Batch Consistency

The cost of carboys and honey has limited me to small batches until I know what works and what doesn't.

The trouble with consistency is time - you have to have done enough batches to know if you can be consistent or not :-*, especially if you are allowing for aging effects of a couple of years.

The problem with one gallon batches is they are way to small. They are like instantly gone, and if you made something good that had to age you don't get it again gfor 6 months to a year.

So with 1 Gallon batches you have to say, Gonna taste this in a year if it is good it will be 2 years or more before i have this around to drink.

Barring infection or total incompetance it is very hard to make mead that noone likes. Perhaps it might need to age 2+ years if you get heavilly experimental with a taste that is way to nastily strong. IME those are the rarity, and you'll be warned if you ask about your ingredients before you make it. Ask here, if no responce from experienced people post to Mead lovers Digest.

I agree...I've made one and two gallon batches in the past. the problem is that i wont even touch a mead until its 10-12 months old, becuase in my opinion anything younger than that simply has not reached its full potantial. So you make a one gallon batch and one of two things happens, you either drink it all before it has reached its full potential (and subsequently never know what it would have really been like)...or you wait an entire year, find that your mead is absolutly wonderful, and then cry becuse you only have 4 bottles of it. Look at it this way...make 5 gallons and if it doesnt turn out the way you like give it away as gifts to people you dont like ;D

Here's my take. I've done about 18 batches now and all but 3 of them have been 1 gallon batches. You don't have to wait one year to know if it will be good. Sure it will get better but there are some batches I didn't care for and I have done a lot of experimenting without much expense. Now that I have a few that I really like I can make larger batches and be relatively sure they will be satisfactory. I also leave a bottle of each batch to age a year but I know way before wether it is something I will like or not. It just takes a little disciplin. Therefor I would recommend doing small batches til you taste one you know you like and then make more of it. As a general rule, if you like it in 3 months, make more. It will only get better. If it taste bad after 3 months, you are in for a really long wait and that is still no guarantee. As for consistancy, make good notes and careful measurements and it will not be a problem. That's my opinion.