Made a cranberry wine with 1gallon cranberry juice, 1 cup of dried cranberries, 1 cup of strong black tea, and sugar to bring the gravity reading to 1.150, and 1/2 pack of red star yeast. seams to always end at about 15% abv with a mild sweetness. Everyone loves it!!! Couldn't have done it without what I've learned from you! Thanks so much!!!

I have 3 different batches fermenting right now and all are a direct result of watching your videos. Thank you guys so much for the inspiration! The only downside I've had from watching your channel is that I was forced to get a 5 gallon carboy and "step up" production because the sweet and cheap wine was such a huge hit my family over Thanksgiving. I will gladly take that type of problem anytime! Thanks again!

Damn it, now I have to add craisin mead to my list. Not that that's a bad thing. 😁🍯🥃👏👍

Another well done video and another mead to try. Love the way you two present yourselves.

Just started my crasin mead today used alittle different recipes (I forgot to watch your video while making it honestly) so I kinda just threw it together very excited

Derica and Brian thank you for sharing your knowledge of making MEAD. I just started making Beer and Wine last September 2019. I am NOW very interested in this MEAD making thing! I especially like the one-gallon process! Means I can try multiple recipe before I try a larger process. Thanks

Totally starting one of these this week! Thanks for the idea!

Hi guys, love your videos. Keep the pumping them out. Ciao

I made 2 meads so far. But im now making a pamagranet mead and it smells wonderful while fermenting.

Another great installment, thanks guys

Thank you for all Ur help im new to ur shows.

Brian and Derica. Love your channel and how y’all explain everything. Im new to brewing and decided to jump in head first. I currently have three brews going the “my first mead”, Vikings Blood 2020, and the Cranberry. It’s the cranberry I seam to be at a loss, in a 1 Gall bubbler with 2 lbs 12 oz honey, 24oz crazines, and 1/2 pack of EC-1118. OG was 1.125 the bubbler was rocking for a couple weeks then slowed down to a crawl. It’s been three weeks and I checked the gravity. 1.128 after three weeks. It has sat in the same location as the other two which the VB after two weeks was 16% I just racked into secondary today and the plain is at 7.6% (EC-1118). I can tell the cranberry has alcohol but that is Way to sweet.

Love how Derica gets so excited about pulverizing the crazins. Lol

Another great video, you guys are awesome!

We did this the year you guys made this vid. We used chaplain yeast , racked it into bottles then carbonated it for two weeks. Came out a nice light pink color and was great.. really dry just how I like it.

Anyone not in the city steading Facebook group is really missing out. I would recommend it to everyone. I love the atmosphere. Lots of people helping each other and i have not yet seen anyone judgemental or rude. Awesome group.

3 1/2 weeks fermentation of my Craisin mead. Moved to 2ndary and tested APV at 17.6 %. Little rough at this time but yet pretty tasty. I like it and will continue to use this recipe - naturally with experimentation. Always forward -always!

thank you for another great video! Looks like a tasty brew! :)

You two are adorable!

I have four different meads going and one grape wine. Just bought a keg for a choc cherry stout im going to make. Your videos got me into doing this 😅.

Air Locks at my local brewer are only .99 cents. So I bought like 7

I love the science Brian keep going the mathematics is wonderful

Hey Derica and Brian I made Crasin mead about 4 weeks ago it only came to 1.1 % ABV. I may have forgot to put the yeast in. I made 3 different brews that night😔 It wasn’t bad. My wife loves it. I made a new batch tonight. Started out at 1.080. Also bigger in a 3 gallon bucket. Hope to tell you it works out. I really like watching you two.

I love cranberries. When I made my 1.5l water bottle quick mead I used cranberries. My current batch (5L) also has a large handfull of cranberries in them. I am letting it go to 15% then I will take half of that batch and mix with cranberry juice. I had a mead here in Germany where it was normal 11% and they added cherry juice (Absolutely awesome) but lowered it to 6%. I was to do that with Cranberry juice but keep it around 10%. The other half will stay just like it is with some back sweetening to make it a bit sweeter.

Loving your videos guys, is the bourbon bochet follow up coming soon? I brewed mine at the same time and can't wait to see how yours is doing. Keep up the good work your vids are second to none!

the bubbles......it's so beautiful maaaaan :D

"use the spikey side, beat the bejeezus out of it"... love how you explained it, Dreica ... almost like you enjoyed it, plentyfull :P Love the vid! Thank you a ton!

