Followed your recipe. Just bottled my first batch of hydromel. I.G.: 1.054 and F.G.: 0.994, which gave me 7.88 ABV. It has light golden color. And a light taste of vanilla with a very clean mouthfeel. Added a different tea to each bottle. Will let them age for a month or two. I enjoy your videos. Very instructional.
I'm a new bee keeper (only 2 years old) and will be making a mead from my very first harvest of spring honey. Thank you for an uncomplicated look at this project! So many of the other videos I have watched are more like a chemistry lesson than a craft project! I won't be bothering with the hydrometer or all the calculations you captioned and will be going on how it tastes. Currently living in northern Kentucky, but used to live in the panhandle of Florida. Really miss the weather!
Well... I have lots of experience at this, and I don't go by taste. I measure things... for a reason. It's not just a craft, it's actually science. Lots of ways to go wrong, and using just a few tools keeps me from wasting honey, which isn't really all that cheap.
@@CitySteadingBrews Thank you for the reply -- I have decided to invest in a hydrometer so I can get an idea of the alcohol content of my mead and how the fermentation process is coming along. I followed your directions yesterday and now have my first batch bubbling away in the dining room! I just did a first racking of some pear wine I made following your videos and it is promising to be very nice. Just saw the "last video" and appreciate the specialties you have divided into. Thanks again for replying.
Wow you've really come far in the 5 years since you made this! I stumbled up your channel a few weeks back and have been binging a bit. I have one of your apple wine recipes going and the new ginger beer. Thanks for all your advice. This vid is so vintage now I love it!
Great video. Not overly technical. Really enjoyable. And frankly, I'm all over this. In your book case to your right, you have First Edition Dungeons and Dragons books. Very excellent.
I get the scientist feel. I'm not THAT big a fan of alcohol. But I work in a laboratory and really enjoyed starting my first mead att home a few weeks ago. Just like the best part of my lab work x)
I wanted y'all to know that I've been watching ur videos on Mead for a couple of months and about a month ago I finally bought ingredients and made a gallon of apple cyser and several 1 quart flavors. I tasted all of them when I racked them and they tasted amazing. Thanks for all the help along the way. Just yesterday I ordered a wine making kit so I have all the tools to do this as a main hobby. U guys are awesome
In household recipe too, we don't measure each gram or ml of ingredients. We estimate it using spoon, hand or drinking glass/cup which is just a good rule of thumb. The exact measurements are necessary if you run a company for particular brand. There consistency is more important for every batch.
Well, the quote is that Violence is the question, with the answer being "Yes", so it would go something like: Violence? Yes! I first encountered it in a long running web comic called "Schlock Mercenary" by Howard Tayler (yes, that's Tayler with an E not an O).
There is still a lot of debate as to whether that's legal or not. My own research makes it... iffy at best. There was some blogger that the TTB told him it was legal for home use, but... meh, I don't really want to get arrested since... doing it is one thing, making a video and putting it out to the whole world is another.
Chris- Federal law states that it is legal to own a still of any size. It doesn't matter if you have a 1 gallon still or a 100 gallon still. According to the feds, it is legal to have a still for decoration, distilling water, distilling essential oils, etc. The still does not need to be registered with anyone and no permits are needed as long as it is being used for the aforementioned purposes. However, be advised it is illegal to distill alcohol without having either a "distilled spirits permit" or a "federal fuel alcohol permit." It does not matter if the alcohol is for personal use only, not for sale, etc. If a person wishes to legally distill alcohol, they have two options. The first option is to obtain a Federal Distilled Spirits Permit. This is the permit that industry giants like Jack Daniels and Makers Mark distilleries possess, which makes it legal for them to distill and distribute to the public. As one might imagine, this permit is very difficult to get. In short, unless you're opening a distillery with the intention of selling your product in liquor stores, don't even bother looking into getting a distilled spirits permit; it's way too expensive and complicated for a home distiller to obtain. Instead pursue a fuel alcohol permit (which we'll describe next). Option two is a Federal Fuel Alcohol Permit (link below), which is free and easy to get. We've never heard of anyone being denied the permit and have never heard of anyone even being checked up on. Just be advised that the feds will expect that you're putting your alcohol in you lawnmower, and not drinking it!
Yup. The discussion was on freeze concentration though, known as "jacking". I've said MANY MANY TIMES distilling is illegal in the US. In fact, in Florida, it's illegal to own the still.
Liked the video,i home brew myself and 1 tip on getting the honey into the bottle is to lightly heat your honey using the double boiler method on a low heat till your honey is loosened
I just discovered your channel and love it. I love mead and I'm looking forward to making your recipe. After reading Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine", decades ago, I've always wanted to make some. I've made a batch 3 years ago and it is great but I was wondering if you had a recipe or if could recommend one. Thanks for your great videos.
My batch I put in two days after this video went out has really kicked of the brewing process. Thanks for the video and I really liked the honey you linked. Can't wait for the taste video
Oh man this has got to be one of your first videos! Love it and the way you get your must to check OG will let's just say "YOU HAVE OME A LONG WAY BABY"! Loved it again THANKS!
I am still brewing but i wish there was a channel like this when i first started but you and i have almost identical brewing methoids. I use no chemicals and thist past summer all my brews were 100% wild picked but now ill try a mead. I have some honey i collected. Oh if you want to try something really beautiful the sap from a sugar mapel tree if you can get you hands on it uts a very newtral flavor but adds a really nice aroma
In regards to mead being older than beer: aboriginal australians have a continuous culture of up to 60000 years as understood at this point... And many mobs (nations) drank water fermented with honey and natural yeasts formed in bark (natural tannins) at the base of trees as a long term tradition: Mead. I'm not culturally aboriginal but just wanted to add to the argument of mead being older than beer. I love both!
Love some good mead. Orange blossom honey has made some of my tastiest meads. About a month into fermentation on a 5 gallon batch of blueberry mead using 33 lbs of juiced blueberries and 11 lbs of orange blossom honey. Waiting for the aging is definitely the hardest part.
Started my amazon wish list to hopefully start homebrewing mead! Have a really cool idea for a mead that I'd love to try once I successfully make a basic mead
I live in Vermont and Groenfell Meadery is really good stuff! They also make the wine versions. They put the recipes on their website as well for free!
You should make a Mead with black mangrove honey, when I lived in Florida this by far was my favorite honey, it's a darker honey with a pretty pungent flavor.
