A couple weeks ago my wife and I brewed a five gallon batch of mead using some local orange blossom honey. To do this we brought the following ingredients to a boil for 10 minutes:
- 15 lbs orange blossom honey
- 1 tbsp gypsum
- 1 tablet whirlfloc
- 2.5 gal purified water
While this was cooking we rehydrated a package of red star premier cuvee champagne yeast in 1 cup 105 deg F water and 1/4 oz yeast nutrient. Also we chilled a gallon of water to add to top off in the carboy to make 5 gal.
After two weeks we racked this mead to a secondary for further fermentation and clarification. I'll update when we bottle, but given the high gravity on this mead I imagine clarification will take a long time.
In general I'm finding that mead is really easy to brew. However, the length of time before it's ready to drink means patience is a requirement.
Update
Bottled on 5/27 - this mead clarified sooner than expected- just a bit over a month. Primed with ~1 cup or Orange Blossom mead per the 5gal batch.
