I really hope mead making will teach me to be more patient.
Anyways, made my first gallon yesterday, and second today.
1st gallon: I wanted to try cyser, but thought it'd be too sweet if I used all apple juice. I had some apple cider sitting around (from honey crisp apples) so I decided to use 1/2 apple cider & 1/2 water for my first batch. Added some blueberries and hibiscus flowers too, cause... why not?
That sucker took off. So much so, that it went up into my air lock, and then kept popping my rubber stopper off. I think with all the extra sugar from the apple cider and blueberries my sugar concentration was too high, but my hydrometer from Amazon hadn't arrived yet and I wanted to get these brewing, so I decided to go blind... Dumb idea. I know, patience, grasshopper. I had to do the whole blowoff tube for that one.
2nd gallon: I realized I should have just done a basic mead on my first run, so that's what I did. I looked up a basic mead recipe on YouTube and found one: they (a guy and gal) recommended: 1 gal water, 3lb honey, black tea, a few orange peels and raisins. Well... I didn't have raisins, so I used craisins instead. That one seem to be more chill. Bubbling, but not foaming up into the airlock.
I took a few pictures. My second gallon (the one with the airlock still on it) has some weird light colored dots on the neck and some light colored clumps on the surface of the fermenting mead. I just did that one today, that can't be mold yet if the airlock has been attached & active since pitch... can it?
If anyone sees anything off, or that could use some improvement, I'd love to learn more. Hopefully one day I can look back and laugh at my naivety, that's mean it all. Worked out in the end.
I'll keep digging through threads here and educate myself as much as I can throughout this process.
TIA
https://www.flickr.com/gp/[email protected]/39o3d81Q7G
https://www.flickr.com/gp/[email protected]/D31jtk3750
Post time 2022-12-6 14:49:45