Remember when I said I was trying to make a lighter mead for testing and not wasting good amounts of red raw honey doing a bad batch right? So here we are after a month (using Fleischmann's yeast), my 1 liter batch (0,26 US Gal) suddenly stopped bubbling in one day and started clearing itself quite fast on the next day, I've used a mead builder calculator targeting a sweet mead using 350 grams for 7% ABV but my guess is that I've reached 14% ABV since I've let it fermeting to dry and no more bubbles came up after 30 days. I've already racked from the primary to the secondary a day ago and I gave it a taste (never tasted Hydromel/Mead before) and it was quite good actually, powerful with a good mouth feel (thanks to your tip on the other Mead video using boiled black tea with raisins) and with such nice finish with fruity notes and a bit of a medicinal note (courtesy of Eucalyptus Raw Honey I guess...) A question: If I want to reach a sweet mead, should I stop the fermenting process until I reach the desired gravity? Or let it ferment until dry and backsweetening it with more honey on the secondary after pasteurizing it?
I would fement dry, then backsweeten, but your yeast is the one thing you want to know it's tolerance... if you are at yeast tolerance, you can usually backsweeten without worry.
Great video. As someone who is just now getting ready to start making wine again, I am most happy to see this common sense approach taken toward mead. There is so much lore, allegedly arcane knowledge that only a few truly understand, etc that it is a wonder anyone attempts to make it at all. Thank you for not unecessarily complicating this. Just sub'd last week. Love the low key approach. And you look like you are having fun which is how this sort of content should be approached. Wassail!
Thank you so much. Not everyone appreciates my approach, and there is a lot of elitism in brewing. I don't know why, it used to be a household thing just as common as making coffee (which most do wrong today anyway). Making wine, mead, beer and cider should be easy and fun. If we make it too complicated, no one wants to do it. There's not some magic voodoo that prevents the average person from doing it, just a lot of stigma and naysaying. Thanks for your support and there will be more to come!
Awesome. Maybe a braggot one day? I have never tried a malt and honey blend. Maybe a bit complicated. I don't know if it needs a boil like all malt beer. Thanks again.
I'm planning a braggot soon for video. I made one months ago (off camera) that was a coffee stout braggot. It was dark, rich, and about 12% alcohol. I have one bottle left that I'm saving.
+Shemp82 just swallowed the last mouthful of a black braggot I made on New Year's eve 2012. Still tasty after all these years. Give braggot a try. I feel like braggot is what most people expect mead to taste like
Watching all your videos has really helped the anxiety of "perfect" . You're correct our ancestors did this forever ago with way less. I think I will be okay.
Everything is going to be alright. The important thing is to enjoy the process and hopefully enjoy the end result. There will always be room for improvement regardless of how "perfect" you are. Happy Brewing!
Lol I wish I had you're channel when I started out. What you're making here I did on pure accident and my friends and I call it yard mead because we had made a mead. Added it to a Apple juice and forgot about it for two weeks in my yard. When I went to go now it the plastic jug was swollen and it made an awful hiss when I opened it. Lol damn good stuff... And so I modified my 5 gal to mimic what you're doing and probably the same amount of honey scaled up. About 12 lbs of honey, and I made a pint of black cherry blood Orange and raspberry marmalade just a couple of months ago. I will send you a photo it tastes amazing!!!! Thank for showing this. People gauf at my yard mead till they try it! I'm using ale yeast for mine and I'm getting 20% abv. I don't understand why it's so high it just comes out that way.
Probably very sweet. I estimate your OG at 1.175. Mead yeast? I'm curious, as I've never found any that state that they are made for mead! But, even a champagne yeast dies off at 18%-20%, so you had a lot of residual sweetness in there. Did you age it?
Mhm, me too, and I always wonder why they make them THAT sweet. In ye olden times, that would be considered a waste of mead, since you don't need all that to make a sweet high ABV mead. Today, it's cloyingly sweet to our palates. I made a cyser once that should have gone to 18%, but stopped at 15%. I thought that was pretty sickeningly sweet. Your mead may have been 18% at most but could have gone to 23%! That's a lot of residual sugar!
When i was starting out as a home brewer i didnt have an aire lock, but the carbines came with caps. So i used the caps. 2/3 carbines exploded after a few weeks of fermenting😂😂 it took days clean up. I kept finding sticky spots all over the place
Thanks for these videos, totally motivated me to start homebrewing during the rest of my maternity leave hehehe...i have soooo much free time (not). Got a starter kit and my test batch of hydromel is working it's magic (i also have a few sodas and root beer with ginger bugs going on). Permanent sub here!
Thank you for the raisin idea, I am using that. I have a suggestion for you. Use better water. Just like beer, mead taste is affected by the water chemistry. I use Fiji water, Icelandic glacier water, or Voss water. The taste improves dramatically and removes that rubber tire aftertaste you get from the RO or filtered water. Also Fiji water comes out clearer, ferments faster, and makes a stronger mead.
@@CitySteadingBrews it's more about the available mineral content of the water used. That mineral content has a significant role in the end product taste. Try some fiji water on a gallon and compare it to your other end products.
@@CitySteadingBrews good to hear. I love your show you guys have inspired me in my brewing. I do year long fermentations and I have been expanding into short runs. I will be doing a chocolate mead using cacao (thank you for that). I also have some honey comb I'm experimenting with.
Hey guys! Love your videos and your funny and easygoing approaches to meadmaking and fermentation in general! Can you make a video on carbonating this hidromel? I have Ken schramms book on meadmaking but the part on priming Mead is kinda contradictory. I do not get where should i prime this liquid: if im supposed to prime on bottling, and if bottles are going to age (this is more related with Higher Gravity meads), isnt That going to create potencial bottle bombs? Cheers from Portugal guys!
Hi, I am making the Viking Blood mead and plan to make this Hydromel Mead over the weekend. I am new to making anything mead, wine etc... I am worried that I might have screwed up in using distilled water for my Viking Blood mead you show how to make. Should I not use distilled water? Really enjoy your channel.
Watching this old video i just realized you live in the same city as me.. I had been watching yalls videos for the past year now and when i first started i had this weird feeling i had seen you guys before. Thought i was crazy but I guess not
I'm trying this but with the "traditional mead tea" plus 1 cinnamon and 1 clove like JAOM recipe, so its like a JAOM with "mouthfeel tea" but low ABV, hope it turns out well hahaha.
Like what you guys do, one question about Hydromel Mead, can you add flavoring to this brew like spices, dry fruit (home dried) and so on in the start or is it better to do it later. By the way I have watch the other episodes connected to this video
Is the turkey baster better than the wine thief? I see you using the baster more often in your recent videos. I’m getting ready to take the plunge! Another question, is how big of a stockpot would you recommend for maybe a two gallon beer brew? Keep up the good work. Thank you.
For me it's easier. Our wine thieves are either too small and breakable or too big for the fermenter. For a 2 gallon brew, I'd use at least a 3 gallon pot.
