I’ve never done a mead - how long do you age yours for? It’s one of those projects I’d love to do but lack the space for storage at the mo
Fermenting takes a couple of months, give or take (noticeably less when using yeast nutrient, usually within a month), then rack for a couple of weeks and then bottle.
You can drink it as soon as you bottle it, but the flavours usually improve over a year or so. The maple syrup one I made is going to take years to be drinkable, and even then may need backsweetening as it's painfully dry. On the other hand the smoked pasilla one may well all be gone by June. It varies drastically from one to another. Bottling it in beer bottles means you can test a batch every few months to see how it's developing - and by the time it's at its best there's usually just the one bottle left.
I've tried making 'short mead', which is a less alcoholic (strong beer strength), one month production. This is done using 1-1.5lb of honey per gallon rather than 3lb, but all I had was wine yeast so it ate it all up and left it tasteless and dry. I've just neutralised it with potassium sorbate and sodium metabisulphide and will add some honey to sweeten it tomorrow. I've bought some Belgian ale yeast so I'll see if that works better and leaves some flavour/sweetness in it.
It's dead easy to make as long as you have a good source of honey. I was given a lot of organic (unboiled) honey that tastes gorgeous, rich and dark, so it works well with darker flavours like smoke, red berries, etc. but you can use any honey, even something like Gales (processed as fuck with added sugar to bulk it out) as long as you add something else to flavour it.
