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I made a plum mead back in september, so maybe it could help you get a better grasp of what to do with your wine? I had 20# of plums, a mixture of red yellow and blue plums.that I split between primary and secondary: 9#in primary, 11# secondary. I peeled the majority of them, keeping some of...

LOL, you must not have been bitten by the bug too hard yet. Most people would say "ok, so I don't have to buy another fermenter, but I think I'll pick one up next week, just in case" =D

You learn to get used to, and then maybe start to like, or at the least, tolerate the smell. Sometimes, depending on the other ingredients in the must, the ferment can smell really nice. I would guess that the yeast might be able to eat through those last remaining points. Let it sit for another...

Or even better, IMO, oak cubes. And it turns out dry

I'd be more worried that some of the malt/hop aroma would leave an odor. I've noticed with some of my meth's that the spices do hang around on the plastic, but after a good soak, rinse, and airing out, it dissipates. If there is still a faint residual aroma, I've not noticed it transferred in...

Check out Ken Schramm's Mambo in Your Mouth melomel recipe in The Compleat Meadmaker if you have it. Made that one in September '08, bottled it in November '09. Very happy with it, and now I'm waiting for berry seasons to roll around so I can make a bigger batch of it and age it for a longer...

Vomit?? Mead does have its own smell while fermenting, but I've never experienced anything that made me think of vomit. Have you aerated it at all? Nutrients? Was there a drastic temperature change? You could get a reading by either putting the hydrometer directly into the must (unless it's a 1...

I made a 1 gallon batch with 2 tahitian beans. I kept the mead on the beans for about one month. I started with a gravity of 1.100 and used D-47, which took the mead dry which at first I wasn't thrilled with. The vanilla was nice and potent in both aroma and flavor, I just wished it would've...

I've got a 2 gallon batch of blood orange JAO sitting in bulk from January of last year. It is a beautiful orange color. Didn't retain any of the pinkish hue I'd hoped for. Are you going to add the vanilla to secondary, or primary? I think you'd have better luck w/ it in secondary. You might...

Opening the lid might help it get off the ground sooner, though, if it's nutrient deprived. The yeast could use the little bit of oxygen that would come in, and if you aerate your must to introduce more, as well as to add nutrients, if you're using any.

It's not that cold... We broke our coldspell today. Welcome aboard

The RDWHAHB mantra works for mead too :) If it doesn't start in a couple of days then you could start to worry. There's a lot of variables that will effect the yeast and when it starts doing its thing Is it a 2 gallon batch, or a 1 gallon batch in a 2 gallon pail? If the latter, then keep in...

I have a a dry vanilla mead that I left au naturale but probably would have been improved w/ a little addition of acid. Adding to taste after fermentation is usually your best bet. Take a measured amount of mead, and acid blend, then slowly add the acid until you get to your desired level. Then...

You might also want to backsweeten it if you're topping it up. JAO is supposed to finish on the sweeter side. That much citrus, along with it being semi-dry, will make it seem a lot worse than it really probably is. I made a Kumquat mead JAO style (bread yeast, 3# of honey, raisins, and 2# of...

The mead has been in the primary for the last 10 months? I would definitely rack to secondary. Depending on the yeast you chose, exposing the mead to the lees could give either desirable or undesirable flavor contributions. Try to avoid sucking up the "cloud" if you can. It's probably yeast...

Fruit in primary vs secondary seems to be done on an individual's preference. Both have their pros and cons, and so it seems many meadmakers will add fruit in both primary and secondary. Primary will give better structure and mouthfeel, in addition to some nutrients the yeast will need during...

If you have the room, I'd say age it for another 6 months. Maybe add some oak cubes to it for a couple months and then taste it. Wait until the oak flavor gets just a little too much for your personal taste, then remove the oak from the mead. Or, if you don't like it because it's dry, pull a...

Hi, I've been brewing beer and mead for about two years now. I've been lurking on here since about January and finally decided to sign up and try and become active. I've learned a lot since I started glancing around on the various sections here, and have noticed an improvement in my...