I am going to start making meade and cider. I was curious though. What books would you recomend and are there any other youtubers you would give props to that keep the process as simple as you do? I am very excited about getting this going but it's my first time so I'm nervous too and want to get as much info as possible. Thanks in advance.
I read a few books, most weren't all that helpful in the end. I looked on RUclips, found lots of videos, some helped a little, some not so much. It's very hit or miss. Not to toot our own horn, but we have several wine/mead videos and some are designed to go into detail on how to brew, so you might find most of what you need right here.
Here in India, very few know what is mead. I have to frequently tell them it's honey wine. And the best part is it's good for health and doesn't have hangover even if taken in excess. In fact it's highly energetic drink. A 250ml glass gives me a nice sleep after heavy work at night shift.
I just made some mead using roughly 7kg of honey to roughly 16L of water, but I only had a 1.076 og and a predicted ABV of roughly 9.5% which seems quite low. I thought about it for 2 days then thought maybe there was some at the bottom of the carboy that settled. I shook the carboy to say to mix it and didn't notice anysettled at the bottom, but it's possible that it just dissolved in mixed up its own with the yeast bubbling isn't it? I was hoping to get a just mildly sweet Mead in the end that was not Superdry but still really dry with a little bit of flavour leftover. What are your thoughts on allowing the primary ferment to finish completely, then adding some sweetness back into it after racking it in the form of Honey or fruits? Also, do you think thatthe OG I got was wrong based on the volumes that I used?
I started a hydromel a little over 2 weeks ago . The O.G was at 1.060 . Which i am happy with but the only yeast I had was Lalvin k1-v1116 (18% tolerance) . I also have potassium sorbate to stop the ferment. Besides the waste in the yeasts potential. Do you think I will have trouble back sweating and/or flavoring without restarting a fermentation ? Your assurance that the potassium Sorbate will do its job is all I'm looking for that would make me feel much better lol
Well... I never use potassium sorbate for one. You have absolutely no need to stop this fermentation. Your gravity of 1.060 means a pretty low abv anyway. Something around 7% or so. That yeast can go as high as 18%. If you backsweeten you will restart a fermentation. Hydromels are generally dry though so it’s all good.
@@CitySteadingBrews yea that was my concern. I'm going to let it ferment to 1.000 and taste it if it's too dry to my taste I would want to sweeten It without restarting fermentation again. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the sorbate will do its job correctly.. Ehh we'll see what happens thanks for your quick reply looking forward to more mead videos !!!
I'm laughing so hard at your wine thief....when at that point you could have just poured it into the hydromeyer tube......glad you upgraded to the master baster....
It's really low alcohol, like under 2% and takes less than 2 days. I'm in. I'll make some this week off camera so I can sound like I know what I'm doing on camera :)
Aeration is only really important at the start of fermentation because the yeast need it to reproduce. The rest of their life cycle is anaerobic meaning it doesn't require oxygen. I have also never hydrated my yeast and have never had a problem getting it to start fermenting. Then again I also always use the entire packet of yeast when I brew. It's a lot harder to overpitch than underpitch. More active cells is usually better. I just always make sure I'm using fresh yeast.
The only reason I hydrate is to know if I have live yeast or dead yeast. It takes a few seconds to set up a hydration, but I'd rather know now than in a few days that my yeast are either healthy or they're not!
New Sub Here! Love the vids! So I just watched your video on a traditional Mead and you chopped the raisins. Looking back would you do the same in this style as well, opposed to leaving them whole?
Good video :) You mentioned the 'Mad Scientist'. Mad Scientist is actually a craft beer brewing company in my country. :) They making some really good beer. :)
Hello my friend. Tomorrow I will start my first attempt at producing mead. I would like to ask you in a 5 liter container how many grams of yeast to add? Greetings from Greece!
My first mead (which is yet to be tasted, only a couple more weeks or so) was half measured half not measured. I wanted to be pretty scientific about the whole thing but ended up just being like 'what the heck, let's go crazy' :P Looking pretty good so far but only time will tell if it tastes any good!
What are your thoughts on using something other than raisins to add the nutrients and tannins? I know you used black tea in one of your videos too, could other types of dried fruit be used in place of raisins in conjunction with black tea?
@@CitySteadingBrews Awesome, I'm gonna give it a shot. Never brewed any alcohol before so here goes nothin! I've watched several of your videos to help me get started so thanks for all the info!
Can I use the same method you have used in the traditional recipe video? You know, boilling chopped raisins with black tea and adding it to the mix instead of putting the raisins directly into the fermenting jar? Is there any difference at all? I'm going to get this Hydromel as my first try, I don't wanna waste extra honey on something that I don't know yet to make (raw honey is quite expensive these days).
Just FYI... don't know how much the honey is at Whole Foods, BUT... if you google for your local honey bee supply store, I'm sure you can get close to whole sale depending on if food items in FL are sales taxed. Up here near Winston Salem, NC... a pint is $11 from my bee supply store.
I know you probably get this all the time but my hydromel has stopped bubbling after 1 week through the airlock. Am I just to leave it for another week or 2 before I rack? This is my 1st time doing this.
Hi there I just watched this vidio I have just made 5 gallons of plain mead it has been sitting for 2 weeks and was wandering if I could add raisins at this point or anything else for flavor or is it too late for that
I have an RO water filter system which I use for all of my home brew/shine. You mentioned not to use RO because it takes out all the minerals but I disagree as my RO has a remineralisation stage to add in the essential minerals. I can't begin to explain how good it is, all my wort/mash is amazing with my water filter setup.
@@CitySteadingBrews no they don't but I had the option of swapping out my fourth stage for a mineral cartridge so I could re introduce the good minerals.
Hey great video! Gonna definitely try my hand at that. Unrelated question. I got a dandelion wine ready to bottle. Should I backsweeten it? I've never had it so idk what to expect.
Well... that's more a personal preference thing. I have no idea how you fermented it, or what your OG and FG are. I say try it. If it's not sweet enough, backsweeten. I tend to do it on a case by case basis. For instance, I just pulled out a cider from March of this year, poured it over ice and tasted it. Was dry. Added a little simple syrup and BAM... awesomeness.
City Steading oooh interesting! I usually backsweeten the whole batch after loading it with sulfates. SG was 1.08 and FG was .990. Though also it turned from yellow to orange which makes me feel like I might have messed it up 😦
We don't use sulfites, sorbates or anything like that. All natural around here. Without knowing exactly what you did, I can't say if you messed it up or not! But that's 11.8% ABV and very very dry, so you may want to sweeten it. Depends on your taste though. Yellow to orange? Is that after sulfiting?
