People always ask us, how did you get started? It was making micro batches like this. It’s a cheap way to learn the craft, work on your ratios, cold crashing, racking etc for cheap. If you mess up a batch, no problem. We now do 1200 gallons at a time every 3 weeks but it started with 1/2 gallon.

Today was the day.

I was going for a single gallon of Viking's Blood variant.

• Tart cherry juice 3x 940 ml

• Dried hibiscus tea

• Honey.

But while making the must, I ended up with way too much liquid and not enough honey, with a gravity of 1.094.

So I split the must, made a full cherry hibiscus one on the right, and for the mixed berry, I just made an extra hibiscus tea, mixed what was left of the must into it, mashed about 3 pounds of frozen mixed berries (thawed from the freezer) directly into it, and used it as the base for the second one. To my absolute surprise, it ended up with 1.094 - 1.096 gravity also.

So hopefully, they both end up good.

Also, I know... headspace is almost nonexistent; blowoff tubes were used for that exact reason!

Im getting back into making mead and was wondering if anyone had any good fall recommendations/ recipes. Looking to try something new any help is appreciated

Yesterday, I set out to finally join you all in making my very first mead, or more accurately, my first melomel.

Last Christmas, I received a "Jigger N' Dash - Mead Making Kit" from my family. Yesterday, as stated above, I set out to create my first batch. Spurred into action by a mixed berry mead from a local bar, I planned out a nice raspberry melomel with no experience to my name.

Three pounds of honey, two pounds of raspberrys, two packets of nutrient, one packet of D47 yeast all topped off with spring water, my first batch was finally mixed together in its carboy. The fatal flaw in my creation had not yet shown.

Fast forward to this morning. I wake up eager to check on my creation, stored in the back of a cabinet to keep it from the sunlight. I run to the kitchen. To my horror, red drops were dripping from the cabinet. Opening the cabinet reveled a scene I can only describe as akin to your average saw trap aftermath. Red raspberry juice and flesh everywhere.

The valuable lesson I learned today was to leave very, very ample room in the carboy, lest you want to make a bomb.

Hopefully, whomever reads this, can learn from my mistake as well. Praying this batch isnt compromised because of it.

Picture of before explosion, and after being cleaned off.

This is my second time making mead and today I found this white suspension inside the fermenter, the one I made before didn't make those white things inside. If anyone can be of any help I would appreciate it

I’ve never seen this before, any idea what it is?

This is my first 5L batch and I was wondering if I had too much headspace with the secondary fermentation stage.

The two bottles on the left are my sweet batch and have: 344 g Honey - about 200 g of honey from my university's hives and the rest is Nate's 100% raw and unfiltered honey

316 g water

The two bottles on the right are my dry batch and have: 230 g. Honey - Glory Bee pure honey Pacific Northwest clover blossom

339 g water

I didn't realize I'd be able to taste the difference so much! In the dry batch I can definitely taste the yeast and the sweet batch is very sweet.

I've been making mead for a few years now and have never had this issue before. We make 5 gallons at a time and it usually starts working immediately by the next morning. It's been a week and we do not have any bubbling action happening. We used the same recipe we always do, but I did add one more orange slice than usual and no cinnamon. It's a blueberry mead that always turns out.

Is there anything I should do to save it? Or should I wait it out like the internet suggests or is there something I should be doing to encourage the bubbling? We are using brand new fermenting buckets this time around, but everything feels secured. Any suggestions would be appreciated 🙏

UPDATE: I checked the gravity and it is working, just super slow. Might be my new buckets I am pretty sure it's where the air lock sits. They came very obviously drilled and had to be sanded down. It had literal loose pieces of plastic hanging down. Will keep an eye on it thank you for all the insights

Around 5 months or so ago, I started a few batches and in one of them I added around 1 1/2 ounces of dried elderberries for around 2 weeks during conditioning. Admittedly, I knew nothing about elderberries when I added them, other than the fact that I’ve consumed a couple store bought elderberry meads in the past and enjoyed them. Flash forward to this past weekend, I added super kleer to get ready to bottle in a few days, decided now that I’m done with the batch, I should read a bit about elderberries (because apparently I like to do things backwards sometimes) and come to find out, they need to be boiled to remove or inhibit the natural cyanide contained within the berries??

Question: While I’ve sampled a couple sips during the brew and conditioning, should I be worried about potential cyanide toxicity since I just added the dried berries? I’ll include a photo of the bag that I purchased. I didn’t see any warning labels on the bag it came in.

Again, I added less than 2 ounces in a one gallon batch. Is it safe to drink? I sure hope so because it’s delicious.

Thanks!

