Started my first mead off today. Made a few newbie errors and I'm sure my method wasn't as aseptic as it could be but heyho I'm sure I'll do better next time. Am really sad 'cause I've taken photos and put them on my facebook profile. LOL. Still have enough honey left to make probably another demi-john or so if this works out. Will think what spices I want to use and when I rack them into the clean demi-johns after their first fermentation period (I must remember to by some more demi-johns!) will add the spices then.

Used the basic mead recipe from celtnet but used different yeast nutrient in each of the two demi-johns, don't know if that will make any difference.

Biggest noob error was miscalculating how much the volume would increase by after the honey was added. This left me with nearly 3/4's of another demi-john of honey water and nothing to put it into. It went down the sink and now I'm kicking myself 'cause I should have phoned the other half and got them to pop into Wilkinsons for another demi-john.

SG is 1.080 dunno if that is good or bad. The yeast seems to have got to work quickly and was having it's own little party with fireworks by the looks of things after only 20 or 30secs of being added to the honey water. Got a good froth going before I added it to the main mix.

I'm a little worried about the air lock though. I've put vodka in it but the cap doesn't seem to have any holes in it to let the CO2 out. Should I drill some little teeny holes in the cap or just take it off?

Myrkk Hi.....Vodka in the airlock....bugger that...Drink that and just put a sterile solution in there...don't worry about the cap...if you look it's not a tight fit...the gas will get out ok.

thanks DJ.

It's bubbling away quite merrily