Everyone appears to have their own personal mead recipe, with different — sometimes diametrically opposed — and strongly-held views about things like which yeast to use, when to pitch it (and how many times), and how much white stuff to skim off the top of the honey-wort.

We whipped up a gallon of our own mead and put it in for primary fermentation:

We kept it simple: we boiled a gallon of water and then took it off the heat, added 2 pounds of honey, and then pitched 5g of Lalvin D47 yeast (a wine yeast) and a bit of mystery yeast food that our LBBS supplied once the temperature dropped to 85F or so. (We have a fancy-schmancy coiled copper wort chiller, but realized at the last moment that it can’t attach to our new, fancy-schmancy kitchen faucet. Oops. Luckily, with only a gallon to chill, an ice bath in the sink is a perfect (and honestly better) alternative.

Now – we wait for some tiny bubbles to burble up from the airlock. In a couple weeks, we’ll transfer over for secondary fermentation for a few months. With luck we’ll have some lovely mead in time for winter. (Or December, whichever comes first here in North Central Florida.)