Mead Making!

[tjameson]

My in-laws bought me a Mead Making kit for Christmas and even got me 12lbs of honey and The Compleat Mead book. I am excited to get started an I'm sure it will be an excercise in patience as most enjoyable things are. I know I have to keep everything very sterile. Any tips from the Mead makers and home brewers here? I know Baron and Lawrence make some Mead and brew shooter is a Bay Area member. What do you think guys? Let me know if you need specs on the kit I received.

 

[philip]

Sounds like fun, TJ. It's still in the planning stages for me.
Here are a couple of the older threads. I don't know how much info is in them but at least they will show you who the mead drinkers are.

Any Mead Drinkers?

Home Brewing
Have fun.

 

[phred]

Very cool. I've got 5# of mesquite honey that need to get turned into mead sometime now that it's cold outside...
The main thing to remember with mead is patience. Just when you think it's all done, you'll rack it off and it will start bubbling away merrily again. Let it take as long as it takes - mead gets better with age, so even once you've got it all calmed down and bottled, it will just get better and better. When we moved into our current house, we found a bottle of our homebrew that had been stashed with the empties - it was about 7 years old by then, and we used it for the housewarming. :D
If you feel like sharing the specs, go for it.

 

[pstlpkr]

Tip one: stay away from varietal honeys until you have a few gallons under your belt.

Tip two: Lalvin EC 1118 yeast.

Tip three: Enjoy your wino's erector set and don't be afraid to experiment.

 

[simnettpratt]

Wino's erector set. thinkgeek has a contraption you attach to a 32oz bottle of juice that turns it alcoholic in a couple of days, but I guess that would be like buying a pack of Marlboros and saying you're a Master Blender.
PS I saw a wino once eating some grapes, I said dude, you're gonna have to wait!

 

[tjameson]

Mesquite Honey is probably my favorite. Thanks for the tips Lawrence. Most things seem to get better with age, most, so I will wait it out as long as necessary and then some.

 

[baronsamedi]

Mead is harder to screw up than not so no worries. If you have honey, water, yeast and time you can make mead. To what Lawrence said, I'll add that cleaning and sanitation are the most important thing and will save you lots of trouble. Always keep your work area and equipment free of wandering single celled critters.
I also reccommend this book: http://www.amazon.com/Brew-Or-Die-Bootleggers-Liqueurs/dp/1448645484 mainly becasue I wrote it.

 

[joshwolftree]

meade itself(straight honey+water)takes forever

Fruit Mead or Melomel tends to brew up quicker and you can get some interesting flavors

I personally like taking gallon jugs of apple cider and adding honey and yeast.

Also Champagne yeast tends to get up to drinkable faster but it will give you less depth and complexity of flavor.

Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to brew with bread yeast. you will have the worst hangover ever.

Have fun with it, anything with sugars in it can be fermented, herbs can be added, there's so many options, that you never run out of flavors. I'm almost done my rhubarb mead and considering an aloe meade next.

 

[pipeinhand]

+1 @joshwolftree and baron.
On the web you might try, www.makemead.net, www.meadmadecomplicated.org, http://davespicks.com/writing/mme/contents.html and www.stormthecastle.com/mead/. On the last one there is a good page for recipes. On gotmead there is a forum, http://www.gotmead.com/forum/index.php.
But, just have fun.

 

[taerin]

I'm gonna make some right now, using Blackberries. I'll tell you how it turns out I've been a beer maker for 3 years and do enjoy mead a lot from the store so this really intrests me.

 

[fitzy]

TJ have fun and definitely pick up Baron's book. I just started making mead about a week or 2 ago after watching Baron's video review on one of pipeinhand's tobacco blends where he talked about blackberry mead. I used to make beer 15 to 20 years ago and I can say making mead is definitely easier. Make sure you pick up some Easy Clean or One Step sanitizer and make sure you sanitize the crap out of everything and I mean everything.
I have an orange mead going and a blackberry mead. I'm going to be making Baron's recipe this weekend. I decided to go with 1 gallon fermenters instead of the 5 gallon as if I screw it up I don't feel so bad dumping it as I would have wasted just 2 to 3 pounds of honey. Plus it's much easier to handle 1 gallon jugs. Just my 2 cents.

 

[brewshooter]

I need to make more mead, because my wife doesn't drink beer!! Amazing, I know. The first time I ever made the stuff I used store honey and did the traditional ferment in Ken Schramm's book. I went to his presentation at the 2011 National Homebrew Conference and he is now endorsing the use of staggered nutrient additions. I do think that helps to speed up the initial fermentation substantially. Bulk aging for a while still seems to mellow out the flavors. So far, I've only done a handful of straight semi-sweet meads and a couple metheglins. I'm thinking of venturing in to melomels on my next go round. We have a couple of great mead makers in my homebrew club and I need to pick their brains a little more. At a recent festival, the President Emeritus of the club was sampling the final bottle of his silver award winning orange blossom mead. My wife had a sip and asked how she could get more. She was disappointed to learn there wasn't any more. I really need to make more mead.

 

[mluyckx]

Never made meade, but for brewing equipment sanitation:

1 Tablespoon of Clorox bleach to 1 gallon of water.

Or Star San... 1 Oz. per 5 gallons of water. And that stuff rocks ! Love it.

 

[roudoudou]

Just to add something to Mick's comment:
If you go the bleach way, you'll have to rinse with boiled water. And you'll have to let the water cool (or you risk breaking your bottles/glass). It takes a lot of time.
I suggest you go with Star San. It's a no rinse sanitizer and you can keep it for a couple of months when it's mixed with water. I keep my mix in a bucket, and change it every 4 months. I just put my bottles/bucket/etc in it for around 2 minutes. Then empty them. It doesn't matter if there's still foam (Don't fear the foam!!!) It's a great time saver!!
Have fun with your mead!

 

[ghost]

I have to try this. Since I don't drink often, waiting a year for it to be ready is just peachy. If I start it soon, it looks like I may have next year's Christmas buying out of the way...

 

[fitzy]

My only problem with Star San is the price. 8oz bottle for $8 vs Easy Clean 8oz container for $4. Double the price of Easy Clean. Not that $8 is expensive but why pay double the price?(Although to get a better price comparison I need to weight 5 tablespoons of Easy Cean as 1oz of Star San per 5 gallons vs 5 tablespoons of Easy Clean)
However I didn't realize Star San keeps for a few months as roudoudou points out. That should make up for the price difference.

 

[fitzy]

Oh and as for honey prices I've looked all over online and I haven't found honey for less than what I pay in my local supermarket of just over $3 per pound for 5 pound container of Sue Bee Clover Honey.
Although I have to check my local Sams Club as I see on their website they sell the same honey for $12.20 which is $2.44 per pound. I did contact several local Apiary's and they were far far more expensive.
So if anyone has happened to found a honey source for less money please share.

 

[brewshooter]

The ph on my StarSan never seems to change. I make 2.5 gallons at a time and use it for several months before it finally runs out.

 

[fitzy]

Brewshooter I'm going to have to give Star San a shot then as I'd like to be able to keep a buck of it ready to wash. Just dump my stuff in and let it sit for a few minutes. I'll just replace the stuff in the bucket every few months.

 

[baronsamedi]

I personally like taking gallon jugs of apple cider and adding honey and yeast.

Yeah, buddy! Add some cinnamon, clove and other spices on the secondary fermentation and you'll have some sweet deliciousness. I did a batch like this for a wedding and it turned out badass.
I buy potassium metabisulfite by the pound. I don't add it to anything I brew. I just use it to sanitize. If you use bleach, make sure and get every bit of it out of there or it can murder your yeast!