Second year I've made this. Typical recipe except after primary i toss in 1/4tsp of apple pie seasoning. Lose a bit more on final rack but worth it. 13% abv.

Recipe:

1 gallon apple cider 3lbs Costco RAW Missouri honey Yeast - Lavlin 71b 1 tsp FermaidO 1/2 tsp tannin

So, I have this very experimental brew going. I inoculated cooked toasted buckwheat with jiuqu (Chinese rice wine culture) to saccharify and ferment it for a week, strained out the grain and squeezed it for its liquor. I combined that with buckwheat honey, EC-1118, and a topping off of water to one gallon.

It's been in secondary in a carboy under airlock for almost two weeks now, and I have just discovered these little islands of translucent, white scales floating around the perimeter of the brew. It doesn't look like mold, so I wonder if they're just yeast rafts or an incipient pellicle? Jiuqu is a mixed microbial culture, so I'm rather unsure as to whether mine contained a notorious pellicle-forming microorganism.

3lbs honey

1 gal apple cider

71B

These are both in their secondary.

The only difference, I posted about this a while back, is that I forgot to let the cider warm up for the one that is still cloudy. So it took longer to get going, and in turn, longer to finish.

However, the one that I did let the cider warm up (clearer one), lost its cloudiness within a few days of finishing fermentation. The cloudy one sat on its lees for over a week after it finished fermenting, and still showed no signs of clearing. So that's why I went ahead and racked to a secondary.

Any guesses as to why a delayed start to fermentation would cause such a big difference in clarity in the end?

Edit: to clarify (no pun intended), the clear one has remained basically the same clarity as it was shortly after fermentation. While the cloudy one remains cloudy well past the same time of the clear one.

In other words, it's not simply an issue of one being finished longer and having more time to clear up.

Another edit: apprently there is a test where you put some in a glass, and add isopropyl alcohol. If it clears up, the cloudiness is caused by yeast. If it forms gooey clumps, the cloudiness is caused by pectin. Has anyone successfully done this? I dont want to waste my mead if I dont have to.

I usually add pectin to my fruits, 24 hrs before I start a mead batch, then add when I pitch the yeast. This time I had started a batch and was going to add the berries a few days later. The day I was supposed to add the berries life got away from me so I've had berries with pectin sitting in the fridge for about 4 days.

Is there any downside to having fruit sit with pectin for too long? I plan to taste them when I get home and was think if they still taste good to let em rip.

Thanks all!

I’m getting back into making mead and chose JAOM recipe because of how easy it is, and that it tastes very good. However it’s been 24hrs and there has been very little activity.

I followed all the directions and confused on why it’s wanting to be stubborn.

I have yeast nutrients but I didn’t add them since that kinda defeats the purpose of how simple this recipe is

Any advice would be helpful

I'm considering making 2 meads, one with dried figs and one with dried dates. How would you recommend I add them? I was thinking about adding some hot water, letting them rehydrate, then either running them through my blender or apple grinder to get maximize the flavor extraction. Do you guys think that this is a good plan? If not how would you go about doing it?

Having had this local raw honey for years, I finally pulled it together. Started primary on 10/10 and just moved to secondary today. OG = 1.100 and currently reading at 1.009, so a solid 13%+. Tasting the leftovers of it all, it tastes decent (but obviously a little yeasty).

I checked gravity at 1 week and it was reading close to 10%, so it has only gained another 3% in the next week. Would any of you add more nutes to the secondary to make sure fermentation finishes up? Or just let it go to wherever it lands and add potassium sorbate before bottling? The current sweetness seems fairly decent to me, just looking at ideas from others on how you would approach this next phase.

First pic is right when i added the yeast. Second is today about 18 hours later.

It’s my first time trying to make mead using a beginners kit someone bought me and I used about 2.75lb of honey and some spring water.

Is this two colours thing it’s got going on so far actually normal or have i done something wrong? Any tips for a newbie??

just started out a couple days ago. lots of foam, slight discolouration on the foam, wondering if that’s just the honey? air lock is bubbling away as it should be. is this looking okay?

Made my first cyser- 1 gal apple cider, 2 lbs honey. Used d47. got 19% abv/final gravity 0.990. Racked to secondary through a 1 micron filter. Been aging for about 3 months and tastes like apple flavored rocket fuel and isnt clearing up at all.

From what I read, aging is the friend of cysers... and I likely didnt do myself any favors with the d47 going above its rated limit, although to be fair I was aiming for a sweeter finish and figured it would cap out a little sooner.

Should I do anything or just let it sit? Was debating using either distilled water or some cider to dilute a bit, or maybe throwing in a clarifying agent?

Whenever I add some powder I want to measure how much, but then it sticks to some leftover desinfectant (even when I leave the cup to dry for a bit after desinfecting). Are there any clever ways around this?

So I added the recommended amount of Campden tablets to my Mead, then the next day found that the ferment wasn't actually finished.

I don't need commentary on that part...I was doing a forestry program that had me up at 6:00 a.m. everyday and getting home at 9:30 every night for 10 days, I wasnt thinking straight and thought I had a handle on it without gravity testing. Lesson learned.

What I DO need advice on is whether or not adding more in a week or so once ferment is actually finished (I am at 1.010 right now) is inadvisable now due to risking creating off flavors. My goal was to let it sit on some fruit after ferment was done using Campden and K Sorbate.

