Started my first mead!

stevenfox25 · Aug 27, 2015

Hello all, Yesterday i started my first mead and i just wanted to share with you what i did and used. I will post pictures as it progresses and hopefully it turns out great.

The honey that i used was Orange Blossom. I added 18Lbs of honey with a gallon of water and mixed as to not spill and make it a bit easier to mix up. I then added water to the 6 gallon mark and measured my starting SG.

Starting SG 1.110 at 75 degrees F. I believe if everything goes as planned this will get me close to 15% ABV at the end.

I then Re hydrated 10G of Red Star Montrachet at 107 Degrees F. for 15 min.

While the Yeast was re hydrating i added 2 grams of Fermaid K and mixed.
Then added the yeast and did a quick mix again.

As i started all of this last night i will mix and add another 2 grams of Fermaid k today, checking temp and SG along the way. Hopefully this proves to be a great mead, i'm truly excited for the end result.

Paulietivo · Oct 4, 2015

Hi Stevenfox25, how's the mead coming along? I plan on making 6 gallons of orange blossom mead as well and have never done so. I have 1 gallon of orange blossom honey but based on your calculations I'd need some more. Did you reach 15%? Did you add any tannins? acid blend? oak?
Paul

stevenfox25 · Oct 12, 2015

Hello, sorry for the late response I've been awfully busy as of late. For my recipe i did a ratio of 3 gallons of honey for every gallon of finished product. So i ended up using 18lbs (roughly a gallon and a half) of orange blossom honey. The mead is coming along quite nicely. I hit a speed bump early as i did not have any yeast energizer to add to my mixture before fermentation. This is an absolute must as it made the entire fermentation process crawl along. I'd say i spent a month in my primary before finally transferring to the secondary carboy. I then sat in the secondary for about 2 weeks and racked off of the lees. The last time i took a reading it was at 1.015 which would make it about 12.47% I'd venture to say that i end up around 15% which is where i wanted. Let me know how your batch goes.

Paulietivo · Oct 16, 2015

Hey Steven, I haven't started yet but I have 15 pounds of orange blossom honey. Based on yours I may need to get 3 more lbs. I aim to make a dry mead and purchased liquid dry mead yeast. I also do not have yeast energizer but may have to get some. I have yeast nutrient though but Im also running out of time and might not start for a few more weeks.
Did you happen to add an acid blend or tannin?

Arne · Oct 17, 2015

stevenfox25 said:
Hello, sorry for the late response I've been awfully busy as of late. For my recipe i did a ratio of 3 gallons of honey for every gallon of finished product. So i ended up using 18lbs (roughly a gallon and a half) of orange blossom honey. The mead is coming along quite nicely. I hit a speed bump early as i did not have any yeast energizer to add to my mixture before fermentation. This is an absolute must as it made the entire fermentation process crawl along. I'd say i spent a month in my primary before finally transferring to the secondary carboy. I then sat in the secondary for about 2 weeks and racked off of the lees. The last time i took a reading it was at 1.015 which would make it about 12.47% I'd venture to say that i end up around 15% which is where i wanted. Let me know how your batch goes.

Morning Steve,
You might want to check this, 3 gallon of honey to 1 gal of water? You started out saying a gal and a half to 6 gal of water. Just wanted to clarify and make sure for others that might want to try this, what you are mixing. Goood luck with it, Arne.

stevenfox25 · Oct 28, 2015

Oh to clarify what i meant was, for a 6 gallon batch i used 18 lbs of honey. Making it a 3 to 1 ratio on lbs of honey to gallons of FINISHED product. I usually don't necessarily measure the exact amount of water as that changes due to your SG.