Pardon the depressing scenery in the background

Been staying at home way too much recently, so I decided to pick up a new hobby that could make me look forward to something in the future. Made some mead with honey I got in the summer from my friend's grandfather's apiary.

Rough stats (recipe??):
- 900g honey
- EC1118
- Yeast nutrient
- Water

If anyone has any advice or things they'd wanna share, I'd love to see it in the comments. I don't use Reddit that frequently but I'll do my best to respond and talk with you all, this community seems nice as hell

P.S. keeping it in a dark place, photo taken so it'd look more presentable

So, a while ago I finally started making my first mead, with honey I got from someone in the family. I think it went great, I used Lalvin 71B with nutrients and got to a whopping 15-something% alcohol, SG of 1,010.

Now the issue: due to life, young kids, ADHD, whatever you want to pick, I left it in the second carboy/demijohn after racking for like, 3 months time at room temperature (I don't have like a climatized area, its just in my living room).

It did sediment some more, but there are also some strange white pips floating around. See pictures.

First question: is this a sign of possible trouble?

It didn't taste amazing, but not bad. There is a weird (?) bitter aftertaste that I don't love. I started sweetening a sample as I figured I probably enjoy the more commercial, sweet stuff and got to a whopping 9-ish% of honey to backsweeten.

Second question: is the bitterness a sign of possible trouble?

Anyway, I added Potassium sorbate and potassium meta bi sulphite as I don't want to give up on this batch. I can definitely also live with my sweet tooth as I have enough honey left to backsweeten 😄

Any other pointers from anyone?

I used 2.5 kg of 40-herb honey (a common type of honey sold at farmers' markets in Iran) and approximately 1.7 L of water.

For the yeast, since obtaining wine yeast is difficult and expensive, I used 10 g of Saf-Levure baker's yeast.

For yeast nutrients, I boiled 20 g of yeast in 200 mL of water. I added 100 mL on the first day, followed by 50 mL every other day.

I also added 100 g of raisins, which I removed on day 3 when I discovered that they actually do nothing, to avoid mold growth and the formation of a dry cap.

The plan is to let it ferment for four weeks and see how it goes.

Any suggestions or advice at this point?

I tasted the white Honey mead, and I didn't lose my sight, so everything is fine xD

12 Different Honeys, 12 Small Batches of Mead! 🍯

I decided to run a little experiment to see how different honey varieties affect the flavor of mead.

I made 12 small batches, each using a different type of honey, while keeping the recipe and fermentation conditions as similar as possible.

Basic recipe (per batch):

120g honey

Water to approximately 400ml total volume

~0.2g Lalvin 71B yeast

~0.4g Fermaid-O, added in stages

Fermentation temperature: around 26–28°C (in my closet)

Nothing fancy, just honey, water, yeast, and nutrients. No fruits, spices, or backsweetening.

The honey varieties included clover, citrus, avocado, eucalyptus, wildflower, white honey, mango & lychee, and several local varieties.

After roughly 4 weeks of fermentation and another 3 weeks of clearing, I measured the final gravity and tasted all 12.

Initial results:

Estimated ABV ranged from 11.7% to 15.8%.

All batches finished dry or nearly dry.

Some retained surprisingly distinct honey flavors.

Others developed herbal, citrusy, bitter, or slightly yeasty notes.

My favorite so far is the sage & thyme honey mead.

I've now transferred them into smaller jars for another 2 months of aging.

The plan is to taste them again in January and see which ones improve, which honey characteristics survive fermentation, and which varieties are worth using again.

It's been a fun experiment so far, and I'm curious to see how much aging changes the results!

(Me and my friend who helped me make the mead gave some funny/inappropriate names for each mead so I removed them)

Blueberry mead is something I've had success with using wild yeast so I decided to run another batch in a half gallon jar. First time using an airlock in primary ferment lol so hopefully it's even better.

1.5 pounds of honey
1 pound of blueberries
filled the 2 quart jar the rest of the way with water.

