn't foam up too much, but it's always a good idea to leave some headspace JIC. 3 gallons in a 6.5gal carboy will be fine as long as you have something to transfer it to with as little headspace as possible, topping up as needed. I wouldn't leave it in there for too long, I'd let it get down to 1-ish, then transfer it to a smaller secondary. D-47 will take this to dry, I estimate your OG at 1.099, so you'll more than likely end up with a FG below 1, putting it at a little over 13%.

Great thanks! I plan to buy a 3 gal carboy before I rack so I should be ok there. One question. You say "top up". Everytime I rack am I supposed to top off to 3 gal again?

WildGingerBrewing said:

Great thanks! I plan to buy a 3 gal carboy before I rack so I should be ok there. One question. You say "top up". Everytime I rack am I supposed to top off to 3 gal again?

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Yes. Since you age mead for quite a while for it to be good, oxidation can become an issue if you don't manage headspace. I have been topping up with honey/water or just water succesfully. I have also heard of people topping up with a neutral spirit like vodka, or with white wine. Haven't tried that though, so I can't comment. In a perfect world, I'd shoot for more like 3.5 gallons to start off with, so then when you rack it to the 3 gallon carboy, you can fill it all the way without needing to top off.

Do you carbonate your meads? If so, is it done jut like with bottling beer and how much priming sugar do you add?

Well, I haven't tried carbonating any of mine yet. It's a tricky matter because a lot of meads end up right around the yeast's tolerance for ABV. If it hasn't reached it's max though, & you're ok with it being dry & sparkling, you can definitely prime it the same as with beer. Here's the calculator I use for beer.

If you want the end product sweet & sparkling, the only way to do it without compromising quality is to force carb it.

I personally like it still, it's more like a wine that way.