new to brewing

[Litoris]

What can I say? I'm female, I have recently started brewing mead. It was a project that my husband and I talked about doing for years, but much like many other promises, it never came to fruition with him. Since we are now in the middle of a very ugly divorce, I figured I would go ahead and start doing this for myself.

The first batch I tried I pitched the yeast too soon and killed it. My second batch seems to have some truly happy yeast, and is happily fermenting. I have about 8 weeks to go. I used Sweet Mead Yeast, and mixed both some very dark organic and some very light organic honey that I got from a couple of beekeeping friends.

 

[kapbrew13]

Welcome !!!!

 

[tonyc318]

I'm sorry about your divorce, but I'm happy to welcome u to the brewing obsession! I have not brewed mead, but brewing is a blast.

 

[Litoris]

Thanks! I have several friends that have been brewing their own beer for years, so I have a ton of resources. Thought I'd come here for the info from other home brewers =D My second batch is looking good, plenty of happy yeast farts. My next purchases will be a hydrometer and then a bigger pot since mine only holds ~1.5 gallons.

 

[Vernacular]

Welcome to the obsession. I have a three gallon carboy curently containing a mead.

 

[anarchy99]

I feel your pain. I recently just started brewing also and am also going through a divorce, though thankfully, not ugly. Now I can't get enough of the brewing bug

 

[Litoris]

It seems every day I check on my mead I get more excited about it....already planning my next batch. I post pictures of it on my facebook and have several friends who've not had mead before anxious for it to be ready as they want to try it, planning a tasting party -- if it's ready -- in honour of the 1 year since I left dbag, lol.

 

[usfmikeb]

Welcome! Congrats on losing a bunch of dead weight!

 

[sendkyleanemail]

Welcome! Happy Brewing and hilarious handle!!

 

[H-Balm]

From one noob to another, welcome!

 

[Golddiggie]

You make mead, you brew beer...

That out of the way, how long ago did you start the batches of mead? What yeast did you use? Without a hydrometer you have pretty much no way to know what the OG was. Even if you use the calculator on the Got Mead? site, you could have a very different OG. Get a hydrometer, or refractometer, ASAP. At least before you start your next batch. I've stopped using the hydrometer completely, using the refractometer(s) instead. Much smaller sample needed (.5ml at most) and you don't need to worry about temperature of the sample (with one that has ATC).

General rule of thumb to follow with mead is to give it TIME... For one going to <14% ABV, I'd give it 6-9 months before even thinking about bottling it. At 14-18% I'd give it a minimum of 9-12 months. Over 18% plan on at least 12-18 months before it goes to bottle. I wouldn't rack any more often than once every month or two. Wait until the yeast has finished doing all it can before you rack it the first time.

Also, I don't see how you could kill your yeast from pitching it 'too soon'... Unless you cooked the honey/must and it was too hot. Try the 'no heat' method of making mead. You ONLY warm the honey up enough to get it to flow easily (under 100-110F) and then mix it with the water amount. If you rehydrate the yeast according to instructions, you'll be good there too. Keeping it fermenting in the temperature range where the yeast does it's best work is also important. Otherwise you'll need even more time for it to be ready for bottles.

For reference, I have a batch of mead that I had in bulk/batch form for a solid year before I bottled it. I didn't need to stabilize it since it was done. It finished sweet (which was my goal) so I know the yeast had done all it could and wouldn't kick off another round. I had racked it a few times, as needed, so that it was very clear. I even put it on oak cubes for about 5-6 weeks before bottling it up. Turned into an excellent batch of traditional mead, using regional wildflower honey. It is at 18% too (used EC-1118 yeast, so the time in bulk did it a huge service). I have another batch that I started at the same time, using the same honey and yeast, to the same strength, but I stabilized and bottled it earlier. While it was still really good when drinking it, it really isn't as great as the other batch. I have a few bottles left of the earlier bottled batch that I'm holding onto to see how it bottle ages.

Hopefully you'll get to the other side of the ugly divorce soon and will be able to move on with your life.

 

[Litoris]

Golddiggie, thanks for the very excellent information. My next purchase is going to be a hydrometer and a siphon. The recipe I used called for the honey and water to be boiled and suggests no more than 2 months fermenting. I've got some really great support here as several of my friends brew their own beer. None make mead, so some of my questions won't be answered by them, hence my joining here =D
The divorce will get worse before it gets better, but I appreciate the kind words from everyone. I wish it were otherwise, but it won't be, so I trudge on as best I can.
Thanks also for the compliment on the handle, it's an (obvious) joke that became my moniker when I created a Runescape character with the name and became obsessed, now everything is under that name to keep it simple.

 

[Golddiggie]

I cringe every time I read/hear about someone boiling honey for mead. More so when instructions make it sound like a batch can be bottled in 2 months. You really should have either a refractometer or hydrometer when you're brewing beer or making mead/wines. I've grown to really like refractometers due to how so little is left to chance with the reading. I actually picked up two new ones last week that are more accurate than the first one I bought. The first one was both brix and SG. Well, when you run the brix through the conversion, it didn't match the SG scale. Hence me purchasing two other ones. One goes up to 30 brix in .2 increments and the other only goes up to 20 brix but it's in .1 increments. Depending on what I'm making is which I'll use. I also have one that goes to about 60 (or 65) brix for those really high OG mixtures (or checking sugar percent in ingredients).

You can get as gadget intense as you like, or go as minimal as you like. But you at least need SOME way to take gravity readings.

Check out the Got Mead forums if you haven't already. There's plenty of people there that have been making mead for many years/decades.