r/mead

I found these in the back of my closet from high school. I had a few bottles not long after making it and was fine, but I don’t know if they’re still safe. A fun keepsake regardless

Answered thank you!!

This is my first batch of mead (Strawberry using the recipe from the Man Made Mead YouTube video) and have a quick question about clearing before bottling.

I added Sparkaloid a week ago and it looks pretty clear to me. I did rack it over into a new carboy today to get it off the sediment before bottling. My question is rather or not there is a benefit to cold crashing now or is this about as clear as I’m going to get and should just go ahead and bottle?

It’s currently 26 days old and was pasteurized prior to clearing if that makes any difference.

it got up to 14% and got a nice tart flavour, but feel like the strawberries didnt come through as much as I hoped.

Does this look drinkable, started fermenting 4 months ago. Will I die?

Water, peaches, honey, yeast

Recipe: vessel size: 10L?? / 1.5kg honey / 10g M05 ''Mangrove Jacks' mead yeast / + 6g yeast nutrient / some fresh zests of no-spray tangelo.

I racked this mead into the new vessel, to remove it from the citrus skins (skins on for about 4 weeks, prob too long but anyway).

Before I racked, it had stopped bubbling at all after a maybe 2 weeks. Even with aeration from racking, no activity. The mead is still sweet.

It's cold here, getting down to 5-8Celsius at night, but not crazy cold, and the room with the mead is generally 15 or 16degrees or up to early 20s if the fire is on. I kept it insulated with a wool blanket so it doesn't fluctuate so much.

Do I need to add more nutrient? (I just added at the start. Has worked this way in the past). Should I warm the vessel up for a few days?

Would love some advice!

My last mead batch got drier than this one, but still stalled and had sweetness after 10months (I forgot about it and just tasted recently) still no idea what happened there.

RESOLVED (tentative)
Failure to keep certain records prevents proper calculation.

Original:

Hey Meadheads, I'm trying to join your club, and need some help.

I've been tracking the SG of my first batch of mead. The image above shows the graph of the 4 days so far. I imaging you have noticed something strange about day 1. I don't believe that the SG should ever rise...
I don't know what I did wrong, but I likely either measured the SG incorrectly or I didn't mix the must thoroughly enough. I did not add anything after measuring on day 1 other than 2 grams of Fermaid-O.
I'm trying to determine my true OG because I believe that is ( with the FG ) the best way to calculate your ABV. ( ? )

TL;DR:

Basically, I'm asking someone with previous records to consult said records and estimate my true day 1 OG/SG. We'll have to presume the rest of the SGs are accurate.

Some miscellaneous information about my must:

Batch volume is was ( unfortunate failure to de-gas on day 2; lost about 1 cup ) about 7/8 of a gallon.
About 1/2 of honey is pasteurized, else is unpasteurized.
About 1/3 of sugar came from maple syrup.
I rehydrated the yeast for 10 minutes, then attemperated, before adding to must, but did not add Go-Ferm.
I used 3 grams of LalBrew Nottingham yeast. Yes, that is an ale yeast, but I like beer more than wine, and didn't see a reason I couldn't try this, just maybe why I shouldn't.
I have been liberally sanitizing with a potassium metabisulfite solution, as described on the wiki.
I will infuse the mead with spices during secondary.
I have consulted online resources before starting this, including the wiki.

Otherwise, everything seems to be going well. To my unseasoned eyes the yeast seems to be thriving, and is constantly making a serious amount of CO2.
( hell yep )

EDIT 1:

I was hoping that someone would see that day 2 had an SG of 1.111, and say "Oh! I had a batch that had almost that exact number on day 2 as well! So your day 1 is probably quite close to: [number]."
Considering that several helpful people have already responded, but none as above, I take it that my simplistic solution doesn't work? Is the rate of fermentation too inconsistent to be easily calculated like this?

EDIT 2:

Thanks for all the advice guys. Unfortunately, it seems my failure to keep exact ingredient and volume records will prevent us from figuring this out. I'll just have to accept not knowing the ABV for certain, I guess.

Thanks for all the help, and for not demeaning me because of my mistakes. You made me feel welcome here.

My plum tree yielded 13,5kg's so far, with still a ton of fruit hanging in.

picked up this bad boy for €50 to make my plum mead, guess who isnt using water nor store bought juice this time around ;)

Side Note, I love these half gallon milk bottles you can get off Amazon for the same cost or less than Carboys. Just buy a cheap airlock and grommet kit to match for some very modular bottles with a lower volume to limit headspace!

Got Blueberry, Raspberry, and Cherry. Then Hibiscus and traditional. Added cinnamon and vanilla to a couple bottles and will check in at 2 weeks or so to see if the cinnamon is sufficiently infused. ABV is estimated on a few of them since I added honey water to some to backsweeten and reduce headspace, no more than 10-15% total volume though.

I tried to use the chart, but I don’t trust myself.

I used raw unfiltered honey. One was with cherry juice and one was with tea. I used sparkolloid to clear.

First time making a mead and I heard you could substitute honey for jam if you used pectic enzymes. Made a base of raspberry jam and raspberry lemonade and then added the yeast it’s been around 2 hours and there’s some kind of layer at the top do I need to scrap this or am I fine to add the nutrients and start fermenting