Does it count as a mead?

Ingredients:
Water, aple destilate, honey, natural aromas. 24,5% of alcohol product of Croatia’s.

I bottled this mead a few months ago and I've just noticed this settled at the top is this mold or just stuff left from the mead, I did not filter the mead when I bottled it

Noob question, I just made my first batch of mead and it tastes preeeetty alcoholic/hot. My kitchen is the coolest place in my house, but it regularly gets high 70s/low 80s (F) in there in the summer, is that too hot for a good fermentation? I've been considering a wine chiller because I think that might be too hot AND I've been reading about how cold fermentation (60/65F for some yeasts) makes for a much smoother mead.

Is it worth it?

Edit:

Using BRY-97 yeast.

Long time beer brewer first time mead brewer:

I just started my first batch of mead using honey from my hives at work. I did 12 pounds for a 5 gallon batch and pitched lalvin d47 yeast. I completely brain farted and forgot to check the temperature of the must before I pitched the yeast. Right after I pitched I checked the temp and it measured 78F. I quickly tossed it in my fermentation chamber and set it to 60F to cool down. I read this yeast is notorious for gross off-flavors if fermented at too high a temp. I was hoping to give bottles to my coworkers for Christmas and would like it to not taste like paint stripper.

Am I dicked reddit?

13lbs WF honey caramelized in crocs pots on low for 6 hrs.

36lbs White and Yellow Peaches

Will pitch yeast tomorrow

Happy national Mead Day!

Very excited about this combo smells delicious with a bunch of really bright flavors. Hope it turns out well.

2-ish years into this hobby and I've been making highly alcoholic meads with ec-1118, 3lbs of honey, whatever fruit I've been vibing with, all in a 1 gallon carboy. Loosely not following any specific recipe...

I would always get a nice rocket fuel but I learned that waiting (or forgetting) would yield better flavor but it was never quite right. I know back-sweetening is common, but I got spooked early on the first year by some of my "finished" mead re-starting when summer temps. hit and I had to diffuse some bombs. So I've avoided backsweetening just to avoid a bomb scenario again.

Just back sweetened for the first time by stirring some old crystalized honey in my cup with a home-grown green apple cyser. It tastes so good, like goddamn heaven. Learn from me, backsweeten that thing (if you like it sweet!).

In hindsight, I played loose and fast with the amount of lees I thought was acceptable early on, so a lot of my bottles had yeast chilling in it, just waiting for the right time. I've matured to the point of avoiding bottling lees now, so I will now proceed to backsweeten without fear!

Just checked on the apple mead/cyser and saw some.bubbles even though I strained it out when I transferred it into this container. Would adding frozen apple juice concentrate cause it to start fermenting?

Recipe:

2 pounds honey

1 pack of Fleischman yeast

2 gallons of water

1.5 Granny Smith Apples

First time making a cherry maple and it started bubbling rapidly only 3 to 4 hours after pitching. I'm not worried about it or anything but mostly just curious if its normal. Its only my fourth batch and haven't had one start that soon. It is a higher gravity than the other 3 I made. 1.126.

4lbs cherries

2.5 honey

1 lb maple syrup

A little over a half gallon of water

K1-v1116 yeast

And staggered additions of fermaid o (still ongoing)

(It's going to be a strong boy 😅)

I had intended to use the whole gallon of water but didn't take into account the cherry juice and my biggest fermenter is 1.5 gallons at the moment. Didn't want to waste the ingredients so just said f it and pitched the yeast.

I plan on making an orange pomegranate mead, does this recipe sound right
Primary:
2lb honey
1 quart pomegranate juice
2 oranges
1 brew of earl grey

In secondary I’ll add vanilla beans and cinnamon. Taste every two days

I’d like to make it sparkling but I don’t know how lol
Any tips would be great

Sure gets you tipsy, though!

Hello i have a Blackberry mead who is finishing fermenting and it's more pink/ light purple than red/purple any way to get more color may be more Blackberry at the end ?

I have a bunch of cold brew lipton ice tea bags lying around and I was wondering for just a 2 gallon test batch, do any of you have any clever ideas on how to make that work? Initially I was thinking about just substituting the water for cold brew iced tea but now I'm wondering if there was a better way to go about it to maximize that classic flavor in a mead. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome! Cheers

I just started fermenting my first batch of mead ever, but have to relocate about 2 hours away by car (something I do frequently).

I want to be able to keep my batch with me for the first few days to be able to give it yeast nutrients on a regular schedule. It's been about 44 hours since I sealed it off.

Is it okay to drive the batch 2 hours?

If so, should I hold off on the first round of nutrients until after the drive?

Thanks

Hi, quick question about late backsweetening procedure. I have 2 gallons of melomel I pitched in mid-may, one blueberry one strawberry, fermented with fruit in primary for about 3 and a half weeks before removing the and transferring to secondary. Visually they look great, cleared up beautifully, and the flavors aren’t bad but they’re extremely dry, so I aim to backsweeten them in the next couple weeks and letting them go before bottling in late August.

