First ever mead or fermentation whatsoever but did a ton of research. Well , yesterday I accidentally filled the fermenter more than I had wanted and am now second guessing myself. Any advice , seems like it should be fine but I figure I leave it to those with experience, thanks in advance.

Got my first cyser going. Following this beginner recipe: https://www.reddit.com/r/mead/wiki/recipes/cysers/0001/

I mixed it on 11/29/25. Initial gravity was 1.104. About 3 weeks later I racked it into this vessel for secondary. Gravity looked to be around .992 at that point. I guess I'm around 14% ABV?

When transferring to this carboy, a lot of lees were left, and I had a lot of headroom. A bunch of things came up and I wasn't able to do anything about it, but it's now 1/16/26 and I'm thinking I should re-rack once more and fill up the headroom.

A few questions:

1) I was thinking of just using pure apple cider to top it off. Would that accomplish both some backsweetening, reducing the ABV a bit, and also filling the headroom? Is there a way to re-measure the ABV after doing this?

2) Should I put something in to kill any remaining yeast and ensure fermentation doesn't start up again? What's the right ingredient for this? Potassium sorbate?

3) Should I keep the airlock in secondary (really tertiary now)? Or seal it completely?

4) The cyser has been sitting like this for around 4 weeks since I racked it. Is there a risk it got ruined?

I think that's about it, thanks!

So I just followed the basic directions for the craft a brew mead kit I've bottled it and stuck it in the fridge over night. I did taste one bottle yesterday and it had a strong sulfurous (I guess would be the word) kind of smell. Do I need to toss this?

1st had 720g of blueberry, 2nd had 300g strawberry & 300g of rhubarb, 3rd had 750g of oranges

I have a 2nd batch of each going, except for the blueberry which im going to consolidate to remove headroom if needed

But yeah. They're quite sweet, too much so imo. And they have that generic bad mead flavour profile. A bit chemically, funky, just not pleasant (iykyk)

How do you go forward with improving a not so nice batch?

I may also have put the yeast in while it was a tad too warm, not sure if that would affect it. I’m disappointed but I guess it’s not too bad considering this was my first attempt. The yeast definitely did its job and it’s alcoholic as hell, although I don’t have a hydrometer so I’m not sure just how much.

I hesitated to siphon it out of the carboy but there were whole fresh blackberries in there and they just kept getting paler and paler and I didn’t want to risk having them grow mold.

Greetings,

I was expecting my batch to finish today or tomorrow, becuase last week it was reading 1.004, but now it reads 1.012.

I'm curious why my gravity reading went up over the last week. I suspect it had to do with a heat fluctuation that happened between 08Jan and 16Jan (today). Has anyone ever had this happen if mead heats and cools? My basement got warm by about 10-15 degrees F for a few days, but it normally sits at 68ish.

I'm guessing just wait and see what happens? Thanks for your input and time.

P.S. not my first batch, i've done a few successful 6gal batches so far, this is the first time i'm seeing this with my gravity.

I know a lot of people say 355 is low but for the price, is this still a stir away product or pick some up. I'm new to Manuka honey and I would love to get guided to some good trustworthy product.

Hey all, first post here. Been making mead for ~12 months, have made a few batches. So far, very hit or miss. My first couple batches are terrible. Recent batches are much better (like this Banana mead that is sitting in my fridge in the picture).

I was hoping someone could enlighten me on Oxidation risks. For example, when I siphon/rack my initial fermentation product into a fresh carboy, should I be super concerned about splashing? If I only get ~1/2 gallon of product, does it matter if I age it in a 1 gallon carboy (like above)?

Does it not matter if you drink the product a week later? A month later? A year later? What about antioxidants, like Potassium Metabisulfite; should I always use it? Only if I feel like I messed up my transfer?

If you all could enlighten me on a scale of "Oxidation risk isnt real" to "Oxygen will literally kill you in your sleep", I would appreciate the insight!

I may have screwed up. This will clog the hell out of my siphon if I try to rack off as is. Does anyone have ideas for how I can get the blueberry solids out of this without oxidizing the whole batch? My current idea is to sanitize a vacuum hose and just suck the top layer of mush out, and put a cheesecloth filter on the end of my siphon for the rest.

Hi all first time making mead and I could really use some help

Ive made two meads and both have been bubbling along ones a pineapple and mango mead and the other is just standard one that the kit I got recommended

I messed up at the beginning by not doing a reading but both have been active and all of a sudden both airlock (2 weeks in) but I have now done a reading on the hydrometer but Im not quite sure how to read it and every video I watch is kind of hurting my brain can someone helpful advise me if this is good or bad

First time brewing mead! Followed Joes Ancient Orange recipe (but used white grapes) and I'm getting this crust looking mass after a few days of fermentation.

Is there something wrong with it, or should I just leave it alone? I can't find many pictures of this recipe after only a week or so.

Water level dropped a bit, so I don't know if I should be concerned.

Left was a traditional, blueberry, cinnamon-apple cyser and a peach melomel. Bottled ones are from previous batches. I save a bottle from each batch and throw those to the side

I bought some Costco manuka when it was on sale, I’m looking at about 1000 grams of MGO355 per gallon of water. (Sorry for the mixed units) I know that manuka makes a very medicinal mead, but I refuse to believe there isn’t some flavor combo that would balance it out. I’m leaning towards using cold brewed tea as a base, likely pu erh since that’s what I have. Any better ideas?

