Mead is made by dissolving honey in water to create a sugary "must," then letting wine or mead yeast convert those sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This model follows one batch through three stages: primary fermentation in a carboy with an airlock, secondary fermentation & clarification once the vigorous phase settles down, and bottling & carbonation when a little residual or priming sugar builds pressure in the sealed bottle.
Mead is sometimes called "honey wine," but true meads have no grapes — just honey, water, yeast and time. Well-hydrated wine or mead-specific yeasts can tolerate 14–18% ABV or more, which is why a strong, high-gravity mead can take many weeks to finish fermenting fully.
A honey-and-water must ferments in a carboy as yeast convert sugar to alcohol and CO₂, then the mead is racked to clarify before residual or priming sugar carbonates it in the bottle.
Specific gravity falls exponentially from the starting gravity toward a final gravity as yeast metabolise honey sugars; ABV is derived live from that drop, and temperature plus nutrient dosing set how fast and how completely fermentation proceeds.
Pick a stage, set the must temperature and starting gravity, and toggle yeast nutrient on or off. Watch bubbling activity, sediment settling and bottle carbonation respond, while the stats panel tracks day, gravity and ABV.
Unlike beer or wine, mead has no starch or grape sugars to convert — honey is already almost pure fermentable sugar, so its final ABV is set almost entirely by how much honey went into the must.