City Steading Yeah I'm trying to get off them, but don't want to make my wine too boozey by overloading the sugar, and don't want it very very dry either lol. Simple syrup as I go might be the best long term. Two things I did that might have effected it. I used a little of the green bulb, which I hear isn't great, and I left it out in my kitchen because the pantry I stored it in needed desperate cleaning, then sort of forgot about it. Maybe the light messed with it?
I used regular raisins, my hydromel has been brewing for three weeks now and the raisins are still floating, there's no mold or anything like that but they look a little funky. Is this normal?
About the degasing topic, sure back in the days they probably didnt do it. But did it taste as good as the stuff we can make today? We will never know, things evolve, the brewing of mead evolves. I always degas and ad lots off oxygen during the first few days (close to a week). Works wonders for me so i keep doing it. :) Perhaps you tried both ways? Maybe you could do 1 batch, in 2 carboys and try "old method" vs "new method" and se the if you can taste the difference. Hey, thats a good idea, might do that myself! Greetings from sweden! :-)
This is what I promote... do what works for you. Many of the people watching our videos have never tried it before. They've wanted to, but were put off by too many complicated or seemingly complicated techniques, lots of hard to get ingredients and things like that. Does adding oxygen help in the early fermentation? Sure. I wouldn't do a whole week though, maybe 3 days. Past that the colony is making alcohol and the risk of oxygenation damage is higher. As for degassing... I tend to let my brews sit long enough they degas themselves, lol. I've never found a flavor difference in degassing or not by the way. I suppose if you degas near the end of a fermentation you might squeeze a bit more alcohol out if you're close to your yeast tolerance due to them not liking Co2, but that's about it.
I tried this recipe. OG is 1.050 using Clover based honey and has been fermenting for 14 days. I used raisins (rather than sultana's) and they are all floating at the top. Is this normal? I did cut them up prior to fermentation. If they dont sink, can I assume I just rack normally rather than sieve, then rack?
Just out of curiousity, what are your thoughts on possibly making an acerglyn in the future? From what i understand, its pretty much a mead substituting maple syrup instead of honey.
Lots asking about this lately. I plan to try it. An acerglyn, to my knowledge is a mead made with maple syrup, not 100% maple syrup, but that's possible also.
I just bottled an Acerglyn yesterday. I used maple syrup (1.5L), yeast nutrient (1.5tsp) and a packet of Lalvin Bourgovin RC 212 for a gallon. It ended up semi dry and 16% ABV. It's an interesting flavor the maple is fairly mild on the front end but comes on strong in the backend it's still a little hot but It's only aged 4 months which is a little short for 16% so I will probably let the rest of the bottles age for another 3-4 months.
I love how you break everything down to where anyone can understand the whole process
This is kinda funny to watch after seeing so many of the newer videos. I can tell your process has really evolved since then.
Followed your recipe. Just bottled my first batch of hydromel. I.G.: 1.054 and F.G.: 0.994, which gave me 7.88 ABV. It has light golden color. And a light taste of vanilla with a very clean mouthfeel. Added a different tea to each bottle. Will let them age for a month or two. I enjoy your videos. Very instructional.
I'm a new bee keeper (only 2 years old) and will be making a mead from my very first harvest of spring honey. Thank you for an uncomplicated look at this project! So many of the other videos I have watched are more like a chemistry lesson than a craft project! I won't be bothering with the hydrometer or all the calculations you captioned and will be going on how it tastes.
Currently living in northern Kentucky, but used to live in the panhandle of Florida. Really miss the weather!
Well... I have lots of experience at this, and I don't go by taste. I measure things... for a reason. It's not just a craft, it's actually science. Lots of ways to go wrong, and using just a few tools keeps me from wasting honey, which isn't really all that cheap.
@@CitySteadingBrews Thank you for the reply -- I have decided to invest in a hydrometer so I can get an idea of the alcohol content of my mead and how the fermentation process is coming along. I followed your directions yesterday and now have my first batch bubbling away in the dining room! I just did a first racking of some pear wine I made following your videos and it is promising to be very nice. Just saw the "last video" and appreciate the specialties you have divided into. Thanks again for replying.
Wow you've really come far in the 5 years since you made this! I stumbled up your channel a few weeks back and have been binging a bit. I have one of your apple wine recipes going and the new ginger beer. Thanks for all your advice. This vid is so vintage now I love it!
Always be learning :)
Great video. Not overly technical. Really enjoyable. And frankly, I'm all over this. In your book case to your right, you have First Edition Dungeons and Dragons books. Very excellent.
I thought those books looked familiar.
I get the scientist feel. I'm not THAT big a fan of alcohol. But I work in a laboratory and really enjoyed starting my first mead att home a few weeks ago. Just like the best part of my lab work x)
Just watched all your mead videos, they are great! I'm currently making my own. Awesome channel
Thanks! Happy Brewing!
I wanted y'all to know that I've been watching ur videos on Mead for a couple of months and about a month ago I finally bought ingredients and made a gallon of apple cyser and several 1 quart flavors. I tasted all of them when I racked them and they tasted amazing. Thanks for all the help along the way. Just yesterday I ordered a wine making kit so I have all the tools to do this as a main hobby. U guys are awesome
I love how chill you are about everything, the Vikings probably didn’t are use exact measurements. 😂
In household recipe too, we don't measure each gram or ml of ingredients. We estimate it using spoon, hand or drinking glass/cup which is just a good rule of thumb.
The exact measurements are necessary if you run a company for particular brand. There consistency is more important for every batch.
Spin your hydrometer to get the bubbles off👍I make wine ,I’m wanting to learn to mead. Great video 👍👍
Yeah, that wasn't bubbles, that was foam.... :)
"Violence is the answer" "Violence is never the answer. Violence is the question. The answer is Yes." :)
So you're saying Violence is the question and the answer...
Well, the quote is that Violence is the question, with the answer being "Yes", so it would go something like:
Violence?
Yes!
I first encountered it in a long running web comic called "Schlock Mercenary" by Howard Tayler (yes, that's Tayler with an E not an O).
I was replying my quote to specifically be a reply to you using the "Violence is the answer" in the video.
I just started a 2 gallon batch the other day, and I used a paint mixer and 5 gallon bucket (both sanitized of course) to mix the honey and water in
New subscriber! I'm really enjoying your stuff, I have a simple mead brewing right now.
Awesome! Thanks for the subscribe and welcome to your new -obsession- er... hobby.
There is still a lot of debate as to whether that's legal or not. My own research makes it... iffy at best. There was some blogger that the TTB told him it was legal for home use, but... meh, I don't really want to get arrested since... doing it is one thing, making a video and putting it out to the whole world is another.
City Steading very true. Good point.
