its what got me to subscribe in the first place, i have their "first mead" in secondary for a while now and waiting for my starsan to arrive so i can bottle it.
@@ilovepudding7873 yes StarSan does take awhile to arrive it seems like (or I'm just antsy) but I boiled my equipment for primary and Starsan for secondary, etc. They're "easy" recipes and great people to listen.
So far I have made 4 gallons of mead using the recipe from his basic mead video and after a month it was drinkable and it just keeps getting better my wife and friends were blown away on how good it tastes . I can’t imagine how good it will taste in a year
I started with meads last year and found that they get really good after about the time that they clear, which is ~3 months for me. So, I don't touch bottle them before that now. Enjoy your brews!
Hey, just wanna say thx to this channel I made my first mead. I used Red Star Premier Blanc active dry yeast, Jamies Hive to table wildflower honey raw honey and comb (2lbs) and spring water making a one gallon batch. What I then did was cook it on an open fire because i do not have a kitchen because reasons.. i had to cook it on an open fire in a wrought iron pot using white birch wood. I simmered the water added the honey scraped off the scum from the honey comb that came to the top and put the must in a fermentation bucket to cool, and when the temperature came down i added the yeast. I did put it into secondary fermentation later( I've been playing around with the times in primary and secondary fermentation, so maybe you can improve on it, but i did it in a couple of months) This made a dry almost whisky like mead with the smoke from the fire showing its prominence...very strong though
You guys are great! My wife and I started making mead as a hobby we could do together. We started in mid January and are on our 12th batch now. I think the first week we discovered your channel we watched you for four hours straight! We have a need for mead! Thanks again!
Just rewatched this and found the 1,2 factor for UK gallon. We’re South African so all our measurements are based on UK. I’ve been using this factor since I started and it’s so gratifying that you guys did this for us non imperial system users
This weekend (May 1st) I made a Hibiscus and Black Cherry mead. The proteins and other "sediment" formed a cake on the foam clogged the Air Lock and carbonation blew off the Bung in about 24 hours. Love this hobby.
Hello Sir & Madam, I hope you're doing well. My name is Jad: Being a honey-lover and as I cannot do beekeeping in my area, I started my mead-making journey 3 weeks ago after seeing your videos. Till today, I have run 3 experiments: a 1-gallon basic mead recipe, another 1-gallon traditional mead recipe, and 1 half-gallon coffeemel recipe, all in the making with different starting dates :-) Yesterday night, after no yeast activity for a couple of days prior, I started cold-crashing the 1-gallon basic mead: I started the process on Tue, Aug 15, 2023, with an OG of 1.103, and yesterday the FG was 1.003, which led to an ABV of 13.13% as per the formula (Final gravity - Original gravity) x 131.25. Today I was checking the gallon, and I saw a lot of sediment. The mead is not clear yet, but I thought of asking if this is a normal amount of sediment. I can share the recipe with you by email if it might help. I appreciate your feedback :-) Cheers, Jad
Love the video. I made 2 bottles of the basic bread yeast mead my first go. And, this past weekend, we went to Scarborough Faire here in Texas and we had their mead and the mead I made, using your recipe, was so much better. I have another gallon container approaching racking as I age the 2 bottles from the first batch and I think it's time to branch out and try out some of your other recipes. Thank you so much, Briand and Derica. This has made quarantine days so much more interesting. Incidentally, I am also on my 3rd batch of kombucha.
868 Views and only 125 likes... come on guys, these guys deserve better. Their Videos are very "Consumer Friendly" and easy to follow. Give'em a like ;)
So I had a check of the gravity of the traditional I made following this recipe and the blackberry, cherry and raspberry melomel. This included the necessary taste test and oh my goodness... they both taste amazing, literally better than any mead I've tried. The melomel did need a little stir to get rid of a bit of gas that made it smell a bit but after that, wow. They are both bubbling away nicely although the melomel seems to be nearly finished. I can't wait to bottle these and see what a bit of age does to them. Thank you Brian and Derica.
The inside of a Florida beehive reaches very warm temps. Its okay to warm it up a bit to make it pour easily without compromising its quality. I'll be using my honey to make mead for the first time in August. Thanks for the video
You guys are so wholesome thanks for going over every single step and explaining it well! When you're just starting, all of the little details are so important so I appreciate it
I'm from Canada and I love watching your work and style. It definitely makes me want to try to make mead. I've been a fan of Mead for some time but haven't always been able to buy it locally. Best solution is to make it for myself. Thanks for sharing.
