Mead is honey + water + yeast, and the math is one ratio: honey by weight sets the alcohol potential. A 1.12 kg (roughly 3 lb) honey in a 4 L batch reads about OG 1.110 — the 12% potential that made "mead = patience" a proverb. Weigh the honey, dissolve in less water, top to volume, then read OG with the hydrometer and write it down. That number is the batch's contract.
| Honey (4 L batch) | Reading OG | What it wants to be |
|---|---|---|
| 0.9 kg | ≈ 1.075 | Session mead, ~8–9% |
| 1.35 kg | ≈ 1.110 | Standard mead, ~12–13% |
| 1.8 kg | ≈ 1.135 | Sacking mead, 15%+ and long sleep |
Lalvin D71A/B or 71B-1122 are the friendly mead yeasts: rehydrate per packet, pitch at 18–22 °C, and seal with an airlock. The first read after pitch should show activity within a day or two — foam, then the airlock's count.
Yeasts fed once at pitch stall near the halfway gravity. The standard fix: staggered nutrient additions (a quarter of the total at pitch, then day 2, day 5, day 8) — yeast nutrient + energizer, dosed per the packet at the batch's scale. The app's mead calculator schedules the feedings off the OG so this never lives in memory.
Bottle still (plain, corks or flip-tops) or force-carbonate in swing-tops with a priming dose (honey ~17 g/L for a modest fizz). Label with the OG/FG pair — the gravity card decodes it at the bottle table. A clean mead at 8 months tastes like the promise the first hydrometer read made; that's why the log exists.