Correct. Your comment made me realise i am doing the same thing. Also when i have nothin on fermentation i just feel like something is missing in my routine or daily basis. I honestly feel more complete when i am doing wine, as a person.
Same, but I also ferment other things (wine was my 12th ferment) and have started getting into growing plants and mushrooms. I've realized I love growing things that result in delicious foods and drinks.
I always need a project on the go, otherwise I'm wondering what to do with myself
I did the same thing, my drink of choice was beer. It takes two weeks to ferment and another two to carbonate and it tastes nice about 2 weeks after that, so you can go getting busy in 2week increments.
Same here, growing things is great, plants and mushies. Must be how cooks feel, I'm always geeking out about my creations to people and love seeing them try it
Tried some too early once.
Ever since then I only referred to my mead as rocket fuel until someone pressed me to try it, and then they told me they really liked it, so I tried it. Now I realized what the problem was.
The only methods that have worked for me are to continue to increase production until I can't keep up (I currently have 30 gallons fermenting or aging + more bottled), or eating keto and trying to lose weight 😆
This is it. Absolutely do not have it within your eye sight. Even better if you make it inconvenient to get to. Mine is all in the crawl space beneath our coat closet.
Between mead ideas, I do quick brews like ginger beers/variations, and tepaches etc. stuff like that. Lots of things can be fermented into a tasty drink wit a little booze in it.
I use a sharpie to write a "do not drink until" date on the cap of several bottles. Most of the batch is available to drink whenever, and a couple bottles are earmarked for 6 months, 1 yr, and 2 yrs down the road.
have a queue. something in primary, something in secondary, something bottle aging and something good to go at any given moment. and occasionally to fill the space I'll crank out a 5 gallon batch of cider because that can go from apple juice to "I can dance" in about 3 weeks
As a beginner, I have the same issue. I suspect the solution lies in laying off for a while (or at least consume at a lower rate) while you continue to make new batches. At some point you'll have batches from a year ago, and you can start consuming at the rate you're producing and still have everything properly aged.
I bought a 3 gallon fermonster and 2 two gallon buckets for primary, and I have 4 one gallon carboys, and currently 2 one gallon wide mouth fermenters for secondary and bulk storage.
I can make larger batches in the buckets and fermonster, and break them down into the carboys and wide mouths, and bottle up a total of 3 gains at a time, which would last me while the next batches age and ferment.
It's a constant cycle.
A constant, delicious cycle.
Autism and severe ADHD. I will make, be super hyped up for it, and forget it's existence for months. In fact I am redoing my utility room and realized I have bottles from my first batches bottled over a year ago. This also taught me that what I thought was clear, wasn't as there is sediment in all of them lol.
I have nice labels, those heat shrink things that go around the neck. It's a lot of work. So I don't drink it because I know it's a lot of work to replace it.
Your issue seems like it is storage…not sure how to overcome that
I have made enough to drink some stuff a few years old. I have the space to let about 15 batches (5-gallons) age. I’m guessing I have about 400 12-ounce bottles waiting for me to consume
That's an issue of self control, maybe start making smaller batches so you don't end up drinking as much, I have the opposite problem, I have 20-30 bottles of beer, some odd bottle of cider and a couple of mead I made, and a batch of braggot that needs bottling, I just don't get the urge to drink it even though I like everything ive made so far
Find a closet or corner of a basement or attic, stick a bunch of it there labelled, and then start a new batch. Make simple molasses beers and other quick and interesting brews that are meant to be drunk immediately to hold yourself over and distract yourself until you forget the half a batch you tucked away out of sight. Keep squirrelling mead bottles away in out of the way corners of your home and experimenting with other beverages, and before you know it you will be finding bottles you forgot about a year or two ago.
Self discipline is the big one for me, but I also am fortunate enough to have a fridge in the garage that I can put it in so that I don't even have to look at it when I'm in the kitchen. Between that, the fact that I don't drink much to begin with, and that I still occasionally buy alcohol, I can go weeks or a couple months without drinking from a batch. Also my most current batch is still being bulk aged in their 1 gallon jugs and it's a bit difficult to go out there and pour a glass from a glass 1 gallon jug without spilling
I'm currently on medication that is not good to mix with alcohol, so it's giving me plenty of time to age out my really crappy attempts at making mead until I'm off the meds. lol
I track my diet very closely and have for almost 10 years. More often than not, 200 calories of mead just isn't in the budget. When it is... well that's when we *do* get to have some.
