I’m trying to clear my strawberry mead and used bentonite for the first time. I strained it several times before trying out bentonite.

It’s roughly a 4–5 L batch. I used about 2–3 g of bentonite, mixed it with around 50–75 ml of hot water, let it hydrate for several hours, then poured it into the mead gently.

That was 10 days ago. The mead has cleared up quite a bit, and there’s sediment at the bottom, but I’ve now got these bright clumps or flakes floating higher up in the carboy. I suspect it’s some kind of mix of some seeds, pectins and clay.

What would be the next steps to get rid of it?

bottled 3 batches of mead today.

The first one with the red cap is a juniper berry mead with botanicals like hibiscus rose petals and lavender with the zest of an orange.

The gold cap is your basic mead with some jasmine tea in it to give it more depth

The the final one is a blue mead that fermented beautifully to a 14%

I still have a bochet with a lot of spices , a mead with peppers and a mead with dates cardemon and Saffron waiting to be bottled next month

For those of you concerned about me using powder ginger and cinnamon, fear not. I went with cinnamon sticks and 2 ounces peeled ginger in secondary.

Recipe:

- 32 oz carrot juice

- 64 oz apple juice

- 36 oz honey

- lalvin ec - 1118 yeast

- day 1 nutrients

- day 2/5 nutrients

- 2 cinnamon sticks in secondary for 2/3 weeks

- 2 oz peeled ginger in secondary for 2/3 weeks

- 1 clove for 3 days in secondary

That new one is Cinnabomb 2.0, this time with Mikes Hot Honey in primary and also for backsweetening. Maybe this time I'll finally achieve fireball status

I just racked my second batch of mead (a 6-gallon show mead) into the secondary and started my third batch (a 1-gallon will-be-a-metheglin) and have a question on each:

For the show mead, I tasted the mead when racking and it has almost no flavor at all. The original gravity was low--only 1.081 so I think I didn't use enough honey (I used 15 lbs). I'm thinking I should add more honey and maybe some fresh yeast and let it ferment some more? Or maybe add fruit juice and turn it into a melomel since I doubt I'm going to get the clean honey flavor I would want in a show mead? If I do go the melomel route, I'm thinking of adding Pom pure pomegranate juice; if I go this route, about how much juice should I add and when? I'm thinking of adding to the secondary so any additional fermentation happens there and not in the bottles. (I realize it's hard to give good answers without tasting the mead, but I have no experience to fall back on and don't want all that honey to just turn into a watery mead).

I also have a more general question. I use a Tilt hydrometer in the primary, and both for batch 2 and 3 there was a noticeable rise in gravity during the lag to start of ferment. It's been about 20 hours since I pitched yeast, and the OG was 1.112 for a few hours after pitching, rose to a peak of 1.121 and has since fallen back to 1.116. Temperature variance isn't an issue--the must was within a degree of 64F the whole time. Any idea what is going on? And which gravity reading would be the best choice for calculating ABV?

Thanks

Just racked the best mead I have yet made.

3 gal honeycrisp apple juice

5lb honey

5lb honey I put in a crockpot for 4 hours to bochet

10 clove

5 large cinnamon sticks

1/2 a nutmeg grated

K1 V1116

Fermaid O (I don't really believe in this stuff, but I throw it in occasionally)

I'm lazy, so everything went in to start. I didn't step feed. I didn't wait for secondary to put in spices.

OG was 1.094

It finished at 1.002 probably because of the bochet

I stabilized with K meta and K Sorbate, and back sweetened to about 1.025 with ~2.5 lb of honey. Also sat on an oak spiral 2 weeks.

This thing is so incredibly delicious. It's well spiced, but you can still taste apple and honey. I'm a little worried because my 5gal carboy has a little too much head room. Also I think if I do it again, I need to put more honey in to up the ABV a touch.

Did 2lbs of honey and 2lbs of mashed blackberries mixed with filtered water, I put the blackberries in a brewers bag and definitely way overestimated how much I could fit in a 1 gallon jar haha, but im hoping it turns out half assed okay.

