Currently resting in a carboy…

General info

  • Vintage: n/a
  • Batch size: 5L glass carboy
  • Yeast: 2.5g Lalvin 71B
  • Alcohol by volume: t.b.d., ~13%
  • Approximate production cost per bottle (including overhead and waste)
    • Base: ~€2,40 for bottle, cork, label, wax seal, yeast, nutrition, and sulfites.
    • Ingredients: ~€2,02

Ingredients and allergens

About 1g of Vinoferm potassium metabisulphite (note: allergen) added (250mg/l).

Production notes

Bubbling started very early. Looks like the new carboy, 71B, and proper yeast activation procedure is working out well.

I’ve toned down on the amount of honey compared to the first batch, plus using fresh bottles. I really like the taste of the woudhoning, maybe I’ll even use that for the bulk of the honey next time.

I’ve also used less diammonium phospate and less yeast (plus it was a fresh pack).

Hopefully this will all result in healthier, less stressed yeast. My new equipment will hopefully also reduce oxygen exposure and improve the bottling process.

On a sidenote, I underestimated how much volume the honey would add. There was too much total liquid in the carboy and it overflowed a bit when it started fermenting. This also ruined the water lock. In addition I accidentally pushed in the silicon cork too far because I am dumb 🙄. Looks like I’ll have to cut it out and throw it away after fermentation1. Guess I have to replace it along with the water lock. (I should probably just dissolve the honey directly in warmed up juice next time.)

Prophecy

Second attempt at making the cranberry grape mead. First iteration was quite nice, save for the foul smell. Having high hopes this batch will fix the odor and give it slightly more complexity with the extra cranberry juice and woudhoning.

Fermentation time

On 2025-08-09 I siphoned the young hooch into a clean carboy with my brand new siphoning equipment. Best €15 I’ve ever spent, much better experience than before. As my dad always says: good equipment is half the work. I should note that, even after almost a month, the carboy was still bubbling. Just CO2 escaping? Seems unlikely that the thing ferments for a month. I’ve vacuum-pumped the new carboy and put it in the fridge. First time I bother cold crashing to get rid off all the odd-looking floating stuff.

Cold crashing

Bottling date and notes

T.b.d.

Storage, aging, and serving

T.b.d.

Actual taste and suggested food pairings

T.b.d.

Notes

  1. Update: when transferring to the other carboy I managed to entirely salvage the cork using a screwdriver. Hooray! ↩