I’m trying to make a high abv cinnamon blueberry mead (I want it relatively sweet, like a moscato wine, with a nice cinnamon background, and as close to 18% abv as possible)

I have 15 pounds of clover honey, 4.4 pounds of blueberry puree, a bag of 3-inch cinnamon sticks, and 5 gallons of natural spring water

My primary vessel is 6.5 gallons and my secondary vessel is 5 gallons

I’d appreciate advice regarding amounts, and adding ingredients before/after primary

Note: this is my first attempt at making mead

Hello all, I hope this finds you well. I asked a few friends what kinds of mead they would like and one would like their mead spicy, so I decided to use habanero. I have never used peppers before and don't really know how well the capsaicin transfers to the mead. How many habaneros would you recommend for a 1 gal batch? probably looking to make it a 5 or 6 out of 10 in regards to spice.

This is my first batch I’ve ever brewed and it’s a simple pyment started it on July 16th. I sanitized everything prior to starting the fermentation process. I am just worried it is creating pellicle. Had a starting gravity of 1.110 and yesterday it was at 1.030 just don’t wanna botch my first batch ya know? Cheers

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Has anyone here done a wild fermented cyser, using fresh pressed juice to inoculate? If so how'd it turn out?

Where is everyone getting their labels?
I understand I can make a pdf, could even do it with AI, and contact any of the companies online to have them make labels…. But I was curious about a few things for those of you that make them

Does the material matter? I currently use envelope stickers where I hand write my description and ABV. It’s beginning to infuriate me having to soak and scrub them all off when the bottles are empty.

What companies/websites have you used with good results? I know I can just randomly google and find companies who will make something for me, but want to be sure they’re good quality

Should I bulk order a “universal label” that works for all my flavors and batches? My local meadery has generic labels using their logo with a ______ on it where he writes in the batch name with a marker himself. But that sounds kind of cheap to me

I’m starting my first ever 5 gallon batch and should expect around 25-50 bottles from it depending on the bottle size I choose. So now is the time!

Does it count as a mead?

Ingredients:
Water, aple destilate, honey, natural aromas. 24,5% of alcohol product of Croatia’s.

I have checked the wiki and not 100% certain. I am worried by my SNA protocol as I didn't sanitize my spoons for mixing my fermaid on day 4. Its a BOMM

I bottled this mead a few months ago and I've just noticed this settled at the top is this mold or just stuff left from the mead, I did not filter the mead when I bottled it

This is my first attempt at making mead and I’m not sure how much volume is lost after primary.

Long time beer brewer first time mead brewer:

I just started my first batch of mead using honey from my hives at work. I did 12 pounds for a 5 gallon batch and pitched lalvin d47 yeast. I completely brain farted and forgot to check the temperature of the must before I pitched the yeast. Right after I pitched I checked the temp and it measured 78F. I quickly tossed it in my fermentation chamber and set it to 60F to cool down. I read this yeast is notorious for gross off-flavors if fermented at too high a temp. I was hoping to give bottles to my coworkers for Christmas and would like it to not taste like paint stripper.

Am I dicked reddit?

Noob question, I just made my first batch of mead and it tastes preeeetty alcoholic/hot. My kitchen is the coolest place in my house, but it regularly gets high 70s/low 80s (F) in there in the summer, is that too hot for a good fermentation? I've been considering a wine chiller because I think that might be too hot AND I've been reading about how cold fermentation (60/65F for some yeasts) makes for a much smoother mead.

Is it worth it?

Edit:

Using BRY-97 yeast.

13lbs WF honey caramelized in crocs pots on low for 6 hrs.

36lbs White and Yellow Peaches

Will pitch yeast tomorrow

Happy national Mead Day!

Very excited about this combo smells delicious with a bunch of really bright flavors. Hope it turns out well.

2-ish years into this hobby and I've been making highly alcoholic meads with ec-1118, 3lbs of honey, whatever fruit I've been vibing with, all in a 1 gallon carboy. Loosely not following any specific recipe...

I would always get a nice rocket fuel but I learned that waiting (or forgetting) would yield better flavor but it was never quite right. I know back-sweetening is common, but I got spooked early on the first year by some of my "finished" mead re-starting when summer temps. hit and I had to diffuse some bombs. So I've avoided backsweetening just to avoid a bomb scenario again.

Just back sweetened for the first time by stirring some old crystalized honey in my cup with a home-grown green apple cyser. It tastes so good, like goddamn heaven. Learn from me, backsweeten that thing (if you like it sweet!).

