My first mead - a couple of years later

[RichardNDL]

I had an interesting experience. I recently opened my first mead. Back in October 2019 I made a gallon of traditional mead. My notes don't tell me what kind of yeast I used... could have been baker's yeast. I used 4 lbs of honey and water to fill a gallon, so I ended up with much less than a gallon. I didn't stabilize or backsweeten. I didn't measure ph or sg. It tasted somewhat like cough syrup... somewhat "medicinal" and very sweet. So I just opened the last bottle of that first mead, and it's pretty good. Strongly on the dessert side, still very sweet. But it's clear and very pleasant. I wish I knew how to measure the ABV after the fact.

 

[Dan O]

I had an interesting experience. I recently opened my first mead. Back in October 2019 I made a gallon of traditional mead. My notes don't tell me what kind of yeast I used... could have been baker's yeast. I used 4 lbs of honey and water to fill a gallon, so I ended up with much less than a gallon. I didn't stabilize or backsweeten. I didn't measure ph or sg. It tasted somewhat like cough syrup... somewhat "medicinal" and very sweet. So I just opened the last bottle of that first mead, and it's pretty good. Strongly on the dessert side, still very sweet. But it's clear and very pleasant. I wish I knew how to measure the ABV after the fact.

Honey gives approximately 35 points of gravity per pound/ gallon. 4 lbs would've/ should've put you in the range of 1.140. Did you take a gravity reading after it finished, before you bottled?

 

[RichardNDL]

No, I didn't. I suppose I should use your calculations and take a sg reading now. I'll do that this evening. Thanks

 

[DBhomebrew]

If you have a refractometer and hydrometer, you can compare the current (FG) readings to reach the OG.

 

[CKuhns]

You can estimate ABV. But yiu must know the stsrting and ending gravity.

As mentioned above by @Dan O 1 pound of honey to make a total gallon gives you between 0.032 and 0.038 gravity points. A 0.035 is a good rule of thumb. Thus 4 pounds of honey should give you roughly 1.140.

The calculator is this Starting Gravity minus Ending Gravity times 131.25. This is not linear nor exact but should get you within a couple tenths plus or minus actual.

 

[RichardNDL]

Well... I don't have good things to say about my palate. Measured the sg (actually, I think in terms of brix) and there's a current brix of 24. So, I'm drinking basically diluted honey with about 3% abv. This was my first gallon ever. I even used raisins as a nutrient.... I know better now.