Larry was kind enough to give them a home on the wiki: https://wiki.meadtools.com/en/recipes/historical

These are close translations, not modernized. No batch sizes, no nutrient schedules, just what the cook or cellar master wrote down back then. There’s a hopped sage mead, the old french bochet, a spiced cherry mead, one where you add water until an egg floats, and a rose and laurel berry mead.

The intro page explains how to read them and what yeast they actually used. Spoiler: they didn’t just wait for wild yeast.

i spent quite a while translating and checking these against the original manuscripts. If you brew one, let me know how it turned out.

Hey AZ Mead tribe! We have a trial run at Costco the Fri-Sun weekends of 10/31 (Scottsdale on Hayden), 11/6 (Tempe), 11/13 (Gilbert), and 12/4 (N. Phoenix on Beardsley) from 10am to 6pm or until we sell out and we would love your support if you are in the Valley and enjoy our local Mead! Come by and say hi and grab a few bottles of our Unicorn Blood Mead at a silly low price and let's show them that it belongs on their shelves permanently!

Much love and happy fermenting!

1.4kg Tesco bought Hilltop blossom honey

1.081 FG

1kg raw Local Honey Man honey + ~350g of slightly mushed Clementines, with skins

1.049 FG

Both have 5g of Lalvin EC-1118 yeast and a teaspoon of Young's Yeast Nutrients

Surprised the raw honey produced a low FG reading. Is this likely to increase as the yeast draws out the sugars from the clementines?

Making my first mead. Does like look right? I added apples and pears about a week ago and the mead is on day 21.

I keep seeing that pH seems to be important, but is there any way to measure it other than buying a $100 pH meter? A lot of people say to not get test strips.

If it stalls can I just add something to raise the pH a bit until fermentation starts again?

Just finished fermentation and used potassium sorbate so I can sweeten. But before I was about to transfer into another bottle, i noticed some things cloudy layer and some ring around the next of the bottle. What is any of this?

Lubéron Honey, ginger, cloves, maniguette ( grain of paradise). 11,3%

Apéritif is a small snacks and drinks before the actual dinner in France . Is there a similar tradition where you live ?

So I started this batch over 13 years ago that resulted in my Reddit namesake after stalls and slow fermentation. Then depression, then divorce (the result of that depression). About a month ago (after 7 years apart) my ex-wife told me to finally get my shit out of her garage. I thought “oh, yeah. I still have that carboy of mead.” No signs of mold, no bad smell, so after a brief stint in storage (pic 1), I jarred it up, carbonated a couple, and gave it a try. I’m a big fan of wine too, and the oxidative qualities reminds me of a dry sherry.

There is some foam going to my airlock. Is this normal. Is there anything I can do?

Hi, i just did my first batch, followed instructions like a good student and so on... But i cannot for the life of me understand any of those sites to calculate mead ABV or nutrients etc

So i simply followed my heart until now, i would like to know how much alcohol is in my batch!

I did measure it during fermentation, but while i was bottling then the hydrometer would just sink to the bottom, like with water?? Did i lose all my alcohol?

FIRST MEASURE: 110°

SECOND: 90°

THIRD: 50°

FOURTH: 20°

FIFTH:20°

It would not go past and ferment anymore so i stopped fermentation anyway to be sure

STOPPER FERMENT AND ALSO WHILE BOTTLING: SINK

Recipe was 3.75 water, 2kgs honey and 3gr yeast, 5gr stop fermenter and bentonite

Im planning to make a mango spice mead. I was thinking about using red pepper. But there are a few questions coning up.

1. Should i use blended mango, heated and mashed or whole fruit? (Maybe even dried)

2. Primary, secondary or both?

3. How many red peppers for 5 liters?

4. Side question: what part of your batch is normally fruit (juice)?. I normally use 1.5-2kg for a 5 Liter batch.

I bottled my cranberry mead (used bottled cranberry juice not sure which brand) and found these dark specks floating once I got to the end. It was aging for a year at this point and the air lock never went dry and I never had to refill it. It looks great in the bottles but I don't want anything to be wrong with it before I give it as a gift.

The German shepherd is half traditional with green tea and lemon and half pomegranate melomen with Taifi Flowes 11.15%

The chihuahua is half traditional with orange peel and ginger and half pomegranate melomen with vanilla and Taifi Flowers 12%

Taif is a city in my country

It’s about 10 days into fermentation.