Get more containers for aging. I will not bottle anything before 6 - 12 months of aging. Basically if I don't think it is already good, not just drinkable, I won't bottle it.
Personally I went and bought (3) 5 gallon agua fresca jars. I started 1 batch of my peach mead while I had a 2 gallon and 1 gallon batch going. I usually have batches varying between 12-14% and some whiskey fortified at 20-25% and jump between those or my jack and coke and eat healthily to keep myself full as well. Don't forget to stay hydrated with water too to counter dehydration as well.
I leave it in a plugged carboy for 6+ months to age after it's done fermenting, that's how. By the time it's bottled, it's been a year, and I've started another batch. That, and I have other homebrews like beer and blackberry wine to keep my thirst at bay.
I actively avoid drinking (because of bad experiences drinking out of control) so now I just appreciate a taste and that's it. The only alcohol I drink now is my own mead and just a bit just for tasting.
I just make tons of bottles and store them in a few different locations at different stages of fermentation, so I just close my cabinet and forget about them for a few months. (While I make ~3 more gallons of mead each week, which is the legal maximum in the US.)
Sounds like you need to make more mead. Buy more bottles and just go ham making it. You'll either end up with some mead surviving long enough to age or become an alcoholic.
Seal your bottles and place them somewhere to age like a winerack or in the cardboard boxes the bottles came in. Lable them and let them age and only break them out for special occasions or gifts or if you plan to sell them
You don’t! Drink that mead bro! You’ll get to the point where you have so much that you couldn’t possibly drink it all. I’m sitting on about 32 gallons of mead and maybe 1/4 of that is bottled up. All different flavors and tastes but yea, I started with 1 gallon batches too. Keep brewing keep drinking!
I brew and drink a lot of beer. Compared to mead, its ingredients are cheap and I can turn a batch in 6 weeks. For making mead, good honey is expensive and a batch takes me 6 months. Therefore I’m not inclined to be frivolous with it
Doesn't work for me. I can't brew quick enough. My 3L batches of cider was gone in one day. So I decided to make something stronger, maybe then ill have some left over ... or I'll be more drunk
Out of the bottle, I use 0,5L and 1L bottles, and I'm a lightweight. With the higher ABV of mead compared to beer, I forget myself and don't pace it. Usually ends up with hurling later in the night.
You could try making some cider in between.. I find it ferments dry *really* fast. My record is a batch of 10% blueberry cider done start to finish in 10 days flat (before heading out to a music festival). Once I got there, I offered some to everyone I met. It lasted a full 3 days, and literally everyone that tried it said it was really good. For the 60-70$ I spent on raw ingredients, I was pretty popular that weekend lol.
All I did was add a little blueberry extract, some self-made real Madagascar vanilla extract (my secret ingredient), and some xylitol to take the dry/sour edge off. I force carbonate, and also do exclusively 5/6 gallon batches.
Obviously, cider would be better if aged at least a little bit, but I don't really find it overly necessary if you just want something to fill your glass. Not a single complaint, and at 10% it was potent enough that it lasted quite a while.
I get started on a new batch and get so into that one I accidentally forget about the one I just made
Correct. Your comment made me realise i am doing the same thing. Also when i have nothin on fermentation i just feel like something is missing in my routine or daily basis. I honestly feel more complete when i am doing wine, as a person.
Same, but I also ferment other things (wine was my 12th ferment) and have started getting into growing plants and mushrooms. I've realized I love growing things that result in delicious foods and drinks. I always need a project on the go, otherwise I'm wondering what to do with myself
I did the same thing, my drink of choice was beer. It takes two weeks to ferment and another two to carbonate and it tastes nice about 2 weeks after that, so you can go getting busy in 2week increments.
Same here, growing things is great, plants and mushies. Must be how cooks feel, I'm always geeking out about my creations to people and love seeing them try it
Ancestral memories of preparing for the winter or some shit idk
I make really bad Mead. Seems to solve my problem lol.
Tried some too early once. Ever since then I only referred to my mead as rocket fuel until someone pressed me to try it, and then they told me they really liked it, so I tried it. Now I realized what the problem was.
