A simple question - do you use heat in making your mead or not?
Some heat - just to make it flow better. Since I don’t get anywhere near your other two choices I guess I’m NO HEAT.
-OCD
+1 the honey I get is solid, so some heat to get it out of the bucket and hot water to get it to dissolve easier, but no boiling.
NO HEAT!
Bucket, water, honey. Stir like hell. If I need to get the last bit of honey out of the container, use a sanitzed spatula. I will rinse the last bit out with some heated water, but the volume does not appreciably raise the temperature of the must.
Only heat I use is a warm water bath for flow.
no heat, but I sometimes put the honey in the window sill for a few hours to let it warm up. putting it in the sink with warm water around the outside of the container would be the same.
So far, I have tried to bring it up to Pasteurization temps. There is a school of thought on not heating, but IMO fermentation is
all about creating the correct environment for the Yeast to have optimum conditions. To me, Pasteurization insures that the
competing organisms that MAY be present in the mix, are nullified. Another reason that reinforces my thinking on this is my
pocket book. The price of the ingredients and production labor and cleanup are weighty enough that to have a contaminated batch would be too costly IMO. So for me, insurance, yes please…
In the past I have heated to sanitize, but I no longer use any heat. I just don’t see any reason to anymore.
1vertical - I did what you are doing for my first two batches for the same reasons. Since then I’ve been doing no heat method for about the next 150 batches. No problems what so ever.
On the other hand, if I have a batch of fruit that I believe to be suspect (visible signs of mold and rust) I have been known to sulfite the must for a day befor I pitch yeast. I rarely do this because I’m not a fan of sulfiting.
Looks at poll results…scratches head…says notes are being taken :-\
I should make another note: I know a few people who have been making mead for decades. They very gently boil there must for 15 minutes or so, skim all the wax, bugs and other stuff that float to the top. The meads they make are extremely good medal winning beverages.
In your notes make sure to list that there are many different ways to make great mead. You just need to figure out what works best for you and what you are most comfortable with.
And don;t forget to practice! 
I am kinda with ya on this. I have done it with no heat, but I have done several 10 gal meads. Heck, that last ABC I did dang near broke me! I don’t remember how much money I had in that thing! So usually I will bring things up to sanitizing temps for the sake of piece of mind I guess…
The only infection I did have was a no heat, but I wont attribute it to that. I found that I had an infected racking cane. I pasteurized it and let it cool on it’s own and bottled… It went on to win BOS at KCBM.
Honey is does not have enough water to support bacterial contamination. That is why it has been used for centuries as a poltice on infected wounds. Wild yeast will survive in a type of suspended animation waiting for the right conditions to do there thing. I am a bit of a goofy historical nut about my mead. I use no heat and generally try to get the local yeast to do the job for me. I have made several meads and like ciders I find that the local yeast do a great job of fermenting these. I do however believe in the 96 hour nutrient schedule for ensuring proper fermentation. I will harvest my cider yeast for use on meads each year. I also use this yeast for making at least one beer a year, with very interesting result. To each his/her own, if it works for you then it is good. I chose a path many hills, valleys and dark blind curves.
I made two five gallon batches of mead per the Papazian book’s instruction waaay back in the early 90’s.
Boiled the crap out of them per the recipe and aged the carboys for six months. Two different parties cleaned out the uncarbonated mead and left me with sticky floors. It was fantastic social lubricant…
Anyway, the end product was about 19% both times.
Boiling will drive out some volatile aromatic compounds and alter some proteins or sugars, altering the mouthfeel of the mead.
Boiling will also lead to a clearer mead.
No boil. Always. I warm up the honey containers in hot tap water so it can pour more readily, but it goes straight into a fermenter.
Worried about dissolving the honey? Get a mix-stir and a drill. Bonus side effect: aeration.
Worried about sanitation? Don’t. Honey doesn’t get infected in nature, does it? Honey can only get infected if it’s been diluted. Get your yeast ready to pitch, use nutrients, and get your yeast active quickly. They will out-compete anything else there.
Worried about clearing? Let if fully ferment, give it time, use Super-Kleer or Sparkalloid if you need it.
Been brewing mead since 1983…I’m an answer 2…bring the water to a boil, take off the heat, dissolve in the honey, return to heat, and boil to get a hot break only when using “raw” honey, else, keep the brewing liquor at Pasteurization temp for 20 minutes.
I’ve never used any clarifiers save gravity and time.
Six in the cellar right now (dry mead, cyser, pyment, 3 melomels (blueberry, apricot, mixed red fruits], plus one batch of Cyser-vinegar (intentional).
Tried the “no heat” method on Mead Day with our club. Since it was 95°+ and about 70% humidity outside we thought this would be a great time for us all to try the no heat method and stay in the air conditioning while we “brewed”. We just left the honey out in the car until it was time to use it. It poured nice and fast. Who knows, maybe it did hit pasteurization temperature out there. Anyway, it is still fermenting so it will be a while before I can report on how it did.
On a related topic, I am planning to add straight cranberry juice to a couple of gallons of this mead. Any idea on how much to use per gallon of mead? My OG was 1.104 using a light wildflower (mostly alfalfa I think) honey and fermented with the dry Norbonne yeast.
Wayne
No heat for me. I warm up the honey enough to get it all out and into the water, stir well, then shake to mix in the carboy. My first batch I heated to 150F or so and held that for 20 minutes, but it just isn’t necessary. Honey doesn’t harbor the nutrients for bacteria to survive, you pretty much have to take a dump in the honey to contaminated it. It’s sheer paranoia to boil it.
Just warm water to get it flowing. Answer 3.
I posted earlier today and mentioned I am just getting back to mead after a 15 year hiatus. I’m old school and used campden tablets, but the consensus now days seems to be not to use. I’m putting up a batch this weekend. Do I risk not going the sulfite route?