Traditional then added dry orange and limonin secondary 11.8%

Traditional then added hibiscus and Cardamon 12%

Tasted good, enjoyed making them and drinking them.

Made a cyser at 26bx pitched, going ham in about 4 hours.

Yee-haw!

I brewed my first (and last) batch of mead in 2022 before losing my job and struggling for a bit. I recall that there may have been some bubbles at the time, but I don’t know if it fermented and produced alcohol because I didn’t check with one of those things. Brew yielded exactly one bottle. I still have it in the garage.

Questions - if it did not ferment, is it safe to imbibe? If it did not ferment, I will be sad that I held it for so long. Would you check it if you are brave?

Hello everyone.

Bottled my first mead today.

Used 3.5L-4L of Pureau Spring water.
https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/94005/pureau-pure-water-water
1.5kg of honey.
https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/250371/beechworth-100-pure-australian-honey-tub
Mangrove Jacks M12 Kveik Yeast. (I was suggested this by the local homebrew shop)
https://mangrovejacks.com/products/kveik-yeast-10g

I don't know how to read the hydrometer yet so i'm not sure what % it is.
Started it on the 14/08 with the first reading, took a reading on the 07/09, Last reading on the 29/09.
I racked it into another bottle on the 29/09 and it got a little more lees at the bottom between then and bottling.
I didn't take another reading today however i'm confident it stopped. There has been no activity on the bubbler for a while now.

It tastes fairly decent. Starts off fruity, then turns hoppy but has a strong yeast after taste which I do not like.
The yeast aftertaste could be because the bottle i'm drinking was the end bottle and unfortunately the siphon wasn't very good. Probably has some lees in it affecting the taste? It still looks pretty clear.

Can anyone suggest a easy beginner mead recipe for me to follow for my next batch?
Going to use the same honey, yeast and water. What else should I add?

Also any tips on syphoning and racking would be greatly appreciated.

Yeast is mostly dropped and bubbling stopped, Should i wait if it clears bit more and fruits drop too or would you bottle it already?

Hey all.

I’m fairly new to mead brewing (just bottled my first batch of raspberry mead a day ago) and i’m considering starting a new batch. Been wanting to make juniper berry mead for a while not but i want to add something else to it to spice it up a bit. I’m aiming for an earthy or autumny flavour profile and i was thinking of pine/spruce needles.

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of flavouring? Would it be best to add whole needles during primary or secondary fermentation or try and brew some type of tea and have that as a part of the base? Anything to consider? thanks!

Alright so I did a peach passion by everyones favorite brewing channel. Now I wasnt that smart and used a gallon carboy and forgot the amount of space left after racking. So I moved it over and added more must. Now im pretty sure fermentation is going to kick back up again. Mead went to 1.002 15.6%abv using k1v1116. Added about 750ml of must back up to 1.012. Did i just screw myself or is this a common practice. According to AI everyone does it! But I dont fully trust AI. Im guessing this is going to taste like jet fuel and ill have to age it until I retire. And can anyone help my figure out the calculations for final abv? Can't seem to figure how to log it in fermolog.

Edit: also this is my 2nd batch ever made.

Edit 10/18: even with the added must it hasnt kick started fermentation and actually its clearing up really quick temp has been around 64. Ill probably give it a week and if nothing happens then ill stabilize.

Interesting paper from a research team based in the Czech Republic and Serbia, comparing two non-Sacc strains against our ol' pal EC-1118.

According to this article, M. pulcherrima has extremely low nitrogen requirements.

And apparently H. uvarum is known for being lemon-shaped!

But it's also worth noting how each of these strains tends to go dormant around 4% to 6% ABV, after which Sacc strains will likely pick up the fermentation activity torch if present in the must.

1 gallon batch, 3 lbs honey, 1 quart blueberry juice and the rest water. Started 13 September at roughly 1.12 (I might have misread it, and I didn’t take a photo). Tested again 5 October (first pic) and looked like 1.02. Tested again today 16 October (second pic) and it lowered a hair to 1.015? Not sure where to go from here.

Could I rack into secondary and restart fermentation, or should I call it? Taste is pretty strong of alcohol without much sweetness. And there are still bits of yeast floating on top.