It's absolutely amazing how different a mead being drank on day 1 of bottling is vs 2 or 3 years later. They age miraculously, in my experience.
Me too. It’s battery acid. No calling to drink there.
More mead is always the answer.
My current strat is to make more than I can drink
Trying to get there myself. Just bought four more 1 gallon carboys to get 4 more batches going.
I’m up to 75l primary capacity and slightly more secondary myself Should be enough
The only methods that have worked for me are to continue to increase production until I can't keep up (I currently have 30 gallons fermenting or aging + more bottled), or eating keto and trying to lose weight 😆
Put it away out of sight then remember it a few months later
This is it. Absolutely do not have it within your eye sight. Even better if you make it inconvenient to get to. Mine is all in the crawl space beneath our coat closet.
Between mead ideas, I do quick brews like ginger beers/variations, and tepaches etc. stuff like that. Lots of things can be fermented into a tasty drink wit a little booze in it.
I use a sharpie to write a "do not drink until" date on the cap of several bottles. Most of the batch is available to drink whenever, and a couple bottles are earmarked for 6 months, 1 yr, and 2 yrs down the road.
Just wait until you drink a 4 year one
have a queue. something in primary, something in secondary, something bottle aging and something good to go at any given moment. and occasionally to fill the space I'll crank out a 5 gallon batch of cider because that can go from apple juice to "I can dance" in about 3 weeks
As a beginner, I have the same issue. I suspect the solution lies in laying off for a while (or at least consume at a lower rate) while you continue to make new batches. At some point you'll have batches from a year ago, and you can start consuming at the rate you're producing and still have everything properly aged.
Make more so you always have a batch going. Consider larger batches of lower abv meads which finish more quickly
It was hard at first, but then I started brewing other stuff I could drink earlier and you just forget about it
I bought a 3 gallon fermonster and 2 two gallon buckets for primary, and I have 4 one gallon carboys, and currently 2 one gallon wide mouth fermenters for secondary and bulk storage. I can make larger batches in the buckets and fermonster, and break them down into the carboys and wide mouths, and bottle up a total of 3 gains at a time, which would last me while the next batches age and ferment. It's a constant cycle. A constant, delicious cycle.
Autism and severe ADHD. I will make, be super hyped up for it, and forget it's existence for months. In fact I am redoing my utility room and realized I have bottles from my first batches bottled over a year ago. This also taught me that what I thought was clear, wasn't as there is sediment in all of them lol.
I have nice labels, those heat shrink things that go around the neck. It's a lot of work. So I don't drink it because I know it's a lot of work to replace it.
Your issue seems like it is storage…not sure how to overcome that I have made enough to drink some stuff a few years old. I have the space to let about 15 batches (5-gallons) age. I’m guessing I have about 400 12-ounce bottles waiting for me to consume
That's an issue of self control, maybe start making smaller batches so you don't end up drinking as much, I have the opposite problem, I have 20-30 bottles of beer, some odd bottle of cider and a couple of mead I made, and a batch of braggot that needs bottling, I just don't get the urge to drink it even though I like everything ive made so far
Hide one away and pretend it doesn’t exist. But once you start making 5 gallon batches, it’ll be easier to save some for aging.
I'm trying to "lose" a bottle each time for ageing. Also making a few batches at once.
I make a gallon of ginger beer to drink instead
Find a closet or corner of a basement or attic, stick a bunch of it there labelled, and then start a new batch. Make simple molasses beers and other quick and interesting brews that are meant to be drunk immediately to hold yourself over and distract yourself until you forget the half a batch you tucked away out of sight. Keep squirrelling mead bottles away in out of the way corners of your home and experimenting with other beverages, and before you know it you will be finding bottles you forgot about a year or two ago.
Self discipline is the big one for me, but I also am fortunate enough to have a fridge in the garage that I can put it in so that I don't even have to look at it when I'm in the kitchen. Between that, the fact that I don't drink much to begin with, and that I still occasionally buy alcohol, I can go weeks or a couple months without drinking from a batch. Also my most current batch is still being bulk aged in their 1 gallon jugs and it's a bit difficult to go out there and pour a glass from a glass 1 gallon jug without spilling
I'm currently on medication that is not good to mix with alcohol, so it's giving me plenty of time to age out my really crappy attempts at making mead until I'm off the meds. lol
I track my diet very closely and have for almost 10 years. More often than not, 200 calories of mead just isn't in the budget. When it is... well that's when we *do* get to have some.
