First ever mead

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

OriginalCassis

New Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2023
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Location
Netherlands
hi im thinking of beginning my mead making journey, but i have no idea what to use.

i have been googling for the past 30 minutes and am more confused than before, so help i want to make a msmall mead for just me. i want to make it in a wine bottle since i read that is cool and wont affect it that much
the thing where i get stuck is wich kind of yeast to use and how much.

i wanna make a mead of blueberries and orange if that has any input to the yeast and quantity
 
You can make it in a variety of containers, but if you want to add fruits to it you will want a container that is large enough for those additions as well as enough space for the fermentation activity.
Inexpensive enough is a 2 gallon bucket that is food grade. They will be marked with a triangle that has a number in it. That number should be 2 or 4 or 5, with 2 being the most common that I have seen. That will allow you to mix the water and honey easily enough without much worry about spilling and you will have room to add fruits later on.

A good place to read:
https://www.youtobrew.com/mead-making-101/introduction-to-mead-makinghttps://gotmead.com/blog/making-mead/mead-newbee-guide/the-newbee-guide-to-making-mead-index/
I would suggest start reading those to formulate a plan and then more directed questions can be asked to get you going
 
Last edited:
I would suggest you begin with what is called a traditional mead. Honey, water, yeast and nutrients. Forget the fruit until you can make a delicious simple traditional mead. The base unit is 1 US gallon, and you might mix 2.5 lbs of honey with quality spring water to make 1 US gallon. That will give you a gravity reading of 1.087 and that amount of sugar will likely give you a wine of about 11% ABV. Plan on back sweetening this to bring the honey flavors forward. To back sweeten you will need two chemicals to prevent the yeast from treating the added sugars as theirs. The two are K-meta and K-sorbate. You might need about 4 oz of sugar to sweeten this but you sweeten to your preference. Nutrients, you can buy from your local home brew store. Fermaid O or K are standard but Wyeast also make nutrients and they are good. Honey has no nutrients that the yeast need. What yeast to use? D47 is good, 71B, DV10, Cote Des Blanc. Ale yeasts are good too. Every yeast highlights flavors and aromas and masks flavors and aromas. Don't use bread yeast. It does not drop out of solution and so will add a yeasty flavor to every mouthful. What kind of honey? In my opinion, clover and "wildflower" often are better spear carriers than soloists, but if you have a wildflower you love, then use it. Your supermarket may have orange blossom honey, and while that varietal is not (typically) expensive, it can hold the limelight with no problem. If, however, you can find a clover or wildflower honey that is less expensive, you might use one of them and use orange blossom to sweeten the mead. That will give you a bigger bang for your buck than simply using the clover or wildflower to back sweeten - but you may live close to hives where the beeks allow their bees to feed on really flavor-rich wild flowers or sweet-clover fields.
 
Back
Top