Hi! It’s my first time making mead so I thought I would post here for help. I just used a hydrometer for the first time and based on the reading, my ABV is at about 9.2%. I took a sip and it’s honestly super strong (no off flavor though, just like very strong wine). I was wondering, is now a good time to bottle then? There doesn’t seem to be any more activity so I wanted to know if now was a good time to bottle? I made the must on March 9th and it’s been fermenting since then. I also attached a pic if that’s any help. Thank you!

I updated my tank. This is a 18 x 18 x 24 in terrarium. I have my 8 to 15 month crested gecko in there now. It has a grow light,mister, and digital temp and hydrometer set up. I have a Pothos and snake plant in there now, and thinking of adding some kind of rootless bromeliad. I will answer questions if you have any. Does this look like a good tank.

How it 'finished'
How it started
I've just bottled my first batch that I started in January (I have a second batch on-going right now with more of a lemon kick) this first one is just a really basic beginner mead; Honey, Water, Yeast, Nutrient and time. I've enjoyed tasting it at various points throughout the process, just to get used to the flavour profiles - there was a huge change at one point in the flavour that felt like it was finding its personality, so to speak, and it's genuinely very refreshing. Some details below:
(UK/EU Dates) Brew Started: 05/01/2024: Starting Gravity: 10.090 First Rack: 10/03/2024: Gravity: 1.018 Bottle: 04/05/2024: Gravity: 1.0175 (stable) (I think that nets out at a 9.52% abv rating?)
Honey Used: Hilltop Honey: Blossom Honey (1.5kg/3.2lbs to 4litres/1 gallon) Yeast Used: Young's Active Yeast (1tsp) Extras: Young's Yeast Nutrient (1tsp)
Some questions as follows:

1. I don't have the most discerning pallet but I must say that this very much tastes like a very "lite" cider rather than a honey mead. The honey flavour is not very present (at least to me) and it does taste more apple-esque than honey. Why is this? Is it the Yeast used? Not enough honey? Or is it something more specific like the bees' honey being made from an apple orchard? It's not bad, it's very refreshing, but very different to the profile of mead I've had before (granted that was likely manufactured crap) or is it just a lack of back-sweetening? Which brings me to my second question...
2. I'd love to try back-sweetening one or two of these bottles, according to my hydrometer, it's right on the line of Medium Dry/Sweet. Can you back-sweeten individual bottles? And if so, how do I go about that? Do I just drop a glug of the same honey into the bottle of a specific ratio, and then leave it age in the bottle?
3. Is it okay to now leave these bottles somewhere fairly dark, just to proof for x amount of time or months? How much difference will it really make to the flavour profile? Are we talking a slight shift in one direction, or a big change in the depth of flavours?

Thanks! Excited to join this community that I've been lurking on for months, and looking forward to making more.