Nice video, I watched a few videos of you and decided to make a mead. Of course I decided to go big or go home, so I made three (almost, the basic one, the hydromel one and the mojito kilju one), it's going great but slow as hell which is probably related to that I used only 1 pack of Nottingham yeast divided into 3x5 liter of brew (I thought it will be enough since it's a bigger pack but actually it has a higher dosage recommendation too). Slow means the basic mead went from 1.102 to 1.068 in three weeks. All of them are in a relatively dark place in 72F. Currently I see the following options: - Let it sit and it will finish in a few month - Source an other pack of Nottingham and throw in the mix - Same but with regular instant baking yeast - Or give them the baking yeast as yeast hulls (I'm leaning toward this option)
No point in messing with them. Let it ferment. Adding more yeast at this point won't necessarily make it faster. Yeast take a while in honey. Also, you used plenty of yeast already!
Hi CSB, I made my first batch of mead ever, yesterday. I did three pounds of a local Tennessee Honey. The label says, “only what the bees put in.” I used store bought spring water. I used a whole pack of lalvin d-47. And that’s it. I wanted my first experience to be only the most basic of ingredients. Specific Gravity was 1.115.
@@CitySteadingBrews I love and hate that schtick, it has become a Voldemort with a smile for me. I would imagine you two are at about max on it and I unintentionally spoke on your behalf.
Thank you for the kudos! For the question on selling my honey, I follow the Florida cottage food law, which means I can only sell face to face. For CS, it is my honor and joy to gift it to you because I have learned so much from you two and I love your videos! Ok, so now I have a question. You have talked about yeast fermenting temps and now that I have a few brews under my belt (18) I am beginning to question my choice of yeast. For most I have used lalvin 71b. My concern is that I keep my house pretty warm. In summer, when I leave the house thermostat is at 80, when I'm home it's 77-78. I keep brewing mead in the coolest room of my house, so it probably doesn't go above 80. Should I switch to a different yeast? Try to keep it in a cooling bath? You guys are great, love all the videos! Beverly
71b works great in those conditions but so do many many yeasts. You’re really only a few degrees warmer than us really. Also, thanks for the honey! It is soooo good.
The screw on cap looks cool, I was looking for something like that. The rubber bungs work well but avoid silicone, they slip out. I have some silicone baking dishes, nothing sticks to them. So if you use a silicone bung, don't expect it to stay put without tying the down.
One quick tip I found out to dissolve the honey faster and to pour it much easier to the carboy: Put the honey first into a pot and pour some water on it Then you use a blender and blend the honey into the water. It's perfectly dissolved within a few minutes.
@@DukeTrout yes a immersionblender I got my honey from a local beekeeper and he recommends to not use hot water It destroys all the good enzymes and other beneficial stuff What you put first in the pot does not matter. Water is room temp How much: as much as you need to dissolve. For e 5L bat h i use 1,5 to 2kg if honey. 2l of water is always fine for blending, If there is any headpace just fill it out with normal water
It can be stirred, shaken, mixed, blended, or otherwise all while hot or cold, and in the end, it will be fine as long as yeast is active. people ask but seek echoes of what they want to hear instead of what will work, which is nearly anything...
I did this as an experiment after yall did the original beginners mead while using red star champagne yeast (premier blanc) heads up dont use half an orange peel unless u like a sour seltzer like mead using a quarter of an orange gives an almost light seltzer taste with that yeast i personally dont like it but a few other people wife included loved both versions of it.
Hey Brian and Derica! You two are great and your videos are without a doubt my favorite of all the mead / wine making channels I am subscribed to. I believe my mead is stalled. 3lb local clover, red star Cote des Blancs ~3g, and a 1 gallon fermenter. I forgot to add the black tea. The og was high 1.130 so I am wondering if that was an issue. After 3.5 weeks it's at 1.100 and it has been steady bubbling the whole time. Very strong nose burning gases today. Not footy or gross smells just strong off gasses I think. I'm considering adding the black tea now since I pulled 250ml to check gravity. I can just add back tea instead. And pitch more yeast. I also have a 2 or 3 apples I am considering slow juicing and adding to add something else for the yeast to chew on. But before doing any of that I thought I would get you's guy's opinion. Taste is good honey flavor and no off taste except the off gasses. I did just degas it thinking perhaps there was just too much in there and the occasional swirling was not enough. Thanks in advance for any input, and I look forward to more videos.
Okay, if it's stalled, don't add more sugars, fruits or tea. They can only possibly make it worse. Try degassing it? If none of that works, add more yeast.
Just a general tip on citrus zest. For baking I store lemon, citroen and orange peel in sugar. It adds great flavor to cakes and you can store for almost forever. Perhaps it's an idea to use it in brews as well?
