Recent content by RichardNDL

Well... I don't have good things to say about my palate. Measured the sg (actually, I think in terms of brix) and there's a current brix of 24. So, I'm drinking basically diluted honey with about 3% abv. This was my first gallon ever. I even used raisins as a nutrient.... I know...

No, I didn't. I suppose I should use your calculations and take a sg reading now. I'll do that this evening. Thanks

I had an interesting experience. I recently opened my first mead. Back in October 2019 I made a gallon of traditional mead. My notes don't tell me what kind of yeast I used... could have been baker's yeast. I used 4 lbs of honey and water to fill a gallon, so I ended up with much less than...

Modern Meadmakers Facebook page has an Excel spreadsheet in the files section that helps calculate how much to backsweeten. I've found it valuable.

You all have convinced me that once fermentation starts, you just let it go to a natural end, and then backsweeten if it's too dry. I saw, on the cider forum, something about stovetop pasteurization. Basically, heating the cider to 140 degrees or something to kill off the yeast. Does that...

Thanks for all the advice. I don't have enough refrigerator space to cold crash & am committed to Grolsch type swing top bottles, which I don't think would work well for pasteurizing. I think I'll just either stick to the chemicals, or stick to very dry mead.

Thank you. That all helps. This is a small batch... about a gallon and a half. I guess I let it go until it stops, then stabilize, and back sweeten. I can do that. Thanks.

Once fermentation starts, doesn't it always go on until you have a dry mead? I have a mead (actually a Blueberry Meloral) that I thought would be perfect if I could stop the fermentation at about 6 brix... that would have left me with a 8% ABV. Can I do that? I found a calculator that I...