👋 fellow homebrewer (do we have a homebrew community here yet?)
My advice: your first mead is probably gonna be more of a learning experience. Go to costco and buy a big bottle of honey (3lbs), mix it with a gallon of water, and some nutrients.
Most cost effective way to try it out without blowing a ton of money. My first mead was terrible, and i spent a ton of money on good local honey.
My second mead i spent even more on better honey and strawberries, to apply everything i learned. Came out amazing
Thanks for the tip! I might do that, cause yeah this will be first. What do you mean by nutrients? Is that something I should be looking for? I assumed everything I’d need should be in the kit (except honey) so I’d like to make sure.
So i don’t know what kit you have or what it came with but here’s everything I would use:
Equipment:
Star San (make sure everything is sanitized, also don’t rinse this stuff out – “don’t fear the foam”)
Airlock (and bung)
Fermenter (I like big mouth bubblers, but your kit should have come with something)
A spoon
Ingredients:
Honey (I do 3lbs per gal)
Water (I use store bought water, because I’m paranoid lol)
If you’re using fresh fruit, pectic enzyme (this helps break down haze in the mead from the fruit)
Fermaid-O (this is the nutrients)
Wine Tanin (optional, for aging)
Yeast (you can get some cheap yeast on Amazon – I used Red Star “Cote Des Blancs” for my strawberry mead, but your kit probably came with this)
Watch some YouTube videos to get a feel for the process. I enjoy City Stead Brewing, they have tons of recipes and helpful tips. Also, if you’re gonna bottle and stuff you’ll need wine bottles, a siphon and bottling wand, corks, and a corker. You can bottle in swing-top bottles, but I haven’t had good luck with those (apparently they’re not great for long term storage >.>)
Like i said though, for your first mead it’s probably best to KISS. I appreciate being able to get a feel for the process and then experimenting later on. I’ve only made two meads, but have made wine and a LOT of beer in the past – so if you have more questions just lmk!
I bought a mead kit from Golden Hive Mead.
Haven’t started yet. Need to get in touch with a local bee keeper for some honey yet.
👋 fellow homebrewer (do we have a homebrew community here yet?)
My advice: your first mead is probably gonna be more of a learning experience. Go to costco and buy a big bottle of honey (3lbs), mix it with a gallon of water, and some nutrients.
Most cost effective way to try it out without blowing a ton of money. My first mead was terrible, and i spent a ton of money on good local honey.
My second mead i spent even more on better honey and strawberries, to apply everything i learned. Came out amazing
Thanks for the tip! I might do that, cause yeah this will be first. What do you mean by nutrients? Is that something I should be looking for? I assumed everything I’d need should be in the kit (except honey) so I’d like to make sure.
So i don’t know what kit you have or what it came with but here’s everything I would use:
Equipment:
Ingredients:
Watch some YouTube videos to get a feel for the process. I enjoy City Stead Brewing, they have tons of recipes and helpful tips. Also, if you’re gonna bottle and stuff you’ll need wine bottles, a siphon and bottling wand, corks, and a corker. You can bottle in swing-top bottles, but I haven’t had good luck with those (apparently they’re not great for long term storage >.>)
Like i said though, for your first mead it’s probably best to KISS. I appreciate being able to get a feel for the process and then experimenting later on. I’ve only made two meads, but have made wine and a LOT of beer in the past – so if you have more questions just lmk!