Mead recipe please

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was it metheglin you meant?if so it is 4lb honey,1/2oz citric acid and yeast nutrient,yeast, 1oz of hops,1/2oz root ginger to gal ,2cloves and 1/4oz of cinnamon bark plus water to bring upto the gallon
 
I've had another attempt this year. The original batch was suspiciously close to cough medicine, in the end I think there was perhaps too much honey in it?

I stuck closer to the original quantities this time around. When I first racked it off it was horrible, watery with a hint of sweetness. Now its had another couple of months since it stopped fermenting its actually not half bad. Maybe there is something to be said for letting it mature.
 
does anyone have a recipe for mead suitable for a complete novice please?
many thanks

Try any of this lot. I used the basic one a couple of years ago and it gort a 2nd in the Shresbury Flower Show.
 
Just "noticed" that last year's batch has finally cleared. It's a lot better than my first attempt, but still not quite the right balance I feel. A bit too dry and lacking punch it seems to me, maybe a bit longer to mature perhaps. No idea how strong it is.
 
racked,filtered and bottled 2 demijohns worth of lovely mead yesterday.
started on 30th april,placed in greenhouse.
gonna start another 2 demjiohns off on tuesday (when home-brew shop opens and I can get more specialist yeast)
 
Started mine at the end of august. Not too sure what to suggest, mine definitely doesn't taste of water!

I took a very unscientific approach though. I used my cappings honey, tasted the mix before hand to make sure it tasted of something and used a hydrometer. Think my initial reading was 1.15 which seemed to be a the top end of acceptable sugar levels.

This is my first attempt at it though so I might yet have paint stripper or water.

There is quite a lot of honey in my cappings and I was going to produce some more honey vodka and rum. However, can I wash out my cappings (and broken combs) and then measure the must that is left to see if I have enough sugar, as I don't know how much is actually left in?
 
DO NOT BOTTLE... exploding bottles

Good advice for the unwary/inexperienced, but I would say:

Use of the correct bottle for the job - not a strong screwed cap, is the best safety practice.

Once had to carefully (covered in heavy cloth) remove screw caps from fermenting wine in lemonade glass bottles (thirty or more years ago) after two had already exploded in the cupboard! Not of my doing, in the first place, I might add.

Bottles with a dimple in the base and corked properly, while still spoiling, should be safe.

Simple risk assessment here, I think.

Regards, RAB

I made mead many, many years ago. Probably when I was about 15/16, as I had been brewing for a while then. I found it rather insipid, but was sure that was more my fault than the fault of the recipe. As I was very successful at producing blackberry wine that tasted like a Barolo or good chianti (without the tannin, of course), I didn't pursue it.

The point about glass bottles is well made. I also used to make ginger beer (especially after Stonehenge stopped making their –*anyone remember it?) Using the wrong bottle can be foolhardy (you lose your ale) but also dangerous.
One Saturday morning, I heard two loud bangs in the cellar like a gun going off. Went down to discover my ginger beer had tried to make an run for it.

I carefully wrapped my other bottles in towels and took them down the garden to about 20' from the back door and went back for more. Just as I set the last One down and went back chase the dog away from the excitement, one, a 1L French beer bottle gave up the ghost, and went up like a Roman candle. The top of the bottle had been forced off from the taper and sent about 20' into the air. Having experienced the force of a pub tonic water bottle that smashed and propelled itself at my boat race, I dread to think how bad an injury that projectile could have caused. I resolved to smash the others and despatched them from a safe distance with a couple of half bricks – a controlled explosion. It was a sobering experience.

Thos bottles which failed were REUSED ones, so already considerably stressed, but also not up to secondary fermentation – they were too thin. A couple of the others were from Fischer (remember that?) which was in a Grolsch-like bottle, but which was far lighter weight and therefore equally unsuitable.

Proof, were it needed, that you always use the best tool for the job and a reason why champagne bottles are not reused, because they have already experienced considerable stress during their life.
 
There is quite a lot of honey in my cappings and I was going to produce some more honey vodka and rum. However, can I wash out my cappings (and broken combs) and then measure the must that is left to see if I have enough sugar, as I don't know how much is actually left in?


why bother?

just let the honey drain off of the cappings?

I use 4lb of good honey per demijohn, and get great tasting mead.
 
The information a hydrometer gives is priceless, and enables accurate calculations. My green house is useless this year...

PH
 
I think the CO2 produced during fermentation helps with the tomato plant growth, an added bonus
 
I think the CO2 produced during fermentation helps with the tomato plant growth, an added bonus
There are commercial greenhouse operators who pipe waste CO2 into them to promote growth. Not sure if a fermenting demijohn is going to cope with the draughts in a domestic greenhouse but it can't do any harm. Does the yeast cope well with the temperature variation?
 
why bother?

just let the honey drain off of the cappings?

I use 4lb of good honey per demijohn, and get great tasting mead.

Because I have only so much room and my missus wants the kitchen back.
 
There are commercial greenhouse operators who pipe waste CO2 into them to promote growth. Not sure if a fermenting demijohn is going to cope with the draughts in a domestic greenhouse but it can't do any harm. Does the yeast cope well with the temperature variation?

due to the crap spring/summer the roof vent was hardly ever open, so not a lot of draughts to contend with
The demijohn was stood on a polybox (veg box) to insulate it from the floor.
the yeast handled the temp swings fine, I've left wine in the greenhouse overwinter before, it just restarted in the spring!!
 
why bother?

just let the honey drain off of the cappings?

I use 4lb of good honey per demijohn, and get great tasting mead.

In addition to my other comment, Tony, how long do you leave yours to drain?
 
Thanks for the tips/ recipes folks I will be brewing my first batch tonight after work, wish me luck.
 

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