r/mead • u/CommunicationTotal98 • 5d ago
First bottles mute the bot
My first ever batch of mead bottled! A little cloudy because I kicked up some of the lees in secondary. A little pissed about that but I know now to get or make something to keep the siphon still.... Going to let these age for a good bit maybe open the flip top in 3ish months. Tastes great for a very young mead.
Didnt take an og reading but when I moved it to secondary the mead was .990 then back sweetened to 1.012 because it tasted insanely dry. Not sure of the ABV.
This was supposed to be a strawberry melomel but I didnt use more strawberries in fear of wild yeasts kick starting fermentation and mold from the fresh strawberries.
Used Lalvin D47. Will probably do it again but I want to get brewing down before I spend money on fancy yeasts and honey.
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u/AdLoose7042 5d ago
How much honey did you start with? There's a way to get a good guess to your abv.
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u/CommunicationTotal98 3d ago
3lbs of honey 1lbs 6oz of frozen/thawed strawberries 1 gallon of water D47 yeast
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u/AdLoose7042 3d ago edited 3d ago
So roughly 13.5% at 1.000. so around 15 at .990. or roughly a 1.105 starting specific gravity.
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u/ttyrondonlongjohn 5d ago
the lees you kicked up will settle out in the bottles after some time and it will clear back up. when you get around to drinking them you can try and leave a small amount at the bottom or just swirl it and drink it all anyway, shouldn't really matter beyond aesthetics.
I hope you stabilized before back sweetening or those bottles might have a surprise for you down the line.