First Mead, brand new to brewing

[Aldrik]

I just started my very first (ever) batch of mead (wish me luck).

I've got the yeast and everything doing it's thing but does it need to be in direct light or can I put it in a darker spot? Or does it need sunlight?

HOW MUCH GARDENING DO I NEED TO KNOW FOR THIS!? (Joking of course but still)

 

[Dan O]

Congratulations on starting the most addictive hobby on the planet.
Keep it out of direct sunlight.
Did you take an OG (original gravity) reading?

 

[Aldrik]

Congratulations on starting the most addictive hobby on the planet.
Keep it out of direct sunlight.
Did you take an OG (original gravity) reading?

if I knew what that was, I probably WOULD have! lol

when I say brand knew, what I mean is that my wife came home with a spencer beer brewing kit (and I said why the f***) and told me to make something drinkable as a challenge (ongoing tradition at our house) so now I'm doing this lol so probably not the best way to get into it but hey I'll have at least had a new experience

 

[CKuhns]

Seriously should consider getting a hydrometer then check you Specific Gravity. Also resd a lot on this forum.

 

[Aldrik]

Seriously should consider getting a hydrometer then check you Specific Gravity. Also resd a lot on this forum.

I have absolute confidence that everything you said makes sense to someone who knows what any of those things are lol

 

[andrew101]

so she bought you a beer brewing kit...and your making mead?
a hydrometer will tell you specific gravity or density, and give you a good idea of the finished abv. if you plan to conitnue this, then definitly get one.
do you know how much honey and water you used?

 

[T Murph]

Welcome @Aldrik you found a great source for everything you need to know about brewing and much more. Meads are more like wine than beer although the processes use a lot of the same equipment. And yes you definitely need a Hydrometer. A Hydrometer allows you to take a reading of the specific gravity before, during and after fermentation. The purpose is to know what the sugar content is at the specific times you take a reading. There are guidelines you can follow that will give you the alcohol by volume as well as an indication that fermentation is completed, etc. Other than a fermentation vessel the Hydrometer is one of the most needed brewing tools.

Now that you have that mead working you will learn a lot about the process. You have only begun. We need more info to help you along like, how much honey to water did you use? Did you add any kind of adjunct, fruit, juice, spice etc. Next I would give it until mid July then sample it and take a reading. Document the specific gravity and how it taste and report back here.

And last but probably most importantly, you must Respect the Mead. A well done mead goes down smooth and taste amazing. The alcohol content is high but you don't really notice it when drinking it. But it will kick your arse and leave you with a killer headache if you consume to much.

Cheers and welcome to your new addiction.

 

[Aldrik]

Welcome @Aldrik you found a great source for everything you need to know about brewing and much more. Meads are more like wine than beer although the processes use a lot of the same equipment. And yes you definitely need a Hydrometer. A Hydrometer allows you to take a reading of the specific gravity before, during and after fermentation. The purpose is to know what the sugar content is at the specific times you take a reading. There are guidelines you can follow that will give you the alcohol by volume as well as an indication that fermentation is completed, etc. Other than a fermentation vessel the Hydrometer is one of the most needed brewing tools.

Now that you have that mead working you will learn a lot about the process. You have only begun. We need more info to help you along like, how much honey to water did you use? Did you add any kind of adjunct, fruit, juice, spice etc. Next I would give it until mid July then sample it and take a reading. Document the specific gravity and how it taste and report back here.

And last but probably most importantly, you must Respect the Mead. A well done mead goes down smooth and taste amazing. The alcohol content is high but you don't really notice it when drinking it. But it will kick your arse and leave you with a killer headache if you consume to much.

Cheers and welcome to your new addiction.

so honey to water is 1 part honey to 4 parts water in a gallon. I'm starting tradition with no added flavors or fruits.

And mead is by far my favorite in the alcohol world so I know exactly what you mean when you say "respect the mead"

And I can't wait until July, I have been staring at it going "I can't wait for you to be drinkable" lmao

On another note, it smells like apple cider...is that weird?

 

[Aldrik]

so she bought you a beer brewing kit...and your making mead?
a hydrometer will tell you specific gravity or density, and give you a good idea of the finished abv. if you plan to conitnue this, then definitly get one.
do you know how much honey and water you used?

I did answer this in another post but 1 part honey to 4 parts water in a gallon. and it seems like I will be continuing this process

 

[Aldrik]

UPDATE! The mead actually turned out great! I definitely need to back sweeten it so I'll be doing that fairly soon, but I'm happy with the results!