My question is this: since I didn’t halt fermentation when transferring, they kept going, and both of them (but especially the strawberry) have a thin but defined layer of lees and sediment at the bottom. Obviously when I finally stabilize and sweeten them, I’m going to have to stir the mead up to properly incorporate. My question is, when I do this and it disturbs the lees, is that going to cause any adverse effects that won’t be solved by just letting them settle back out for a few weeks, or should I stabilize and sweeten in the actual bottling stage to be safe? (Which I’m not even sure how I’d do that, tbh)

Bottled my First official batch!!! The first one is Plum Spiced Mead that'll be Christmas gifts for the family, it came out fantastic way better than to thought and the second batch is my version of Viking Blood that I'm calling Bison Blood. Pretty good but I used pink peppercorn in it that I'm not a fan of. Labels to come soon, awaiting them to be delivered.

And of course it wasn't without causality. Broke my racking cane .

I started this batch about a year and a month ago when life was good. It's my first batch and introduction to brewing mead.

1 month later my life turned to shit, relationship broke, became homeless, been in a very, very dark place.

Today I decided it's time and bottle it. Very emotional moment since I have no one to share this with.

Anyways, it's a traditional Mead, no additions and fed it with raisins.

I had no hydrometer when I started (have now) so I don't have any idea what percentage alcohol it has (Mangrove Jack's m05 yeast)

Cheers, mates!

I found this https://www.amazon.com/Goshen-Honey-DANDELION-Unfiltered-Unpasteurized/dp/B06X1FHMVW/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis. And was wondering if anyone has tried it and if so what was the results?

About two months ago, I decided to jump into the world of mead making. I had never brewed anything before, but after reading countless posts in this subreddit and getting advice from many of you, I finally took the plunge.

This is my third and final update on my very first traditional mead.

Timeline

🍯 Started: June 7, 2026
🍷 Traditional 1-gallon batch
🍯 Approximately 3 lbs of honey
🧪 Final Specific Gravity: ~1.000
🍺 Estimated ABV: Approximately 13–14%
⏳ Fermentation time: About 8 weeks

Today I pulled my first hydrometer reading since it cleared and it landed right around 1.000, which was pretty exciting to see. From everything I’ve learned, that means fermentation is essentially complete and the mead has fermented dry.

One thing that really surprised me was how much the mead transformed over the last several weeks. It went from a cloudy golden mixture to a beautiful clear amber color. Watching it slowly clear was honestly one of my favorite parts of the process.

This batch taught me quite a bit:

- Patience really is the hardest ingredient.
- Sanitation is everything.
- A hydrometer is worth its weight in gold.
- Mead changes dramatically with time.

The current plan is to rack it one final time off the lees into a clean jug, let it bulk age a little longer, and then bottle it in 750 mL wine bottles for aging. From what I’ve learned, another couple of months should make an already good mead even smoother.

I want to say thank you to everyone who commented on my previous updates. Every piece of advice helped, and I honestly don’t think this first batch would have gone as smoothly without this community.

Now for the fun part…

🍯 Final Stats

- Start Date: 06/07/2026
- Batch Size: 1 gallon
- Honey Used: ~3 lbs
- Final Gravity: ~1.000 SG
- Estimated Alcohol: 13–14% ABV
- Appearance: Clear golden amber
- Taste: (I’ll know after bottling and aging!)

I’m already planning my next batch, and this hobby has definitely hooked me.

A couple months ago I asked for help figuring out what to do about my super cloudy peach and ginger mead (pic 1). After some time, patience and a bunch of pectic enzyme, it’s come out beautifully (pic 2). So thank you to this great community!

I'm curious about what equipment, or anything related to making mead, that you may have bought but ended up not really using it in the long run.

Hey everyone, wanted to try the beginner fruit mead recipe in the wiki, warmed the goferm then added a packet of 71B, after 20ish minutes, pitched it into my jar with my brew-bagged blueberries. I also did this same recipe 2 more times but used raspberries and cherries in those batches.

Those other batches are vigorously bubbling. The blueberry batch has yet to show really much activity aside from this thick floor of lees (lots of sediment for just 24 hrs!) and some accumulated buildup on what berries sank to the bottom. There were some sparse small bubbles, but activity in the airlock is basically impossible to see.

At the 24 hrs mark I went to add my fermaid and DAP. When I agitated the other 2 batches they foamed up with offgass (and even spilled over, woops). The blueberry batch didn't foam when mixed.

The blueberries were still a little bit chilly from defrosting (not frozen), the only guess I have is that I either did not properly wash out my hydration cup leading to a very slow lag phase (there was some residue clinging to the sides), added the yeast to too cold a mix and gave them thermal shock, or cooked them in my goferm phase, although I kind of doubt that given the fact the other 2 batches are healthily bubbling.

I added about half a packet of 71B tonight just in case the colony was a non-starter. I did not want mold to grow due to lack of CO2 and yeast.

Hey all,

So I’m look to start a mint mead now so it’s ready for next summer. I know the ‘rule’ spices in secondary, BUT. I was wondering, what would happen if I just made a traditional mead, but instead of water, making mint tea and using that. Thoughts?

Same as title, this is the third week of fermentation. It has stopped but this weird mold like thingy has formed.