The evolution of my beautiful pastel ball python, Banana. This is like a documentary LMAO so strap in!
Possible CW: In depth talks of improper care for snakes, the death of snakes, and other things that may seem upsetting to those who loves and care for these beautiful animals.
My dad has owned snakes for longer than I have been alive (I am 18 years old.) He had two wild caught ETB (Emerald tree boas.) He spent thousands of dollars on these beautiful snakes. One was a female, and the other had been a male. The male stayed in a 20 gallon aquarium that consisted of one perch, a bowl of water, a heating pad and no substrate. His female stayed in a forty gallon, with one perch, a bowl for water, minimal substrate and a light atop of her at all times, a red light.
He attempted to breed the two, and once he believed they were done with the process, he had moved the male back to the 20 gal.
I loved these snakes, dearly. I’ve held both, the female tolerated me more than she did my dad (has striked at him twice yet has never done to me.) The male has never ate in his care, and four months later had ended up dying. It was rather traumatizing as I held him in my arms as I ran him under warm water, and he coughed up blood and slowly died in my arms. My immediate thoughts of his death was the fact he was a wild caught and was stressed and yet the female had eaten.
She ate for maybe a year, or less then, and started to regurgitate her food. My dad had told me it was common for ETB’s to regurgitate. Oh, and her name was Lightning. That’s how I’ll be referring to her for now on.
One day we had been at the feeder store to buy her a rat, when I saw this beautiful python. PASTEL/MALE JUVENILE. That what had been written on the enclosure he was in. He was a striking yellow with a brownish black pattern and little “ghost” faces. There were other morphs, two different ones. A banana pastel, and a spider (yep, terrible.) Both equally as gorgeous, yet the regular pastel simply caught my heart. I told my dad I wanted him, and I had the money but I wasn’t going to buy him yet. That I went to research about him, and buy his essentials before getting him and my dad was quick to try and change my mind. Saying how we had everything, a tank (the old 20 gal that the male had been in.) Some hides (one hide), and heating (a heating pad.) I argued that I knew nothing about them and he assured me he knew everything about balls, he’s taken care of so many and they are essentially some of the easiest snakes to care for.
I was admittedly wary of his approach given the fact I thought Lightning had not been given the enrichment she needed. So I argued that I had /no/ substrate for him, and he said that I did! I can use my left over bedding from my now deceased hamster. (It had been a mix of paper bedding and aspen.) I nearly yelled at him, saying obviously a snake can’t use HAMSTER bedding as substrate?? Yet the lady at the counter chimed in and told me it definitely can work and she absolutely trusted my father. So, I had given in. November 25th, 2022 I had bought my first snake, my first reptile ever. I decided I was naming all my animals after foods (my cat being the exception) and had juggled between the name Egg or Banana, and had eventually landed on the name Banana. Nanners, his cute little nickname.
My dad held Nanners as I set up the 20 gal, putting the heating mat under, the aspen and paper bedding (as shown in the first image.) A small water bowl, driftwood I had for my hamster, a small little tunnel thing I had for my hamster (her name was noodle, I miss her sm ;-;.) and a half log I had for Noodle. TERRIBLE SET UP!! Yet little freshly just 17 years old me (17?!? You should have KNOWN BETTER BRUH) didn’t know… until I did of course.
I had no hydrometer, I also had no thermometer or thermostat of ANY kind. It looked cramped, I was uncomfortable with it. It was small, so I did what I should have done in the first place, research. And as I did so, I have met with wonderful people. I went on reddit and was given a lot of feedback from sympathetic voices. Everything had clicked for me, my care was indeed terrible, and my dad has never properly cared for snakes in his lifetime. He’s always, and I mean always, tried to backyard breed them. He thought of them as… accessories, rather than pets.
I remember, I was 5-6, we had two female boa constrictors that I had named (lollipop and shadow.) They both lived in a 20 gallon together. We didn’t even have them for a year before they had gotten loose and probably died. Snakes can live 20+ years. If he had been caring for snakes even before I was born he should /at least/ have had a snake that I would have grown up with. Yet he didn’t, no snakes in his care had lived over two years. That isn’t normal.
So be it. This is my snake, and I am going to let that snake thrive and live for as long as it can. So, I bought a DHP when I could. In the meantime, I had put a towel on the ground of the tank so he didn’t burn himself, along with the hamster bedding. I lost sleep over this, I had the fear he would go under the towel and suffocate, cook himself, or both. I was constantly watching him, I was tempted to just take the heating pad off.
Finally, the DHP comes in and my dad is BITCHING. Saying how I didn’t need it, this and that, etc etc. that the heating pad was fine and threatening to put it back on when I went to my mom’s for work. We argued and I essentially told him he was my snake and I was going to care for him how I wanted to.
I had a 60 gal that Noodle was in. Yet I read somewhere big spaces stress the juvenile out, so I didn’t move him in as soon as I should have. (I should have double checked the source, that even a 20 gal was not the minimum for a juvenile. This was purely my fault and I fully take responsibility for not moving him in quicker.) I have a DHP for him, and bought reptile sand and loose coconut fiber to mix.
My dad… would say off putting but things. How he would get me a female ball python if I let them breed (I shot that down so quickly.) How he wished Banana was a girl she he would be bigger. That upset me because Nanners is not an accessory I don’t have him to be like oh look at this big snake I have, I have him because I love him. Animals to me are like what children are to people. I’d die for Nanners. I’d do anything for him. He owes me absolutely nothing as I owe him absolutely everything. He’d make comments about how he wished I got a pied or a more beautiful morph instead of. It upset me, Banana is absolutely perfect how he is and I never wish for him to be different.
Soon, I move and I have no job. I’m relying on my dad for things, and he refuses to buy anything but food for Nanners because he truly believes the care I’m giving him is not good. I’m stuck in a terrible situation, Nanners is stuck in a terrible situation. My dad refuses to buy him UVB due to believing it wasn’t a need.
Back to lightning. She isn’t doing well, she keeps regurgitating and my dad is confused. She’s extremely dehydrated and I tell him that. The mesh top isn’t holding moisture, the red light is terrible, she needs more humidity because it’s natural for her, she needs a large and tall enclosure with more perches, better husbandry, and enrichment. She also desperately needs a larger water bowl to properly soak. He ignores me, says she was thriving until now and I just GROAN!!
I am sympathetic, and I’d buy so much better for her if I could but I was out of a job. I got to visit my mom at her new place, I am there for a week and I come back home to my snake missing his DHP…. what. I immediately ask my dad and he said that his snakes light broke a few days ago and she needs it more than he does. I’m upset, I got to take the DHP only you find it on the ground, and not hot. It’s on, though. So I click it off, on, take it out and put it back in, nothing. It’s broken. I’m reasonably upset and tell my dad to buy me a new one, he refuses and takes the lightbulb from the porch light and says this will work.
Sadly, I use it. Because in my head some heat is better than no heat. My birthday comes around, I get money and immediately buy him a DHP.
Soon, Lighting dies. My dad is confused, he said she was thriving, I’m just relieved she no longer has to suffer. She deserved better.
My dad is now refusing to buy him food. He has gone months without eating, I beg my dad he needs something and he tells me tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow never comes. He tells me it’s okay, snakes are able to handle it.
One time he bought two mice and fed him them in concession, Nanners regurgitated. I was upset because he did it while I was away where I had no say.
Soon, I’m visiting my friend more, she also loves animals and was a former vet assistant. She has a beardie. We make plans for me to move in, and be roommates. So, she helps me. She helps me move Banana to his 60 gal, she gives me some more clutter to fill in, she even bought him a uvb!! His care is slowly getting better, as it should.
Finally we rip the bandaid off and move him to her house. (My dad and I had a screaming match.)
We get him a secondary source of heat, a ceramic heater, it’s also what is kept on at night given that it doesn’t project infrared heat that mimics the suns heat. We use double sided aluminum to entrap the heat and moisture. We get thermometers and hydrometers. Moss, fake plants, more hides and clutter! We have timers for the UVB and dhp.
Banana is small. Since I got him in November, I am presuming he was hatched in September. I estimate he is around his 20 month mark. (A year and 8 months.) He is about 19 inches long, and is underweight. 4.5 ounces in weight (127.5 grams.) We started feeding him every other week to ween him to getting used to food, and we’re going to do every week now. We’re also looking to get him a vet appointment soon!!
Thank you to everyone who has been here for Banana’s journey, I am sure to update you all as much as I can!!

