Sanitise everything it touches

A must is sugar water at room temperature, and yeast is not the only thing that wants it. Wild yeasts and vinegar bacteria ride in on anything that touches it, and a mead turned to vinegar cannot be turned back.

So everything is cleaned first and then sanitised: the bucket, the lid, the spoon, the airlock, the siphon. The usual sanitiser is a no-rinse acid one made up at about 30 millilitres in 19 litres of water. A soaked part needs 30 seconds of contact and a sprayed or swirled surface one to two minutes; then drain it, do not rinse it, and use it wet.

Sanitiser does not clean, which is why every surface is washed and rinsed before it is sanitised.

In this game sanitising is part of pitching and never skipped, so no batch goes sour.