Started my first mead!

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stevenfox25

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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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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?
 
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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.
 
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.
 

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