Just bottled my latest batch of a lavender, lemon, vanilla mead that I'm calling L.L.Bean. 3rd batch I've ever made, first time attempting to stabilize and backsweeten and this is easily the best tasting batch I've made yet. The flavors are all nice and subtle and come together really nicely. It's got a little bite to it but after about another 5-6 months or so, it ought to be banging. Recipe in the comments.

I'm making my second batch of mead and just did the 48-hour feeding of Fermaid O. It was a very exciting event--I lost about a quart of must and got to use my wet-vac. I had swirled the carboy several times to degas before feeding, but when I swirled it afterwards it dramatically blew the stopper and overflowed.

So I clearly need to do a better job of degassing in the future (right? That's what caused the problem?). But how do I do that without oxygenating the must after fermentation has started?

And tomorrow, when I feed the Fermaid K and DAP, can I expect the same explosive reaction? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

I'll probably toss it regardless but I'm curious - what do you do with your PET carboys after a bad infected batch? Is there a sanitizing protocol that makes them safe to reuse?

I’ve always used cored, skinned, sliced apples to make my apple mead but I feel it takes up a lot of space (for more mead!). I was wondering what type of apple flavoring gives you the best/most apple flavor by volume. Applesauce? Slices? Apple juice? Apple juice concentrate? Has anyone else experimented with any of these?

Hello, I have been doing research into making mead for the first time and I think I have everything to get started but I just have some questions relating to the specific fruit addition process.

I want to make a gallon of mead, so I figure I will just use 2 lbs of blackberries, half for primary, and the other half for secondary.

What is the best way to add them? Should I freeze them and then just drop them in when it's time? Otherwise I was thinking that I could just simmer them on a pan, but I don't know what exactly is the best way to do that. Do I need a nonstick pan? Do I need to add anything to the berries on the pan or can I just sort of mash them in the pan as they cook and then strain the whole thing with a strainer to just get whatever liquid? If any videos exist for this specific process exist I would like if you could share them so I can get an idea of what to do. Thanks.

The color difference between the raspberry melomel on the right which is cooling after being pasteurized to the one in the pot which just started.

Both of these batches were started at the same time with the same ingredients in each.

Im pasteurizing them to halt fermentation.

I thought it was neat how fast the color changes when the yeast are dead.

Sadly did not have enough bottles to put it in... So I used a cleaned, and sanitized glass gal carboy with airlock cap! Used raw orange blossom honey, and it had a semi sweet taste with a bready like after taste very pleasantly surprised with the outcome! Can not wait for the next part of my mead journey, whether that be fruit, or strange combinations of flavors!

It’s finally my turn to ask. lol. This is my first time storing bottles horizontal, so I’ve never seen lees collect like that before. I’m sure it’s fine, but I just wanted to ask. This is from a traditional mead, 5gal total. 15lbs honey, water, kv116. Fermentation stalled, so I used camden tablets and bottled after 6 months.

First time corking anything and it seems the top of the corks are getting a bit smushed. I am using a double lever hand corker and 9x1 3/4 corks. Is this the result of a bad corking tool, bad method, do i need to soak them? Is this okay for long term storage? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

I have some 750ml rum bottles with metal screw tops. Would those work well for aging or should I chuck the tops and use the bottles with corks instead?

The new version of the Mead Guidelines has been published on the BJCP website: https://www.bjcp.org/bjcp-style-guidelines/

https://www.bjcp.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2026_Guidelines_Mead-final.pdf

Hi mead makers. I would like to make a mead specifically with the purpose of saving it 12 years before drinking it. For this one I don't mind if I include expensive ingredients.

I read that a lot of meads have a time in which they are peak in performance and some of them would get bad after storing for 12 years.

Would you happen to be able to help me avoid some pitfalls in the process?

First time mead brewer and long time beer brewer here

Just wrapped up primary fermentation and I'm trying to get a handle on what order I should do the next steps. I am planning on flavoring this mead with beautyberry syrup (which will also backsweeten) and steep with hibiscus and pea flower. This was the order I was going to do my next steps in, please let me know if anything is wrong!

Recipe is 12 lbs honey 5 gallons water lalvin d47 yeast. Backsweeten with 3 cups of beautyberry syrup. Botanical additions of hibiscus and pea flower in a hot tea addition.

1.Cold crash mead at 33 for 5 days

1. Rack to secondary

2. Stabilize mead with cambden tablets and potassium sorbate allow this to work for 24 hours

3. Back sweeten with beautyberry syrup and add botanicals (hot tea infusion)

4. Add fining agents if needed.

Side question, for a hot tea infusion, can I add a bit of alcohol to prevent reducing the ABV or is that not recommended?

I had a big haul of elderberries from our bushes this year. My sister already made like 5 jars of syrup, and I'm still looking at a few pounds left. I figured I'd reach out and see if anyone has preferred recipes for mead involving up to 5lb of elderberries