 

[T Murph]

UPDATE! The mead actually turned out great! I definitely need to back sweeten it so I'll be doing that fairly soon, but I'm happy with the results!

And it will continue to get better as it ages. Enjoy, sounds like it's a good one.

 

[Aldrik]

And it will continue to get better as it ages. Enjoy, sounds like it's a good one.

weirdly enough, it's nothing special. I just did a traditional honey and tap water. No additives or anything. I'm going to add some more honey so I don't break up the flavor but I would drink this regularly, for sure!

Thanks for all the help everyone!!

 

[Aldrik]

So update. I added an extra cup of honey to bring out the flavor (which worked really well) and then I added a cup of sugar to ACTUALLY sweeten it. It's delicious now and I think I may have "flowers for algernon'd" my taste buds for mead. 10/10 will definitely remake this recipe once I run low again thanks for all the help everyone!

 

[Youngjesus]

Hi has anyone got a recipe and a step by step instructions please as I’m new to this

 

[Rish]

So update. I added an extra cup of honey to bring out the flavor (which worked really well) and then I added a cup of sugar to ACTUALLY sweeten it. It's delicious now and I think I may have "flowers for algernon'd" my taste buds for mead. 10/10 will definitely remake this recipe once I run low again thanks for all the help everyone!

Hey, Aldrik. Did you do anything to inhibit or kill the yeast? If not, you will probably get more fermentation from the added sugar. If you're bottling, that could lead to bottle bombs from over carbing.

 

[Aldrik]

I actually just waited until the yeast stop "yeasting" (lol) and then I drained it into a new bottle using a coffee filter to collect any sediment. doesn't seem to be fermenting anymore so; i guess it worked

 

[Aldrik]

I do have a question. It has quite a bite on the way down. anyone know a trick to kill the bite without killing the flavor?

 

[SimPilot]

If by bite, you mean alcohol burn, then time (aka ageing.)

Or if you follow proper method (yeast, nutrition, temperature, etc), your brew can skip "bite" by quite a bit. Think weeks, not months.

 

[Aldrik]

If by bite, you mean alcohol burn, then time (aka ageing.)

Or if you follow proper method (yeast, nutrition, temperature, etc), your brew can skip "bite" by quite a bit. Think weeks, not months.

There's almost no burn, I'm talking the "sharp" feeling when the alcohol hits the back of your throat. I'm trying to think to my mixing ideas and how I can kill that...it's the only downside to it, thus far (not a very bad one though)

P.S. I've been drinking it from a pint bottle...it's quite potent

 

[Dan O]

Hi has anyone got a recipe and a step by step instructions please as I’m new to this

Welcome to the most addictive hobby on the planet
A simple recipe to make a delicious drink... follow the instructions & it will be awesome. This recipe teaches nothing about modern mead making practices and should only be done as a fix-it-&-forget-it recipe.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/joes-ancient-orange-mead.49106/If you want to learn about how to make mead in more detail...go here....
https://www.youtobrew.com/mead-making-101/introduction-to-mead-making
I hope this helps you
Happy meading

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Aldrick, one of the things folk mentioned earlier was to get an hydrometer. Hydrometers measure the density of a liquid and that density when we are making wine or mead is used as a good indicator of the amount of sugar in solution. The amount of (fermentable) sugar in solution gives us the potential amount of alcohol by volume (ABV) and if you dilute 1 part honey to 3 parts water you will get a mead of about 13% ABV (most wines are around 11-13%) Adding more water (1:4) will reduce the alcohol by volume - in this case by about 25% , so my guess is that your mead is around 9% alcohol (beer is often 3-5% , so this is the equivalent of drinking 3 beers if you are drinking this by the pint. Why there is a sharp taste as you drink this, is hard to imagine. What kind of honey did you use? The flavor of the honey may the cause.
Last point. Rish's post about the yeast treating added sugar as theirs and not yours is right on the money. Coffee filters cannot filter yeast. They are about 5 microns in length. You would need to use a sterile filter to trap yeast. What most wine /mead makers use is a combo of two chemicals - k-meta and K-sorbate. When added in tandem, the yeast are either killed or if not killed become unable to reproduce and so when they die out they leave no more offspring (they can replicate every 90 minutes- and that gives you astronomical numbers in the thousands of thousands of billions of cells every few days. A pack of yeast has "only" a hundred billion cells...You need to be very careful that you are not creating bottle bombs. The CO2 when trapped in a sealed bottle will either pop a cork and the gas will create a jet of liquid.. or if you used crown caps and beer bottles the bottle can explode sending shards of glass at great speed across the room slashing and ripping anything that they touch... No joke.

