First time mead fermentation some questions

[Berry454]

So I'm going to be making a 5 gallon batch of mead which I will be aging with oak chips.

Most of my wine primary fermentations are completed within a week or less using 1 TSP of youngs super wine yeast compound per gallon. This can easily hit 14% in less than a week fermenting dry. I hear mead fermentations are slow (1-2 months) is there any reason why I can't ferment my mead Dry in a week using the same yeast above that I use with the same results on wine?

Regarding proportions of honey. I'm hoping for 14% abv from the mead but I would like to use a combination of sugar and honey to achieve this. Say 6-7kg of honey and the rest made up of white sugar. Is this possible or do I need to use all honey for the flavour?

 

[SaffaStu]

Hi, I'm hoping that as it's been a year since you posted this, you've had go at mead and had some success! But if not, then here's some answers.
Yes, some fermentations can go on for quite some time, it all depends on the yeast and how much sugars they have to get through. Expect a minimum of 3 weeks, but don't be surprised if it continues as long as 2 months.
As for your ABV target, yes you can use plain sugar to up the gravity/potential ABV, it shouldn't affect the flavour much, if at all. For 6kg honey, you would need roughly 2.5kg sugar to get to 14% in a 5 gallon batch. There is a handy batch calculator on the GotMead site that a lot of us use. Good for wine brewing as well, can calculate based on fruit content too.

Hope it turned out good if you've already brewed a batch!

 

[obscure]

I use honey a lot in Saisons, and it is surprising how strongly the flavour comes through even with fairly small amounts (typically I use 400g of honey in a 9L batch), so it doesn’t seem that unreasonable that you would be able to make a decent tasting mead with 6-7KG of honey and some white sugar.

With regards to fermentation time my last couple of batches of mead typically hit finally gravity in about a week, but I did then leave them for another couple of weeks to settle and then rack and leave for another month before I bottled. I find mead really does benefit from extended conditioning, case on point I was recently drinking a batch I made back in 2019, when I first tried it after six months it was okay but rather mediocre if I’m being honest now after about three years in the bottle it is a completely different drink. Yours may well be perfectly drinkable after six months but it is I feel worth while putting at least a few bottles of a batch somewhere dark, with a stable temperature and just forgetting about it making for a pleasant surprise in a few years.