Your first 30 days of mead making
Mead is forgiving, slow, and deeply satisfying. Here's what actually happens between mixing your first must and opening your first bottle.
By The JustBeginning Editors · Published May 24, 2026
Mead is the easiest fermented beverage to make at home. There’s no grain to mash, no hops to add, no complex timing. You dissolve honey in water, add yeast, and wait. The mead figures out the rest.
What beginners underestimate is the patience part. Unlike beer, which can be drinking-ready in two weeks, mead takes a minimum of 30 days — and is usually better at 60 or 90. This guide walks you through the first batch: what you do, what you don’t, and what’s normal at each stage.
Brew day: the first hour
Everything in mead-making lives or dies on sanitation. Before you touch your must, sanitize every piece of equipment that will contact it: the vessel, the airlock, the stopper, the spoon, the funnel, the hydrometer tube. Use Star San no-rinse sanitizer — mix about 1 oz per 5 gallons of water, splash everything liberally, and don’t rinse. The residue is harmless.
Your must (the pre-fermentation liquid) is simple: 2.5 to 3 pounds of honey dissolved in enough water to reach 1 gallon total. You don’t need to heat it — just add warm water to your vessel, add the honey, and stir aggressively until fully dissolved. This takes longer than you expect; give it a good 5 minutes.
Before you add yeast, take your original gravity reading with your hydrometer. Fill the test tube, float the hydrometer, read the scale at the meniscus. A typical starting gravity for a 1-gallon traditional mead is around 1.090–1.110. Write this number down — it’s what you’ll compare against at the end.
Pitching yeast and the first three days
Lalvin 71B needs to be rehydrated before pitching. Heat about 4 oz of water to 104°F (it should feel hot but not scalding), dissolve the yeast packet in it, and wait 15 minutes. Then slowly add small amounts of your must to the yeast slurry to equalize the temperature — this reduces shock. Pour the rehydrated yeast into your must, seal with the airlock, and set it somewhere between 65–75°F.
Within 12–24 hours you’ll see activity: bubbles in the airlock, foam on top, or visible movement in the liquid. That’s fermentation starting. Good.
The next three days are the most active period — and the most important for nutrients. The TOSNA protocol calls for four equal additions of Fermaid-O spaced 24 hours apart, starting on brew day:
- Day 0 (brew day): 0.375g
- Day 1: 0.375g
- Day 2: 0.375g
- Day 3: 0.375g
Set phone reminders. These staggered additions keep your yeast well-nourished during the most vigorous phase and dramatically reduce the risk of hydrogen sulfide off-flavors. Each time you add nutrients, stir the must vigorously to degas CO2 — CO2 buildup stresses yeast.
If your mead develops an egg smell during this phase, stir more aggressively and add your next nutrient dose. The smell usually clears on its own.
Days 4–21: waiting, checking, not worrying
After day 3, your main job is to leave it alone. Check the airlock periodically to make sure it has liquid in it (top up with vodka or Star San if it evaporates). Make sure the temperature stays stable.
Around day 7, airlock activity will slow noticeably. Around day 10–14, it may stop entirely. This does not mean fermentation is done. It means the most active phase is over. Fermentation continues slowly at gravity levels the airlock can’t detect.
Do not taste it yet. New mead at day 14 tastes sharp, hot, and nothing like what it becomes. The alcohol is there but the flavors haven’t integrated. It’s normal to feel like you made something terrible. You probably didn’t.
Day 21+: taking final gravity, deciding when to rack
Around day 21, take a gravity reading. If your must started at 1.100 and it’s now at 1.020, fermentation is still going. If it’s at 1.000 or below, it might be done. Take another reading 48 hours later. If it hasn’t changed, fermentation is complete.
A final gravity around 0.990–1.000 is typical for a dry traditional mead made with 71B. Anything above 1.010 at rest for 48 hours means something is stuck — check temperature, add a small nutrient dose, and give it more time.
Rack (transfer to a clean vessel) once fermentation is done and you want to let it clear. Use your auto-siphon to move the mead off the lees into a second clean container, leaving the yeast cake at the bottom. Seal it back up and give it another 2–4 weeks to clear and settle.
Bottling and first taste
Bottle when the mead is visually clear — you should be able to read text through the vessel. Use your auto-siphon and bottle filler wand to fill your bottles cleanly. Cork or seal immediately.
Your first taste at bottling will be promising but rough. Mead undergoes substantial change in the bottle over the first few weeks. Wait at least two weeks after bottling before evaluating the batch seriously.
If it’s thin and sharp, age it longer — 60–90 days from brew day is more typical of a polished result. If it’s sweet, the fermentation stopped early; check your final gravity and consider re-pitching if you wanted a dry mead.
Ready to buy your gear? See our mead-making gear guide for the fermenter, honey, yeast, and tools we recommend for your first batch.