First Time Mead Making

Yep, this Sunday I put a little mead together.  I don’t really know how else to put it.  I didn’t brew at all.  I mixed some ingredients together and pitched some yeast.  It was pretty quick and easy.  It is easier than extract brewing.

For this Raspberry mead or melomel, I really focused on cleaning my fermentation bucket.  I hadn’t used it in a while and I wanted to protect my mead from infection, so I washed it with a cloth and some Oxyclean solution.

Then I repeated the process with Star San solution.  I put a little elbow grease into it, trying to get into any little scratches that may be in the bucket.

I choose to use the bucket because of all the raspberries I was using.  I just didn’t want to have to deal with the cleaning of a carboy with pounds and pounds of raspberry goo left over.

I sanitized everything else using solution in a spray bottle; the yeast pouch, the bags of fruit, the honey bottle, etc.

I poured everything in together, mixed it well with a power drill and paddle set up, and pitched my yeast.

I didn’t take a gravity reading because I forgot.  I did put in the yeast nutrient and energizer and have been following the schedule pretty closely.

This mead could turn out fine or a complete disaster.  It should be fun to find out.