[TheSalvenos]

(Disclaimer: I am a novice home brewer with almost no experience at it. I'm not sure if this is the right forum or section to post in. if its not please correct me and forward me to the right place if you could. I look forward to ya'lls answers, insights and wisdom.)

As I turned 21 I wanted to try and make mead, as an avid gamer I've always seen mead in my games, especially in Skyrim. So I found a cheap recipe to make mead only for about 30$ with ingredients and items I could find at Walmart. I started the process to making my mead and I became so entranced with its creation that I decided to by a mead/wine making kit from northern brewer online. After the initial process I transferred the mead from my plastic 1 gallon purified water into a 1 gallon carboy with a three piece airlock.

Unfortunately I had to move and get a new job and I was unable to bring my carboy and three piece airlock with me. I left my mead with my grandmother with instructions on maintenance for the three piece airlock and it is do to my irresponsibility and not keeping up with my grandmother that all the water inside the airlock evaporated or went elsewhere into the void. now it's been almost two year and I'm back and I painfully decided to take a look at my mead that I had left on top of my grandmothers shelf. surprisingly to me the mead has a extremely clear dark amber color to it and once I removed the airlock it has a very sweet and appetizing smell to me.

My questions to ya'll;Do I need to start over with more care and planning?  Is my mead still salvageable? if so what can I do now if its still salvageable to further on the process for it to making it to the final product. I look forward to ya'll's answers and insight and the wisdom gained over the years. Again I apologize if this question is in the wrong place and taking the time to read this all and answer me.

[kramerog]

Assuming your mead fermented it should be safe to drink.  I have allowed the fermentation lock on a mead to go dry.  The mead tasted like sweet sherry, which is an acquired taste for some.  At this point, I would package/bottle it still i.e. without carbonation.

[BrodyR]

Theres definitely a correlation between my desire to make more mead and how much Skyrim I'm playing haha.

You should definitely be fine. That happened to me with an Old Ale and it turned out fine. And at least it's a small batch size.

Speaking of wasted mead - my biggest blunder was putting a 14% semi-sweet mead on tap at a house party. After the pale ale kicked everyone started pulling pints of mead. On one hand it was nice seeing people enjoy my home brew, on the other hand I realized I just had $75 of honey drunk down in an evening.

[udubdawg]

Speaking of wasted mead - my biggest blunder was putting a 14% semi-sweet mead on tap at a house party. After the pale ale kicked everyone started pulling pints of mead. On one hand it was nice seeing people enjoy my home brew, on the other hand I realized I just had $75 of honey drunk down in an evening.

ugh, that is painful.  not that i don't have more than I can drink, but still.  I couldn't even bring myself to give away 5 bottles of my best for NHC this year.  Share with dad on Father's Day, with wife when she's feeling OK - otherwise the rest is usually mine.

[BrodyR]

Speaking of wasted mead - my biggest blunder was putting a 14% semi-sweet mead on tap at a house party. After the pale ale kicked everyone started pulling pints of mead. On one hand it was nice seeing people enjoy my home brew, on the other hand I realized I just had $75 of honey drunk down in an evening.

ugh, that is painful.  not that i don't have more than I can drink, but still.  I couldn't even bring myself to give away 5 bottles of my best for NHC this year.  Share with dad on Father's Day, with wife when she's feeling OK - otherwise the rest is usually mine.

The worst part was some of the people I didn't even know well (friends of friends, old College classmates, etc). And people didn't seem to heed the ABV despite being posted. Hell one 100lbs or so girl polished off 2 pints of it before realising it was 14%.

If I'm not mistaken that same party my best friend snuck into the basement to raid my case of Heady Topper - people must have caught on and the next morning clean up involved dumping several partially drunk cans... sigh. To be fair though I met my girlfriend to be that night so I suppose thats a wash haha.

[udubdawg]

Speaking of wasted mead - my biggest blunder was putting a 14% semi-sweet mead on tap at a house party. After the pale ale kicked everyone started pulling pints of mead. On one hand it was nice seeing people enjoy my home brew, on the other hand I realized I just had $75 of honey drunk down in an evening.

ugh, that is painful.  not that i don't have more than I can drink, but still.  I couldn't even bring myself to give away 5 bottles of my best for NHC this year.  Share with dad on Father's Day, with wife when she's feeling OK - otherwise the rest is usually mine.

The worst part was some of the people I didn't even know well (friends of friends, old College classmates, etc). And people didn't seem to heed the ABV despite being posted. Hell one 100lbs or so girl polished off 2 pints of it before realising it was 14%.

If I'm not mistaken that same party my best friend snuck into the basement to raid my case of Heady Topper - people must have caught on and the next morning clean up involved dumping several partially drunk cans... sigh. To be fair though I met my girlfriend to be that night so I suppose thats a wash haha.

with friends like that who needs enemies. 
I assume you have a new best friend.

[beersk]

Speaking of wasted mead - my biggest blunder was putting a 14% semi-sweet mead on tap at a house party. After the pale ale kicked everyone started pulling pints of mead. On one hand it was nice seeing people enjoy my home brew, on the other hand I realized I just had $75 of honey drunk down in an evening.

ugh, that is painful.  not that i don't have more than I can drink, but still.  I couldn't even bring myself to give away 5 bottles of my best for NHC this year.  Share with dad on Father's Day, with wife when she's feeling OK - otherwise the rest is usually mine.

The worst part was some of the people I didn't even know well (friends of friends, old College classmates, etc). And people didn't seem to heed the ABV despite being posted. Hell one 100lbs or so girl polished off 2 pints of it before realising it was 14%.

If I'm not mistaken that same party my best friend snuck into the basement to raid my case of Heady Topper - people must have caught on and the next morning clean up involved dumping several partially drunk cans... sigh. To be fair though I met my girlfriend to be that night so I suppose thats a wash haha.

Your girlfriend to be? Is she not your girlfriend anymore?

Damn, $75 worth of mead drank by (probably) mostly unappreciative [of the mead] drunk people. Depending on how long you aged it, I would not have put that on tap! And mead on tap seems funny to me anyway. It's such a special drink, I only open a bottle every 4-6 months. Although, I would like to drink it more often...so I need to get brewing some.

[TheSalvenos]

Awesome, I'm so happy to see that it was ruined I appreciate the swift replies!

I managed to get my brewing equipment back and I got it all at my house now, I'm gonna be ordering some more equipment so I can get some more batches going at one time and I look forward to brewing a whole bunch more now that I got the opportunity. again thanks for the swift answers and knowledge I'll be sure to turn to ya'll if I get any questions.

also, lol, sounds like you had some little nords at that party reliving the glory days but people enjoyed themselves so hey! not bad!