Advice and tips for a newbie wanted

[StutteringBrew]

Im new to making mead, I have not done it yet. I am one of those people who wants to know as much as possible before I do anything. Are there any sites or videos any of you recommend to learn about mead and how to make it and everything to do with mead? Including the language and different processes and what not. Keep in mind I get obsessive and my mind won’t turn off before I know as much as I can lol.

Thank you in advance.

 

[bernardsmith]

Great question, StutteringBrew. Let me say welcome! In truth, in my opinion, 99% of what folk self publish on the web is arrant nonsense. And unless you know something about mead - or wine making you really have no way of knowing whether a video belongs to the 1% of experts or the 99% of would-be's and never--was's . On face book there are groups of mead makers whose members include people recognized in the mead making world as world class mead makers and there is a forum (Gotmead) that also includes one or two superlative mead makers and you could do a lot worse than to take their advice very seriously, but here's the thing: there is no secret and the processes are really quite simple. You add chlorine free water to honey to create a sweet solution that will give you the amount of alcohol you want (and which is nicely balanced by the intensity of the flavor of the honey and the level of acidity of the mead - because balance is everything) , you add nutrients to the solution because honey has none and yeast need a lot, and you add enough yeast to the solution based on the volume of liquid AND the density (or starting gravity) of the solution. You stir every day for the first three or four days (a) because the yeast need oxygen to develop their "biomass" and (b) because you want to remove some of the carbon dioxide that the yeast produce (because this CO2 is poisonous to the yeast, it creates stress for the yeast; and it increases the pH of the solution (and honey does not have chemical buffers to prevent changes in pH from spinning out of control), and when you can make a mead using only honey, water, yeast and nutrients (this is known as a traditional yeast) the world is your oyster. With a trad yeast there are no other ingredients for flaws to hide behind or to mask. Me, I always suggest that newbies make single gallon batches: the cost is low and you can make 5 batches sequentially and so improve your technique while those who jump in and make 5 gallon batches ("because", they say "it is the same effort to make 5 gallons as it is to make 1" (tho' it is always much harder to swallow 5 gallons of mediocre mead (25-30 bottles at 750 ml a bottle) than it is to swallow 1 gallon) AND you can practice 5 times to their one and done approach

 

[StutteringBrew]

Thank you so much, very helpful and reassuring. I like the idea of doing 5 small batches to get it down. Also where would I find information about the science behind it, I would like to have a better understanding of Gravity and stuff like that.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Yes what Bernardsimth wort is quite true about information that floats around the web. My first batch I used raisins for “nutrient” the mead was okay and it took a long while to be ready to drink. Keep your yeast happy, fed and cozy at the right temperature and your mead will be tasty. To the above I would add one more important ingredient— patience. Yeast does what it dose in its own time, we can make their environment as hospitable as possible, but we cannot really rush the process. Also time may help some off flavors or hotness. Time and wine go together, right?

Anyway, welcome to the forum and hobby. Look around ask questions and enjoy as you go through getting the process down, knowing someday you’ll be drinking what you’ve made.

 

[bracconiere]

WHEW WHO, maybe over simplified but, dump it in a bucket and Welcome! (i'm just kidding, that's just what i did with 10 gallons of apple juice )

 

[StutteringBrew]

This leads me to another question, I see some people using buckets for the primary and some people use glass carboy, what is the recommended way? I understand the bucket because of a possible mead explosion when adding nutrients but I was always told plastic will leach into the flavors. Is it just a matter of preference?

 

[Maylar]

One of the best resources on the web are the podcasts at gotmead:
https://gotmead.com/gotmead-live-radio-show/

 

[bernardsmith]

Food grade buckets won't leach anything into the mead and you can get 2 gallon buckets from Home Depot and such like. You can also buy them from your local home brew store but they tend to be more expensive there. The advantage of using a bucket as your primary fermenter is that because there is really no good reason to seal the primary (mead and wine ain't beer) you have easy access to add adjuncts and ingredients and you can easily ferment fruit and remove it. You want to use a glass carboy as your secondary because when active fermentation has ceased the yeast stop pumping out CO2 and you need then to protect the mead from contact with O2 (air). The narrow neck of a carboy then allows you to seal the fermenter with a bung and airlock but you must fill that carboy right up into the neck so that there is for all intents and purposes no "headroom" .

 

[Seamonkey84]

I highly recommend reading the one month mead thread pinned at the top of the forum as well.

 

[FunkyMunk]

Because nobody has mentioned them yet, meadmaderight.com, meadmakr.com and the book The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm are good resources. My first batch was a 3 gallon traditional (no flavoring besides honey) and I used the TOSNA method (with Fermaid O) for staggered nutrient additions. Kept it simple and it came out great.

Buckets are definitely easier to ferment in, but sometimes I like to use a carboy when there's no fruit or anything to mess with, just because I like to see what's going on.

Edit: Get a hydrometer. Get two. Do it.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Get out while you still can.