So far I have brewed about six gallons in various flavors, Ive been using a 1.5 liter wine bottle as my fermenter and to save a little money Ive been using a balloon instead of a bubbler. Pretty much, Ive been doing it on the super cheap side to see if its A. enjoyable B. tasty and C. affordable. So far i have been enjoying each brew that Ive made, the best having been the Strawberry and Honey Crisp Apple.

That being said, Ive kind of been winging it as far as this process goes. I do, per 1.5 liter bottle 2.5 cups honey, about a half pound of fruit, and a packet of yeast. I add the water, add the honey, add the fruit, add the yeast, cap, shake for a good few minutes, then i uncap, place the balloon over the mouth and add a hole I then store it in the basement for two weeks where after the balloon looks limp I transfer to a new bottle where I cap it and let it sit to clear, after two or three weeks I strain it through a cheesecloth and finally bottle it. (Sorry this is so long)

Is any part of this wrong or is the process subject to user preference? Ive drank and shared it with many people, some have liked it some have not. I guess thats not wholly uncommon. I guess what Im asking is does anyone have any tips or tricks that they use for their mead and how about recipes? Is my process way too simple?

I guess if it feels easy sometimes I feel its wrong.

How big are your batches?  I'd think it would get to the point where the $15 bucket and lid and the $2 airlock are outweighed by the time cost of cleaning numerous bottles multiple times.  Plus, you increase your risk of infection with each bottle.

But I'very never made mead, so what do I know?

That makes sense. I do want to buy a bigger container but I was told never to use plastic. Is that true?

Sorry, but I have no idea.

I can tell you there is no issue that I am aware of when fermenting beer in plastic.

That is the same process I have used except I sub the wine bottles for gallon water jugs (like the milk ones).  I eventually transfer to glass bottles, but I've found that the plastic jugs are easier to mix/shake, already have pure water (obviously), and are disposable.  I have sanitized a few for reuse in the past, but generally speaking, it's not a problem to part with the jug after fermentation, and just rack it into a nicer bottle to age.

I think you are rushing the process. Honey takes a long time to ferment out. I would recommend using 3 pounds of honey per gallon batch. Just add the fruit about a month later so the aromatics will stay. If you put all of it together to start, the yeast is eating the sugars from the fruit, not the honey. So your mead is probably either really hot in alcohol or sickly sweet.

I would advise you to look over at homebrewtalk.com and see how others are doing theirs.http://www.homebrewtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30

I used two 5 gal carboys and I let it ferment for about a year, racking it every week or 2 to keep it off the dead yeast.  After a year I bottled it in wine bottles and let it sit another 6 months.

I was freakin' divine!  Let it age a bit.

What you've made isn't mead, it's melomel.  Mead is pure honey, melomel is honey + fruit other than apple.  Apple and honey fermented is called cyser.

Try making a plum melomel, it's incredible.

And let it age.  That's the reason to ferment a large (5 gal) batch, so you'll have enough to last while the next batch ferments.  It tastes soooooo much better if you let it ferment.

Oh yeah, and all the above comments are for making wine style mead.  There is also a beer style mead that I've never made.  It's supposed to take as long as beer (approx 2 weeks) to ferment.

If you're in a hurry to ferment something, try making watermelon wine.  It ages in about a month and is both delicious and potent.  Don't mix any water with it, just use the juice from the fruit.

I do mead and cider in 1 gallon plastic paint buckets with no problem.

Thanks everyone, its good to know that I can use plastic thats really stress relieving.

Agreed with the advice above.  Most mead guys will tell you that you need to age your mead a min of 4-6 months, the longer the better, before it really improves.  If it tastes good after your month, it will taste even better after 4-6 or more.

If you're looking for simple, google "JAOM" - Joe's Ancient Orange Mead.  It has a mulled, fall spices flavor and takes zero effort to make.  You can easily make it in a plastic bottle with a balloon like you mention.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=49106

I think I have a 5gal carboy stashed under a sink somewhere in the house... been a while, maybe it's about done. ;)

Find some podcasts on the the Brewing Network on mead (there was a good one on the Jamil show Brewing with style with Mead as the category in the last year or so) and Melivino mead was on the sunday session a couple times with tips (last week particularly).  I think mead is a lot more like wine than beer and the tricks "seem to be" to use a good honey and good wine yeast (Lalvin 71B often times) , degas the carbonation during ferment, watch the ferment temp and add staggered nutrient additions during the ferment to keep those yeast happy!  

I would like to try some more mead when I have time, but have too much beer to get done at the moment.

The main problem with plastic is that it's harder to clean. It scratches easily, and scratches can hold bacteria which will ruin a perfectly good batch of whatever. Use plastics with caution.

I usually mix up a full bucket of StarSan in my fermentation bucket and let it sit for at least 15 minutes before transfering it to the sanitation/storage bucket.

^^^ otherwise GTG

Just head over to a local homebrew shop.  $20 should get you a couple of one gallon glass jugs, drilled stoppers, air locks, and some starsan.

The most expensive part of making mead is the cost of the honey.

Only thing that I'd recommend that you should do differently is to add some yeast nutrient to your batch.

Yep, this.  Or buy some apple juice/cider in 1gal glass bottles and reuse the bottles.  It's sometimes cheaper then buying new, and so then you get free juice.   :)

What yeast are you using?  Fermentation can go on much longer than two weeks.


And yeah... Cider bottles or even old water cooler bottles are a good step up in size. Also, you can sometimes find Mr Beer kits at yard sales.  2 parts water, 1 part honey is a good ratio to run with if you're using yeast for ale, lager, or wine.



ETA. Plastic is just fine for fermentation. Keep it clean and you're good to go.

+1 on aging. My last batch was like 9 months in various carboys before I bottled it and after 4 months I still haven't opened any of those.

This is excellent advice. The place I go to has 1 gallon glass carboys for $8, even cheaper some places. Airlocks are about $2, and stoppers about $2 each. An $8 thing of starsan will last you a really, really, really long time. (it makes 40 gallons of starsan for 8 ounces I believe).

I clean my plastic carbons with the additive free oxy clean then sanitize with star San when I am ready to use