Amount Of Honey For 1gal

[S_carve]

i have about 8lbs of honey and want to make two small batches of mead, i just bought 2 1gal jugs for the mead, now is 4lbs of mead too much honey for only one gallon

also if i start this batch of mead can i put it all into a 5 gal carboy to start then seperate it later or will the air space above the mead be too much

 

[Moonpile]

For starters with 8lbs of honey you can make a "small" mead as a 5 gal batch. If you assume an extract potential of 1.035 for the honey you'd have about 1.056 as an OG for a 5 gal batch. Similarly, as a 2 gal batch you'd have about 1.140, so not too much but it should be on the sweet side.

If you do go for less than 5 gal, I wouldn't worry about the headspace in primary. It's going to generate a nice layer of CO2 to cover it. Seperate it when you rack to secondary in 1 gal jugs.

 

[fatbloke]

Well I made 3 x 1 gallon batches yesterday, the recipe is either 3 lb/1.5 kg for dry mead and 4 lb/1.75 kg for sweet.

I did the 4 lb way. Because I was using 3 different yeasts, to see what the difference is (all the other ingredients for 3 gallons were mixed together and then just split 3 ways, before pitching the yeast(s).

regards

fatbloke.

 

[feedthebear]

I used 3lbs of honey for my 1-gallon mead.

 

[S_carve]

so i should be good with 4 then, i am going to start this afternoon

 

[NurseNan]

4lbs of honey per gallon of mead will give you a fairly high gravity must. It may require a little babying. Good luck!:fro:

 

[fatbloke]

4lbs of honey per gallon of mead will give you a fairly high gravity must. It may require a little babying. Good luck!:fro:

What do you mean by that please NurseNan? 'Cos all the recipes I've found seem to use either the 3lb for dry and 4lb for sweet - though they all seem reasonably straight forward enough to follow, not requiring any special handling in any way.

regards

fatbloke

 

[MikeRLynch]

Sometimes the yeast get a little "shocked" by a high amount of sugar in a must, and have a hard time getting a foothold. There are a few ways to get around this, one is to make a starter for the yeast (you can look that up on these boards easily), the second is to stagger the honey additions during the ferment, i.e. starting with only 2.5 lbs and letting the ferment start, then add another lb and let that ferment, then add the remaining .5 lb. The other way is staggering nutrient additions in a similar way as honey additions. Take the total amount of nutrient you are going to use for the batch and then add only .5 of it at the beginning when you pitch. Then add .25 when the ferment is about 1/3 of the way through, then the remainder at the 2/3 break. You really should use nutrient for meads, because honey is deficient in the other stuff that yeast need to reproduce and eat.

Of course all this being said, I've done nothing but mix up 4 lbs of honey, a tbs of nutrient, and a packet of dry yeast and shook the bejeezus out of it and stuck it in my closet for a few months and didn't have too many issues. I will say that on more than one occassion I've had to re-pitch another packet of yeast to re-start a stuck ferment, so the above suggestions, while they seem time consuming and complicated, might save you some aggravation later and get your mead done sooner.

mike

 

[homebrewer_99]

1 gal of honey is 12 lbs.

I usually split 1 gal over 2 batches.

 

[NurseNan]

MLynchLtd hit it on the head. I hate stuck fermentations, since they throw off my brewing schedule. I find it easier to just add the honey in additions of high grav meads. Get a batch of mead started using 2-2.5 lbs per gallon, pitch the yeast and nutrient, and let it go. Once the fermentation slows considerably, add the honey in 1/2 lb additions. I usually add a little less water at the start, since I dissolve the honey in about a pint of hot water for each addition. I make sure the water is as hot as possible from the tap, shake the heck out of it, and then pour it right into the established must. Fermentation goes nuts. I always taste my mead before the last addition, too, since every honey is different, and everyone's idea of sweet is different. When you think its sweet enough, and fermentation is pretty much done, rack it, and let it be. After a few months, taste it again, and add more honey if you think it needs it, then wait some more.

 

[MikeRLynch]

Danke Nurse

Your yeast selection will also determine the sweetness at the end, a champagne or k1-v/ec-1118 will make a much dryer mead with a much higher abv than others. In a mead I'm working on right now, it stuck at 1.03 with red star champagne, so I pitched half a packet of lalvin d-47, because it was what I had lying around. The result was a dryer mead, yet a fuller body and a slightly buttery feel from the d-47. So despite the high alcohol level, the taste and feel is much smoother than using only one yeast. I'll be experimenting with this phenomenon in the future

mike