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Should I spend the extra money for a glass carboy or will one of the plastic buckets from midwest supplies (beer & wine online supply store) work for getting a mead going? I've never made wine before...or mead...not even sure that the two are a hole lot different if classified...but i know i like the taste of mead and am going to go off of the Ancient Orange recipe...but wasn't sure about the fermenting being it's going to be in this one container for so long... didn't know if the plastic would be a good idea... any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Lots of people use plastic and report no problems... As you mentioned though, I tend to like glass for the long-term stuff, aging beer, wine, etc. Mead can be very long-term

Why not spend a few extra dollars and grab a carboy? if you decide to do more mead, wine, or beer in the future, great... if not, they're great for storing low wines, feints, etc. I don't like high abv products in plastic, ever...

WV Shine wrote:Lots of people use plastic and report no problems... As you mentioned though, I tend to like glass for the long-term stuff, aging beer, wine, etc. Mead can be very long-term

Why not spend a few extra dollars and grab a carboy? if you decide to do more mead, wine, or beer in the future, great... if not, they're great for storing low wines, feints, etc. I don't like high abv products in plastic, ever...

thanks bubba!!! i'll just buy both... glass for my mead and buckets for my grain washes... thanks for the quick response!!

git the glass for mead,mead tends to take a long time to ferment.from a month up to a year

+ another.

I use plastic for a primary fermenter. Then transfer to glass for long term. Got some mead that been in glass coming up on a year.

wow...a year?.. damn.. that'll work for me though..for some of it figured i would start a 5 gallon ferment of Ancient Orange Spice next weekend with the hopes of being be able to pull some off (gallon or so) around thanksgiving or Christmas... figure thats about 6 months...then bottle the rest and let it set... should be tastin good around then huh?... i will have to do some serious talking to myself and get my wife to hide the jug from me to wait longer than that

If that's what you want to do. I would do a 6 gallon batch. Use a 6 gallon carboy till thanksgiving. Then rack to a 5 gal carboy. And age it all together for the remainder. Or start with 5 gal. Then rack to 5 1 gallon jugs. That way you could bottle some at different ageing times.

The other thing I've started doing is using 375ml wine bottles. I don't always want to drink a whole 750ml. So I waist less. And it makes gifting easier.

that reminds me..... i forgot to order the bottles... i can't remember if i ordered a 5 or 6 gallon carboy geeze.... i like the idea of racking it and putting into smaller bottles for aging and gifting... i know of lots of people that would love some good mead as a gift... you guys are gonna make me break the bank!!! but thats ok... i never had much n da first place...but gonna have something to celebrate being broke with!!

Prairiepiss wrote:The other thing I've started doing is using 375ml wine bottles. I don't always want to drink a whole 750ml. So I waist less. And it makes gifting easier.

+1 750ml of mead can be a lot to drink in one session

just stumbled across some good fresh Tupelo HOney stock !!!!!!!! boy i'm pumped up about that!!! got a coworker that can get it for me by the bucket!!!

Nice find marsh, that's some good stuff Man i love honey... I think i like eating it more than waiting on my own mead to become palatable though lol...

WV Shine wrote:Nice find marsh, that's some good stuff Man i love honey... I think i like eating it more than waiting on my own mead to become palatable though lol...

boy ain't dat the truth!! fresh honey on a hot homemade bisquit damn the mead podnah!!! i'll just have to pick up a bit more than i need ya know

It is not the first time I hear that honey could ferment for a LOOOONg time...

My recipe is 1kg x 4.5 litres (2lbsxgallon if you prefer) 7g. common dry baker yeast, awaked in black tea, the juice of half lemon, a tablet of multivitamin-mineral and lately I learned here some little tomato paste and very little dap (remember you will not distill it, so you don't want to percevie tomato or ammonia in your drink).
You could also spice with some cinnamon and cloves!
I Usually obtain clear dry mead, ready to bottle,(and to taste!) 11% vol , in less than two weeks!

If you prefer sweet mead, add some honey before bottle it, and if some yeast is still alive in , it will become sparkling too!

The mead turned out fine after sitting for a while... it had a bitter taste to it at first but it seems to have died out and has a mellow citrus taste with no bite if that makes any sense..... anyhow... think it was 18 bottles to start... down to about 10 now... lol... gunna try to hold the rest until Christmas... try being the key word