Chris- Federal law states that it is legal to own a still of any size. It doesn't matter if you have a 1 gallon still or a 100 gallon still. According to the feds, it is legal to have a still for decoration, distilling water, distilling essential oils, etc. The still does not need to be registered with anyone and no permits are needed as long as it is being used for the aforementioned purposes. However, be advised it is illegal to distill alcohol without having either a "distilled spirits permit" or a "federal fuel alcohol permit." It does not matter if the alcohol is for personal use only, not for sale, etc. If a person wishes to legally distill alcohol, they have two options. The first option is to obtain a Federal Distilled Spirits Permit. This is the permit that industry giants like Jack Daniels and Makers Mark distilleries possess, which makes it legal for them to distill and distribute to the public. As one might imagine, this permit is very difficult to get.
In short, unless you're opening a distillery with the intention of selling your product in liquor stores, don't even bother looking into getting a distilled spirits permit; it's way too expensive and complicated for a home distiller to obtain. Instead pursue a fuel alcohol permit (which we'll describe next).
Option two is a Federal Fuel Alcohol Permit (link below), which is free and easy to get. We've never heard of anyone being denied the permit and have never heard of anyone even being checked up on. Just be advised that the feds will expect that you're putting your alcohol in you lawnmower, and not drinking it!
Yup. The discussion was on freeze concentration though, known as "jacking". I've said MANY MANY TIMES distilling is illegal in the US. In fact, in Florida, it's illegal to own the still.
Liked the video,i home brew myself and 1 tip on getting the honey into the bottle is to lightly heat your honey using the double boiler method on a low heat till your honey is loosened
I usually do... not sure why I didn't that time!
Yay! Another Mead video! Love it! You are inspiring me! Looking forward to see more Mead videos from you guys! Can't wait to make my next batch!
That's what we do... we inspire people to -drink- err.. make alcohol.
Definitely gonna try this. Been wanting to make some mead for years, you guys are finally gonna me to go for it!
Yay! Do it!
I just discovered your channel and love it.
I love mead and I'm looking forward to making your recipe. After reading Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine", decades ago, I've always wanted to make some.
I've made a batch 3 years ago and it is great but I was wondering if you had a recipe or if could recommend one.
Thanks for your great videos.
My batch I put in two days after this video went out has really kicked of the brewing process. Thanks for the video and I really liked the honey you linked. Can't wait for the taste video
Oh man this has got to be one of your first videos! Love it and the way you get your must to check OG will let's just say "YOU HAVE OME A LONG WAY BABY"! Loved it again THANKS!
August, 2018... yeah, it's an oldie.
Started my own mead batch for a couple of weeks ago, somewhat inspired by this video! it´s soon ready to bottle up and pasturize :)
Great job i am an abbod home brewer and watching you brings some fond memmories
You should start brewing again then!
Oh i still do but only wild picked fruit. Last one is still brewing is a blackberry crabapple combo
I am still brewing but i wish there was a channel like this when i first started but you and i have almost identical brewing methoids. I use no chemicals and thist past summer all my brews were 100% wild picked but now ill try a mead. I have some honey i collected. Oh if you want to try something really beautiful the sap from a sugar mapel tree if you can get you hands on it uts a very newtral flavor but adds a really nice aroma
In regards to mead being older than beer: aboriginal australians have a continuous culture of up to 60000 years as understood at this point... And many mobs (nations) drank water fermented with honey and natural yeasts formed in bark (natural tannins) at the base of trees as a long term tradition: Mead. I'm not culturally aboriginal but just wanted to add to the argument of mead being older than beer. I love both!
And beer requires far too many steps to make, this has always been my argument! Thanks for that!
Completely off topic but... I love your t-shirt! I love Gir!
Doom song!
Love some good mead. Orange blossom honey has made some of my tastiest meads. About a month into fermentation on a 5 gallon batch of blueberry mead using 33 lbs of juiced blueberries and 11 lbs of orange blossom honey. Waiting for the aging is definitely the hardest part.
Time is the biggest ingredient in any brew. I've had good luck with orange blossom too.
Started my amazon wish list to hopefully start homebrewing mead! Have a really cool idea for a mead that I'd love to try once I successfully make a basic mead
I live in Vermont and Groenfell Meadery is really good stuff! They also make the wine versions. They put the recipes on their website as well for free!
You should make a Mead with black mangrove honey, when I lived in Florida this by far was my favorite honey, it's a darker honey with a pretty pungent flavor.
Hydromel is also the french name for mead / honey wine.
Thanks for posting this great video.
Those French.... yep, they call it hydromel. The rest of the world calls it mead, or t'ej, or a million other things, lol.
Remember when I said I was trying to make a lighter mead for testing and not wasting good amounts of red raw honey doing a bad batch right? So here we are after a month (using Fleischmann's yeast), my 1 liter batch (0,26 US Gal) suddenly stopped bubbling in one day and started clearing itself quite fast on the next day, I've used a mead builder calculator targeting a sweet mead using 350 grams for 7% ABV but my guess is that I've reached 14% ABV since I've let it fermeting to dry and no more bubbles came up after 30 days.
I've already racked from the primary to the secondary a day ago and I gave it a taste (never tasted Hydromel/Mead before) and it was quite good actually, powerful with a good mouth feel (thanks to your tip on the other Mead video using boiled black tea with raisins) and with such nice finish with fruity notes and a bit of a medicinal note (courtesy of Eucalyptus Raw Honey I guess...)
A question: If I want to reach a sweet mead, should I stop the fermenting process until I reach the desired gravity? Or let it ferment until dry and backsweetening it with more honey on the secondary after pasteurizing it?
I would fement dry, then backsweeten, but your yeast is the one thing you want to know it's tolerance... if you are at yeast tolerance, you can usually backsweeten without worry.
Ask the Mead maker is one of the best shows for Mead
For now.... bwahahaha!
I think that I have learn basics from your great vids. So I am ready to start my hard cider at monday when my "tools" arrives.
Awesome! Glad to have helped!
Great video. As someone who is just now getting ready to start making wine again, I am most happy to see this common sense approach taken toward mead. There is so much lore, allegedly arcane knowledge that only a few truly understand, etc that it is a wonder anyone attempts to make it at all. Thank you for not unecessarily complicating this. Just sub'd last week. Love the low key approach. And you look like you are having fun which is how this sort of content should be approached. Wassail!
Thank you so much. Not everyone appreciates my approach, and there is a lot of elitism in brewing. I don't know why, it used to be a household thing just as common as making coffee (which most do wrong today anyway). Making wine, mead, beer and cider should be easy and fun. If we make it too complicated, no one wants to do it. There's not some magic voodoo that prevents the average person from doing it, just a lot of stigma and naysaying. Thanks for your support and there will be more to come!
