Beaujacks First Brew!

[Beaujack]

Fellow Fermenters,

I started my first batch of mead about three + weeks ago. It appears my bubbler has finally come to what appears to be a halt. Tomorrow I will be taking gravity readings then letting it sit for another week or so and checking again to ensure it is in fact done fermenting. Attached is an image of the brew when I opened it up today. I think my only concern at this point is how much head space I have in the bucket.

My initial gravity was 1.120
The brew consists of:
*Tea made from a concentrated 12 Tea bags of “Orange and Spice”…
*3Lbs of orange blossom honey
*1 Clove
*1 Cinnamon Stick
*1 Zested and Squeezed orange (avoiding bitter white rinds)
*Raisins
*I believe Lalvin 71B yeast

As stated, I’m very new to this hobby and am diving head first into learning through, YouTube, Tiktok’ers, and Google searches. I am open to any and all criticisms!

P.S. After I taste it, I’ll likely want to back sweeten it, and add more fruit during second fermentation. Would love some tips!

 

[Dan O]

Welcome to the most addictive hobby on the planet
Tips for your mazing pleasure......Headspace isn't much of an issue in primary. If you used the raisins as a nutrient, they're not offering much more than flavor, there's almost no nutritional value for the yeast in raisins. Honey is nutrient deficient, so, I would recommend, for future batches, (it's likely too late in your ferment to add any now), get yourself some Fermaid O & read up on TOSNA (tailored organic staggered nutrient additions).
Give this a good solid read. There is much information in here to help newcomers learn to make better mead & less rocket fuel.
https://www.youtobrew.com/mead-making-101/introduction-to-mead-makingQuestion about your tea....12 tea bags, correct? How long did you let them steep & how big of a batch of tea was it? I would be curious to see how much tannic value you get from 12. Seems like it would be a lot.

I hope this helps you.
Happy meading

 

[Beaujack]

It was a little over a gallon. It was recommended by a brewer at a meadery out here in SoCal to concentrate it. The good news if it does taste like rocket fuel, I have a friend who just so happens to be a garbage disposal!

 

[Dan O]

It was a little over a gallon. It was recommended by a brewer at a meadery out here in SoCal to concentrate it. The good news if it does taste like rocket fuel, I have a friend who just so happens to be a garbage disposal!

If it DOES taste like rocket fuel, do NOT dump it. Mead has a funny way of changing for the better, IF you give it the time it needs.
If you're impatient, this may not be a great hobby for you, however,......I can vouch for how good (& quick) the BOMM recipe works. You can get repeatable results in about a month or so.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/brays-one-month-mead.429241/

 

[Beaujack]

Update:

My FG seems to only be at 1.000… I don’t know where I went wrong from the initial 1.200 but it tastes decent and smells wonderful. Going to be racking soon

 

[Dan O]

Update:

My FG seems to only be at 1.000… I don’t know where I went wrong from the initial 1.200 but it tastes decent and smells wonderful. Going to be racking soon

1.000 is done. Just get 3 consecutive gravity readings in a row, ( I do it over 2 weeks), then rack & stabilize.