Okay, I started on Saturday a 5 gallon batch of orangeblossom mead and threw in 5 madagasgar vanilla beans.
The starting gravity was 1.092 with 12lbs of honey. Not quite what I was looking for in order to make a sweet mead at 2.4 lbs/gallon. May have to back sweeten. I added some carbonate to reduce the initial 4.4+ PH to 4.2 at which point the must took off running with fermentation.
Used Red Star Cotes Des Blanc yeast wanting it to finish out at about 14%ABV. May add another 1/2 gallon honey to the must to get there, but we'll see what happens after tasting and initial racking.
The starting gravity was 1.092 with 12lbs of honey. Not quite what I was looking for in order to make a sweet mead at 2.4 lbs/gallon. May have to back sweeten. I added some carbonate to reduce the initial 4.4+ PH to 4.2 at which point the must took off running with fermentation.
Used Red Star Cotes Des Blanc yeast wanting it to finish out at about 14%ABV. May add another 1/2 gallon honey to the must to get there, but we'll see what happens after tasting and initial racking.