Awesome. Maybe a braggot one day? I have never tried a malt and honey blend. Maybe a bit complicated. I don't know if it needs a boil like all malt beer. Thanks again.
I'm planning a braggot soon for video. I made one months ago (off camera) that was a coffee stout braggot. It was dark, rich, and about 12% alcohol. I have one bottle left that I'm saving.
+Shemp82 just swallowed the last mouthful of a black braggot I made on New Year's eve 2012. Still tasty after all these years. Give braggot a try. I feel like braggot is what most people expect mead to taste like
+City Steading Got two braggots finishing in my basement at the moment and looking forward to the bragg vid. Rock on, bro.
love your methods, idon't have the equipt yet but working on it
We do have links to most of the equipment you need in the descriptions if you need it!
Watching all your videos has really helped the anxiety of "perfect" . You're correct our ancestors did this forever ago with way less. I think I will be okay.
Everything is going to be alright. The important thing is to enjoy the process and hopefully enjoy the end result. There will always be room for improvement regardless of how "perfect" you are. Happy Brewing!
dude love your vids has anyone ever told you you kinda remind me of Alton brown lol like it your entertaining and informative
You're the third person to say that! I learned to cook watching him, maybe some rubbed off?
Lol I wish I had you're channel when I started out. What you're making here I did on pure accident and my friends and I call it yard mead because we had made a mead. Added it to a Apple juice and forgot about it for two weeks in my yard. When I went to go now it the plastic jug was swollen and it made an awful hiss when I opened it. Lol damn good stuff... And so I modified my 5 gal to mimic what you're doing and probably the same amount of honey scaled up. About 12 lbs of honey, and I made a pint of black cherry blood Orange and raspberry marmalade just a couple of months ago. I will send you a photo it tastes amazing!!!! Thank for showing this. People gauf at my yard mead till they try it! I'm using ale yeast for mine and I'm getting 20% abv. I don't understand why it's so high it just comes out that way.
20% is above the tolerance of just about every yeast out there, so that's pretty impressive.
You can put the hydrometer in there first and then fill it up till the hydrometer floats so you don’t have to worry about it over flowing.
I made a sack mead 5 years ago, 5lbs honey to 1 gallon of water, plus a mead yeast. AWESOME.
Probably very sweet. I estimate your OG at 1.175. Mead yeast? I'm curious, as I've never found any that state that they are made for mead! But, even a champagne yeast dies off at 18%-20%, so you had a lot of residual sweetness in there. Did you age it?
Sack mead is supposed to be sweet.
Yup! That one was probably VERY sweet, lol.
Quite likely most sack recipes I can find use a 3 to 1 ratio.
Mhm, me too, and I always wonder why they make them THAT sweet. In ye olden times, that would be considered a waste of mead, since you don't need all that to make a sweet high ABV mead. Today, it's cloyingly sweet to our palates. I made a cyser once that should have gone to 18%, but stopped at 15%. I thought that was pretty sickeningly sweet. Your mead may have been 18% at most but could have gone to 23%! That's a lot of residual sugar!
Love the GIR shirt!
Tacos!
I'm gunna sing the doom song now doom de doom doom...
Thanks for the video. Looking forward to making some mead or cider.
When i was starting out as a home brewer i didnt have an aire lock, but the carbines came with caps. So i used the caps. 2/3 carbines exploded after a few weeks of fermenting😂😂 it took days clean up. I kept finding sticky spots all over the place
Nearly done with my first mead (from your "first mead" recipe). I absolutely love it but it is def a little dense. I am going to try this one next!
Trying this one next, thank you for the great video.
Thanks for these videos, totally motivated me to start homebrewing during the rest of my maternity leave hehehe...i have soooo much free time (not). Got a starter kit and my test batch of hydromel is working it's magic (i also have a few sodas and root beer with ginger bugs going on). Permanent sub here!
Cool! We have a lot to do in our "free time" too. Never enough time is there? I'll be making ginger ale and beer and root beer soonish in videos!
Thank you for the raisin idea, I am using that. I have a suggestion for you. Use better water. Just like beer, mead taste is affected by the water chemistry. I use Fiji water, Icelandic glacier water, or Voss water. The taste improves dramatically and removes that rubber tire aftertaste you get from the RO or filtered water. Also Fiji water comes out clearer, ferments faster, and makes a stronger mead.
Honestly? I have tested our water to other high quality ones and the filtered we have is on par.
@@CitySteadingBrews it's more about the available mineral content of the water used. That mineral content has a significant role in the end product taste. Try some fiji water on a gallon and compare it to your other end products.
@@olusionist when I say I've tested, I mean... in brews.
Thanks for the information though!
@@CitySteadingBrews good to hear. I love your show you guys have inspired me in my brewing. I do year long fermentations and I have been expanding into short runs. I will be doing a chocolate mead using cacao (thank you for that). I also have some honey comb I'm experimenting with.
Im gona try that Fiji water next time, sounds expensive but its for science, wwill make for a good experiment
I'm definitely going to try this recipe and I'll share it to the VIP group.
My real question is where did you get that amazing Shirt!?!?!?
Probably from our store...
Excited for the taste test
A couple weeks from now!
I envy the shelf behind you. It is a Good Shelf
Last year that shelf was up to 80 some odd bottles. I've been drinking it down lately. I'm making room for my own homebrews.
I’m making a kavass mead hybrid atm. Thanks for the content and tips.
Hey guys! Love your videos and your funny and easygoing approaches to meadmaking and fermentation in general!
Can you make a video on carbonating this hidromel? I have Ken schramms book on meadmaking but the part on priming Mead is kinda contradictory. I do not get where should i prime this liquid: if im supposed to prime on bottling, and if bottles are going to age (this is more related with Higher Gravity meads), isnt That going to create potencial bottle bombs?
Cheers from Portugal guys!
Hi, I am making the Viking Blood mead and plan to make this Hydromel Mead over the weekend. I am new to making anything mead, wine etc... I am worried that I might have screwed up in using distilled water for my Viking Blood mead you show how to make. Should I not use distilled water? Really enjoy your channel.
Nah, should be fine.
City Steading thanks I'll let you know how it turns out.
Yanick Goossens thanks, hopefully. It will be ok. Gave nutrients and it's bubbling away
If you're in the USA make sure that your "honey" is not corn syrup
Sad but true. that's why I get only raw honey from local beekeepers, even if it was bought in a store. I know the place is legit.
That can happen?!? Wow
In the US its illegal to sell corn syrup as honey... it is a problem in Canada though.
In the US it is legal to dilute honey with corn syrup and not mention it on the bottle.
actually- if it's labeled "Pure Honey" is has to be just honey. if it's labeled "Honey" it can contain HFCS.
def wanna try this one day... also awesome shirt :D
Definitely you should do it. Also, thanks.
