1st go at mead

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gkannon77

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I really hope mead making will teach me to be more patient.

Anyways, made my first gallon yesterday, and second today.

1st gallon: I wanted to try cyser, but thought it'd be too sweet if I used all apple juice. I had some apple cider sitting around (from honey crisp apples) so I decided to use 1/2 apple cider & 1/2 water for my first batch. Added some blueberries and hibiscus flowers too, cause... why not?
That sucker took off. So much so, that it went up into my air lock, and then kept popping my rubber stopper off. I think with all the extra sugar from the apple cider and blueberries my sugar concentration was too high, but my hydrometer from Amazon hadn't arrived yet and I wanted to get these brewing, so I decided to go blind... Dumb idea. I know, patience, grasshopper. I had to do the whole blowoff tube for that one.

2nd gallon: I realized I should have just done a basic mead on my first run, so that's what I did. I looked up a basic mead recipe on YouTube and found one: they (a guy and gal) recommended: 1 gal water, 3lb honey, black tea, a few orange peels and raisins. Well... I didn't have raisins, so I used craisins instead. That one seem to be more chill. Bubbling, but not foaming up into the airlock.

I took a few pictures. My second gallon (the one with the airlock still on it) has some weird light colored dots on the neck and some light colored clumps on the surface of the fermenting mead. I just did that one today, that can't be mold yet if the airlock has been attached & active since pitch... can it?

If anyone sees anything off, or that could use some improvement, I'd love to learn more. Hopefully one day I can look back and laugh at my naivety, that's mean it all. Worked out in the end.

I'll keep digging through threads here and educate myself as much as I can throughout this process.

TIA

https://www.flickr.com/gp/194406730@N04/39o3d81Q7G

https://www.flickr.com/gp/194406730@N04/D31jtk3750
 
You are probably right. I did just sprinkle the yeast.
What should I be looking for or smelling for to ensure mead doesn't go bad?
 
The ones that I have had go bad have pretty much have had a horrible Sulphur smell.
While it has been stated over and over, sanitization of your equipment is rule #1 if you want to avoid bacterial spoilage.
 
Yes sir. I soaked everything in StarSan solution and even have a spray bottle I use when even touching the carboys. I use StarSan in my airlocks.

Ironically one of the airlocks may have a leak, cause the StarSan level goes down much faster than the other carboy.
 
Yes sir. I soaked everything in StarSan solution and even have a spray bottle I use when even touching the carboys. I use StarSan in my airlocks.

Ironically one of the airlocks may have a leak, cause the StarSan level goes down much faster than the other carboy.
What I've learned since my start on the mead journey.....

Sanitize everything....including your hands. Many people forget this or don't even consider where your hands have been. If you want to know how dirty your hands can be, just touch some money:oops:...one of the dirtiest things on the planet we people touch.

I start by washing my hands then dipping them straight into my StarSan bucket, them I go about with whatever process I'm doing that day.

Another thing about StarSan. While it does make an effective airlock filler, it WILL dry out the plastic that the airlock is made out of, causing micro hairline fractures & eventually will give you leaky airlocks.

I use a cheap vodka in mine, the cheaper the better. Yes, it does evaporate, as a result, you have to make sure your airlock doesn't go dry, but, it doesn't do any damage to the airlock over time.
Some bugs can swim & I haven't met a bug yet that can make it through the vodka. ;)

The 3 piece airlock will evaporate liquid a LOT faster than the S style traps.
The S style are harder to clean, for sure, & @ least from my experiences are made of a cheaper type of plastic. After a few uses, I just toss them, because, the end that goes into the bung starts to show signs of wear, the plastic gets a cloudy white color, like the plastic is starting to degrade. I have never had that happen with the 3 piece airlocks.


I hope # least some of this is helpful to you.
Happy meading😎
 
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Sanitation for making mead is much less critical than for brewing beer. With mead a higher abv will be reached and often no residual sugars are left in the mead or if there are some, it has been stabilised or has a high alcohol level. Both inhibit unwanted growth of microoganisms which somehow made their way into the mead. Btw. honey is full of these unwanted microorganisms, still, we usually do not boil our honey and get great results. So by default, mead is not sanitised.

So really, keep stuff clean, sanitise the equipment if you want, but in my experience washing the stuff that gets into contact with mead, with soap suffices. THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO BREWING BEER!!! Whole different storry!

The ones that I have had go bad have pretty much have had a horrible Sulphur smell.
While it has been stated over and over, sanitization of your equipment is rule #1 if you want to avoid bacterial spoilage.
Horrible sulphur smell comes from yeast lacking certain nutrients. This has nothing to do with contamination. This can be fixed btw., I hope you did not throw this mead away.
 
What I've learned since my start on the mead journey.....

Sanitize everything....including your hands. Many people forget this or don't even consider where your hands have been. If you want to know how dirty your hands can be, just touch some money:oops:...one of the dirtiest things on the planet we people touch.

I start by washing my hands then dipping them straight into my StarSan bucket, them I go about with whatever process I'm doing that day.

Another thing about StarSan. While it does make an effective airlock filler, it WILL dry out the plastic that the airlock is made out of, causing micro hairline fractures & eventually will give you leaky airlocks.

I use a cheap vodka in mine, the cheaper the better. Yes, it does evaporate, as a result, you have to make sure your airlock doesn't go dry, but, it doesn't do any damage to the airlock over time.
Some bugs can swim & I haven't met a bug yet that can make it through the vodka. ;)

The 3 piece airlock will evaporate liquid a LOT faster than the S style traps.
The S style are harder to clean, for sure, & @ least from my experiences are made of a cheaper type of plastic. After a few uses, I just toss them, because, the end that goes into the bung starts to show signs of wear, the plastic gets a cloudy white color, like the plastic is starting to degrade. I have never had that happen with the 3 piece airlocks.


I hope # least some of this is helpful to you.
Happy meading😎
Extremely helpful! Seems fruit flys dig my mead. I never have fruit flys but ironically I just harvested over 100 bananas from my banana trees and have them inside... Just realized they are the source of my new fruit fly friends. Bananas are now ripening outside... that fixed the fruit fly issue real quick :)

My kit came with (2) 3piece airlocks. I purchased (2) S curve airlocks shortly after. I have 2 carboys and currently I'm using 1 of each type of airlock. The S curve airlocks seem to be more active... but probably because it is smaller, takes less volume to fill before bubbling.

And I am like you. I dunked my hands in the StarSan before brewing, and have that spray bottle of star San for other times. I use it when I shake my carboys, I spray my thumb/hand before putting it over the "bung hole" and shaking (insert noob bevis laugh here lol).

Good to know sulphur is a smell I should look for, either nutrients definite or otherwise.. Nothing smelled like that yet

The smell right now reminds me of my bar mats at the end of a long night of bartending. :)
 
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