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There's an online beer recipe calculator (Javascript required) that can also be used for mead:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

It calculates based on volume of the combined ingredients. I assume dissolving 1 pint of honey in 9 pints of water will result in less than 10 pints of total volume. I don't know exactly how much, but guessing 9.5 pints total, and using raw honey and raisins as the fermentables, I get 11% ABV with the high attenuation D47 yeast, and 8.7% with the low attenuation S-04.

Caramelization will reduce the fermentability of the honey, but I am not sure by how much. My guess is that it's a small effect.



(All this is wrong, go to edit) I would expect this mead to be high ABV, in the 12-13% range. The rule of thumb I've heard, and has been good in my experience is 1.035 SG per 1 lb honey per 1 gallon of water. The 3 lbs in 1 gallons would come out to a ~1.105 SG, which is a bit over 13%. Though, the sugar content of honey varies from batch to batch, and the non ferment-able sugars from the caramelization process, I would expect anywhere from 9-12%. The more caramelization, the more "burnt sugars", the less ABV.~

EDIT: I grossly miscalculated the weight oz to lbs. This is only 1.5 lbs, which would be ~5-6%, making it more akin the ABV of a beer. Same caveat that it would have probably been lower due to the unfermentable sugars.


I'm reading 24oz (1.5lbs) of honey in 1.125 gallons of water




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