First time wine makers and we’re not sure if we have a pectin haze or if we need to degass our wine… or maybe it’s something else?
Context - we made apple wine. Started on March 10th. Our recipe included apple chucks inside a mesh bag and apple juice, sugar, campden tablets, yeast nutrient, acid blend, black tea for our wine tannin, and pectin enzyme. Once all stirred, we let it sit for 24 hours before adding the yeast. Our hydrometer reading was 11%. Once our yeast was added, we stirred our wine everyday, once a day, for 13 days, until our hydrometer hit 0. On March 24th, we moved our wine into some clean carboys and let our wine sit till this past Friday, April 26th. Just over a month.
We syphoned off the wine from the settled sediment into a new and clean set of carboys. We had a taste of some of the wine that didn’t fit in the new carboys and it’s like a nice dry chardonnay. It was super fizzy, until we stirred in some sugar to make it a bit sweeter, then it was a bit fizzy.
Next thing we did once in the new carboys was also add kieselsol. We gave the wine a good stir with a spoon (about a minute) put the airlock back on and let it sit for an hour. After an hour, we adding the chitosan. We gave the wine another good stir (about a minute), put the airlock back on and let it sit for the weekend. We now don’t see any clearing difference over the past three days. From my understanding of chitosan and kieselsol, it should work in a day or two to clear wine.
What did we do wrong here? Any suggestions on why our clearing agent didn’t clear our wine? We know apples have loads of pectin, so could this be a pectin haze? If so, how should we go about clearing it? Is it just a time thing or is there something we can add to our wine to help with this? Or, our other thought is our wine needs to be degassed. I’m skeptical about using a wine whip as I feel that would put more air bubbles in the wine than remove them. Should we just let it sit longer instead?
Thanks in advance for the advice on what we should do next!

1 is going to be a lingonberry blackberry mead that uses 2 pounds palmetto honey 1 bottle of (sorry didn't measure or anything am autistic so brain is hurty) lingonberry concentrate 1 cup (or as friend says guacamole bowl) of smashed blackberries mangrove Jack's yeast.... the batch in the 3rd pic is going to be a methglin 2.5 pounds palmetto honey going to spice with cinnamon clove nutmeg allspice teaspoon of each I've had better experience with ground spices that whole spices..... the last pic will be a blueberry vanilla longpepper( long pepper is a type of peppercorn that tastes like black pepper cinnamon cardamom and woody earthy notes) maple mead basically 1 cup Blueberries mashed 2 pounds palmetto honey 1 pound of rum barrel aged maple syrup (pure) going to add 2 teaspoons ground vanilla powder and 1 or 2 teaspoons of ground longpepper.... this Is my first time posting a recipe so am nervous but I'll give updates if anyone wants them.... also first time making 3 different meads at once I don't know how to hydrometer read so idk how much alch this will make sorry...