I love how approachable this recipe is, and hope Brian is feeling better. :)

A little late since the original air date, but I did notice your Craisins are 50% sugar. Mine are regular, ingredients are Cranberries, sugar and Sunflower oil. and sugar is 29 grams per serving rather than your 14 grams. So it changes the formula for the Craisins from .020 to .040. Thank you for the informative videos, love your channel. Cheers!

Math is AWESOME!!!!, lol. I am so glad that you are doing it for us.

I was glad to hear your reading of 1.130 I started some Cranberry with a little orange syrup and it tested at 1.130 and I thought that it might be high? I'm new so wasn't sure...

Thanks for the tip on using extra yeast. I generally pitch yeast directly into the fermenter because If I hydrate my yeast first, it stalls so then I add more yeast and it becomes a recurring cycle for a 1 gallon batch if wine.

Bob Ross shirts I love that man and it's cool that I see that you had the same shirts I do

I really like your videos! And i notice there are no dislike that's great!

I shall try this🤘

that is why bee's dry (concentrates) honey down it prevents any intrusions from other organism's and prevents fermentation

Thanks for the video and the little end clip showing the bubbles. Yes, I was one of the ones that asked for this. Mine never bubble that slowly at the beginning and I was wondering if I was doing something wrong. Went to both Trader Joe's and Aldi yesterday to buy those swing top bottles that have some liquid in them. That pumpkin stuff is gross - I am making my kids drink it.

Your videos are getting better and better. Would you be able to do a video on aging in the future?

Can you do a video comparing carboys vs gallon jars? I see that you use both. Maybe you could go into the pros and cons of each, and how you choose which one to use.

Anyone else hear Charlie Brown's teacher when he's talking numbers? 😂

Tales of a 6 gallon pantry mead. Craisins and candied orange peel mead (Sept. 2017). Like you, my Craisins where a bit out of date. I need to learn, "Stick the Plan". If I had things would have gone much more smoothly as I forgot two things 1) to account for the sugar that coats the cranberries and 2) check the fermentation ability of the yeast I used. To further make things difficult, guess that's 3) I added an extra 1.5 lbs. of honey I had left over. So I started out at 1.156. It stuck at 1.055 and was quite syrupy. I add 2 doses of .75 gal of boiled and cooled water (1.035). After waiting for something new to happen, I added EC-1118. 2 weeks and it starts again. At 1.010 I hit it with sorbate and put it in a closet for a year. When I pull it out I find the air lock had popped off the carboy. When, who knows? Played with bench trials and flavors, aged for another year, back sweetened a bit and now it's quite good and being enjoyed. Whoo! Cheerz.

Awesomely informative vids, as usual. Question! How did you come up with your ending gravity when deciding the sweetness level?

Love your videos you two! They've been very helpful and fun to watch! Link to your honey guy? Please and thank you!!

what i did for my big batch was i used some of the wort/must/whatever to bloom my yeast

Now that is funny my bee guys name is Jim also, and he has a house here in Idaho but he also takes his bees out of Idaho during the winter I'm now curious where he takes them.

Can you share some of the titles of your CD collection? Love your videos!

re metric in Quebec honey is sold in liquid measures from trial and error 2.5 lbs is about 1 litre jar. (made your vikings blood mead thanks for the recipe)

O YEAH , the 6.5 Gallon Fermenter held. It was touch and go for a while . Right on the cutting edge . I thought 💭 it would . I've been using a 3 pack of yeast for 5 gallons for a while now. It's just that when I went to 5 packs that things came undone . But right now it's Boiling at a little over 4 Bubbles a second , almost 5 . The first sensation you get when you put your nose over the Airlock is Air Blowing on your lips . Before you even smell anything . Live & Learn . 🤠

When I think cranberries, I can't help think of Christmas which then makes me think of spices (cinnamon and nutmeg). Hmmmmm? Cranberry/spiced Christmas Mead may be in my future. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Hi ive been liking your videos so far ive just started my first batch of mead ever im doing 1 gallon with 3 pounds of honey. Im only a few days in and so far its going well fermentation is looking good so far but i want to add fruit to it for flavoring later for the secondary i was wondering when i should do so. Thanks and love your vids.

lol I am in too deep on all of your videos and this is so cute! A few questions/notes: • I’m glad to actually see that the TRBOS is actually red (I was getting nervous for a bit). • I’m based in New Zealand and have NZ cranberries (or Chilean Guavas) coming ripe in the garden. Any thoughts on using these? • I have noticed on your newer videos you guys Calc ABV using 135 but most of my research shows 131.25 like you used in this video. Why the change? I love all of this content and it has helped me a lot in my journey towards making better meads. Thanks a lot!