Hell yeah I live in St Pete too I'm going to try this recipe
I had no idea you guys are in St. Pete. I was born and raised in Tampa!
Watching this old video i just realized you live in the same city as me.. I had been watching yalls videos for the past year now and when i first started i had this weird feeling i had seen you guys before. Thought i was crazy but I guess not
I'm trying this but with the "traditional mead tea" plus 1 cinnamon and 1 clove like JAOM recipe, so its like a JAOM with "mouthfeel tea" but low ABV, hope it turns out well hahaha.
Like what you guys do, one question about Hydromel Mead, can you add flavoring to this brew like spices, dry fruit (home dried) and so on in the start or is it better to do it later.
By the way I have watch the other episodes connected to this video
You can do either.
Is it ok to add the raises after 3 weeks into making mead? I made 5 gallons of mead with only water, honey and Mead yeast.
The raisins are really for flavor and sugar so yes.
Is the turkey baster better than the wine thief? I see you using the baster more often in your recent videos. I’m getting ready to take the plunge! Another question, is how big of a stockpot would you recommend for maybe a two gallon beer brew? Keep up the good work. Thank you.
For me it's easier. Our wine thieves are either too small and breakable or too big for the fermenter. For a 2 gallon brew, I'd use at least a 3 gallon pot.
You always have awesome shirts. Invader Zim, I like it
I am going to start making meade and cider. I was curious though. What books would you recomend and are there any other youtubers you would give props to that keep the process as simple as you do? I am very excited about getting this going but it's my first time so I'm nervous too and want to get as much info as possible. Thanks in advance.
I read a few books, most weren't all that helpful in the end. I looked on RUclips, found lots of videos, some helped a little, some not so much. It's very hit or miss. Not to toot our own horn, but we have several wine/mead videos and some are designed to go into detail on how to brew, so you might find most of what you need right here.
Great video. Thanks!
Here in India, very few know what is mead. I have to frequently tell them it's honey wine. And the best part is it's good for health and doesn't have hangover even if taken in excess. In fact it's highly energetic drink. A 250ml glass gives me a nice sleep after heavy work at night shift.
Would you add black tea for mouth feel? Also what is the best yeast for hydromels?
not gonna lie, mostly hit like just because of the second edition books on the shelf lol
I'll take that.
For d&d?
Yep.
Been playing since I was 10
I just made some mead using roughly 7kg of honey to roughly 16L of water, but I only had a 1.076 og and a predicted ABV of roughly 9.5% which seems quite low. I thought about it for 2 days then thought maybe there was some at the bottom of the carboy that settled. I shook the carboy to say to mix it and didn't notice anysettled at the bottom, but it's possible that it just dissolved in mixed up its own with the yeast bubbling isn't it? I was hoping to get a just mildly sweet Mead in the end that was not Superdry but still really dry with a little bit of flavour leftover. What are your thoughts on allowing the primary ferment to finish completely, then adding some sweetness back into it after racking it in the form of Honey or fruits? Also, do you think thatthe OG I got was wrong based on the volumes that I used?
Awesome vid. Gonna try this next ;) also gonna buy those jars instead of using juice container that the juice comes in. . I did buy airlocks. ;) lol
Raisins aren't really nutrient... they're more a flavor and extra sugars.
Ok so i know this probably is me just being alot and stuff but i started my first mead and I'll update on how it goes
I started a hydromel a little over 2 weeks ago . The O.G was at 1.060 . Which i am happy with but the only yeast I had was Lalvin k1-v1116 (18% tolerance) . I also have potassium sorbate to stop the ferment. Besides the waste in the yeasts potential. Do you think I will have trouble back sweating and/or flavoring without restarting a fermentation ? Your assurance that the potassium Sorbate will do its job is all I'm looking for that would make me feel much better lol
Well... I never use potassium sorbate for one. You have absolutely no need to stop this fermentation. Your gravity of 1.060 means a pretty low abv anyway. Something around 7% or so. That yeast can go as high as 18%. If you backsweeten you will restart a fermentation. Hydromels are generally dry though so it’s all good.
@@CitySteadingBrews yea that was my concern. I'm going to let it ferment to 1.000 and taste it if it's too dry to my taste I would want to sweeten It without restarting fermentation again. I'll keep my fingers crossed that the sorbate will do its job correctly.. Ehh we'll see what happens thanks for your quick reply looking forward to more mead videos !!!
I'm laughing so hard at your wine thief....when at that point you could have just poured it into the hydromeyer tube......glad you upgraded to the master baster....
have a challenge you. Try making Kvass (Russian beverage made from bread that is fermented).
I can do that. Might even do a vid on making the bread. :)
it's actually good. i made it at home, and probably screwed some of the process, but it turned out a nice light beverage.
It's really low alcohol, like under 2% and takes less than 2 days. I'm in. I'll make some this week off camera so I can sound like I know what I'm doing on camera :)
yep, the commercial stuff can be sold without id checks even. Though some debate it being real Kvass or just a rye soda.
Technically, it is Rye soda with natural carbonation.
Aeration is only really important at the start of fermentation because the yeast need it to reproduce. The rest of their life cycle is anaerobic meaning it doesn't require oxygen. I have also never hydrated my yeast and have never had a problem getting it to start fermenting. Then again I also always use the entire packet of yeast when I brew. It's a lot harder to overpitch than underpitch. More active cells is usually better. I just always make sure I'm using fresh yeast.
The only reason I hydrate is to know if I have live yeast or dead yeast. It takes a few seconds to set up a hydration, but I'd rather know now than in a few days that my yeast are either healthy or they're not!
Where can I get the shirt with Grr surrounded by tacos?! Hahaha
New Sub Here! Love the vids! So I just watched your video on a traditional Mead and you chopped the raisins. Looking back would you do the same in this style as well, opposed to leaving them whole?
Chopping lets out more of their contents.
Good video :) You mentioned the 'Mad Scientist'. Mad Scientist is actually a craft beer brewing company in my country. :) They making some really good beer. :)
Hello my friend. Tomorrow I will start my first attempt at producing mead. I would like to ask you in a 5 liter container how many grams of yeast to add?
Greetings from Greece!
The exact amount isn’t critical, use a teaspoon or so.
Hello! Thanks for the video. I'd like to know what else I could add instead of raisins? Thanks a lot
Raisins are the most common, but you can add pretty much any fruit.
@@CitySteadingBrews Oh oke. thank you!
My first mead (which is yet to be tasted, only a couple more weeks or so) was half measured half not measured. I wanted to be pretty scientific about the whole thing but ended up just being like 'what the heck, let's go crazy' :P Looking pretty good so far but only time will tell if it tastes any good!
