First time making mead. messed up the ratio of yeast.. advic

Hey all. So I have always wanted to make my own mead when I found out about how its so easy to mix with everything. I enjoy cooking, and enjoy comming up with recipes so this was easily my next step.

I saw a very easy way of making mead on another websight where you use 1 gallon bottles of spring water, raisons, and yeast and 3 lbs honey and a balloon with holes over it on top of the mix for when the carbon dioxide is released.

I decided to make 2 of them to see how it would go. My honey was 12 oz clover honey and 5 lbs honey from a farm that has extensive apple orchards. I split the honey between the 2.

My first batch was raisons and cinnamon and the honey. the second was an orange and a very fresh vanilla bean. I pealed the vanilla bean and minced the bean itself and used that in the second.

I kept everything around 70 degrees and when I was ready to pore in my vial of http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp720.html.. and it pored to fast.

I was unprepared for the speed. over half of it went into my batch with vanilla and oranges, and less than 1/4 was left for my batch with raisons and cinnomin.

The vial states it is for 5 gallons. So… Im wondering if it just means my raison and cinnomin one will just take longer to fermant? or should I pick up more tomarrow and just place a little more in the mix?

I am apart of a mixed martial arts forum and I laid out step by step what I did with pictures.

THank you all!

http://www.mixedmartialarts.com/mma.cfm ... 1&ts=40995

If your balloon has started to blow up by now, you should be fine. But when in doubt, it’s acceptable to add yeast (same type). Also, it’s a good idea to have a hydrometer to take gravity readings (an original before adding yeast, and later as fermentation progresses) to make sure that the yeast is doing its job correctly.

One addendum to what I read on your forum posts… When transferring to secondary container, you do NOT want to allow oxygen into your concoction or you risk oxidation (bad). Make sure you don’t let it run down the side of your container, don’t let it splash, etc.

Also, just because the yeast don’t look like they’re doing anything doesn’t mean they’re totally done doing their job. It’s always recommended to let the mead age after primary fermentation for at least months before you bottle it, or you may risk turning your bottles into glass grenades.