First Time Mead - Orange Mead Frankenrecipe

[ArrowToTheKnee]

Hello there! In my first post I reveal unto thee a simple recipe and an abundance of ignorance as to how to go about all of this.

The recipe and technique I got from this video:

The thing is though is that I want to make some changes as well as double check that I am going about this correctly.

The original recipe calls for:
1 Gallon of water
2.5 pounds of honey
1 orange (with peel)
1 cinnamon stick
handful of raisins
1-3 cloves
Champagne yeast

The problem is that the creator mentioned that the yeast adds a dryness to it (is that actually a thing?) and so I am worried that this will be a little dry for me. Most alcoholic drinks are unbearably bitter for me outside of desert, plum, and kosher grape wines 15% and under as I can easily taste Propylthiouracil but not Denatonium Benzoate, go figure.

I like my drinks sweet.

My love of mead started when I got a free sample of "Autumn Mead" at a fair and it was about as sweet as unsweetened mulled apple cider and about as thick.

I want to give it a go but want to make some changes to give it a spicy sweet kick and see what happens.

1/2 Gallon of water
1/2 Gallon of Mulled Apple Cider OR no water and 1 gallon of apple cider
3-4 pounds Raw Wildflower Honey
1-2 oranges (with peel)
2 cinnamon sticks
handful of raisins
1-3 cloves
Lalvin ICV-D47 Wine Yeast

It is a frankenstein recipe with ingredients I saw in other recipes (minus the cider) that is probably borderline suicide for a newbie and I have no idea if it will turn out which is why I have these questions:

1. Does this look like a tasty sweet recipe that can actually ferment?
2. Will mulled apple cider actually work or chemically sabotage it?
3. Does yeast make that much of a difference with taste?
4. Should I boil the liquids and honey together first?
5. Would it be beneficial to use yeast nutrients and do I need a stabilizer, especially if I want to make a few bottles to continue aging to test the taste over time.
6. Lastly, if apple cider is a usable ingredient how would that affect fermentation time, especially if I use no water?

Thank you for the time helping out a helpless newb!

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi ArrowToTheKnee and welcome.
The thing about champagne yeast is that while it does not really impart or bring out any character from a mead or wine it can ferment under most temperature conditions you offer it and it tolerates a great range of acidity in any substrate you want to ferment. Basically, I think of it much like a sledge hammer... and it will almost certainly eat up every last gram of sugar in your wine mead. You might want to experiment with English ale yeasts (or US ale yeasts) among other options if you are looking for a yeast that will leave you with a perception of sweetness. But the other approach is to monitor your mead and when it looks as though it is getting close to the sweetness you like (I don't know if that might be 1.005 or 1.015 or 1.040 and the sweetness is almost certainly bound up with the acidity of your mead - the more acid your mead the more sweet you may need it to be) you then place your carboy in your fridge and let it stand there for a few days. This will help force the yeast to drop out of solution and then you rack the mead off the yeast. This you may have to do a few times (chilling, and racking) and what that does is removes enough yeast for you to try stabiizing your mead using K-meta and K-sorbate. And THAT will prevent the remaining cells from fermenting the remaining sugar. You are unlikely to hit a target gravity with a bullseye but you might get it close enough and stabilization allows you to add more honey or other sweetener and so back sweeten the mead a little more to your liking... Good luck