Worth Aging/Keeping?

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flyte74

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So this is my first time making mead. I'm pretty meticulous when it comes to making beer and have created some very tasty end products. However, with my first batch of mead I have admittedly been half-assing it.

Here is what I've done up to this point and info I'm guessing you will need in order to offer advice.

1st Batch
2.5 lbs Clover Honey (Costco)
1lb mango.
EC-1118
Yeast nutrient (can't remember what kind, came in pack of 5 vials)
Water to 1 gallon.

2nd Batch
2.5 lbs Clover Honey (Costco)
1lb mixed berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries)
EC-1118
Yeast nutrient (can't remember what kind, came in pack of 5 vials)
Water to 1 gallon.

So I got everything bottled up in two seperate 1 gallon fermenters and quickly realised I overfilled and didin't leave enough headspace. A few hours into it BOTH batches already had must in the airlocks. And here is where I think I began to make a series of bad choices. I decided to dissolve another 2.5 lbs of honey in one gallon of water which I placed into a five gallon carboy. I then strained both gallon batches into the carboy bringing the total to three gallons. It sat that way for a few days, then I added 1lb of white raisins. Then, four days after that, I decided to add 2.5 lbs of honey by just pouring it into the carboy. My plan is to let it sit for about six months, rack it to three seperate gallon jugs with some as yet undecided fruits and let that sit for another few months, rack it again, let it sit 2-3 more months and then bottle it.

Should I dump this one and start over or is there a chance it may turn out ok and I should just see it through?
 
Never dump. Always see it thought. You never know how it'll turn out until its done. Keep at it and i'm sure that you will be happy with the end results. My experience in mead made me learn that its hard to really screw up mead. Ive made some mead i tell people they didnt think it wount work but once they tried it they loved it. You'll be fine! relax :mug:

Dustin
 
In the future you might want to either use a different yeast from EC-1118 or wait to add the fruit until you rack the mead to secondary. It has a reputation for blowing all the fruit aromas and such out the airlock.
 
Seriously just wait it out. Good chance it will turn out fine. You may note things you want to do on the next one.
 
In my experience, a lot of the things you think might not turn out, usually turn out way better then you expect. As for the aging thing, you can experiment like I did, but it is very true that mead gets much better with age. Keep notes on EVERY detail you do, this will help you in the future if you come up with something worth making again. Have fun, and enjoy your first batch of mead!

fishyblob
 
So is it fermenting now? It's unclear from your story why you added the raisins and additional honey...

I agree with everyone else, let it ride, but damn, if you have a great mead, you'll be hard pressed to reproduce it!!! Your process sounds more like a magic potion recipe than a mead recipe! :p
 
so is it fermenting now? It's unclear from your story why you added the raisins and additional honey...

I agree with everyone else, let it ride, but damn, if you have a great mead, you'll be hard pressed to reproduce it!!! Your process sounds more like a magic potion recipe than a mead recipe! :p
+1
 
So is it fermenting now? It's unclear from your story why you added the raisins and additional honey...

I agree with everyone else, let it ride, but damn, if you have a great mead, you'll be hard pressed to reproduce it!!! Your process sounds more like a magic potion recipe than a mead recipe! :p

It's fermeting away right now. There's a bunch of lees on the bottom but it's still cloudy. I'm gonna let it do its' thing for a few months and see what happens. The additional honey was thrown in because I'm hoping it will finish semisweet. The raisins were thrown in because, well....I don't know why I threw those in there. Guess I read something somewhere.....

Either way, thanks for the feedback. I'll post as things move forward. Funny thing is I have never even tasted mead before. I wonder if I should order a bottle or just let this experiment be my first time tasting it!
 
flyte74 said:
It's fermeting away right now. There's a bunch of lees on the bottom but it's still cloudy. I'm gonna let it do its' thing for a few months and see what happens. The additional honey was thrown in because I'm hoping it will finish semisweet. The raisins were thrown in because, well....I don't know why I threw those in there. Guess I read something somewhere.....

Either way, thanks for the feedback. I'll post as things move forward. Funny thing is I have never even tasted mead before. I wonder if I should order a bottle or just let this experiment be my first time tasting it!

I'm a newby myself, but I've read about adding raisins for the nutrients in a straight honey mead. Honey is sugar rich but nutrient poor. The same as adding yeast nutrient.
 
Added 100% pumpkin to mine for a seasonal mead and it is really good. Add a little pumpkin spice and sugar to the bottling. Filtering is hard but well worth it.
 
So it's been just over a month. I kind of forgot about for few weeks and when I checked on it last night it wasn't as cloudy as I remembered it from jst a few weeks ago. I have not taken a gravity reading, but the airlock is still doing it's thing about every 20 seconds or so. Once it slows way down I'll start taking some readings.

Seems like most, if not all, of the rasins are still floating. There's also a pretty thick layer of lees on the bottom. My question is do I wait for all the raisins to sink before racking to secondary or should I be thinking about racking sooner?
 
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