I've stabilized (campden tablet and 1.5 tsp potassium sorbate) and back sweetened about 2 weeks ago. I just added sparkolloid 2 days ago, but I can't tell if this gelatinous mass on the oak stave is just a weird reaction from the sparkolloid or if it's something growing. Any thoughts? See comment for recipe

My next brew will be a Viking's Blood, but perhaps a little tweak on the recipe. I have some absolutely massive blackberries, and living in WA state, some gorgeous dark cherries. I have my hibiscus ready to go and some blackberry blossom honey.

I'm planning on doing the hibiscus infusion instead of water in primary and using 1.5lbs of fruit split evenly between blackberries and the dark red cherries I have because I couldn't find any tart cherry juice that didn't have things like citric acid in it already. I have enough fruit to do another 1.5bls of blackberries and cherries in secondary.

Do we think this will work? Or should I press my own cherry juice from the frozen cherries I have? It's been a record cherry year here in WA, so I have no shortage of access to great fruit!

So it seems my first attempt is done primary fermentation with a gravity reading of .992. No idea what OG was as I only bought the hydrometer yesterday.

Problem is that to take the above reading I poured the mead into my beaker, then poured the contents of the beaker back into the primary fermentation vessel.

How worried about oxidization do I need to be? I only realized it was a thing when trying to figure out if I cared how cloudy my mead is.

Hello peeps.

Imma do a mead for the first time, I have a very basic equipment

(https://www.almostoffgrid.com/products/almost-off-grid-mead-making-starter-kit-with-mead-journal)

And my partner and I want to do mead for the 1st time. We are planning on making a fig and cinnamon mead now to have it ready for xmas.

Any advice?

(Figs are fresh figs from my garden, and the cinnamon is Mexican cinnamon)

I used cream honey for the first time with no added ingredients except yeast, fermaid K and O, go ferm and bentonite. Is it normal to still be this cloudy after a month?

Hi all, just curious to see what everyone does about keeping yeast on hand? Like do people keep loads of different packs in stock or do you just buy them as and when needed?

I find it's generally a lot cheaper to buy 5 or 10 packs but worried about them dying off so I'm a bit reserved about buying loads of different types to try. I'd keep them in the fridge but my better half will throw them out if been sat in a while. I generally make about 20 different gallons a year so I don't use that much.

My batch from 3 months ago was done and clear so i racked it onto another jar a week ago. Then i backsweetened with real market honey. Now there is this strange layer. Does anyone know what it is and what i could do?

So i racked this batch 2m ago and i noticed few days ago from distant its getting darker in color but i didn't mind it at first today i took a better look at it and i see this the top section is actually has gone dark and it seems its growing to the bottom even the separation line is visible any idea whats going on?

Its a traditional mead and i added stabilisers when i racked it

My not JOAM after aging for 5 years. Despite it not actually being a JOAM because it used different yeast it has aged beautifully, photo makes it look a little darker than it is. Tastes very smooth and the orange is very subtle.

Original post - https://www.reddit.com/r/mead/s/UbdbeE45LN

Pacific cooler Caprisun mead! An experiment gone absolutely right. It's hard to describe the flavor properly. Very "floral" but almost how a flower smells instead of floral as a flavor? Very unique.

Ended up at about 10-10.5% ABV so I'm comfortable calling it 10%.

Also my first mead to clear up soo beautifully. Bentonite is absolute magic, do not hesitate to use in secondary!

Thank you all for indulging my childhood nostalgic nonsense.