Can I make mead cheap?

[SilensMort]

what I did when I started was I grabbed 1.5 pounds of raw honey, two oranges, and a lemon. I boiled the juice of the lemon and oranges in 3.5 quarts of water along with the full zest of one of the oranges and half the zest of the lemon for 20 minutes. while that was boiling I added the honey to a 1 gallon mason jar. when the temp of the boiled stuff dropped below 100 degrees F (too hot and it kills the yeast in the raw honey) I added it to the honey up to the half gallon mark, sealed and shook to aerate, topped off to about 3.75 quarts and shook again, opened, stirred, then released the pressure 2x per day for ~2.5 weeks (whenever it reaches the alcohol/sweet you are looking for), but don't remove the cap to avoid oxidation. don't keep it too warm or it may explode without an airlock. but doing it this way retains some natural carbonation without requiring bottle conditioning or a carbonation setup.

costs about 35 dollars the first time due to the raw honey being 17$ for the 1.5 pounds and the mason jar being $10. from there you can use the same gallon jar with each batch and whatever flavors you want to experiment with. you can do this cheaper with lower quality honey and some brewing yeast for like 75 cents a pack.

I have used this process for 3 years because it worked so well for me. usually comes out to 8-10% as long as the fruit or juice has decent sugar content. I went a little light on the honey with the first ferment but the article I read recommended 1:4 raw honey to other liquid ratio. I completely eyeball it every time so there is also the complete possibility I am just lucky so far.

I'd recommend listening to the pros above.

Edit: there's a whole bunch of complicated math you can do to figure out exact amounts/percentages, but that takes the fun out of it for me, so I don't. It's like when you experiment with baking. find the thing that works for you, then work from there.

 

[bernardsmith]

Not sure that the math is more complicated than basic arithmetic. One pound of honey dissolved in water to make 1 gallon total will have a gravity of 1.035 (typically) and so dissolving 1.5 lbs of honey to make the same volume will have a gravity of 17 points more (1.052). A rule of thumb I use to convert gravity into potential ABV is to multiply the starting gravity (1.052) minus the finishing gravity (assume 1.000) by 131 - and that gives you an ABV of 6.8%... Your oranges and lemons won't add anything significant and the amount of juice if adding to the gallon will slightly reduce the SG. So... either your mason jar is a scant gallon or else your reading of the hydrometer is inaccurate. But I routinely aim for an ABV of less than 7% as I want a session mead to be quaffed and not a mead to be sipped.

But let me leave you with a question. Mead ain't beer and fruit ain't grain. What was the reason for cooking your fruit juice? The fruit MIGHT have a few yeast cells in them but you presumably are pitching lab cultured yeast with millions of cells per ml (per plato) - possibly 35 million per ml of must. The indigenous yeast cells are going to be so overwhelmed that their presence will not be felt (unless you actually work to provide them with some space)... but cooking fruit juices is what you do when you want to make jam or jelly... not wine...If your concern was about the extraction of flavor then a) I am not sure that 2 oranges and 1 lemon will in 1 gallon produce a great deal of flavor but b) any flavor will be extracted without any problem by the sugars in the honey and the alcohol in the mead. Leave brewing for beer or tea...

 

[SilensMort]

it was a cheap mason jar and I did not top to the full gallon so as to allow more room for gas so the pressure wouldn't build up too high. I do not want a glass honey bomb sitting next to my fridge, after all. I also went by what the original information on the post said for expected alcohol content that I grabbed the recipe from. as I said, I never really cared about the math. I only care about it now that I am doing a larger batch, more investment means more to lose if I screw it up.

 

[bernardsmith]

If you are using a mason jar as your primary fermenter then you only need to cover it with a piece of cloth to keep out flies and dirt (and pets). If you cover the fermenter with a cloth there is never any danger of pressure build up and note - the yeast is burping out half the weight of the sugar as CO2 gas. That is a lot of CO2 and that CO2 will blanket the top of your fermenter while the yeast is active. Bottom line: there is no possibility of oxidation. None. And as I said previously, mead ain't beer and honey is NOT susceptible to the same kind of spoilage organisms that beer is (lactobacteria, for example) so a cloth covering is really not a cause for concern when mead making (in brewing the window between getting the wort down to a fermentable temperature and the end of the lag phase of the yeast is wide enough to enable the wort to sour. There is no window in mead making because the honey is in and of itself anti bacterial (it may even contain hydrogen peroxide).

 

[SilensMort]

. But I routinely aim for an ABV of less than 7% as I want a session mead to be quaffed and not a mead to be sipped.

I don't sip the more potent stuff either, all mead is for drinking by the flagon, in my opinion.

also, I missed the question about why the juice. my answer is that it was in the recipe and it was my first attempt. most of the flavor imparted likely came from having the zest of both in there. I have continued the boil as a means to make sure any added fruit is not bringing any potential contamination. as I said, I'm no professional, but it was recommended to boil all but the honey in the book I picked up. I was just relaying what I did for my first attempt that worked super well for me. and I use raw honey for my yeast. I have not actually ever added yeast beyond pitching bread yeast and adding to the boil for nutrient.