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You could try a bochet, this is mead with some or all of the honey caramelized. I noticed you didn't mention yeast nutrients, honey is very low in nitrogen which is an important nutrient for yeast so if you don't have nutrients you should get some, it will give you a faster cleaner ferment...

Use a mead calculator https://gotmead.com/blog/the-mead-calculator/ if you leave the skins on you should expect it to be more tannic than if you used juice

Let it go, it would be really hard to get the ferment to stop and you'd probably stress the yeast and get off flavors

If it's oxidized there's nothing you can do; it might just be turning dark from the sediment dropping out but if it's oxidized it will taste and often smell funky or sherry-like the trouble is having yeast suspended will also throw the flavor (though not the smell) off, at this point if it was...

Thanks for the help all, those are some great threads in sure I'll come back to time and again; I'll let you know how it goes.

The only hard ciders I've had before were angry orchards so as long as I make the tannin and acid adjustments I don't think I'll be disappointed, I was getting apple juice to make a cyser and decided to grab extra and try cider well I was at it. :mug:

It does thanks, this is not my first ferment just my first cider I've done a few meads but the process is a little different mostly they need lots of nutrients since honey is very deficient in YAN

Thanks, I'll check that out Edit; also the juice has only ascorbic acid

I'm getting ready to make my first batch of cider with some 100% apple juice from the grocery store and have a few questions, should I use nutrients and if so how much? I saw on Yooper's beginner cider thread that "1 tsp is often just what the yeast need" but the must volume isn't mentioned...

Definitely rehydrate it first the presence of alcohol in the must will make it very difficult for the yeast to get going if you dry pitch it, for stuck mead it's often recommended to do a starter colony prior to pitching the yeast Edit: there are different ways to do it but to make a starter I...

Thanks for the input, about what strength is short 7ish? The batches are about 10 and 15% I'm going to try it anyway since knowing what over pitched nutrients tastes like might help me with future troubleshooting

I'll try to do this next week only with mead instead of water, I've got a couple batches that need bottling so I'll put a little in a canning jar and add the fermaid-O to that

The above quote is Bray Dennard in the BOMM thread so you should be alright to add fermaid-O I'm not sure if it would help though.

I'd pull them off, it sounds like the yield would be very small if they did manage to ripen and if they don't it's just a complete waste of your trees energy

My favorite yeast so far is d47; I read an article with a 13th century mead recipe and the recipe called for "drestis" from ale which I think is what we now call lees here's the link https://www.openculture.com/2023/09/how-to-make-medieval-mead-a-13th-century-recipe.html the spelling is rough...

Have you taken a gravity reading? If not it's possible it's still fermenting. Sometimes as mead gets towards the end fermentation creeps along very slowly, if your temperatures are different from last year that might be causing it, what yeast did you use?

Mead is quite resistant to oxidation and that was very little exposure so you should be fine if it was oxidized you'll pick up a wet cardboard taste No Either is fine but if it seems like it's carbonated you might want to switch to an airlock so the stopper doesn't get pushed out No, of I...

It's Sodium Metabisulfite in tablet form

Not sure I oxygenate first but also before each nutrient feeding Yes Never tried a Wyeast, Lalvin d47 is considered a good all around yeast for traditionals, qa23 is good for meads with tropical or citrus flavors, 71b is good for meads with berries Never tried them A couple of times I tasted...

Traditional mead