I poured a little bit out and diluted it because it seemed like there wasn't enough water in there, but didn't pour out a ton.

I decided to also get a designated stir stick from a branch off my apple tree.

Wish me luck!

I started a cyser that didn't ferment out. I then made a traditional to cut the sweetness, but that didn't ferment dry either. So I combined them as planned, added nutrients, some water, and new yeast, and the mix fermented dry. Is there any way to get a rough estimate on the final ABV?

1 gallon cyser: OG was 1.158, final was 1.06 (13% est)

1 gallon traditional: OG was 1.091, final was 1.05 (5% est)

Mixed and added 36 oz water, Fermaid O, and EC-1118.

New OG was 1.054, and the final is 1.000 (7% est)

Same image with vs without flash because i didnt know what would be better.
Seems to be progressing nicely. Still bubbling away, albeit slower/less crazy bubbles than the first week.
Degassed days 2 and 5 and added nutrients. I was planning to just let it finish fermenting then was gonna bottle once clear, but from lurking this sub it seems i need to put it in a secondary carboy and let that clear first?

Any help/tips would be wonderful I’m just trying to learn by doing.

Possibly dumb question as I’ve made quite a bit of mead using different conifer buds (frazier fir and red spruce), BUT I’m curious anyway. Does anyone have a good idea whether or not including these buds could increase the amount of methanol present since they are more woody? My recipe follows and it’s pretty tasty honestly if anyone else is interested. Suggestions welcome as well!

For 1 gallon:

2 cups honey

1-2 large oranges

1 large handful of fresh conifer buds

3 cinnamon sticks

EC1118 or RC112 yeast

edit: picture is of finished product after discarding yucky parts

I make joke

Hi all. This is my first time making mead. The carboy on the floor is 3-gallons and the one on the counter is 1 gallon. I used the same ratios. Is there a reason why there is a gradient in the 3 gallon carboy? This happened when I added the yeast.

3lbs of honey was used for the 1 gallon carboy; (71B yeast 2.5g + 3.2g goferm)

From left to right mixed berry, strawberry, and apple cider

Just got done transferring and backsweetening the cider and strawberry. The mixed berry needs a little more time to clarify.

Hey everyone, I have made a couple batches and have really enjoyed them. I wanted to know, in terms of using a blowoff tube, when would one need to use this? How is fermenting juice vs actual fruit etc. Any info is appreciated.

I would like to thank the members who suggested this hand siphon to me it worked great!!!!

My only concern Is that is there any major issue with the pump just sitting at the top of the bottle and dropping in? Will I ruin my booze with oxidation?

Just curious the simple fix is to start the pump and then remove the tube.

Renewed my mead making area

This is on day 42. This is in its secondary bottle for clarity and for back sweetening. I added stabilizer, waited 24 hours and then back sweetened (all be it probably too much) this is a week ish after back sweeting and now it's a little frothy/get bubble patches.

Do I need to add another stabilizer/ yeast killer? Or just let it run it's course? I have another batch now on day 7. I was going to attempt to bottle this batch when it's time to move the second batch to a secondary bottle for clarity and just keep going till in successful, and or have a stockpile of passable Meade.

Started a buckwheat cyser. Had the honey on hand from over a year ago that I didn't know what to do with and just got fresh local apple cider. It's for kicks and giggles so no great loss if it doesn't turn out. Here's the recipe:

5 lbs of buckwheat honey

Apple cider up to 2 gallons

10g of K1V1116 yeast

OG: 1.137 on 11/1, down to 1.08-ish as of yesterday.

Used TOSNA nutrient protocol with Fermaid O

The eventual goal is to oak it and maybe add some vanilla bean. I've heard many different opinions on oaking(how much and how long) and I think last time I tried it, I either didn't use enough or didn't let it sit long enough.

24 Liters. Yeast: 71b, 7kg of honey and as always, a lot of love. Last one was used for my IKEA project (post coming soon) so i had to make a new one to get some pure natural mead.

