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That may be a good idea to use. Yeah, it is a 5 gal carboy.

I had a question regarding topping off. I know that it is best to fill the carboy up to a couple of inches from the top so that the surface area is small and you reduce the chance of oxidation. However, what if you don't have enough top off wine/mead? I used some CO2 gas to displace the oxygen...

Thanks Bob, I did rack it as you recommended. So the mel has been on 1 oz of french oak medium toasted cubes for 1 month and 2 days. I decided to lightly stir with my sanitized bottling wand and used that as a mini thief. I think the mel is turning out really nice -and I do taste some slight...

Well, today will be 1 month that I added oak to my mel. I am going to give it a taste, but was wondering about how to go about it. Should I go in with a thief and try to gently get a small sample. Or should I gently stir the wine up a bit first? I am unsure if the oak will distribute itself...

wow! You must run out of carboys lol.

Thanks vcasey, I was going to do only 1 oz of oak cubes for 4-7 days for the dry mead. In Ken's book, he mentions this for oak chips. Therefore, I think I may be even more conservative by using the oak cubes for the same amount of time. In this case, the oak will be added to the mead just to...

Forgot to mention, tried my hydrometer sample in a wine glass. That mel is pretty tasty now! I know this is going to be a winner.

Update on my Mead and Mel. I racked my Mead on the 26th of December to a third vessel. It is really clearing nicely now. I added some CO2 to displace the air and promptly placed the airlock on. I will take a gravity reading again when I rack into the 4th vessel and add oak. I was thinking 1 oz...

Thanks Wade. After doing some online reading. It would seem that people prefer the oak cubes, using 1 to 2 oz for a 5 gallon batch. The total soak time is 1 to 2 months! It would appear that medium toast is a good start. However, regarding soaking, that would remove some of the flavor from the...

I will do that! um what is the difference between the two?

I do a blow off tube for all my beers during the primary no matter the OG. It was rather amusing to watch the berries pop off the orange bung and stretch out. Thanks for your tips on the oak. I think I want to go light on the dry mead just to add some complexity. For the mel, perhaps more...

Hello vcasey, I was going to do 1 oz of medium toast oak for 4 days for my Artisanal Mead before racking into another carboy. In Ken's Meadmaker book he recommends oak for the dry mead. He mentions that the berry mead will benefit from oak but doesn't mention any specifics. What would you...

This is my dry mead kit! Comes with Wyeast 4021 (smacked!) 12# Ames Farm Artisanal Honey 4 packets yeast nutrient Expected OG 1.080-1.083 I got 1.083 woot! I made a yeast starter 48 hours before using Ken's recipe (I didn't have the yeast nutrient but had the energizer) Cooling my hot...

I purchased the Curt & Kathy's Melomel Mead Kit from Northern Brewer. Comes with 96oz (x2) Marionberry fruit puree (added in secondary) 2 packs of Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast 4 packets of yeast nutrient 1 sachet of pectic enzyme (added in secondary) 12 gms of Nutriferm energy 15 lbs of Wildflower...

Wade, I did not back sweeten. It was semi-sweet to my taste anyway. Here are my readings: OG: 1.088 FG: 1.001 ABV 11.3%

Thank you for the compliment! I have some other meads that I have in the works and will share some pictures soon! I have learned so much from this forum and reading. This mead was a first try without knowing what I was doing!

Well I bottled my Mead on 10-18-2010. I filtered the mead to polish it and noticed a difference. The taste is kind of harsh but age may help it out. I think I will set this away for a year before trying one. Here are some pictures: Unfiltered on left, filtered on right. No clearing agents used...

Thanks vcasey, I will do that. I am just going to let it set for a couple of months. Between all these beers and wines we are brewing, it will be easy to leave it alone!

Hello all, Thought I would update you on my mead progress. For some reason, the yeast decided to do some work for the past 2 weeks. Today, I took a reading it is 1.001-1.002. I racked the mead into a 1 gallon carboy up to the neck. I also put the rest in a beer bottle with an airlock. Now I will...

Thanks vcasey, I think for this batch, the forget about it policy is the best. I have been learning so much from this forum (you mainly) and the book you suggested. Since I shook up the mead really good, I am going to wait before racking since there is no sediment right at this moment.