Mead Anyone?

[cwarmouth]

Do any of you make mead? I have been making some meads for a few years now and would love to swap ideas.

 

[aquadoc]

I have made Mead a few times. Use the best ingredients. I used organic fruit, not because I am a health Nazi, because they seem sweeter and more ready to eat. And no chemical aftertaste is good. For honey, I like a stronger flavor such as sourwood. How much are you going to make? Also, get a quality yeast. You may have to order from a specialty store if you do not have a Brewers shop nearby.

 

[menuhin]

In the Christmas markets, if I have a choice I will always drink Met/Mead instead of Glühwein.
Much preferred choice of warm wine beverage during the cold winter, especially during the Christmas season.

 

[aquadoc]

BTW, will be happy to swap "recipes".

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Crap, I thought this was going to be about telescopes.

 

[aquadoc]

Haha...Mead vs Meade.

 

[perdurabo]

Never made it, but I've bought some. Good stuff, kind of like a sweet honey Chardonnay.

 

[huntertrw]

Crap, I thought this was going to be about telescopes.

And here I thought this thread was going to be about pipe-tobacco!

 

[huntertrw]

Haha...Mead vs Meade.

That reminds me of the old play on words, "One man's Meade is another man's Persian."

 

[armonts]

In France in my province of origin (Brittany) it has always been done, now they make it with water and honey to sell it. (A story of law)
For good it takes almost 1 kg of honey per liter ...
But the "real" that old people used to do was made with cider and honey!

It was sparkling like champagne, in bottles with an attached cap, a real nectar!

 

[madox07]

I did try once, a disaster quite frankly. It was either the honey or the yeast that messed up my concoction. It was something in between bad mead and vinegar, tasted sweet and sower at the same time, but in an unpleasant way. I spent a night on the toilette for that matter ... I do like to try mead every so often, but I no longer venture to brew my own.

 

[cwarmouth]

It was something in between bad mead and vinegar, tasted sweet and sower at the same time, but in an unpleasant way.

This was almost certainly an introduction of a foreign yeast, possibly airborne but probably on a utensil, in your carboy, mixing pail, etc.. If you are not absolutely scrupulous about sanitation and keeping the right level of water in your airlock, undesirable yeasts can get in there.
I'd love to hear about some of the recipes y'all have tried. I usually make about two or three batches a year and have made straight traditional mead (water, honey, yeast), orange spiced melomel (mead with fruit), white grape melomel, green apple cyser (mead with apples), agave mead, chai tea mead, and most recently apple pie mead. Of all of those, the apple pie mead was my favorite and the chai tea was my least favorite.
Have any of you ever used a dry wine or champagne yeast? I have always used one variety or another of semi-sweet wine yeasts, which produce a traditional flavor and sweetness, but am toying with the idea of fermenting a batch of my apple pie mead to finish very dry, and then mixing it with my sweeter apple pie mead to dry it just a bit more.

 

[armonts]

With cider I do not think it needed yeast, it had to ferment in was / barrel and be bottled afterwards, hence the plugs attached.
In time he arrived at a time of year in cafes in "small" Brittany, like Beaujolais new now.
And the farmers who were drunk always fell on their backs back, according to the legend is because with the old hives everything was crushed with stings of bees and venom.
The next day there were still effects and they had a very bad head, it was special!