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How long does CR last before going bad? A 4L bottle of 'wine' of questionable quality might be around for weeks or even months in my place.

how do you guys cork your meads

Fair enough, I'll try the Paisano. I'm all for worthwhile new experiences. I was gonna get the Sangria to drink with one of my girlfriends because she's into sweet fruity stuff but if I can have something with at least a modicum of cultural, social and/or scientific relevance -- albeit...

Are you referring to all the CR line or just the Paisano? What kind of upsets me about CR is I can't imagine the steps they have to omit to make THAT MUCH of it. It would have to have about the same quality as McDonalds beef. And if you look at their web site at the pics of the wines...

The real question is how do you get the labels off

Thing is, I can go to Vons and get it for about $9-10 for 3 lbs. With shipping these aren't much less, some are more. It's funny I've done the calculations and with shipping, taxes/no-taxes, etc., pretty much all cheap honey seems to be within about 10% of the same price, whether I get it...

I'm thinking maybe cut down by 2/3 the amount of honey and add table sugar, then when it's done sweeten with a little honey. Might be able to cut down from, say, 15 lbs of honey for a 5-gal to 5 lbs, then 1/4 lb for sweetness afterward? Where I am that would save about $30 per 5-gal batch.

Not really! Maybe using some old dead yeast. That's about it.

I've seen a number of articles online stating that baker's yeast will get to 12-14%

could it be that the bees themselves were smokers?

Lalvin says don't rehydrate with DAP, it's baaaad. IMHO best to rehydrate with nothing but warm tap water But I'm gonna guess it was the constant stirring over a week that messed it up. Guys, people were making this stuff 10,000 years ago before they could even talk in complete sentences...

All right so which is absolute cheapest, shipping included?

I've heard of "invert" sugar but just seems too complex for me. Boiling, dilution, etc. For me the beauty of this hobby is that it's simple. Like Occam's razor: entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity. I was hard-pressed to buy a hydrometer. ;)

Wow, 3 hours later and my balloon airlock is already fully erect. I'll give that baker's yeast credit -- it's certainly robust.

Those are going to be some extraordinarily sweet meads! I don't think my hydrometer measures up to 1.175

That's not a bad idea. I started an experiment tonight, 1 gal, ~2.5 lbs cane sugar, sliced-up orange (peel/pith off), sliced-up half Fuji apple, 20 raisins torn in half, bakers yeast. SG of 1.110. Who knows? At this point I have no experience so's all I can do is try everything that comes to...

Ah moderation, the bane of my existence. I just wanna cut down on my expenditures.

So I started 8 days ago, did the JAOM recipe exactly except I accidentally used 3lbs of honey rather than 3.5. :( I didn't have a hydrometer so I didn't take an initial reading but my temp-adjusted reading just now was 1.053 SG. I tasted it and wow it's yummy! Like a sort of sweet orange...

It is sad it takes so long, and why so few people actually bother with mead. Who wants to start up a new hobby, do it for a day, and then wait a year before anything comes of it? I have a feeling that 9 out of 10 people who try it will make a batch, wait 2-3 months, it will taste like butt...