Mead is a lot like pizza. You can put a lot of stuff in it, play loose with the volumes, and still make something your friends will want to try.
What are your thoughts on using something other than raisins to add the nutrients and tannins? I know you used black tea in one of your videos too, could other types of dried fruit be used in place of raisins in conjunction with black tea?
Certainly
@@CitySteadingBrews Awesome, I'm gonna give it a shot. Never brewed any alcohol before so here goes nothin! I've watched several of your videos to help me get started so thanks for all the info!
Good luck! For your first brew though... I recommend following a recipe as precisely as possible then experiment after that brew.
Can I use the same method you have used in the traditional recipe video? You know, boilling chopped raisins with black tea and adding it to the mix instead of putting the raisins directly into the fermenting jar? Is there any difference at all?
I'm going to get this Hydromel as my first try, I don't wanna waste extra honey on something that I don't know yet to make (raw honey is quite expensive these days).
Yup!
Just FYI... don't know how much the honey is at Whole Foods, BUT... if you google for your local honey bee supply store, I'm sure you can get close to whole sale depending on if food items in FL are sales taxed. Up here near Winston Salem, NC... a pint is $11 from my bee supply store.
We usually order it online at this point.... $11 for a pint is about $7.33 a lb. We spend about $5.76 a lb online for really good FL honey:
I just had a thought. What do you call a beverage that's like mead, but it uses maple syrup instead of honey?
Maple wine.
@@CitySteadingBrews
Have you ever tried making it?
Dude I love your shirt
If I wanted to make a 5 gallon batch would it be safe just to multiply the amount of ingredients you added by 5?
Yes.
I know you probably get this all the time but my hydromel has stopped bubbling after 1 week through the airlock. Am I just to leave it for another week or 2 before I rack? This is my 1st time doing this.
Take a hydrometer reading.
And what type of yeast do you use can you also put that in the reply please because I am interested in making my own too
Hi there I just watched this vidio I have just made 5 gallons of plain mead it has been sitting for 2 weeks and was wandering if I could add raisins at this point or anything else for flavor or is it too late for that
Absolutely you can.
I have used unlubricated condoms when making home made wines and spirits but now am going to buy the kit for better results
I have a question. I want to make a watermelon wine. I want it to be a sweet wine so what could I add
I have an RO water filter system which I use for all of my home brew/shine. You mentioned not to use RO because it takes out all the minerals but I disagree as my RO has a remineralisation stage to add in the essential minerals. I can't begin to explain how good it is, all my wort/mash is amazing with my water filter setup.
Not all RO systems do that.
@@CitySteadingBrews no they don't but I had the option of swapping out my fourth stage for a mineral cartridge so I could re introduce the good minerals.
Hey great video! Gonna definitely try my hand at that. Unrelated question. I got a dandelion wine ready to bottle. Should I backsweeten it? I've never had it so idk what to expect.
Well... that's more a personal preference thing. I have no idea how you fermented it, or what your OG and FG are. I say try it. If it's not sweet enough, backsweeten. I tend to do it on a case by case basis. For instance, I just pulled out a cider from March of this year, poured it over ice and tasted it. Was dry. Added a little simple syrup and BAM... awesomeness.
City Steading oooh interesting! I usually backsweeten the whole batch after loading it with sulfates. SG was 1.08 and FG was .990.
Though also it turned from yellow to orange which makes me feel like I might have messed it up 😦
We don't use sulfites, sorbates or anything like that. All natural around here. Without knowing exactly what you did, I can't say if you messed it up or not! But that's 11.8% ABV and very very dry, so you may want to sweeten it. Depends on your taste though. Yellow to orange? Is that after sulfiting?
City Steading Yeah I'm trying to get off them, but don't want to make my wine too boozey by overloading the sugar, and don't want it very very dry either lol. Simple syrup as I go might be the best long term.
Two things I did that might have effected it. I used a little of the green bulb, which I hear isn't great, and I left it out in my kitchen because the pantry I stored it in needed desperate cleaning, then sort of forgot about it. Maybe the light messed with it?
Also pre sorbates. So far it's all natural!
I used regular raisins, my hydromel has been brewing for three weeks now and the raisins are still floating, there's no mold or anything like that but they look a little funky. Is this normal?
Yup!
I've found that using a 2ltr coke bottle cut down as a funnel is a snug fit to the demijon and larger hole so goes in better
+mark Clifford I like your thinking.
So question if you wanna see if you like the taste of mead is a hydromel best to go for over a dry or sweet mead?
That's really just personal preference.
About the degasing topic, sure back in the days they probably didnt do it. But did it taste as good as the stuff we can make today? We will never know, things evolve, the brewing of mead evolves. I always degas and ad lots off oxygen during the first few days (close to a week). Works wonders for me so i keep doing it. :) Perhaps you tried both ways? Maybe you could do 1 batch, in 2 carboys and try "old method" vs "new method" and se the if you can taste the difference. Hey, thats a good idea, might do that myself!
Greetings from sweden! :-)
This is what I promote... do what works for you. Many of the people watching our videos have never tried it before. They've wanted to, but were put off by too many complicated or seemingly complicated techniques, lots of hard to get ingredients and things like that. Does adding oxygen help in the early fermentation? Sure. I wouldn't do a whole week though, maybe 3 days. Past that the colony is making alcohol and the risk of oxygenation damage is higher. As for degassing... I tend to let my brews sit long enough they degas themselves, lol. I've never found a flavor difference in degassing or not by the way. I suppose if you degas near the end of a fermentation you might squeeze a bit more alcohol out if you're close to your yeast tolerance due to them not liking Co2, but that's about it.
"violence is the answer" lol
Caught that, huh....
I tried this recipe. OG is 1.050 using Clover based honey and has been fermenting for 14 days. I used raisins (rather than sultana's) and they are all floating at the top. Is this normal? I did cut them up prior to fermentation. If they dont sink, can I assume I just rack normally rather than sieve, then rack?
Raisins flot, that’s normal.
Just out of curiousity, what are your thoughts on possibly making an acerglyn in the future?
From what i understand, its pretty much a mead substituting maple syrup instead of honey.
Lots asking about this lately. I plan to try it. An acerglyn, to my knowledge is a mead made with maple syrup, not 100% maple syrup, but that's possible also.
I just bottled an Acerglyn yesterday. I used maple syrup (1.5L), yeast nutrient (1.5tsp) and a packet of Lalvin Bourgovin RC 212 for a gallon. It ended up semi dry and 16% ABV. It's an interesting flavor the maple is fairly mild on the front end but comes on strong in the backend it's still a little hot but It's only aged 4 months which is a little short for 16% so I will probably let the rest of the bottles age for another 3-4 months.