FatBloke -- Thanks for guiding me along - much appreciated as dabble in my first mead.
Yes I'm stirring gently every day and trying to get any lees worked off the bottom of the bucket. And stirring prior to any SNAs. I plan to take a gravity check on Saturday which is day 5
As a beer guy an SG of 1.109 seems crazy high. I'm working on a recipe for an Oatmeal Stout and its high at a SG of 1.070
Waynes "calibration" comment is excellent.
"Beer people" often find it hard to get their head round the different numbers, but if you think about it, rather than talking in the 5 to 8% ABV range, you're now playing in the 12 to 18% department !
A couple of points that will make your mead efforts a little less stressful, is that mead making has more in common with wine making, than it does with beer, though there's similarities to both, and that patience and understanding of different method are also required.
Because the use of honey makes it necessary to realise that honey must isn't a beer wort, even if the act of fermenting is similar. The characteristics of the base materials make it different i.e. beer worts need almost an OCD character toward hygiene, sterilisation, etc etc, whereas honey is natures most sterile substance. Malts, hops, etc will naturally rot if left unused. Yet you won't ever see fungus/mould/wild yeast doing anything to honey. You have to water it down just to get it to ferment and even then, it can be a bit of a bugger to get it fermented....
The patience thing ? well as you've probably worked out, the basic method isn't difficult, but when you've got your first batch finished, cleared, etc, when you take a taste (especially if it's a dry mead), it can see bloody horrible to the taste - after all, it's made from honey so it's supposed to be like honey isn't it ?.........erm, no. The thing that makes honey honey, is that it's very sweet. So sweet, that you will often not realise that it's also quite acidic, but the acidity is masked by the sweetness. So if you've fermented the hell out of it, that sweetness has gone.
It's been known for many centuries, that meads take a long time, and it seems that it's not so much about the time it takes to actually make, but the time it takes to age, and I can promise you will be surprised in the difference of taste that you will experience with meads newly made/cleared/etc and one that you've had ageing for 6, but probably 12 months. It's one of the truely amazing things about meads.
There aren't actually many recipes/methods that will give you something drinkable once it's first finished - just that "drinkable" is relative as we all have different ideas of what tastes good.
Well done with your efforts thus far, if you've any further Q's, then you only have to ask. In the meantime, have a read through of the NewBee guide, which is linked left in the yellow box. It's worth the effort.......
regards
fatbloke
