When making mead, do you count the honey as part of the gallon?

[AnotherFinch]

I'm going to be making a 5 gallon batch of mead and I know the standard is 3lbs honey per gallon (I have 15lbs of honey).

Do I use less than 5 gallons of juice/water based on how much honey I'm adding in, or should I just add 5 gallons of liquid in addition to the honey?

 

[Bobby_M]

Yes, it's the honey plus enough water to make up the rest of the gallon.

 

[Newsman]

Yes, it's the honey plus enough water to make up the rest of the gallon.

Oops. I did 5bgallons of apple juice PLUS 10# of honey. Should be interesting

 

[Bobby_M]

It's not going to be a problem, the gravity is just a little lower than the rule of thumb.

 

[Newsman]

It's not going to be a problem, the gravity is just a little lower than the rule of thumb.

That's fine. I'm not really concerned one way or the other about the ABV

 

[Maylar]

Generally, a gallon of honey is about 12 lbs and a quart is 3 lbs. Yes, you include the volume of honey in your total.

 

[Ty520]

Generally, a gallon of honey is about 12 lbs and a quart is 3 lbs. Yes, you include the volume of honey in your total.

Alternatively, another rule of thumb is that a pound of honey will displace about 1/12 of a gallon, so for a 1 gallon batch w/ the typical 3# honey, you'd use ~ 3/4 gallon water + 3# honey to get a full gallon batch.

That being said, I've started to lean toward doing a full gallon of water plus more honey in order to offset my losses during racking so I don't end up with a ton of excess head room in secondary

 

[Golddiggie]

Alternatively, another rule of thumb is that a pound of honey will displace about 1/12 of a gallon, so for a 1 gallon batch w/ the typical 3# honey, you'd use ~ 3/4 gallon water + 3# honey to get a full gallon batch.

That being said, I've started to lean toward doing a full gallon of water plus more honey in order to offset my losses during racking so I don't end up with a ton of excess head room in secondary

Looking forward to making my next batch of mead in one of my conical fermenters. NOT needing to rack to get off the yeast/lees is going to be very nice. Also being able to pull samples via the sampling valve means not needing to open the fermenter up even once, post yeast pitch. I can use the carbonating stone to inject oxygen into the must as needed. I'm planning the next batch to be about 11% ABV, so it should finish relatively quickly (compared with my previous batches).

 

[Ty520]

Looking forward to making my next batch of mead in one of my conical fermenters. NOT needing to rack to get off the yeast/lees is going to be very nice. Also being able to pull samples via the sampling valve means not needing to open the fermenter up even once, post yeast pitch. I can use the carbonating stone to inject oxygen into the must as needed. I'm planning the next batch to be about 11% ABV, so it should finish relatively quickly (compared with my previous batches).

Yes, that will be a big improvement, but you'll still lose some volume regardless - those lees still displace liquid

 

[Golddiggie]

Yes, that will be a big improvement, but you'll still lose some volume regardless - those lees still displace liquid

Batch size will start as 5 gallons. Of course, I might go with more depending on if I get a one or two gallon bucket of local(ish) honey. With the target batch size, losing a bit to lees and such is far less of a concern. Just like I size my beer batches to ensure I get at least six gallons packaged.

 

[Maylar]

That being said, I've started to lean toward doing a full gallon of water plus more honey in order to offset my losses during racking so I don't end up with a ton of excess head room in secondary

As do I. I have a 1-1/2 gallon Big Mouth that will rack to 1 gallon. For bigger batches I'll start with 5.5 - 6 gallons so I get to rack to a 5 gallon fermentor for aging or oaking. Still need a variety of carboys and buckets to handle all situations.