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So, today was day 21. We opened up the fermenting bucket, and got a big whiff of honey-booze. We siphoned into the carboys. We ended up with 4 gallons of the straight mead, with a SG of 1.002. That calculates as 15% ABV. It was warm, but not hot to the taste. Good honey taste, a hint of...

So, we're a week and a half into the process. On day 13, having started in the evening of day 1 at 1.115, we're at 1.024 and it's still cruising. We'll see what happens; you may be exactly right in that this will be scorching hot, and we may need to do something with it, or let it sit for a...

Ok, I had the fellows over, and we tried two batches. For the first, I went with the Piatz recipe. 14 lbs. of honey, then water added to 1.115 OG on the hydromeger. The second batch, we took the 3 1/2 pints of blackberry juice (OG 1.045), and added honey/water until we got to 1.115 OG on the...

Ok, so what does the ingredient list look like for a 3 gallon? I spoke with La Jefa, and she wants to go with 5 gallons straight, racked into a 5 gallon carboy as above, and then she'd like to use the blackberry juice as a separate, smaller batch. Looking more closely at it, we have a shade...

bernardsmith I don't understand, and it's probably because I've never fermented/brewed before. The book/yeast says the yeast has 14% alcohol content. My understanding from reading around is that I won't go over that, and will probably go under, from inexperience in fermenting. Folks seem to...

bernardsmith Interesting. Is the recipe I've put up top considered a high ABV mead? When I look at the list of yeasts in the Piatz book, Narbonne is listed as 14%, which seems at the bottom end of the ranges for all of the yeasts. At the moment, we don't plan on doing large numbers of...

CKuhns, thanks for the feedback. I've read that the hydrometer is always accurate; it eases my mind a little that there's less loss than I'd envisioned. In terms of rough additions, for a small batch with the blackberry juice, I think that I'm interested in just going with the juice, and not...

Greetings. My wife and I are beekeepers who're interested in trying mead. I have two work colleagues who are long time beer brewers who are going to help out. I've acquired and read through a copy of The Complete Guide to Making Mead by Steve Piatz. For us, honey supply isn't an issue...