@CS Mead and More Today I made the mash for my first mead based on your basic mead recipe. I'm a bit scared I screwed it up. I'm using raw honey and because of that I've added +- 0.75 gr kaliummetabisulfateon on 5 liters of liquid (+- 1 imperial gallon). Three hours later I pitched the yeast, I'm using a liquid yeast (smack pack). I'm now 6 hours after pitching but I don't see any bubbles. Did I kill my yeast with the sulfate or do I just need to be patience? If I killed my yeast can I add new yeast to it, or is the mash now spoiled? Help!
Yup you don’t use preservatives and pitch yeast. Wait a day or two and try again. Raw honey is awesome no need for sulfites at all. I NEVER add those things, ever. I assume you mean potassium metabisulfate.
@@CitySteadingBrews Well it's the first and last time I'm using a sulfate. I'm happy to inform you that in this case the fermentation has started and it's now going like a rocket. It was my patience after all ! Thanks for your good advice!
I have a question related to this and 'My First Mead'. What are the exact factors that determine whether the mead will turn out sweet or dry? It is still very confusing, even after reading many blog posts and watching your videos. Is it the amount of sugar (honey), is it the type of yeast, is it the amount of yeast, is it the amount of water maybe? Does it have to do with time? Thanks in advance! Love your content! :)
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6aLlJUMBEN0.html It's amount of fermentables and tolerance of alcohol of the yeast chosen. This video helps explain it.
Working on a mead with Marian Plum (a.k.a. Gandaria, a native fruit here that was in season) and very rough/raw brown sugar, off of a brick of sugar cane sugar, and lychee honey from a local company. (Still more sugars from honey in it so going to call that a mead.) The brown sugar did color it way dark brown, which is interesting. I'm hoping it'll end up sort of dark rum color when cleared.
Now at the month mark since I brewed (well……mixed) this mead. Tastes great- unique for sure. I stalled out at the end and have a slightly sweet mead. The hope is just a little continuation in the bottle - based on the final SG ….um shouldn’t explode.
Love your videos and love watching them since i wanna learn how to start this and if i like how the finished product turns out I'm gonna do like 5 gallons lmao or more
Im trying a tweak of this recipe(going with 3lbs instead of 2.5) and a full pack of 71-beast. I think i messed up my og reading because it came in at 1.130. But following your strategy of shaking the bejeezus out of it then an additional 2 minutes seemed to really work. This batch was active in less than one hour maybe within the first 30 minutes it was rolling. Can't wait to try this blackberry honey out. Oh yeah this is my first ever batch
I’m still very new to this and haven’t hydrated any of my first dozen brews. Some of them are beginning to finish secondary and they’re all real nice, all around 15abv using lalvin D47
Star san is effective mostly in part due to it's PH level being 4.2 (I believe). Due to my various interests I had the thought that distilled white vinegar also has a PH that is below that, so I have been using vinegar to sanitize my equipment for a while now and am proud to report it has worked very well (no contaminations since I started).
You've been very lucky. Vinegar is literally the one thing you're trying to avoid in brewing so.... using it to clean is just asking for trouble at some point.
Hi guys! I just wanted to say thank you for the inspiration, ideas, and recipes for mead. Your videos are great and I really enjoy watching you guys make some of the "different" meads as well. I am currently picking up supplies here and there to prepare for my first batch which I will start in the spring. I have to keep the sugars and carbs pretty low due to dietary restrictions so if you have any recommendations or guidelines aside from this video, it would be really appreciated.
I began the most basic of meads prior to discovering your channel and am wishing I would have used tea and orange peel. Are there negative consequences to adding tea during the secondary (conditioning) phase or after racking?
Better quality honey but red star yeast I'm sure you were not impressed by in one of your previous vids by redstart yeast but it'll still work love making meads
I wouldn't recommend using a threaded cap when shaking. At least for my gallon jugs and the caps, I have a little bit of pressure makes the cap hard to get off and it will aerosol anything in the threads. I assume it's the warm air expanding in the bottle causing the pressure.
Sanitize: After taking a hydrometer reading, do you put the items straight back in the sterilizer, or do you wash them first? How do you know when to change the sanitizer solution? Is paper towel safe to use as a wipe or will it contaminate?
We don't really wipe things off after dipping in the sanitizer. We DO just put them right back in, without washing, unless it's gloopy or something like that, but liquids, we just don't bother. We only use the sanitizer liquid for one session, so we make up 4 gallons or so, then dump it when we finish filming for the day.
I'm going back and going over your recipes and was curious why the "Simple Beginner Mead" from 2020 had raisins and this one did not. Does it have to do with going for a drier flavor or did you find that the raisins don't really do anything of note?