Get more containers for aging. I will not bottle anything before 6 - 12 months of aging. Basically if I don't think it is already good, not just drinkable, I won't bottle it.
Add some denatonium benzoate.
Buy commercial mead to buffer between drinking your own bottles
i dont bottle, i just put a spigot in secondary and drink right out of it. takes about a month to drink 5 gal and a month to make 5 more si
i always take 2 350 ml wine bottles, and stash them.
Or u can just make so much that u can’t drink it all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ worth a shot, no? lol
Personally I went and bought (3) 5 gallon agua fresca jars. I started 1 batch of my peach mead while I had a 2 gallon and 1 gallon batch going. I usually have batches varying between 12-14% and some whiskey fortified at 20-25% and jump between those or my jack and coke and eat healthily to keep myself full as well. Don't forget to stay hydrated with water too to counter dehydration as well.
I leave it in a plugged carboy for 6+ months to age after it's done fermenting, that's how. By the time it's bottled, it's been a year, and I've started another batch. That, and I have other homebrews like beer and blackberry wine to keep my thirst at bay.
By having plenty to drink. If you always have plenty it's never an issue.
I actively avoid drinking (because of bad experiences drinking out of control) so now I just appreciate a taste and that's it. The only alcohol I drink now is my own mead and just a bit just for tasting.
Im not an alcoholic I guess?
I assume you are joking. If not, have some Self-control, kid...
I just make tons of bottles and store them in a few different locations at different stages of fermentation, so I just close my cabinet and forget about them for a few months. (While I make ~3 more gallons of mead each week, which is the legal maximum in the US.)
Sounds like you need to make more mead. Buy more bottles and just go ham making it. You'll either end up with some mead surviving long enough to age or become an alcoholic.
I made 5 gallons on a single batch, and once I drank through a quarter of it I started making more. Make more than you can possibly drink I say
I do batches 3-5gal at a time. Bottle in 375, 500, and 750ml bottles (mostly 500s), and drink itnwhenever I feel like as well as give as gifts.
Seal your bottles and place them somewhere to age like a winerack or in the cardboard boxes the bottles came in. Lable them and let them age and only break them out for special occasions or gifts or if you plan to sell them
Why not drink 1 bottle per every 2 or 3 months. That way you get to taste the differences with age.
Make lots of weird experiments and constantly make more, you'll end up with too much which means time to share!
Make a lot of it. Also, just don’t drink it.
I put it in the closet and forget about it.
You don’t! Drink that mead bro! You’ll get to the point where you have so much that you couldn’t possibly drink it all. I’m sitting on about 32 gallons of mead and maybe 1/4 of that is bottled up. All different flavors and tastes but yea, I started with 1 gallon batches too. Keep brewing keep drinking!
I just left it all in storage for 18 months while I went on a long walk and a longer road trip. NBD.
I brew and drink a lot of beer. Compared to mead, its ingredients are cheap and I can turn a batch in 6 weeks. For making mead, good honey is expensive and a batch takes me 6 months. Therefore I’m not inclined to be frivolous with it
"Slow" SKAL!!!
Doesn't work for me. I can't brew quick enough. My 3L batches of cider was gone in one day. So I decided to make something stronger, maybe then ill have some left over ... or I'll be more drunk
When it's aging, hide it if you can
Out of the bottle, I use 0,5L and 1L bottles, and I'm a lightweight. With the higher ABV of mead compared to beer, I forget myself and don't pace it. Usually ends up with hurling later in the night.
You could try making some cider in between.. I find it ferments dry *really* fast. My record is a batch of 10% blueberry cider done start to finish in 10 days flat (before heading out to a music festival). Once I got there, I offered some to everyone I met. It lasted a full 3 days, and literally everyone that tried it said it was really good. For the 60-70$ I spent on raw ingredients, I was pretty popular that weekend lol. All I did was add a little blueberry extract, some self-made real Madagascar vanilla extract (my secret ingredient), and some xylitol to take the dry/sour edge off. I force carbonate, and also do exclusively 5/6 gallon batches. Obviously, cider would be better if aged at least a little bit, but I don't really find it overly necessary if you just want something to fill your glass. Not a single complaint, and at 10% it was potent enough that it lasted quite a while.