I got 14% out of fleshmiens on an apple wine. I was kinda impressed.

Handy tip I have seen on Don Osborne's channel, put the hydrometer in the graduated cylinder before you put in your sample, then you won't overfill it.

I was literally thinking about this yesterday when I saw cranberries and thought "I wonder if I could make a wine out of that?" You guys read my mind! Thanks for the great video and the answer to my question! :)

Update on earlier post. Used Lalvin EC 1118 yeast. Has a tolerance of 18%. Also I should have mentioned that my brew was a 2 gallon mix up with 5 pounds of honey and very fresh apple cider instead of water. Cyser?

And I was wondering if one could use dried cranberry in mead. And your video shows up. Guess one can.

I did feel like getting my hand stickey 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 you walk right into that one.

could you add frozen cranberries? wondering about a blueberry mix now, either frozen or fresh instead of dried.

What are your thoughts on sage, mint, and green tea, grapes, raisins and apples being fermented with cranberry grape juice? I'm attempting to make a gallon of this

In your traditional mead video, you talk about using sultanas instead of raisins, and how they have oil on them. If the dried cranberries I have for this recipe have a bit of safflower oil on them, what will that do to the mead?

Cold crashing video.... YES!!

What's your feelings towards glucosewhen I comes to fermentation are you concerned about glucose or no thanks for your Channel and all your answers

how long did you let the initial fermentation go before you first rack? thanks for the great ideas

Trying my hand at this. My OG is 1.120. I used less honey so here's hoping.

I started this on Saturday. My is it slow on bubbles. Can the fruit cap be preventing the release of CO2? A swirl can generate some action in the airlock only for it to go quiet again.

Where can I buy Jim's bee's honey?? Also I started a 5 gallon batch of craisin mead. Based on bubbling of my $2 airlock fermentation seems to be going well but oddly enough my gravity seems to be going up and down. I think it's due to the sugars being released by the craisins. Did you take multiple gravity readings the first week?

Hi! I started this mead 1.5 months ago and it was bubbling aggressively the first several days so I assumed it was fermenting just fine. But today I checked the specific gravity and it had only dropped .006 points (from 1.142 to 1.136). Does that mean the fermentation was stuck? What should I do now? Thanks!

Can u use a can of fruit with there juice and how much hunny do u use

And your professional opinion spring water distilled water or tap water my tap water has a slight chlorine smell to it so it makes me hesitant

Ok so being new to this I'm a little confused. My wine kit did not come with a graduated cylinder so I just used a two quart jar is that going to throw my reading off? It was 1.35 if you're curious. I used 6 lbs of honey 4 cups of black tea zest from five very small lemons and tart cherry juice to fill the rest of my 3 gallon carboy.

I am giving your Craisin Mead a try. After 3 weeks of fermentation, I thought I would check in on it. It only dropped .0006 points. I was concerned about leaving the fruit in there much longer, might have been wrong there. I gave it a swirl to loosen up the lees, racked it off the fruit and put it an airlock on it. Hoping for the yeast to restart. I checked for the first couple days and saw no movement in the air lock. After 4 days there was a little pressure change seen in the airlock. Should I just wait it out or pitch more yeast. 1 gallon water 2.75 lbs honey 1 24 oz bag of craisons Nottingham yeast (14% yield) SPG = 1.092 5/15/20 Spg = 1.086 6/4/20 (took off fruit) Thank in advance

I was wondering if you have ever tried to make chocolate mead? I have seen several videos on making but none of them show the full process and each have their own recipes and amounts making anywhere from 2 to10 gals. Very few show times types of yeast or amount of yeast and few show final results or tasting. Is this something you might be interested in trying?

I've been wanting to try Fleischmanns but have only been able to find the "Instant" or "Bread Machine" type. Have you had any experience with that or know of others who have?