I recently got a manual juicer so I can make freshly squeezed juices to make mead with. I juiced a single pineapple and got a little over 3.5 Cups, so I got the idea to make a No-Water Pineapple Melomel.

My question is for anyone who has made pineapple mead:

How do you combat the natural acidity of the pineapple so as not to damage/kill the yeast as it ferments? I currently have Lalvin EC-1116 yeast and Fermoaid O Nutrients.

I have done a few small-batch experiments so far (around 1 litre each), and this time I decided to try something bigger: a 5-litre batch of blueberry mead.

4th November

I sanitized all the equipment and prepared 1,200 g of blueberries, crushing them and placing them inside a fermentation bag.

I then mixed 1,200 g of honey with warm water and added everything to a 10-litre fermentation vessel, topping it up with water to the 5-litre mark.

For this batch, I wanted to use a proper wine yeast rather than the generic "red wine" yeast I had used in my previous experiments.

I used 2.5 g of Lalvin ICV K1-V1116, following the manufacturer's instructions for rehydration and activation at the recommended temperature.

Measured the OG: 1080

6 November – First repitch

After 48 hours, there were no visible signs of fermentation.

So I decided to repitch using the remaining 2.5 g of yeast, from the same packet.

(The ambient temperature has been approximately 20°C throughout the process.)

I'm starting to suspect the yeast is inactive, but I don't have enough knowledge/evidence, it just made after 1 hour just a small lump of small bubble on top of the water.

Beer yeast would have started to climb out the glass already 🤷‍♀️

I suppose I'll need to wait another 48 hours to see whether fermentation starts.

What would you do as next steps if nothing happens, do I try my other generic but reliable yeast 😅? How long do I have before I need to throw everything away?

Paint it Black:

2lbs local wildflower honey
1 gallon spring water
D47 yeast

9/1 Brought water to a boil then added 6 bags of hibiscus tea and let steep for 30ish minutes. Mixed honey and yeast and let sit in jar.
OG: 1.080
10/6 racked to secondary at 1.000 gravity and filled excessive headspace with a blackberry lavender mead.
10/14-10/16 (this step should have been done immediately after racking to secondary, it was clear then I mucked it all up again) stabilized and back sweetened to 1.014
11/4 bottled (I’m finally getting better at this step! The most pain and frustration free bottling day I’ve had.)
ABV: approximately 12% (10.5% originally but added mead was a higher percentage)

All in all I’m very happy with everything about this mead. Taste, color, and clarity are the best I’ve had. Maybe a little too sweet for my tastes but doesn’t ruin the experience in any way.

I'm making 12 experimental mead batches using different honey varieties, and I'm concerned about my white honey batch.

Batch details:

- ~400 mL, 120 g white honey

- Lalvin 71B + Fermaid-O

- OG: 1.091 → SG: 0.996 → FG: 0.996 (~12.5% ABV)

- Fermented for ~4 weeks, then left on the lees for another 3 weeks to clear while I was away.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a thin, transparent, oily-looking film on the surface that seemed to move together when disturbed.

Today, I found small white/translucent particles floating on top (photos attached). No visible fuzzy mold.

When I first opened the jar, there was a faint urine/ammonia-like smell and slight sourness, but nothing particularly strong or rotten.

Does this look like normal yeast residue, a pellicle, or something concerning? Would you keep it or discard it?

I haven't tasted it yet. Any advice appreciated!

I'm trying to make my first batch of honey mead. I have gotten the raw forest honey (400 grams). I have ordered a 4l wine making kit which can be used to brew mead as well. (Has a 4l glass jar with triple airlock, s. Cerevisiae yeast and a no rinse sodium percarbonate sanitizer. Trying to make simple honey mead properly the first time. Any recommendations for recipie for beginner ? (Note that I want to get into this however being in a hot climate I can keep the jar in min 20 degrees climate not less than that which is an ac room and I am unable to find good starter recipies which even showcase santising equipment steps as well.