The Mead Maker's Cheat Sheet
Beginner-friendly, spelled-out reference for Lalvin (and other) yeasts, nutrients, staggered feeding, chemical stabilizing, clearing, target strengths, pH, aging and fixes. Scroll it on screen, or print and save as PDF for a dense bench copy.
Amounts shown per 1 gallon.
01 Staggered Nutrient Additions (SNA)
Instead of dumping all nutrient in at the start (which stresses yeast and can cause off-flavors), split it into 4 equal doses over the first stretch of fermentation. Stir and degas well at every addition.
Rule. Get all nitrogen in before the 1/3 sugar break, or by day 7, whichever comes first. Nitrogen added later is wasted and can cause problems. Organic nutrient (Fermaid O) is the gentle, hard-to-overdose default.
02 Lalvin Yeast Guide
Every common Lalvin strain by ID, with ABV ceiling, temperature range, ideal mead style, and how it handles real fruit vs. juice. Trad = traditional (honey only) · melomel = fruit mead · cyser = apple mead.
03 When to Reach for Another Brand
Lalvin covers most meads, but a few non-Lalvin strains are genuinely better for specific jobs.
04 Honey Varietals & What to Expect
Honey is 70–80% fermentable sugar plus trace aromatics. The varietal is the single biggest flavor decision in a traditional mead. Figure ~3 lb/gal (see the OG chart). Lighter honeys are subtle; darker ones are bold.
Save delicate honeys (orange blossom, acacia, tupelo) for traditional meads where they're the star; use neutral clover as a base when fruit or spice will lead. Don't boil your honey. Heat drives off the aroma you paid for. Just stir it into your water to build the must (gentle warmth helps it dissolve). Cooking honey on purpose makes a bochet: toffee and marshmallow notes.
05 Adding Fruit: How Much, Fresh vs. Juice
Fruit mead = melomel; apple = cyser; grape = pyment. Amounts per 1 gallon. More fruit means more flavor, color and body, plus a little extra sugar and ABV.
Many store juices contain additives that inhibit or kill yeast, ironically the same chemicals you'd use to stabilize a finished mead. Check the ingredients before you buy. Fresh unpasteurized cider is excellent, but treat it with 1 crushed Campden tablet per gallon and wait 24 h before pitching to knock back wild yeast and bacteria.
06 Spices, Wood & Other Adjuncts
A spiced mead is a metheglin. These go in secondary. Add, then taste every few days. Amounts are per 1 gallon and deliberately conservative; you can always add more.
Add adjuncts in secondary and taste every few days. You can always add more. You can't take it out. Rack off (or pull the bag or chips) the moment it tastes right; flavors keep extracting.
07 Common Nutrients
Yeast needs nitrogen (YAN) plus vitamins and minerals to ferment cleanly. Honey has almost none. Amounts are per 1 gallon.
08 Best Yeast + Nutrient + Style Pairings
Match the strain to the mead, then feed it what it wants.
09 Target Gravity, Honey & ABV
Roughly 1 lb honey per gallon raises SG by ~0.035. ABV ≈ (OG − FG) × 131. Figures below assume a dry finish.
10 Chemical Stabilizing: Order, Timing, Amount
Do this before back-sweetening so the mead doesn't re-ferment in the bottle. Amounts are per 1 gallon.
Order. Done and dry → Rack → K-meta → wait 24 h → Sorbate → wait 24–48 h → Back-sweeten → confirm stable → Bottle.
11 Clearing Agents & Finings
Try time and a cold crash first. Most meads clear themselves. Reach for finings only when they won't. Amounts are per 1 gallon.
12 pH & Acid Adjustment
13 Racking & Aging Timeline
Mead rewards patience. Rack (siphon off the sediment) gently and keep vessels topped up to avoid oxidation.