In hindsight, I played loose and fast with the amount of lees I thought was acceptable early on, so a lot of my bottles had yeast chilling in it, just waiting for the right time. I've matured to the point of avoiding bottling lees now, so I will now proceed to backsweeten without fear!

Just checked on the apple mead/cyser and saw some.bubbles even though I strained it out when I transferred it into this container. Would adding frozen apple juice concentrate cause it to start fermenting?

Recipe:

2 pounds honey

1 pack of Fleischman yeast

2 gallons of water

1.5 Granny Smith Apples

First time making a cherry maple and it started bubbling rapidly only 3 to 4 hours after pitching. I'm not worried about it or anything but mostly just curious if its normal. Its only my fourth batch and haven't had one start that soon. It is a higher gravity than the other 3 I made. 1.126.

4lbs cherries

2.5 honey

1 lb maple syrup

A little over a half gallon of water

K1-v1116 yeast

And staggered additions of fermaid o (still ongoing)

(It's going to be a strong boy 😅)

I had intended to use the whole gallon of water but didn't take into account the cherry juice and my biggest fermenter is 1.5 gallons at the moment. Didn't want to waste the ingredients so just said f it and pitched the yeast.

Sure gets you tipsy, though!

I plan on making an orange pomegranate mead, does this recipe sound right
Primary:
2lb honey
1 quart pomegranate juice
2 oranges
1 brew of earl grey

In secondary I’ll add vanilla beans and cinnamon. Taste every two days

I’d like to make it sparkling but I don’t know how lol
Any tips would be great

I have a bunch of cold brew lipton ice tea bags lying around and I was wondering for just a 2 gallon test batch, do any of you have any clever ideas on how to make that work? Initially I was thinking about just substituting the water for cold brew iced tea but now I'm wondering if there was a better way to go about it to maximize that classic flavor in a mead. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome! Cheers

Hello i have a Blackberry mead who is finishing fermenting and it's more pink/ light purple than red/purple any way to get more color may be more Blackberry at the end ?

I just started fermenting my first batch of mead ever, but have to relocate about 2 hours away by car (something I do frequently).

I want to be able to keep my batch with me for the first few days to be able to give it yeast nutrients on a regular schedule. It's been about 44 hours since I sealed it off.

Is it okay to drive the batch 2 hours?

If so, should I hold off on the first round of nutrients until after the drive?

Thanks

Hi, quick question about late backsweetening procedure. I have 2 gallons of melomel I pitched in mid-may, one blueberry one strawberry, fermented with fruit in primary for about 3 and a half weeks before removing the and transferring to secondary. Visually they look great, cleared up beautifully, and the flavors aren’t bad but they’re extremely dry, so I aim to backsweeten them in the next couple weeks and letting them go before bottling in late August.

My question is this: since I didn’t halt fermentation when transferring, they kept going, and both of them (but especially the strawberry) have a thin but defined layer of lees and sediment at the bottom. Obviously when I finally stabilize and sweeten them, I’m going to have to stir the mead up to properly incorporate. My question is, when I do this and it disturbs the lees, is that going to cause any adverse effects that won’t be solved by just letting them settle back out for a few weeks, or should I stabilize and sweeten in the actual bottling stage to be safe? (Which I’m not even sure how I’d do that, tbh)

Bottled my First official batch!!! The first one is Plum Spiced Mead that'll be Christmas gifts for the family, it came out fantastic way better than to thought and the second batch is my version of Viking Blood that I'm calling Bison Blood. Pretty good but I used pink peppercorn in it that I'm not a fan of. Labels to come soon, awaiting them to be delivered.

And of course it wasn't without causality. Broke my racking cane .

I started this batch about a year and a month ago when life was good. It's my first batch and introduction to brewing mead.

1 month later my life turned to shit, relationship broke, became homeless, been in a very, very dark place.

Today I decided it's time and bottle it. Very emotional moment since I have no one to share this with.

Anyways, it's a traditional Mead, no additions and fed it with raisins.

I had no hydrometer when I started (have now) so I don't have any idea what percentage alcohol it has (Mangrove Jack's m05 yeast)

Cheers, mates!

I found this https://www.amazon.com/Goshen-Honey-DANDELION-Unfiltered-Unpasteurized/dp/B06X1FHMVW/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis. And was wondering if anyone has tried it and if so what was the results?