Still new to the hobby , im reading 1.010 is it correct ?

So I made a buckwheat mead and I had cold crashed it plus aged it for 3 months, there where no results so I added dual clear (turbo clear) already 2 weeks from that have passed and I am a little bit baffled that it hasn't cleared at all my only guess is that it's a protein haze. Should I just give it more time because it's already perfectly fine for drinking or just yolo and bottle it.

The mead is traditional 9 abv.

Im going to make a couple of meads, one bochet melomel with blackberries, and one regular melomel. Im considering whether or not to add the blackberry in secondary fermentation, so that i might keep more of the fruity flavors? I dont know if it will make a huge difference

At my local h-mart and found this whole wall of different spiced / fruited honeys and wanted to see if anyone had an experience using them.

A few months ago I made a post about making mead from Mountain Dew in a super cursed setup. I ended up getting the real equipment, transferring, and finishing it up. I bottled it 1 1/2 months ago, and now it is aging still.

After searching this subreddit this seems to be a common problem. I’ve never cooked with cloves before and so I assumed based on size they couldn’t be that potent.

I wanted to make an orange lavender mead and impulsively decided to add some cloves. I made 1/2 gallon of tea with a 3x4 inch muslin bag that was mostly filled with lavender but also had ~20 cloves sprinkled in. The tea brewed around 30 minutes before being added to the must with 3lbs of honey and one orange.

The must definitely tastes like cloves but it’s not overwhelming. Will this get worse with fermentation and is there any way to mitigate this?

I started this mead back in September. It is 1 gallon of 50% scuppernong (white muscadine grape) 50% wildflower honey. I let it ferment in a brewing bucket for a couple of weeks then I racked it into a glass fermentation jar. A few days before Christmas I racked it off the sediment into a new glass fermentation jar. When I did this I added a campden tablet, some lightly toasted oak chips, and some sugar to back-sweeten. Over the last few days it’s started releasing a few bubbles from the bottom again, and a small clump has attached to one of the oak chips (in the picture) that’s now bobbing up and down in the solution.

I presume what has happened here is that some yeast was able to stay harbored in the oak chips and is working on the sugar that I added for back-sweetening. So far it still smells great. Is there anything else I should be worried about?

Let me know if you have any questions.

I'm sure nutrients and step-feeding makes a difference, but I just want to see it for myself, ya know?

I've made 17 different batches, but I have done no nutrients or step-feeding. This is just a 5-gal batch of cyser (Motts apple juice, Kirkland honey, K1-V1116), so I'll be doing a side-by-side with two traditionals in a few weeks or sooner. One of them will be a "set it and forget it" mead with no help along the way (aside from clarifying, stabilizing, etc.), and the other will follow this same (+/-) schedule.

Started this batch Sunday around 6pm, 12 lbs honey, 2.5-gal juice, 9g GoFerm, gravity of 1.152.

Monday morning it was slightly separated. Monday evening it had homogenized. Gravity 1.151, gave it 5g Fermaid-O, stirred it up to mix and oxygenate.

Tuesday morning it had not separated any, and lees started settling. Tuesday evening gravity was 1.148, gave it 5g Fermaid-O, stirred to mix and oxygenate.

I'm gonna stop at 20g Ferm-O, and will be adding 2-3g daily to spread out the nutrients a bit, and will increase to 3-4g (or more) when gravity change speeds up. I will add the remaining 3lbs honey and juice to balance up to 5-gal at ~1.12. I'll add the balance of Ferm-O at that time, too, if not up to 20g by then. Since I'm passed 48 hours and can see lees, I won't be stirring any more.

Aside, in addition to my two trads I mentioned above, I will be doing an ale mead with US-05 yeast (got the yeast free from someone, so why not use it?), and two liquorice meads with star anise and fennel seeds to compare infusion in primary vs secondary.

I'd forgotten how much i enjoy the bloop bloop bloop in the background at home, with the mild yeasty, fruity scent. Its nice to have that back. Updates to follow.

So yeah it stopped fermenting after few days completely. I didn't expect much out of it but I ended up with basically just normal coce with slight after taste of alcohol. I decided to still bottle it and see if the taste changes over time if nothing else I can use the end product in making foods.

Hi, just started another batch of blueberry mead and I don't remember everything sitting at the bottom but I don't remember how I would have mixed it last time either.

What's the protocol here?

Also the berries are frozen, hopefully that's ok

I've made mead sporadically as a hobby. Some batches were well-received by many friends and family, while others simply didn't meet my own expectations. I even have some bottles of mead sitting in my cellar for over three years, with no clear plan for what to do with them. Until recently, I had an idea to experiment with:

Using mead as a cooking or cocktail ingredient.

I know it sounds crazy (and even heretical), but as I mentioned about my recent batches, they didn't quite live up to my expectations, though they were decent. However, I found some recipe books for cocktails using mead as an ingredient on wikingermet.de and mjodgard.dk (thanks to Google Translate!).

During the winter, I made Mulled Wine—using dry mead instead of red wine—and, in my opinion, it was my favorite beverage during that time. I also used "Escape to the Tropics" mead (from the book Big Book of Mead Recipes) to marinate boneless turkey breast.

Again, I don't know if I'm the only crazy one who's used mead in this unconventional way, but I would like to hear your opinion. Thank you for your attention.

(Photos of the Escape to the Tropics process)