Emergency call to all mead brewers! HELP ME!

[Phelice]

So, I got 1kg good quality honey from a bee friend, and I wanted to make mead of it. Now I would need 10l of water, but I only have a ~7l pot... I can't get a grip on a larger one as all shops are already closed here... and of course, nobody of my people have one...

What am I gonna do now? Add water while it cooks down until it is 10l, or what? Don't ask me why I did it, but I already put the honey in


HELP ME SOMEONE!! PLEASE!

 

[tagradh]

I don't like mead. I just make ale and cider so.... can't help. Kinda sucks as my nextdoor neighbour has 5 beehives in his garden.

 

[Phelice]

So, who can help then??
Pleeease

 

[Scolar]

Could you not just take away half of the honey so then you will need half as much water?

 

[Sleipnir]

So, I got 1kg good quality honey from a bee friend, and I wanted to make mead of it. Now I would need 10l of water, but I only have a ~7l pot... I can't get a grip on a larger one as all shops are already closed here... and of course, nobody of my people have one...

What am I gonna do now? Add water while it cooks down until it is 10l, or what? Don't ask me why I did it, but I already put the honey in


HELP ME SOMEONE!! PLEASE!

ok ok ok, calm down.

first off, why are you cooking it down?

ok, you have 1k =2.2lbs honey and roughly....hmmmm, 3.78L= 1gal awww fuck the conversion.....

you have too much water, you have a lil more than 2.5 US gallons and by using only 1k honey it will be way diluted.

I use 20-25lbs. honey and never anymore than 3gal. of water, sometimes less.

 

[Phelice]

I can't take the honey out because I don't know how to remove the water from it.
Yes, I am cooking it down because my receipe book tells me so While I reduce it to half its volume, I am putting away the "Krud" (as the anglo-saxons call it). That is necessary to get clear mead. Although I doubt that I will ever manage that

 

[Sleipnir]

Could you not just take away half of the honey so then you will need half as much water?

NO!!!!!!!

honey is what makes mead mead.....

If anything, as in my post above she has to leave the honey as is and scale down the water.

 

[Sleipnir]

I can't take the honey out because I don't know how to remove the water from it.
Yes, I am cooking it down because my receipe book tells me so While I reduce it to half its volume, I am putting away the "Krud" (as the anglo-saxons call it). That is necessary to get clear mead. Although I doubt that I will ever manage that

ack!!!!!

NO NO NO NO!!!!! throw the recipe book out.

I never boil my water, never cook down the honey and never use any clarifiers or artificial chemicals.......and yet they come out looking like this.

BTW, this mead took 1st place at ECT this past year. My next post will go into how I make my mead.

 

[Sleipnir]

Ok, I gotta say, it looks like the batch you have going now might wind up getting tossed, I am not there so I dont know how you actually did it or how far along you are......


Here is how I do it:

I fill my sink with hot ass water and loosen the caps on the honey containers and put them in there so it can "liquify" and be easier to pour.

I then get a pot, put it on the stove and fill it with 2gal. or so of spring water, slowly heating it up, once the honey is "liquid-y" enough, I add it to the pot of warming water, the only reason I do this is to get it into solution.

I then use some more water to clean out the honey containers making sure I get every available drop and add it to the pot on the stove, as I said, just making it warm enough to go into solution, never boil the water OR the honey.

once it is into solution I add the pot to my primary fermentation bucket, followed by the balance of spring water...like I said, I never use more than 3gal... if I am making a melomel...fruit mead...I add that to the pot on the stove as well, or I put it into the bucket first and then dump the solution on top of it, depends on my mood....or I add nothing if I am making a sack mead...straight honey.

I usually let it cool for a little while before I pitch the yeast...what kind are you using anyways??

as a side note: EVERYTHING I use, bucket,lid, airlock assembly blah blah is already sterilized prior to me starting anything.


I hope this helps, if you have anymore questions, fire away.

 

[Scolar]

NO!!!!!!!

honey is what makes mead mead.....

If anything, as in my post above she has to leave the honey as is and scale down the water.

I wasn't saying take away all the honey was I, that would be like trying to make cider without apples.... If you read what I wrote it clearly works out as the poster producing HALF as much mead, you don't make the same volume of mead using half the ingredients..

Anyway good luck in saving it!

 

[Sleipnir]

I wasn't saying take away all the honey was I, that would be like trying to make cider without apples.... If you read what I wrote it clearly works out as the poster producing HALF as much mead, you don't make the same volume of mead using half the ingredients..

Anyway good luck in saving it!

I know exactly what you said......you dont touch the honey.....at all, reduce anything you want BUT the honey.

she has too much water, 10l water to 1k honey is too watered down

and as far as producing "half" as much mead, that's not the point since you said:

Could you not just take away half of the honey so then you will need half as much water?

the amount made would be the only thing changed, not the dilution.

and my "NO" response was to removing ANY of the honey....."If you read what I wrote."

Which was this:

If anything, as in my post above she has to leave the honey as is and scale down the water.

 

[Phelice]

Nevermind, here's what happened:
While I brewed my mead, I grumbled and bitched about the street party they do right in front of my window.
I was almost there, added the ginger and the lemonstuff, the only thing i had to do was wait until it cooled down so I could put the barm in it. So I took it away from the heat and waited. And waited. And waited...
All of a sudden, my door bell rang like crazy. I opened and up the stairs came 2 of my co-workers, half drunk. "Come on, only one beer! Pleeeaase!" So I went with em and drank only one beer. And then the second only one beer. Then we met another co-worker, so another round was spent...






And when I woke up this morning, the honeywater was indeed cooled down..



.

 

[Beave]

Ah yes, the ol' "Come on, only one beer!" nights out. I can honestly say that some of the craziest, most irresponsible and most over-the-top nights in my life began with those very words.