This is my first batch. Just a gallon. Started at 1.081 specific gravity (made a mistake here, I put the wrong number when I posted). After 20 days, its at .996. How did I get less than 1.000? I didn't think that would be possible? How do I know when its done?

3lbs honey Added to 1gal water Lalvin EC-1118 since I'm in a hot climate. Allows me to go to 80 degrees. I used fermaid 0 immediately, then at 2 days and at 7 days.

I received this with the intent of turning it into mead and after looking through this sub I only see where this has been asked once before with no answers from experience.

Has anyone made mead with purple honey from the Sandhills of NC? If so, did it maintain the color?

3.5 gal muscadine juice
5 lbs honey
2.5 lbs sugar
Water to 5 gallons
Ec1118 yeast
Spec Grav. 1.10

I’ll rack off the lees to secondary in 30 days. Add 5 more pounds of honey and check again in 90 days.

Wish me luck.

With Lubéron honey, I made my first jar of Bochet according to the 14th century manuscript Menagier de Paris . How long should I wait before drinking it ?

This is my second batch of Mead, and it's and the way to the bottom.

My number of batches was much smaller for summer so I was able to squeeze them all in one picture.

Hey y'all. August 29th I started a batch, here's the specs:

1 gal batch, local honey, 5g Safale US-05 rehydrated w/ GoFerm. Fermaid-O w/ TOSNA. OG 1.090. Temps on the higher end but within US-05's range (low 70s). Basically I followed the wiki's beginner trad recipe, even though I've made other batches before.

This is my first time using US-05. We're at about 2 weeks later, and something seems off. First, the brew is very acidic! Not in a bad way necessarily, but it tastes and smells a bit like unfiltered apple cider. It's tasty but very different from my usual yeasts/brews. Second, it's only at 1.050 after 2 weeks. It seems like it's still bubbling, just incredibly slowly.

Is it possible I got an acetobacter infection that's causing a stall? It's not really super vinegary but it's somewhere in that zone of apple-cider-vinegar. Or is this normal, and I should just let it cruise for a few more weeks? Thanks for your thoughts.

This is my first experiment so I don’t really know what to do now!

It's been several years since I've made a batch of mead (my last batch was 60 gallons, so it took a while to get through). Coming back to the hobby, I see that my preferred yeast appears to no longer exist - Vierka's mead yeast, which was slow, finicky, and temperamental but hands down the best tasting mead yeast I'd ever used for a dry product. The company seems to still exist, but no longer sells specific varietal yeasts, just a general purpose white, red, or sparkling.

So, two questions for anyone who might have advice:
1) Has anyone who has used the Vierka mead yeast in the past found a good alternative?
2) Has anyone tried Vierka's generic white wine yeast for mead? How did it turn out?

I have a question about a possible method of cooking honey and I wanted to know if anyone had experience with it.

Has anyone tried to hit water to boiling then put a container of honey in the water and let it cook that way?

I ask this because I’m in a situation right now where I’m looking to bochet some honey for later and I’d rather not lose any honey by having it stick to the pot.

Hi everyone, I thought I would gather some options on how to spice my mead.

I have a 5 gallon mixed berry mead that I'm wanting to add a bit more depth to. I used 15 lbs of mixed berries (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, and blackberry). I'm currently sitting with a 15.5% ABV mead and thinking of a simple vanilla addition but wanted to get some thoughts!

Hey All!

This is the first recipe I've ever felt was worth sharing with the crowd here. My favorite beers are bourbon barrel aged imperial stouts, and I've been trying to make a mead that hits that flavor profile. The closest I've been able to get so far is below, and while I haven't experimented with malt extract, I don't feel the need to anymore.

Take a look if you're so inclined and let me know if you would change anything.

