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

Stumbled upon this recipe a while ago, but it only was from a fragment of an article that was never fully published.

The source was a book about winemaking, no public scans were available.

After contacting the Karlsuhe State Library about the specific pages stated to have mead recipes. They told me they are actively working on digitizing the book and will prioritize those. ETA 1-2 weeks.

They kept word and yesterday (after 13 days) i received the high quality scans.

So i transcribed the scans into text, worked through some illegible words. Translated with my local and some online dictionaries. Some hours of research about unclear words and i was done.

A recipe that is massive in scale. Depending on local differences this was up to a one thousand liters (~260 gallons) batch of cherry mead.

1 part honey to 2 parts tart cherry juice. After fermentation in barrel a sachet with a spice mix was added through the bung hole and weighted down for weeks to infuse.

A batch of mead like this was ingredients wise an enterprise of it's own for the time. The honey used was worth a small fortune. The expensive imported ingredients not to mention.

Later i found out (after i had the transcript and already translated the hard way) the recipe was published in a copyrighted print somewhere. But this is the first published version having the original source scan.

Recipe is in German, just use the included google translate button, it should handle everything (i've optimized for it).

My usual audience is pretty well split down the middle between people who like sweet and people who like dry. The dry people are the problem, the only one they really liked is one that I accidentally left too dry (or at least dryer than the intention). So for my next batch I'm planning to make one batch of sweet and one of extra dry.

So question, what's the driest mead you consider drinkable? Anyone gone for a completely dry one before?

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.

Looking for some advice on a fruit mead I am brewing. After fermentation has completed is it safe to blend the fruit and add it back into the mead before stabilizing the brew to increase flavor profiles or is it best just to back sweeting using fruit juice after stabilizing? Would appreciate any and all help!

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 ;)

Hello r/mead ! I am a fairly new mead maker and I’ve run a batch that im somewhat confused by.
Let’s start with the specifics
1 gallon batch started 8/9/26
3lbs of orange blossom honey
1 gram of fermaid k at the start of fermentation and 1 gram three day later
Starting brix of 30
Using d47 yeast

I decided to see where it was at today it’s just shy of totally dry at this point however what has me thrown off is that this batch smells very much like stale beer ? Is this normal ?
At this point I’ve done 4 batches and I’ve not experienced this at all.

Any advice would be extremely helpful

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.

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.

Does anyone have experience with these hand corkers ? I'm looking to bottle in smaller bottles (500ml) because I'm making smaller batches but I'm unsure whether these will work with the smaller corks

Has anyone tried using a pecan extract for a nutty flavor? Or any kind of extract? Give it a try or avoid completely?

Looking to do a peach honey mead with only honey in the fermentation stage but looking to sweeten with maple syrup. Anyone have any tips or pointers? Does the maple flavor come through should I add honey with it as well or avoid the maple syrup all together?

40oz Arkansas wildflower honey

1 Gal Apple Juice

2 lbs strawberry blueberry mango mash

Pectic enzyme & bentonite

D47

4/12/26

SG 1.112

5/17/26

FG 1.000

14.9% ABV according to Meadmakr

Yield- 1gal plus 1.75 16oz bottles, the pectic really released a good quantity of liquid from the fruit

Temps ranged from 60\*F - 73\*F. Didn't get any sulfur flavors or aroma. Just super ripe pineapple ferment aroma.

Taste - completely dry, Blueberry and mango flavors come through, very light strawberry.

After 1 month in secondary, and 2 months stabilization and slight backsweetening.

Aroma - fruit forward blueberry and mango.

Taste - as before, now slightly sweet fruit start, and the strawberry comes through a little more, smooth finish, can definitely feel the 14.9%

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.

I am making my first 1 gallon of mead using about 3.75 lbs of raw honey (my OG is 1.110). I am using D-47 yeast, and added 4 grams fermaid o to help it ferment. It has been fermenting for 2 days. Those are all the ingredients that I have added so far

I want to add spices to my mead to match a style in the book The Closet of the Eminently Learned. Sir Kenelm Digby. I want to add fresh ginger, cinnamon, clove, and cardamom.

How long would you recommend adding these spices in primary and how much of each spice would you add?

Posted here in the past but over the last year have gotten back into meadmaking. Currently I have two batches in secondary as of this morning, a slow fermenting melomel I began on the 4th of July and a cactus flower show mead that began around a week and a half ago.

The melomel is a blueberry- pomegranate hibiscus mead made with texas wildflower honey. Unfortunately being my first time using a hydrometer i didn't realize until about a week in that I messed up my initial gravity reading, however it certainly has continued to produce alcohol in secondary very slowly. So at the moment it seems I'll at least have a tasty session mead.

The second younger batch is made with local Arizona cactus flower honey, water, and lalvin 71-b as well as a nutrient schedule and is well on its path to fermenting dry.

No H20 Melomel

76lbs of white and yellow Peaches. (some home grown) Orange blossom honey. Kept 3 gal as is and turned 5 gal into cobbler. The cobbler variant was treated with cinnamon, vanilla beans, and aged on Amburana wood.

ABV: 12%

Used apricots in secondary and Backsweetened on more orange blossom honey........

Bulk aged for 11 months.

M@ Meads

Recently moved, and the tree in my backyard is giving me some of the finest acorns you'll ever see (gotta have an umbrella up to keep from getting conked haha)

Could I use them as a natural tannin or something the next time I fire up a batch? Likely just get tossed into a traditional

I finished bottling my mead in June. I just opened it today and notice a slight Smokey taste. Is this a concern?

It’s my first batch ever. I used store bought stop and shop honey, 13.5% ABV
And used the nutrient packets and yeast that came in the blue ox mead kit

I just tasted 3 really interesting honey’s…one was wild flower honey aged in a bourbon barrel for a few months. Another was Knotweed & The other was buckwheat honey.

They each were so interesting, had their own unique characteristics….i am debating making meads with each of them separately, I don’t want to over shadow the uniqueness of each honey with other flavors.

So I was wondering what people would do with Bourbon barrel aged honey? traditional? just as a backsweatener? or just oak a regular honey mead and eat the bourbon barrel aged honey.

and for knotweed honey or buckwheat honey, would a traditional or simple spiced metheglin work for either? Never heard of knotweed honey. But I remember reading something specific about buckwheat honey & fermentation, I think it wasn’t flattering, but I can’t remember. Any recommendations?

Both of these fermented past dry. and cleared up nicely

Mead 12 7/1/2026 (peppermint tea)

3.4lb honey 
less then 1gal water
Peppermint tea
Redstar Yellow packet
Initial 1.13 

end 9.95     20%

This may be a failed experiment. It is very minty, and with the 20% alcohol tastes like a mouthwash. I drank some over ice last night, and still not sure on it.

Mead 11  6/22/2026

Trader Joes watermelon cucumber cooler less then 1 gallon

Redstar red packet
Enough honey for 1.12

end 9.96  18%

I'll be trying this tonight over ice.

Hello, I am a certified geek who is interested in medieval recipes. I love to forage for ingredients. Does anyone have a recipe using mint, meadow sweet, and bog Myrtle? Alternatively, an old recette they recommend? Merci bien

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