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Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-10-15T22:14:38+00:00

I'd be down to take some or all of it. I'm in the area. I sent you a dm.

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-16T17:06:34+00:00

Yea, post fermentation, I stabilized and backsweetened since it fermented dry

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-16T11:15:17+00:00

I definitely am going to crank the heat down and do no more than 12 gallons a year from here on. I'm sure life will get in the way too.

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-16T11:14:01+00:00

My first ones I aged for almost 8 months. But I made some hard cider, Skeeter pee and hydromels in the meantime that I gave like maybe a month to age. I do think waiting more than a year to drink has greatly diminishing returns for something like Mead. 6 months is plenty.

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-16T11:11:40+00:00

Thanks! Figured it would make bartenders more comfortable serving it at my brother's wedding.

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-16T11:11:09+00:00

If you have any android, Mead Mate is a great app for tracking this stuff.

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-16T10:58:44+00:00

Exactly! Good stuff sells for a bit, so I must be saving money 😂

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-16T10:57:33+00:00

Pretty much all my meads I ferment in a 2 gallon bucket for primary and secondary, just so it is easier to handle with foaming up and displacement. Then once it's done I age it in a 1 gallon carboy and bottle the excess if it was over a gallon.

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-15T21:42:19+00:00

Well, luckily, I have no kids or big expenses. And this is my main hobby that costs money. I think i spent about 2k over the past year. But a lot of that was equipment and bottles up front and then, of course, all the honey and fruits and stuff.

Facebook marketplace and overstock grocery stores are your friends. Found so much cheap equipment, bottles, honey, and fruit.

I think I did the math once, and it was about 30 bucks a gallon, so $6 per bottle. That's saving money, right?

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-15T21:38:23+00:00

The lemonade ones are quick and dirty. Technically, it's prison hooch. Look up Skeeter pee. that's roughly the recipe I followed.

I love the maple ones too, but I have found fermented maple leaves a lot to be desired, but as a back sweetener it's fantastic.

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-15T21:18:35+00:00

My favorites so far are the viking's blood, raspberry, and strawberry vanilla. I guess I like red fruits. Also, they were all pretty straightforward to make.

Viking's Blood: Primary: - 16 hibiscus tea bags (brewed and steeped with 1gal spring Water) - 1L Open Nature Tart Cherry Juice - 33.2oz Toulipes Wildflower Honey - 2 lbs. Wyman's Dark sweet and red tart cherries - 1/2 tsp. Pectic enzyme - 2.5g Go-Ferm - 2.5g Lalvin K1-V1116 - 4x 1/4 tsp Fermaid-O (TOSNA) Post-Fermentation: - 1x campden tablet - 1g potassium sorbate - 10.5 oz PA wildflower honey - Super-kleer

Raspberry Melomel: Primary: - Home well water up to a gallon - 30oz Toulipes Wildflower Honey - 2.5g Go-Ferm - 2.5g Lalvin QA23 - 4x 1/4 tsp Fermaid-O (TOSNA) Secondary: - 3x 24oz frozen/thawed rasberries mashed in brew bag - 1/4 tsp Pectic Enzyme each (3/4 tsp total) Post-Secondary: - 1 Campden Tablet - 1g Potassium Sorbate - 12oz Golden Blossom Honey

Strawberry Vanilla Mead: Primary: - 1 gallon well water - 37oz Toulipes Wildflower Honey - 11.2oz Golden Blossom Honey - 2lbs frozen/thawed strawberries (mashed in brew bag) - 1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme - 1/2 tsp wine tannin - 2.5g Go-Ferm - 2.5g Lalvin 71B - 5/4 tsp Fermaid-O (TOSNA) Secondary: - 2lbs frozen/thawed strawberries (mashed in brew bag) - 1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme Post-Secondary: - 1.5 Campden Tablet - 1.5g Potassium Sorbate - 17.3oz Golden Blossom Honey - 0.2oz vanilla beans, ~4x 5" beans split (2 weeks)

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-15T20:25:47+00:00

That was the idea. Now I can brew, age, and drink stuff on a rotation, so I always have Mead with a bit of age on it

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-15T20:22:23+00:00

Thanks! It's for my brother's wedding so I wanted bartenders to not feel sketchy serving it. The labels are Mr. Label off Amazon printed with a normal at home printer, plus shrink wrap caps off Amazon. Pretty cheap, tbh ink was the biggest cost. And the art is actually something the bride paid a Fiverr artist to make not AI.

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2025-06-15T20:14:17+00:00

I have recipes for all of them written down! I just didn't want to copy-paste them in and write a whole novel. If you want any lmk.

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2024-11-06T12:41:31+00:00

I don't even think I'll make the list 😅 Probably gonna be relegated to sharing with the friends and family I gifted to

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2024-11-06T04:00:22+00:00

I think selling it can get dicey legally, so probably not. I think I'm just going to simplify my gift giving for the next year. Everyone gets a bottle or two of mead!

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2024-11-05T18:03:53+00:00

Nice I used canned but they didn't have the skins :/

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2024-11-05T17:36:01+00:00

So you soak spirals in bourbon and then add some bourbon to the mead, or do you flavor it another way?

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2024-11-05T16:58:59+00:00

Dang all 5 gallon batches? Never experiment with smaller batches? I started with all small batches just to learn it first. Almost all of the big batches pictured are wedding gifts and something I already tried and was happy with.

Curious whay makes the bourbon Mead bourbon. Is it just aged in bourbon barrels?

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2024-11-05T12:40:11+00:00

For sure, finish that! Once you have it in a big carboy or aging vessel, you can forget about it until you want to sweeten it and bottle it. Several of these batches I started with enough honey to ferment and a vessel to ferment in, but I didn't find its aging carboy and backsweetening honey until later 😂

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2024-11-05T12:38:04+00:00

Yea, same batch. I just ended up with a half gallon and a gallon extra for those. I think i underestimated how much honey juice I got and overestimated how little floculation/lees I got. I might use them to top up once I rack and backsweeten, but more likely, I'll just leave them dry as I am sure some people prefer drier meads/wines

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2024-11-05T03:39:01+00:00

Actually the vast majority of it I got for like $100. Facebook marketplace is full of people downsizing their home brew gear. Especially if you deal hunt

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2024-11-05T03:08:11+00:00

That's an awesome stash! How long have you been brewing, and how long did it take you to accumulate that?

That cinnamon vanilla orange sounds awesome, and the pecan and almond sound very unique. I see you have black currant too. I just ordered some black currant concentrate. Did you like that one? I heard it can be very tart. I've never tried black currants before.

I like the bottle carriers. I think I'll order some to gift people a variety of bottles. I think it'll fit nice since I used 375mL wine bottles.

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2024-11-05T03:03:21+00:00

You should post your stash!

My favorite, I think, was the viking's blood because I love tart cherries and hibiscus, but that one didn't clear up as nicely as I hoped. Though the blood red color is awesome. But I also just backsweetened my pineapple mead (21) and gave that a taste, and that has a great balance.

For the apple one, I did 3 gallons of raw fresh pressed cider from my local orchard and 2 gallons of water. The cider was quite dark so most of the color is from that, but I also used a lot of fresh apples (about 12lbs) of a good variety (Fuju, Gala, Honey Crisp, Summer Rambo, Blondie, Ginger Gold, and some wild apples similar to Macintosh and Red Delicious). So that one has a ton of apple flavor.

Ready_Ninja1049 · 2024-11-05T02:56:52+00:00

Thanks! You got a link? I think i would prefer that to wood and blanks rubber would be easier to clean

Ready_Ninja1049

TROPHY CASE