First, thank you for all your information. I’ve been enjoying this hobby now for about five months. It’s a blast. You’ve helped me a lot. Question or idea since we lose so much going from Primary to secondary and sometimes on the second rack I have been doing my black tea concentrated usually 6 ounces, disposing the teabag and using 6 to 8 ounces go into my secondary or second rack when I’m just a little bit off from the neck are you been using it this way to take up the space if I have too much headspace because we lose a little each time we do you think this is OK or should we really be doing it Primary, and letting it sit longer
We tend to lose only a few ounces when racking. That's not much really. As for adding concentrated tea to make up headspace... sure? It's diluting the brew and in some cases could restart fermentation if there's still sugars in there. As long as you're controlling the amount you add, I guess it could be just fine.
Hi B & D, I'm trying to make a "session" mead. The backstory: I was making a beer and received an entire package of Imperial Citrus A20 Yeast (liquid), and since I only make beer 1 gallon at a time (its really just me) I didn't want to use the whole package in the beer, so I decided to make a low alcohol mead with strawberry and lemon. The story: So, I used about 1/3 packet of the yeast, 1 lb of goldenrod honey in one gallon of water. (I want to add the strawberry/lemon in secondary). Started on 4/17/21 at a 1.014 OG. There was definite activity (bubbles up the sides of the jar; active airlock).Today (5/15/21) I tested it. Its still at 1.014, but there is a VERY slight alcohol taste to it (not very sweet at all), and its carbonated. Did I stall somewhere? Did I just make honey soda? Please advise. If I missed any info you need, let me know.
@@CitySteadingBrews ok, that would put my abv around 3.4, which would account for the slight alcohol taste, so maybe just an error on brew day. I'll keep going with it and add my fruit in secondary and will let you know how it turns out.
I started a Cider with the lees of my last batch, using honey instead of sugar, so Cyser I think? Anyway its day two and the yeast is more active than I've ever had it been, granted I've only done two to completion so far, with three more on the way, but it's bubbling almost like if you shook up a soda. I checked it today and a good thing too because some of the foam and even the mix itself was in the airlock. I was wondering if that super activity was maybe caused by the honey and using the lees from the last batch or if it was both, or if it was something else entirely. I would love to get your advice since really the only reason I started brewing with some semblance of confidence is because of your videos. Thank you for being so nicely instructive, informative and just plain awesome, and please stay safe happy and healthy or at the very least, two out of those three because two out of three ain't half bad😊🙏
What’s the recipe for the Tannin tea per gallon. 1 tea bag, some peel, handful of chopped raisins and (1cup?) of water. (I’ve seen you do the boiling raisin and peel with tea in later videos) Planning to make 3 gallons of mead in primary and your videos are what I’ve been enjoying and learning the most from and want to try for a dry mead (in the 3 gallon carbon) then rack down to three 1 gallon carboys for second fermentation and back sweeten one, leave one dry and mildly flavoring the 3rd gallon. Also have a 1 gallon port cask I’m wondering about aging one of them inside for a few months before bottling all 3 gallons…
There is no real recipe per gallon. I normally just make one gallon batches and use a cup of tea. You can use more in a larger batch or the same amount, depends on your taste preference.
Hey, Assam is our neighbor state and they produce a really good one. I wonder if you have have had Darjeeling tea before (they also refer this as champagne of teas) ? And this may be my personal opinion, but it's aroma (not odor XD ) and over all flavor would any day beat Assam team. Now I am also curious about the difference in flavor profile it would create. So, you know, can try another batch with Darjeeling Tea some time maybe. Don't have to make a video, just for your own experiment. :)
The subtleties of tea aren't needed for this brew. It doesn't taste of tea at all, as we said in the video. I used Assam since it was the first one I grabbed. Putting the two side by side in this brew I HIGHLY doubt there would be any detectable difference.
I think you could make the whole must in that fancyschmancy pitcher and then pour it into fermenter? So you could skip the annoying (although pretty) honey/funnel part.
My 1st mead video I watched said it would be good to drink in 2 weeks. I decided to let it sit till I saw no more bubbles and then added another week. Was almost 2 months lol.
did I miss the part where you said active dry yeast and not instant dry yeast? Thanks for the vid. Very entertaining. I'm a mead virgin, but mead curious.
We used Red Star Premier Classique Wine Yeast: amzn.to/3vsrp0M in this video. But if you wish to use bread yeast you can use either Active Dry or Instant.
