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Plain
Kegged on April 5, 2011.
For my first batch of mead I decided to make a plain version using only honey, water, and yeast. I bought 12 pounds of honey from Costco and decided to use Wyeast Dry Mead (4632) yeast. I poured the honey along with some water into a pot to heat on the stove so I could pour it into a carboy more easily. After the honey and water had mixed, I transferred the mixture to a glass carboy. Then I made a mistake. Without thinking I placed the glass carboy (full of hot liquid) into my sink which was full of cold water to cool it down before adding the yeast. After a few minutes I heard a crack. I lifted up on the carboy and the contents poured out into the sink; it had split along the seam near the bottom of the carboy.
For my second attempt I would use a plastic fermenting bucket instead. It might have been okay if I hadn't placed the carboy in the sink, although to be safe I would at least cool the liquid in the metal pot before transferring it to a carboy if I didn't want to use a plastic fermenter. Below is an image of the honey I bought from Costco.
For my second attempt I believe I still used the Wyeast Dry Mead (4632) yeast, although I am not completely sure that was the case. I may have already cracked the inner packet before I ruined the first batch and it is possible I chose Wyeast Sweet Mead (4184) yeast for my second attempt.
I completed the same steps for my second attempt but used a plastic fermenter instead of a glass carboy. I placed the fermenter in the sink with cold water and waited for the temperature to drop. Once it got low enough I added the rest of the water to get to five gallons and then pitched the yeast. From what I can remember it took longer for the yeast to get going than it normally does for beer or cider. The original gravity was 1.089. After 58 days in the primary fermenter I transferred it to a glass carboy, the specific gravity during the transfer was 1.027. The image below on the left shows the mead in the glass carboy, the image on the right shows a glass of the finished product.
I placed the mead in a keg (I did not force carbonate) after 136 days in the secondary container, for a total of 194 days. The final gravity was 1.021; the alcohol content was 8.9%.
I was pleased with the results considering I used bulk honey from Costco and had never made mead before. The quality and taste seemed comparable to a bottle of mead I bought at a store in Seattle for around $15. I would like my next batch to be a bit drier and have a higher alcohol content. I have heard mead containing only honey does not have the nutrients yeast requires to convert a high percentage of sugar into alcohol, I don’t know if this is the reason my final gravity was still a bit high.