Granted it typically has to do this cheating the system on serving sizes, but the FDA rules on listing ingredients can be fudged a bit. (Again 90% of this has to do with serving sizes to confuse consumers) but there are marginal levels of virtually any food grade “ingredient” that if the parts per million, or the gram ratio doesn’t breach a specific number, then they are not “required” to listen the item/thing/“ingredient” on the label. It’s a fascinating little rabbit whole if you ever get bored and decide to wander down.

Have a question. I tried your craisin mead and it would not ferment. I made two other meads the same day and they are off running. 3 different packages of Lalvin 71 b. Guess it’s possible one could be bad. But the question I have is on the bag of craisins it says as ingredients: cranberries, sugar. And refined sunflower oil is used as a processing aid. Is it possible that could have caused it? I could see a oil residue on the surface. Unfortunately I dumped the batch before trying another yeast. Thanks for any input

But I got everything I need but I'm going to try your jalapeno and honey mead recipe 5 gallons

I typically get 12 from bread yeast and it usually tast like brandy

They put oil on em to make em shine, look better . But all the oil will float to the top . When you Rack you'll leave the oil with the Sediment , if you stop in time . Same Trick as when you take old farm equipment to the Auction , you spray it down with Diesel fuel to make it shine, look newer . 🤠

this gives me an idea to use dried cherries instead of craisins

You are very inspiring. Within the next week I will have 18 wines, meads, melomel, etc bubbling and gurgling away. One little issue I have with this recipe is the sucralose (aka Splenda) in the craisins. My research tells me that it is sweet yet unforgettable. This could throw off initial gravity readings and, for me, leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. It is modified and unnatural after all.

why not strain it by using cheese cloth or coffee filters when you rack it? does straining it that way hurt the overall results?

off topic from this video: how would one go about making an earl gray mead?

I know I’m late, but would cranberry juice work as well?

I consistently get 11-12% with that yeast, it all i use

“Throw it all in the bottle and hope it works.” Haha, that’s my philosophy at times.

My dried cranberries contain sulfites, are they still ok to use?

Got a question if y’all are still watching the comments. I started this recipe on August 28th and the initial gravity reading was 1.110. Racked it on October 9th and took the gravity today Oct 16th and it was 1.040, is it possible that it stalled and isn’t finished yet or does it just need longer?

Brian, How can you tell what the alcohol tolerence is on the yeast before you buy it?

So, we made homemade cranberry sauce last year that didn't get eaten. We froze it and I was thinking we could make some kind of booze with it. Any thoughts?

How do you keep the fruit cap down

About what temperature do you ferment your mead?

@csbrews I used your recipe,, 1 gallon of water, 1lb 12oz honey and a 20oz bag of craisins. and my OG was 1.060. Was your OG of 1.130 because you used less than 1 gallon of water. Should my OG be higher? Closer to 1.090? Seems like in your later videos it was sweeter than you would have liked. Thanks PS Love your stuff!

Would this work with frozen blueberries instead of using the craisins?

So... Mathing out my batch right now.... My craisins say 29g sugar per serving....... Subistute this where yours says 14 in the large equation?

You guys should make a bochet mead

We used Borg Vodka. It was also the punishment vodka if you spilled at a party.

ok...so i tried this on September 9th...i used pretty much everything in this videos recipe ...almost exacty...i got an original gravity of 1.173...is that even possible...i just went to check on it and it's still bubbling...did i do something wrong...could the o.g. reading be off....just seems odd....you guys never get that kind of an O.G......let me know your thoughts....i do have a pic of the hydrometer....but i dont think i'm reading it wrong...not ready to open it and take another reading yet...

hay when are you meking you must have had more than one cup keep doing a god job bye bye ho see. ho freezer frost ho ho.now read change .0001 just having fun old man in wheelchair love hearing you all

i think i found your ABV app just go into google and search for ABV app comes up with ABV calculator (orange box with ABV) for both ios and android

Attempting my first batches of mead tonight, will admit I'm goin big to begin. Got a yeast which apparently will get upto between 18-20% abv with enough sugar obviously. Doing 2x 1 gallon lots, first is just straight honey water yeast and some raisins for nutrients, the second I'm not sure what it would count as since I'm using almost half water and half apple juice with the yeast and raisins again for nutrients. No idea what I'll end up with, hopefully at the top end of the abv...I like a bit of rocket fuel every now and then