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Can mead be made in any season?

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keepitlow

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 27, 2009
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NE US
I'm on a $250 a month heating and cooling budget, so I can't regulate the whole house temps to make mead.

For instance, in the winter I keep my house about 55F in the day and at night it is set on 62. If I stored the fermenting mead in the garage in the winter it averages between 40 and 55 degrees. And the gas bill is just under $250 for the coldest months.

In the summer my house is in the low 80's daytime and at night I turn on the a/c to get it down to 76 or so.

The only time my house is consistently comfortable without heating or cooling is the late spring or early fall. Then it is in the high 60's to low 70's.

So, should I wait until the late spring to get the mead going? Or can mead be made in cold temps of the winter.
 
Well during the winter I have In-house fluctuations from 58-67. Usually on the low end during the day. I use D-47 and that seems to be good for my mead. I would think that 55 degrees is too low but the night temp would be fine for fermentation.

In the summer I usally see temps from 68-80.

I find that my mead brews better in the winter. Settles out quicker too. But then again, I am basically cold crashing it during the day. This sends the yeast into inactivity.
 
You can make mead throughout all the seasons, but you need to be selective in your yeast and recipes.

For cold temps down in the 50s, I wouldn't pick D47. Yeast like K1V, DV10, R2, EC-1118 can ferment in the cold. You can check the Lallemand yeast chart to get the low temp tolerance. Fermenting in the cold will give you slower fermentations but may give better results.

For the summer, there are few yeast that will give a good result at 80F. K1V and D21 would be my choices, and you'll probably need to age them for quite a while.
 
You might also consider a spare fridge to ferment in. Much cheaper than heating or cooling the whole house and then you can ferment any time of year at any temperature.
 
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