Reddit reviews First Steps in Winemaking

Read your copy of CJJ Berry "First Steps in Winemaking" on rhubarb wine.
Read him on everything!
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Steps-Winemaking-C-Berry/dp/1854861395&ved=2ahUKEwji4bmmv8fhAhVtSxUIHZ9WB-UQFjALegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw2xN7goO-_NYopwsQlZipoz

Oldie, but a must read: First Steps in Winemaking, C. J. J. Berry

The first thing to decide is what style of mead you want to make. Mead can either be a stronger, wine-like beverage, or a weaker, beer-like beverage. The principles for each are roughly the same, but there are some differences.

I'd recommend a general wine-making book such as First steps in Winemaking which will give you the important basics of how homebrewing works. Mead is then just a simple case of subtly changing the procedure and ingredients to use honey instead of fruit.

I've been following the standard recipes in this (I'm relatively new to wine-making): http://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Steps-Winemaking-C-Berry/dp/1854861395/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419858721&sr=8-1&keywords=winemaking

For the pear and blackberry I went off piste, and regrettably didn't write it down. As far as I remember though it was just over half the amount of pears and the rest of the fruit weight made up in blackberry.

Will try to remember to post the recipe later.

Raspberry vodka is amazing. Buy a bottle of vodka, mash up some raspberries, mix them together in a big jar and leave it for 1-2 weeks. Strain it off into a clean bottle, add a little sugar if you want, then seal it up and try not to drink it for a few weeks.

Wine is more labour intensive but still worth it, this book and finding a brewing shop are the best first steps.

There are books, and they fall in to two main champs
Home brew books I.E. First Steps in Winemaking
And hardcore Science books I.E. Wine Science (Fourth Edition)

You can see where they differ on price and that's reflected in the contents.

First steps has fermentation in simple terms yeast produce roughly 50/50 carbon dioxide and alcohol by weight.

Where as Wine Science has the whole Embden–Meyerhof pathway of Alcoholic fermentation and talks about energy balance and the synthesis of metabolic intermediates, with lines like "The replacement of TCA-cycle intermediates lost to biosynthesis probably comes from pyruvate."

And diagrams of things like the Formation of acetaldehyde, acetoin, and higher alcohols during alcoholic fermentation.