 

[Aldrik]

Hi Aldrick, one of the things folk mentioned earlier was to get an hydrometer. Hydrometers measure the density of a liquid and that density when we are making wine or mead is used as a good indicator of the amount of sugar in solution. The amount of (fermentable) sugar in solution gives us the potential amount of alcohol by volume (ABV) and if you dilute 1 part honey to 3 parts water you will get a mead of about 13% ABV (most wines are around 11-13%) Adding more water (1:4) will reduce the alcohol by volume - in this case by about 25% , so my guess is that your mead is around 9% alcohol (beer is often 3-5% , so this is the equivalent of drinking 3 beers if you are drinking this by the pint. Why there is a sharp taste as you drink this, is hard to imagine. What kind of honey did you use? The flavor of the honey may the cause.
Last point. Rish's post about the yeast treating added sugar as theirs and not yours is right on the money. Coffee filters cannot filter yeast. They are about 5 microns in length. You would need to use a sterile filter to trap yeast. What most wine /mead makers use is a combo of two chemicals - k-meta and K-sorbate. When added in tandem, the yeast are either killed or if not killed become unable to reproduce and so when they die out they leave no more offspring (they can replicate every 90 minutes- and that gives you astronomical numbers in the thousands of thousands of billions of cells every few days. A pack of yeast has "only" a hundred billion cells...You need to be very careful that you are not creating bottle bombs. The CO2 when trapped in a sealed bottle will either pop a cork and the gas will create a jet of liquid.. or if you used crown caps and beer bottles the bottle can explode sending shards of glass at great speed across the room slashing and ripping anything that they touch... No joke.

Thank you! I definitely needed this explanation! I have noticed that the "bite" I mentioned has lessened in the last 24hrs, so it may just be an aging thing.
As for bottle bombs, I don't think I have to worry too much as the bottle don't seem to be acting as though they're carbonated, i.e. creating more CO2 from the yeast (aside from the small amount of hiss you hear whenever you open a mason jar with sugar water in it) I have been checking periodically because of the comment so it was nice to know my paranoia was well founded.
I'm glad you mentioned the actual size of the yeast too as this does help me in future endeavors (and there will be). I'm going to continue monitoring the batch for a bit and I'll pick up some micron filters when I get the chance.

Honey - Raw wildflower honey
Sugar - Standard sugar like you'd bake cookies with
Water - Tap water
Ratio - 1:4 parts honey to water
Timeframe - 1,1/5 months (I was lazy and let it sit 2 extra weeks, not upset with the results)
Final containers - I had some snap cork bottles, standard cork bottles, and mason jars lying around that we used. I've been popping them to check the pressure. so far nothing out of the ordinary.

Note: As for the hydrometer, I don't really see the point of me getting one as I don't intend to sell this. I figure I'll taste test and anything that isn't a good batch will just get dumped (the stuff to make it is fairly cheap so money isn't my concern, I'm just having fun and seeing what all I can do with it)
Those micron filters will definitely be an investment that I'll be looking into, though.

I'm thinking my next batch will be a 1:1 ratio of honey to water just half and half it, see what happens.

 

[bernardsmith]

