First Mead

[Nosybear]

A few weeks ago (as in about four), I stumbled on some honey on sale in Sam's Club. Ever tempted to ferment stuff, I bought it, mixed up some yeast food, sanitized the honey in water with metabisulfite, oxygenated, added a packet of D47 wine yeast and jumped back. After a sluggish start, likely due to the meta, it took off. Four weeks later it's down to 1.001 and it is delicious! Delicate, lightly sweet, some honey-like flavor, good stuff! And I understood mead takes months to go from something resembling battery acid to something drinkable, this stuff is good to go in four weeks! I'm going to carbonate it because the sweetness could stand some carbonic acid to balance it out but hey, I don't know how mead got such a bad name. This stuff was simpler than extract brewing!

 

[jeffpn]

Batch size and honey amount? I made mead twice years ago, and it took months. And it had major alcohol bite. Very dry, around 15% if I remember correctly. I’d be interested in your method, to give it another shot.

 

[Nosybear]

5 pounds of honey, 2.5 gallon batch size. OG 1.069, FG 1.001. Water treated with 3 Campden tablets. Yeast starter: 1.5 tsp yeast energizer in 1 qt of water, boiled. Honey warmed in a hot water bath, added to water. Shake to aerate. Direct sprinkle D47 wine yeast (one sachet). Next time I'll rehydrate two packets and oxygenate with the airstone. It's a mild mead, not hugely alcoholic but a very nice, mild honey flavor.

And anyone who wants to add honey to their beer should make a batch of mead to know what the flavor will be.

 

[jeffpn]

I think I put 15 lbs of honey in a 5 gallon batch.

 

[Medarius]

Found this while researching mead for better half.
Chap 6 has basic 'fool proof ' recipe for beginners Joes ancient orange spice mead.
Making Mead

 

[thunderwagn]

Found this while researching mead for better half.
Chap 6 has basic 'fool proof ' recipe for beginners Joes ancient orange spice mead.
Making Mead

I've brewed Joes Ancient Orange Mead (JOAM) several times. It's alright. If a sweet mead is your thing, it may serve you well.
I would rather have something less sweet, more dry, and carbonated.