I am in love with the flavor of this Mead. I have finally mastered avoiding every single off flavor that I don't like in the Mead brews I've tasted and made in the past, this is my baby and if adding more Campden is going to create a gross flavor, I'll just leave it as-is.

Please advise

Heya

Forgot about this fermentation I had going for a while. Started bottling it and thought it was just yeast rafts.

Is this mould? Can't seem to see any similar pictures.

I’m at Renfest in Texas for my 29th wedding anniversary. This is good mead. So, whoever you are Chaucer, thanks for helping us celebrate!

Also I want a recipe and don’t expect to get it.

Im working on an apple pie mead and want more of a “crust” taste. Ive been trying to use a tiny bit of dry malt extract in primary, but just gives a bit of a beer flavour.

Would toasted oats in secondary work for this? Anyone have experience doing this?

Hi everybody! So I've done just two meads so far, one I bottled yesterday the other is still fermenting. Neither of them did I do anything fancy to. Just straight orange blossom honey and water, yeast nutrient and then yeast. A little yeast nutrient every couple of days and let them ferment otherwise.

So when I bottled the first one it all seems good. Fermented out to 0.992 which from my OG got me about 11% but when I took a taste of the hydrometer sample I definitely get a pineapple like acidic flavor. Does anyone have a guess what that could be? And if so, any chance you know whether that will age out or not?

It didn't taste so bad that I wouldn't drink the mead I just don't know that if want that flavor in it.

Thanks for any reassurance you can provide lol

Lalvin 71B, 3lb Honey, 1/4tbsp Fermaid-O day 1 and 6. Started September 19th.

Pretty active fermentation for the first three weeks then slowed down. It has really cleared up in the last couple weeks. Never took a gravity measurement (Out of fear of contamination) but I’m thinking of ordering an auto siphon and some pop top bottles soon.

Main question: I saw on https://makebeereasy.com/melomel-recipe/ that they recommend a 3:1 pear juice: honey ratio. Can someone confirm that that's reasonable? I've chopped my pears and put them in the freezer for now, and was planning on juicing them.

Just to confirm: the idea is that you mix those and then add water to your desired OG?

I am mostly finding recipes where you chop the fruit rather than using juice. Is there a reason that that's better?

Background: I brewed for the first time last month, making a perry from my pear tree's pears, and it's turning out really nice. I'd like to try making a pear hydromel next but would like to confirm that juice would be reasonable to use.

Edit: Sorry for the gigantor picture of the pears. I didn't mean for it to be that huge, and I can't figure out how to replace it with a more reasonable size.

I want to make a batch of Mead for Christmas. I have enough time between then and now, but I don't have a full set of equipment.

What would you consider bare minimum equipment? What may not be essential but is a game changer to have? Any and all advice is appreciated.

I have one of these siphons, with a plastic bellows to pull the mead up from the bucket. But, it does not work in any way. I can pump it up about halfway through the straight plastic tube, so it never actually starts running through.

If I fill the entire tubing with water (for testing) sticking one end into water on the table, and the other end on the floor, it just runs back to the water on the table. Maybe there’s leaks in the system?

Am I stupid or is this just a bad product?

Hey all. I am at the aging stage for a raspberry and cranberry mead. Around 1.5 months ago I prepared 19lts of a mead in a bucket using whole raspberry, cranberries juice, chamomille, hops and anis. It fermented for 2-3 weeks and after that I left it with the pulp of the raspberry for another week. Then another week with the herbs while most of the yeast finished precipitating. At this point I racked into another container (bucket) and sealed without any airlock. The taste was awesome and just as I expected, a little bit bitter but more related to the age of the mead. I left it age for around 2 weeks and today that I opened it was considerably darker and the tasted completely different. More acidic and closer to cranberries instead of the raspberry.

It is still a very good flavor but I find it weird that it changed so much. Could it be contaminated with acidovacter? Or should have I keep it aging with an Airlock?

I am worried because at the same time I prepared and apple mead following the same method, but since it took longer to finish fermenting I just racked it to another sealed bucket today. The flavor is also great and I hope it doesn't gets ruined.

If any could share their thoughts it would be deeply appreciated. Have a great day yall

Edit: Thanks you all so far for the answers. I wanted to add another questions. I came across an emergency that will make it difficult to make the racking this week. If I leave it in the bucket till next Monday will it get worse?

Looking for a good strawberry mead recipe! Picked up a 6lb flat while visiting a friends farm and would love to make a batch using them

brewed a rootbeer style mead and these are the herbs and spices that accumulated at the bottom after a few weeks. internally cringed when I first saw these holes forming.

the mead itself tastes like jetfuel right now, but maybe it'll have a miraculous comeback.

Blackberry Honey: 9 Lbs

Organic Maple syrup: 2 Lbs

Yeast: Lalvlin EC-1118 Champaign yeast 5g

Nutrients: Fermaid O 4.5g

Water 15 Lbs

Start Gravity: 1.132 Finish: 1.024

I think I read the hydrometer correct at the start. Didn't occur to me to take a pic.

If I did log the right numbers to start, and if my math is correct, I think its 14%.

It tastes very nice right now. Hope it clears up over the next few months.