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Some background notes: https://meadist.com/making-mead/mead-tips-tricks/best-yeast-for-mead-making/ - Why I chose the specific yeast that I did. BeerSmith will give TOSNA schedule for Fermaid O. Fermaid O is included in instructions but is not included in Design. Starter tab indicastes amount of Fermaid O required depending on factors such as amount of honey, if blueberries are included in primary, and yeast used. **. SEE “Brew Steps” REPORT! ** 2023-12-06: 4 jars of honey from Tim Hamilton weighing 15.0 lbs - (4 * 0.63 lbs / jar) = 12.48 lbs honey. Added 5.5 lbs of frozen blueberries to carboy pureed in Vitamix with hot water. Added warm to hot water to reach 5.5 G (50.15 lbs total) - Tared carboy with another jug to get water weight only). 50.15 - 5.5 - 12.48 = 32.17 lbs water = 3.85 G of water. Initial temp a bit warm at 81°F. Allowing to cool some before pitching. Rehydrating yeast per packet at about 80°F in 50ml tap water. Measured SG at 1.077. Mixed with inverted stirrer. Measured again at 1.076. Using that. Pitched yeast after a half hour of hydrating into 78.6°F must. Ambient room temp set to 67°F. 2023-12-07: It is bubbling this morning with only about a quarter inch of krausen. Temp down to 67.2°F as desired. Added 5.3 gr Fermaid O, dry, at 1356 hours after degassing. Difficult getting it to dissolve. 2023-12-08: Recorded temp & SG (1.074, not much change) and added 5.3 g of Fermaid O at 1620 hrs. Added last jar of honey too. New gravity reads 1.086 before adjusting. Used refractometer calculator and OOG of 1.076 to get new readings for before and after addition. Since we lost 5 points I will add them to the current SG to get a New OG of 1.095. Adjusted coming Fermaid O additions based on new OG. 2023-12-10: Recorded temp. Read 21 Brix for a new SG of 1.081. Degassed and added 6.5 g of Fermaid O. Tastes wonderful but there is still a ton of sugar to burn through. 2023-12-13: Last feeding of Fermaid O today - 6.5 g. Took refractometer (17.8 Brix) and temp reading (68.2°F). Recorded session data. Taste remains great. It needs to attenuate some to get down to secondary ready. SG was 1.058 - seems reasonable - steady progress. 2023-12-18: Temp on target at 67.4°F and still bubbling away strongly with a quick period of 3 seconds! No end in sight. No secondary in sight. 2023-12-21: Big SG drop down to 1.012. Bubbling with a period of 14 sec (but I hav e disturbed the carboy a lot). I guess I can go to secondary soon and give Celina back her freezer as I put the mead on the second half of the blueberries. Flavor is of course drier but also a bit harsher, maybe from the increase in alcohol, otherwise still very good. 2023-12-22: Pureed second bag of thawed blueberries and transfered to clean 6.5 G carboy. Racked mead on top. There was no yeasty trub at the bottom of the orignal carboy, only blueberry puree which had to be “pumped” and then poured into the new carboy. I could have just added the blueberries to the primary. Not sure how the puree is going to work out. It means that I have a lot of thick goo to deal with at the end of fermentation which is not likely to be easily separated from the melomel. The chill of the blueberry puree lowered the temp about a degree and a half. No worries there. 2023-12-28: Temp has been fairly steady in the realm of 65°F sincve moving the carboy to the floor. Bubbling has slowed to the point where you don’t want to wait for the next bubble to time it. It might be ready to transfer to a smaller secondary, or it might be best to try and let everything settle more so we are not trying to transfer blueberry slurry. This is day 22 BTW. I added 0.5 tsp of pectinase today in the hopes of encouraging the blueberry slurry to break down and separate. I used dry form and added it directly. 2024-01-01: Temp is a little cooler in here due to pale ail fermentation needs. I added another 0.5 tsp of pectinase today to make what I take to be a full dose considering the amount of blueberries used. Hoping that the slurry will reduce. 2024-01-04: I gave the melomel a stir today with the narrow end of a sanitised mash paddle to get all that blueberry slurry resuspended and mixed with the pectinase. I also moved it up to the BK table height in prep for rcking it to secondary after it resettles, assuming that fermentation doesn't restart. 2024-01-07: SG now below 1. Flavor is great but very tart. Racking to secondary. Not sure how I will deal with blueberry slurry. Covered secondary with t-shirt for longer storage if we want. I pretty much got 5G of melomel. I then captured 1.5G of blueberry slurry separately. Slurry to be used in smoothies, with yogurt, etc. 2024-02-04: 60 days in. SG steady. Taste is excellent, fruity, floral, some bite. Due to other batches, ambient temp has been high, but temp on the floor has remained reasonable. Now dropping ambient to 50°F. I can consider racking to keg (or bottling but Celina is inclined to keg) at any time although normal secondary on a mead is longer. 2024-02-06: Racking to keg #3. FG is 0.999 and ABV is 12.9. Taste is especially great.