Hi, everyone. I am new to the home wine/mead making scene, though I'm not new to the drinking Though this is a troubleshooting forum, I will try to introduce myself first.
I've had an interest in mead for a long time. I grew up in Russia, reading the classic folk fairy tales, where meads have a prominent role in many festivities. Also, my grandfather was a bee keeper for a long time, though he rarely used honey for his alcohol needs. In retrospect, he probably should have focused more on that, instead of distilling bread+sugar based musts, which ultimately caused him to lose eyesight. Nonetheless, I grew up with some knowlege and considerable liking for honey.
In November, my wife brought home a wine making kit, and we jumped into a batch of Zinfandel Blush, which so far is turning out barely drinkable, and my threshold is pretty low. We'll let it age in the bottles some and see what happens.
In the meantime, I realized that I no longer have an excuse not to try making mead, so I got busy looking for some recipes. I had a gallon of wildflower honey at my disposal, and I concocted 6 gal. of must, using D47 yeast, a tad of ginger, lemon zest, and some dried blueberries for yeast nutrition. So far it is bubbling away, although a tad slower than I would expect. My O.G a week ago, when I started, was 1.066. When I checked yesterday, it was 1.052. From looking around this forum, I gather that 1.100 is where I really should have started, and perhaps use more nutrient agnostic yeast, i.e. K1V. I was really trying to avoid adding a chemical nutrient, hence the blueberries.
Can someone tell me if I have practically wasted a gallon of perfectly good honey? If I messed up, can I still salvage the situation by adding more honey and/or nutrient?
I don't have the scale to weigh my honey, but I estimate that a gallon must be around 10-12 lbs. Can anyone comment on that?
Thanks in advance!
I've had an interest in mead for a long time. I grew up in Russia, reading the classic folk fairy tales, where meads have a prominent role in many festivities. Also, my grandfather was a bee keeper for a long time, though he rarely used honey for his alcohol needs. In retrospect, he probably should have focused more on that, instead of distilling bread+sugar based musts, which ultimately caused him to lose eyesight. Nonetheless, I grew up with some knowlege and considerable liking for honey.
In November, my wife brought home a wine making kit, and we jumped into a batch of Zinfandel Blush, which so far is turning out barely drinkable, and my threshold is pretty low. We'll let it age in the bottles some and see what happens.
In the meantime, I realized that I no longer have an excuse not to try making mead, so I got busy looking for some recipes. I had a gallon of wildflower honey at my disposal, and I concocted 6 gal. of must, using D47 yeast, a tad of ginger, lemon zest, and some dried blueberries for yeast nutrition. So far it is bubbling away, although a tad slower than I would expect. My O.G a week ago, when I started, was 1.066. When I checked yesterday, it was 1.052. From looking around this forum, I gather that 1.100 is where I really should have started, and perhaps use more nutrient agnostic yeast, i.e. K1V. I was really trying to avoid adding a chemical nutrient, hence the blueberries.
Can someone tell me if I have practically wasted a gallon of perfectly good honey? If I messed up, can I still salvage the situation by adding more honey and/or nutrient?
I don't have the scale to weigh my honey, but I estimate that a gallon must be around 10-12 lbs. Can anyone comment on that?
Thanks in advance!