A couple of quick thoughts. Hydrometers don't simply tell you the total ABV (amount of alcohol) and so enable you to label a bottle but they enable you to monitor the fermentation process. In other words, let's say you started with 3 lbs of honey and enough water to make 1 US gallon. The starting gravity will be around 1.105. How do you know when to rack if you want to rack at say 1.010? How do you know when to bottle if you have no idea what the gravity is "today" . That is might be 1.000 does not mean that it could not drop another few points to say. .996 or even lower. It's like driving: sure you never need to watch your speedometer, but you better not be driving at 36 mph in NYC . You never need to monitor the fuel gauge... but you better be prepared to find a service station after driving for about 6 or 7 hours.
Using 1 part honey to 1 part water makes for a very specific Polish mead known as Dwojniak (two parts). By all accounts it can take a couple of years to finish. "potentially" it will have enough sugar to make a drink at about 27.5 % ABV. No yeast can survive at that level of alcohol so it will likely finish at about 16% ABV (the yeasts available most commonly in the US) , so the mead will be (in my opinion) cloyingly sweet. (this is based on the fact that 1 gallon of honey = 12 lbs , so 1/2 a gallon is 6 lbs. 1:1 means that you will add a half gallon of water to that 1/2 gallon of honey. Now, 1 lb of honey dissolved in water to make 1 gallon raises the gravity of the water by 35 points (a specific gravity of 1.035 , so 6 lbs of honey will raise the gravity of that 1 gallon of solution by 6 * .035 or 1.210 . An SG of 1.210 where the density is the same as the amount of added sugar has a potential ABV of .210 * 131 (technically 131.25) or 27.5%. If your yeast can ferment to 16% then 11.5 % unfermented is sugar (or a gravity of 1.087 which is about 2 lbs of sugar (honey) dissolved in every gallon. (equivalent to 216 teaspoons of sugar in every gallon. I don't take sugar with my coffee but many people stir in 2 t of sugar. so that is 108 cups of coffee or tea but 1 gallon is 16 cups (8 fl oz) or 6.75 times the normal sweetness people look for in their tea or coffee... Just sayin' . Just sayin'. But others on this forum may have a very different POV (point of view).

 

[HeyGuero!]

My $1.50 contribution (no longer 2 cents… inflation and all…)
- listen to everyone about the hydrometer.
- the learning curve is short.
- “man made mead” and “doing the most” are two great you tube channels that can give you a really solid base for making simple honey hootch to some really robust recipes.

All of that said….

I own a hydrometer and rarely use it because I’m lazy and just want to make booze without having to bother with decimals and numbers.

But.

Backsweetening your mead with honey and sugar and leaving it sit for any time seems sketch to me best case you get more alcohol and more astringent “bite” and worst case you get a bottle bomb.

If you really don’t want to use a hydrometer I would suggest this:

- Ferment your mead like ya do.
- Make sure your fermenting is DONESKI - like absolutely.
- Bottle it and stick it in the fridge.
- Make some simple syrup with honey and or sugar.
- Add it to your drink as you drink, NOT to the bottle.

 

[Aldrik]

Both of these are great POVs. I will be getting a hydrometer, I just don't have the ability YET. I was eyeballing the recipe for this first one to see if this brewing thing was my thing...it seems to be, so I feel less likely to be wasting money on the more in depth supplies of it.


Also: I have had the bottles (back sweetened) in their "resting" spot for over 8 hours now and they've built no pressure so I'm fairly certain I'm safe at this point (more than likely; I got lucky)

All of the advice I've gotten from this forum will be used and noted for my next batch and I'm sure it'll turn out to be even better than this one. I appreciate all the help. It will help me for future endeavors though, since I've already "done the thing" with this first batch. I'm also going to be getting better containers than the ones it's in right now (they're not pretty nor truly functional for my purposes, so I'm going to go get me some good bottles)

thanks again! I'll post again when I start my next batch

 

[bernardsmith]

Eight hours is not long enough to produce the pressure I was referring to. Always remember that yeast ferment sugar and the amount of alcohol they produce from the sugar is equivalent to half the weight of the sugar, but the other half of the weight of the sugar is CO2. That is not chop change when you are talking about 2 lbs of sugar in every gallon AND you have trapped that gas in those bottles. In a pint bottle that is 2 ounces of CO2. When you fill a balloon with carbon dioxide, how much does it weigh? It can take days or weeks for the 4 oz of sugar to be transformed to alcohol AND gas. Just be very, very careful.

 

[Aldrik]

Eight hours is not long enough to produce the pressure I was referring to. Always remember that yeast ferment sugar and the amount of alcohol they produce from the sugar is equivalent to half the weight of the sugar, but the other half of the weight of the sugar is CO2. That is not chop change when you are talking about 2 lbs of sugar in every gallon AND you have trapped that gas in those bottles. In a pint bottle that is 2 ounces of CO2. When you fill a balloon with carbon dioxide, how much does it weigh? It can take days or weeks for the 4 oz of sugar to be transformed to alcohol AND gas. Just be very, very careful.

Oh don't you worry I'm being very careful with it. I'm actually pretty sure I'm not going to have this batch after this weekend as I'm having some friends over to try it (and give me some notes on the taste) So realistically I'm about to be out of it or low on it real soon lol