I’m a beekeeper and this year I’m making mead I have maple honey and I just got wild raspberry honey this weekend gunna do that one next for the mead but I’m trying to find the best recipe
I'm so glad I found in subscribe to this channel is there a way to make honey meed that doesn't have a strong dry alcohol taste I like sweet fruity drinks
Hello guys, I just started this recipe using quite cheap supermarket honey (it was my first time brewing a mead so I didn'd want to spend much money on the honey) in which I added fresh orange peels, 2gr of FermaidO and a whole packet of Mangrove Jacks's CR51 wine yeast (it was the only one I had). The yeast has 14% alcohol tolerance. The specific gravity is 1.102 (probably the honey was much sweeter that it said on the label and I had to add more water to lower the reading) and I have a total of 4.3lt (1.13 gal) of must. I also added a steeped packet of black tea but after tasting the must I didn't get that tannic flavour. Is that ok? Are you supposed to taste the tannins before the end of fermentation? Also, can I add another small amount of tea after the primary fermentation, if that was not enough? I dont mind if that will dilute it a bit. Your videos are so so so helpful for begginers, fair to say the best I've seen on RU-vid! Cheers!
I had started a wild ferment mead about the time I found your channel. It's been three weeks now and fermentation has remained slow. (I used the hydrometer and its only at about2% so far and still bubbling through the airlock just as slow and consistently as when I started it... maybe 5 bubbles/burps per minute) Is it a bad idea to go ahead and buy a yeast to put in it now? And is the Fleishman bread yeast gluten free? *I used Berkey filtered water, with "really raw" honey, and my starter was some filtered water that had been in a jar with organic raisins for about 5 days to get an initial ferment started. This is my first time trying to make an alcohol by ferment. I do have it in a 1 gal jug with an airlock.
First, there is no gluten in any yeast. It's yeast. Gluten is a product of some grains. If it's fermenting, there's nothing to do but let it ferment. It's possible you have a cooler temperature, or you added more honey than suggested, which would make a slower fermentation. Using wild yeast as you did, the fermentation will be much slower than normal. Just let it do it's thing. It can take a couple months sometimes.
@@CitySteadingBrews thanks for the encouragement on just waiting it out. Several years back I quit making bread with commercial yeast due to an allergic reaction I was having on my hands. I started making sour dough with a wild culture and realized those symptoms were the beginning onset of what would become severe gluten intolerance, and not simply a reaction to yeast. So my concern with commercial yeast was that in production it might be grown with or contaminated with the grains that I avoid. I googled it today and found out most yeast production is fed on molasses or beet sugar. Great to know, I'll still probably keep trying with wild ferments. *though I did read recently that a refractometer might be better for figuring out alcohol content when there are bacteria present with the yeast. The article was speaking on alcoholic kombucha. They said the yeast will eat the sugar to make alcohol, but the bacteria will eat the alcohol, making healthy acids... and the hydrometer reading would give inaccurate results. Can that happen in an airlock situation? That sounded to me like why traditional kombucha turns to vinegar if left too long. fermentaholics.com/using-a-hydrometer-with-kombucha/
@@CitySteadingBrews Thanks for the reply. I'll just have to look for some plain black tea then. You guys are awesome. BTW, I've already broken and ordered my second hydrometer... Lol. I also have gotten just about all the same stuff you have. I appreciate all the links, makes it easier.
Hello! I'm a 2nd year beekeeper and have a 20+ lbs of crystalized honey. The water/sugar ratio is right on, it just crystalized. I want to make Mead with it. Can I make a 5 gallon batch of this recipe multiplying the honey, tea, orange peel, water and Yeast by 5? So it'd be 5 packets of Yeast? ALSO, why don't you use Campden tablets? And no Yeast nutrient? Any advise would be much appreciated.
I am really curious how your one will taste when its done. Btw I finally got an answer by US Customs, I am allowed to send yeast to US :D Unfortunately due to pandemic the package traveltime tends to take ages....
@@eddavanleemputten9232 Yeah, Unfortunately there is also some grain of salt, as I found out today. E.g. From Germany/Europe anything except documents can only be send to US by Premium Postal service. This means even letter package are expensive as hell due to covid.
@@hammelbreu2059 - Good to know! I’ll make sure to check the conditions at my local post office before even considering to send something. Best not have surprises!
It would cut the ABV in half but it could restart fermentation, make sure you take a reading then let it sit a week, take another reading and make sure it hasn't changed before you bottle. You could dilute by the glass/mug to be on the safe side. For some reason it didn't show Brian had already answered.
Honey from town to town will have differences in flavors do to the resources available to the girls. It also changes with the seasons. Color and thickens also sugar content change. I have 8 hives and one will have light honey the next hive amber honey.
