Utilityengineer
Member
my first ever mead, made up after doing a bunch of reading.
Recipe for ~1 Gallon:
3Lbs Wildflower Honey
Juice and "Zest" of 4 lemons (more on this later)
Redstar Champagne yeast
1 Tsp. yeast nutrient.
Water to 120 Oz.
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start by rehydrating the yeast in about a half cup of warm water.
warm about two cups of water in a pot to just below simmering, add the honey, lemon juice, and stir until the honey is completely disolved, add the zest and then transfer to your fermentation vessel.
add yeast nutrient and cool water to 1 Gal (my vessel was slightly less than a full gallon), when the must is cool enough, pitch yeast and put your airlock on.
I left it in Primary for about a month, and due to impatience and inexperience, bottled directly from primary.
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What I learned from this recipe:
#1: I should have racked to secondary and let it sit for at-least another month or two before bottling.
#2: don't zest lemons with a vegetable peeler. this should have been obvious, but as I mentioned previously I was impatient and inexperienced. the bitter pithiness is slowly aging out, but seeing as I only have 2 more small bottles left, it probably won't be aged out before being consumed (I'm doing better, but still not that patient)
#3: I can turn sugary liquids into alcoholic beverages, without killing myself or friends.
my second batch (nearly identical) tastes much better, mostly because the zesting of lemons for batch #1 was done with a vegetable peeler (lots of pith), and batch #2 was done with a real Zester (no pith).
Taste is a bit bitter (pith) & dry but not bad, girlfriend says it tastes floral but is too dry for her, after 15 months the bitter pithiness is decreased from how it tasted at 6-8 months. I find that my friends who like IPA's quite like it, and most people don't have much of a problem after the surprise of a non-sweet mead.
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what I will do differently the next time I make this:
#1: I will probably use a lightly less agressive yeast, such as Lalvin 71B, the Champaign yeast functioned perfectly fine, but most people agree that it would be better with more residual sweetness.
#2: use more honey, 3Lbs. per gallon gives a pretty dry end result (especially with champaign yeast), and most people want/expect a sweeter mead.
#3: make more than 1 Gallon.
#4: use a Zester rather than vegetable peeler (this has already been rectified)
#5: more than anything else, be patient, rack at least once.
Picture at 15 Months
Recipe for ~1 Gallon:
3Lbs Wildflower Honey
Juice and "Zest" of 4 lemons (more on this later)
Redstar Champagne yeast
1 Tsp. yeast nutrient.
Water to 120 Oz.
------------
start by rehydrating the yeast in about a half cup of warm water.
warm about two cups of water in a pot to just below simmering, add the honey, lemon juice, and stir until the honey is completely disolved, add the zest and then transfer to your fermentation vessel.
add yeast nutrient and cool water to 1 Gal (my vessel was slightly less than a full gallon), when the must is cool enough, pitch yeast and put your airlock on.
I left it in Primary for about a month, and due to impatience and inexperience, bottled directly from primary.
------------
What I learned from this recipe:
#1: I should have racked to secondary and let it sit for at-least another month or two before bottling.
#2: don't zest lemons with a vegetable peeler. this should have been obvious, but as I mentioned previously I was impatient and inexperienced. the bitter pithiness is slowly aging out, but seeing as I only have 2 more small bottles left, it probably won't be aged out before being consumed (I'm doing better, but still not that patient)
#3: I can turn sugary liquids into alcoholic beverages, without killing myself or friends.
my second batch (nearly identical) tastes much better, mostly because the zesting of lemons for batch #1 was done with a vegetable peeler (lots of pith), and batch #2 was done with a real Zester (no pith).
Taste is a bit bitter (pith) & dry but not bad, girlfriend says it tastes floral but is too dry for her, after 15 months the bitter pithiness is decreased from how it tasted at 6-8 months. I find that my friends who like IPA's quite like it, and most people don't have much of a problem after the surprise of a non-sweet mead.
------------
what I will do differently the next time I make this:
#1: I will probably use a lightly less agressive yeast, such as Lalvin 71B, the Champaign yeast functioned perfectly fine, but most people agree that it would be better with more residual sweetness.
#2: use more honey, 3Lbs. per gallon gives a pretty dry end result (especially with champaign yeast), and most people want/expect a sweeter mead.
#3: make more than 1 Gallon.
#4: use a Zester rather than vegetable peeler (this has already been rectified)
#5: more than anything else, be patient, rack at least once.
Picture at 15 Months