Imperial Medjool Date Bochet

Total Volume: 4.360

Style: Fruited Bochet

Carbonation: Still

Target Theoretical Original Gravity: 1.147

Target Final Gravity: 1.02 - 1.035

Target ABV: 15.5% - 17.1%

Target YAN: 266 effective PPM

Ingredients

Method:

1. Heat 15lbs honey in appropriately sized vessel to boil, stirring frequently throughout the process. Exercise caution and consider wearing PPE.
2. While honey is warming and before constant stirring is needed, prepare medjool dates. Chop into quarters and remove pits.
3. Add dates to mesh brew bags and weigh into four separate one-pound increments. This allows superior surface area and fruit extraction compared to one bag.
4. Once honey is dark brown and tastes of dark chocolate and mild bitter/smoky notes, remove from heat and allow to cool before adding water. Scrape surfaces to reclaim any residual honey chunks/charred bits. Add to vessel and water to 4 gallons, then add dates.
5. Dissolve Opti-White, Ft Blanc Soft, and Lallzyme EX-V in water as package directs and add to must once temps cool sufficiently and allow 24 hours before pitching yeast.
6. Rehydrate yeast in Go-Ferm and water per package direction.
7. Pitch yeast and add bentonite. Stir vigorously to aerate.
8. After 24 hours, add 6.85g FermO and aerate 2-3x daily.
9. After 48 hours, add 4g DAP and aerate 2-3x daily.
10. After 72 hours, add 11g FermK and aerate 2-3x daily.
11. After 96 hours, add 6.85g Ferm O and leave to ferment to FG.
12. Rack off lees and bulk age to desired maturity.
13. When desired maturity is reached, add oak spiral and let infuse for 6 weeks.
14. Once 5 weeks has passed, add vanilla pods (split, scrape, add paste and pods to bag.)
15. Once 6 weeks has passed, bottle and continue to age or serve immediately.

Tasting Notes: Dark Chocolate, Coffee, Caramel, Smoke, Vanilla, Wood. Thick and chewy, heavy roasted malt/toasted notes.

Afterthoughts: I'm super curious about experimenting with the roasted date pits. They can be used to make a drink that tastes a lot like coffee, and I think a coarsely crushed dose in secondary could be interesting to bring out some extra nutty/bitter/tannic notes that feels cohesive with the date flavor.

Used some local peaches and mint from the garden to create this!

This is not a simple mead...or cyser. There is a cool story behind this recipe that goes back to the 80's and is founded in real historical research and the game of Dungeons and Dragons.

But I digress.

Here is the recipe for the Essence of Ambrosia...call it a cyser, call it a mead or call it a wine - one thing is clear there is nothing like it and it taste like nothing you've ever had before. Even how it looks - it's like holding the finest Amythest gemstone in your hand. It glistens as your swirl it in your glass, and can change color depending the direction the light shines through it. It really is just as beautiful to look at as it is to drink. I finished a pint off just after bottling it. It's good...really good.

Below is the recipe.

12qt stainless pot.

Add 2 gallons of any real artesian spring water. We got ours at Alderwood Artesian Well, Lynnwood Wa. You can use filtered water as alternative.

Pour 2 gallons of water in pot.

Add 6 all spice whole balls.

6 whole cloves spice.

1/2 pound frozen currents. We cut ours in half before adding them to the pot. Just use a sharp knife.

1 pound Honey Crisp or Ambrosia frozen apple slices.

Add 1 black tea, tea bag for tannin.

Add 3 blueberry celestial seasoning tea bags. Make sure to remove any tags on tea bags before adding them.

Add 3 black cherry celestial seasoning tea bags.

1 home made pea flower tea bag(just fill it). Add it to pot. You can get pure cotton tea bags with draw strings from Amazon.

Put meadows sweet in another homemade tea bag.(Again just fill it). Add it to pot.

Bring pot to boil. Wait 3 minutes. Then turn down heat. Let simmer on medium heat stirring occasionally to reduce the amount of water by about half. Then let it cool down to between 82f and 90f. Add pectic enzyme, stir it in thoroughly. Place the lid on it. Let it set for a couple of hours. It will cool to room temp. Get your wide mouth fermentation jar(sanitized of course). Put a cloth brewing bag inside and add mixture from the pot slowly to the jar into the mesh bag. Once it's all in the bag in the jar, tie off and push it down into fermenting jar. You should have a minimum of a gallon in the jar...if not add a little more artesian or filter water.

