3 lbs honey per gallon for 15%. Each pound of honey added to a gallon of must (the pre-fermentation honey and water mixture) adds about 5% of potential alcohol when fermented completely.
The fruity sweetness of the apricot pairs with the floral notes of the rose petals, the honey adds a natural sweetness, and the vanilla brings a warm undertone. The batch that taught this project what a blow-off tube does when it clogs.
Read the notes →Lavender gives a floral and slightly herbaceous touch, honey the sweetness, vanilla a warm and creamy note, and orange a citrus lift. The batch came out further into the lavender than intended, and found a second life in a tall glass with gin.
Read the notes →An acerglyn takes maple syrup alongside the honey, and this one splits them down the middle: seven and a half pounds of each, built to land at fifteen per cent. Barrel-aged six months and it came out well.
Read the notes →A cyser replaces the water with apple juice, giving a drink that is both sweeter and tarter than a plain mead. Twelve pounds of honey across five gallons — under the usual three-per-gallon, because the juice brings sugar of its own. Barrel-aged six months.
Read the notes →A melomel is just a mead made with fruit, and this one leans sour: tart cherries against honey, taken either as whole frozen fruit or as pure cherry juice standing in for most of the water.
Read the notes →Blueberries and honey, with an optional cinnamon, vanilla and oak trio at the aging stage that is where the name comes from. Ethan's blueberry batch was made with canned pie filling; what is written here is the frozen-fruit version, which is a different build and says so throughout.
Read the notes →You do not need fruit, spices or oak to make mead. This is honey, water, yeast and nutrient and nothing else, which means the honey does all the work and whichever jar you bought is what you are going to taste. The simplest thing in this section and the one that hides the least.
Read the notes →Fermentation produces carbon dioxide, and a sealed or blocked vessel is a pressure vessel — the Valentine's Brew blocked its own blow-off tube. These worked for the brewer, which is not the same as working with a different vessel, yeast and kitchen.