concur, and the OP should get a damn hydrometer and a 5 gallon (or so) mixing bucket.
=QUOTE]
I have a hydrometer, but not sure what a damn hydrometer is.
Yes, it was my mistake, and won't happen again. I mixed up weight and liquid ounces.
Apologies for the wrong conclusion. The absence of any gravity reading led me (incorrectly) to presume a lack of a hydrometer.
Which is something you see often with newer mead makers i.e. they don't realise the importance of them and just follow a recipe of X oz's of honey to Y litres/gallons/whatever of water, pitch the yeast and then wonder why they have problems.
Hence the wrong presumption and impatient sounding response.
For info, small batches, like 1 gallon size are fine for experimenting, but you'd only get an average of 4 to 4 and a half bottles from 1 US gallon, after some racking losses.
Which explains the importance of very detailed notes, so that if one of your batches is particularly good, you can easily repeat it, scaling up if you wanted too.
I'd say something like a 6 gallon bucket and when you're ready to a 5 gallon carboy. That way, you have the space to make the batch, and do fruit additions etc sometime in the making process, then still have enough to rack into the carboy for ageing/clearing etc....
Obviously your choice of kit will depend on how much space you have and the batch sizes you find most convenient......
