My 2nd mead

[kiwi-norseman]

So ill be starting my next batch of mead. Itll be a basic mead.

2.5 kgs of honey
2tsps of wine yeast(premium)
4 litres of water
and around a kg of raspberry's

this is the method I was thinking.

pour all honey into a pot and stir in the raspberry's until warm and thin enough to pour

100 ml of water and yeast slightly warmed to pump it up.

add honey/berry mixture to carboy. add water. add yeast.

mix thoroughly.

Wait

Does It sound good?

 

[fatbloke]

No it sounds like a massive amount of honey that will cause you fermentation problems.......

An average amount would be 1.3 to 1.6 kg made up to 4.5 litres total for a traditional recipe (honey, water, yeast and nutrients). You want raspberry as well which also has sugars in it increasing the fermentables further.......

I'd have said something like a max of 1.3kg of honey mixed up to 4 or 4.5 litres total, about 750g of raspberry in the bucket (and yes, specifically a bucket, not a carboy type jug/jar fermenter), do the yeast and nutrients thing, stirring it all daily at least and testing the gravity until it has dropped in gravity by 1/3rd, then do a last stir, add a bit more nutrient and airlock it off and leave it to finish.

Once its stopped/finished, add a further 750g of raspberry and then let it be for a couple of weeks.

 

[kuri]

Your 2.5kg of honey is probably between 1.73 and 1.79 liters depending on the water content. Let's call it 1.75. If we assume that the honey and water volumes are additive, that would give you a total volume of 5.75 liters --- 4 liters water plus 1.75 liters honey --- or just over 1.5 gallons. (Note: I don't know if the volumes are really additive for honey and water. With alcohol and water, 1+1 is less than 2. If the volume is not additive then the percentage of honey is even higher.) That's giving you a ratio of about .43 : 1, or just under 4 : 9, or 1 : 2.3 (choose your favorite ratio). That's about 3.67 pounds of honey per gallon. That's a lot of honey and will make a sweet mead. It will also make for very stressed out yeast.

I strongly suspect that the reason why people measure the total volume of honey + water (and nutrients and yeast) rather than the separate volumes of the two is that they do not combine in an easily predictable way, which would give you an even higher starting gravity, but this isn't something I know as a fact, just speculation. The standard, though, is to measure the final volume, and since that's what everyone else is used to I'd recommend getting in the habit of doing so as well. Makes for smoother feedback.

If you decide you want a very sweet mead, you might consider starting with a smaller amount of honey and making honey additions as the fermentation progresses. That puts less stress on the yeast and is less likely to give you a stalled ferment. Just my two cents.

 

[kiwi-norseman]

Hmmmm both sound very correct thanks for the input guys. I like sweet mead my current mead going is 2kgs of honey 5ltrs water(altered to the gallon carboy of course)