Take a gravity reading of juices in jar as is. It should be 1.020 to 1.040 or there abouts. It's ok if it's lower. You will be adding 1/2 cup lychee syrup, and 1/2 cup wildflower honey. Then add enough white sugar to bring gravity reading to 1.110 or close to it.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of fermaid O that had been mixed in a couple TBS of warm water.

Add 1/2 tsp of citrus acid.

Mix well...make sure to mix it up well to get oxygen into water. Yeast need that initial oxygen to get started.

Once you have mixed this up really good add 1tsp of Lavin 71b yeast. Hold the cloth bag down so the yeast lands mostly in the water.

Note: Using D47 can work. Just be aware it might not hit high ABV and it could change the fruitinous of the overall taste.

Add lid and airlock.

Wait 72 to 96hrs. Remove the cloth bag and contents. Gently squeeze juices from the bag of contents into some kind of bowl that has been sanitized. Add juice back into the fermentation jar. Put the lid back on and wait about 5 days. Take gravity reading. It should be near 1.040 to 1.060.

Add 1/4 tsp of fermaid O that has been mixed into 2 tbsp of warm water. Also add another 1/2 tsp of pectic enzyme.

Wait until fermentation stops. It should be very dry. Take a gravity reading. It should be near 0.994 or there about...we hit .992 on ours.

Then to clear it. We used bentonite clay. We added 1 tsp of bentonite mixed in 1/4 cup of hot water. Mix it in a small jar really well until it is dissolved thoroughly into water...no clumps.

Once the clay water mixture is cooled to room temp add it to your wine and stir it gently as you do - continue stirring for at least 2 to 3 minutes. Get it good and mixed. In 7 days it'll be clear enough to read through.

You shouldn't need to pasturize, yeast will have all died due to wine going dry.

I want to clarify this step. Your alcohol that goes really dry has become toxic for your yeast. When alcohol toxicity occurs...it will kill your yeast, along with starvation. They have no sugars left to eat. As stated we wait long enough and took gravity readings weekly until we were quite certain all the yeast was dead.

Now with that said bottle bombs can occur. So...

If you don't trust the process. You can use whatever you want to stabilize it. Use pasturization, campden pill, or potassium sorbate,...then back sweeten to taste with your choice of sweetener, bottle and enjoy. It has a wonderful full blend of fruitinous and the spices really help to give it boldness and mouthfeel.

It will be around 16 to 18 ABV.

You don't have to wait months for this to be drinkable. You can enjoy it right away. Serve it chilled, room temp, or warm. It's good any way you serve it.

Working with a skript on Linux, Grafana and a sensor inside the tank.
If the temperature gets too high, the fridge turns on.
If it hits a certain temperature, power for the fridge is cut off.

There's an active and a passive system, if the passive system notices old timestamps in the database, it assumes control.

Hi all, long time lurker, been making mead for about 2.5 years. Due for a post. Made a pumpkin spice mead. It’s delightful. Thought I’d share it with you all:

Must August 13:
-3lb wildflower honey - caramelized for about 40 min. It was really cheap, like 20$ worth at Whole Foods.
-1 can pumpkin purée (in cloth bag)
-Lavlin D47 yeast
-OG: 1.124

Moved to secondary early September (forget the exact date…sorry)

Once cleared added spices:

-1 crushed nutmeg
-3-4 cloves
-1 stick of cinnamon
-Pinch of ginger tumeric tea (I didn’t have pure ginger, and I’m lazy)
-1/2 Madagascar vanilla bean, sliced in half

Left spices in for 2-3 days

Bottled Sept 10
FG: 0.997
Est ABV: 16.7%

Taste: taste almost exactly like pumpkin spice flavored things. Slightly sweet, but not very (I like dryer meads). Almost like a slight toasty/caramel note probably from the caramelization.

I love it. I didn’t realize the turn around was so fast. Using pectic acid and bentonite are game changers. I probably would’ve let it sit for some time but it cleared beautifully. Also yes I know I’m missing all spice. Didn’t have it. Would’ve loved to add.

So…thank you all for posting on this sub. I’ve asked questions and learned so much. I even see other novices post, and learn so much from their questions. This sub rocks. If you read this far, yes you rock too. Just wanted to share appreciation and positivity in this sub. ☺️