Mead often takes longer to age out than wine. That is with fresh fruit
compared to mead. But kits are really designed to age very quickly. I do
not know exactly what they do to them but they can be ready to drink far
sooner than wine made with the same fresh fruit. If you start it now it
will probably be fine by Christmas but might be better later.

That said, I am not impressed by any of the red wine kits I have made.
White wine kits, yes, but not the red wine kits. But that is just my
opinion as others really like them. For red wine, I like to go from fresh
fruit but then you are looking at 2 years or more.

Ray

"Mark Garwatoski" > wrote in message
. com...
> That seems like a short amount of time. I'm used to letting Mead sit in
> secondary for 6-12months to clear and then bottle.
> Do the select kits come with oak cubes? Why would you add them to the
> primary instead of the secondary, shorter contact time?
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
>
>
> >
> > IMHO, Christmas should be fine. If you start in June, bottle in
September
> > you will have 90 days in the bottle. Longer is better but 90 days will
> > suffice (I've made about 20 brew king kits).
> >
> > The supplied yeast is fine too IMO. You might consider adding some oak
to
> > your primary if you like an oaky flavor and/or add some tannin. Also,
> there
> > is a range of SG to which you dilute with water. Dilute to the high end
> > (less water) for a better result (in fact, I have reduced the water to
> 5.75
> > US gallons total volume with good results).
> >
> > Good Luck,
> > --
> > KB
> >
> >
>
>