I am planning on making two 5 gallon batches of mead sometime in the near future. I’d like to try two different yeasts. I believe last time I did a mead I used 12# honey and D47 yeast and it came out very dry. This time I would like to have a sweet and a semi-sweet or dry mead. Does anyone have any recommendations for yeasts and honey amounts (I have a large supply right now). The last time I made a sweet mead I used Wyeast 4184 Sweet Mead and it came out overly sweet (can’t remember how much honey I used and it may have fermented cold), is that typically a problem with this yeast?
Without doing things like sorbate/sulfite and or back sweetening you need to use more like 15+ pounds of honey in a 5 gallon batch, assuming no other fermentables. That gets you in the 13% + range. I think you will find that d47 is a good yeast for traditional mead and will produce a semi dry mead at 12-13% and a sweet mead at 14-15% and up. I’m talking potential alcohol, not ABV. Under about 12% PA just about any wine yeast will finish dry. Btw I use the potential alcohol scale on the hydrometer when making mead because its more useful than specific gravity when making must.