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Bugs

Mead

Having come across a bottle in Safeway last week I tried it last night, and was surprised how much I liked it. I'd never tasted it before.

My theory is if a bottle off a supermarket shelf is nice, a home made one should be nicer still? Is mead easy to get wrong? I understand it takes a good couple of years until drinking though?
cab

Mead is easy. What kind of mead do you want to make? Sweet? Dry? Dark? Light? Maybe a fruit based one (melomel or cyser) or a herb or spice based one (metheglin)?

Oh, if you get me onto mead I'll wax lyrical for ages. I always seem to be making it, but I NEVER have any. I wonder why...
Treacodactyl

How about a simple, quick to mature lightish, medium one to start with?
cab

Okay...

Let me give you one of my standards.

3 1/2 lb of honey
Water to nearly a gallon
1/2 tsp citric acid
1 teabag
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 small tin of concentrated grape juice (optional; if you don't use this, consider using a wee bit more honey).
Yeast (champagne yeast is good).

Put about 3/4 gallon of water into a big pan, and tip in the honey, citric acid, yeast nutrient, grape juice (if using). Bring it to a low boil, and add a teabag. Keep the teabag in for, say, a minute.

Keep looking at the mix, and skim off any scum as it rises. You'll be doing this for a while, maybe an hour.

Let it come off the boil, and put it into a sterile demi-jon, and put in a foam bung (or some cotton wool). Let it cool, and add in some activated yeast.

When you rack it, top up as normal (with boiled water that's cooled a bit). Treat it as any other wine from now.

If it drags its heels clearing, you probably left too much scum in it, or didn't boil it long enough. That doesn't matter, you just have to use some finings, filter it, or be really patient. I had one that took a year to clear, but normally it's ready for bottling in, say, four months. If you're unsure as to whether it's good and done then spike it and sulfite it and rack it.

It keeps getting better in the bottle for longer than I've ever managed to mature it Smile

Experiment with different honeys, herbs, fruits... I make a spiffing orange blossom mead, I make another with coltsfoot which is silky smooth, and I occasionally make one with concentrated pear juice. The variations are endless.
jema

I alwasy find commercial Mead way too sweet, not that I have tried many bottles. Are most home brew ones also intended to come out sweet?
cab

jema wrote:
I alwasy find commercial Mead way too sweet, not that I have tried many bottles. Are most home brew ones also intended to come out sweet?


Depends how much honey you put in. 3lb comes out dry, 5lb comes out really, really sweet. Of course the yeast you use makes a big difference too. If you're going really sweet you need to add some of the honey later.

Want me to add a mead article to my ever increasing to do list?
jema

cab wrote:

Want me to add a mead article to my ever increasing to do list?


Laughing Yes Please, I don't see why i should be the only one with an increasing list Very Happy actually I think a lot of people on the site seem to be getting a list Laughing
cab

jema wrote:

Laughing Yes Please, I don't see why i should be the only one with an increasing list Very Happy actually I think a lot of people on the site seem to be getting a list Laughing


Well, yes, we all seem to be picking up more and more articles to write.

Next comes the flower and herb wines one, followed probably either by recipes for nettles or foraging by freshwater (haven't decided), then I might get on and do more for ethocal shopping in Cambridge before starting on Wild Food in May... Does it ever end? Wink
sally_in_wales

Blackberry mead brandy is also very good. A couple of years ago we made a basic blackberry wine using slightly random honey from our hives instead of sugar (ok, its a melomel really, but mead is easier to say), anyway, it was nice, but not marvellous, so we cut it half and half with cheap brandy, and now its bloomin marvellous! Will be even nicer in a year or three.

We usually use up to 6lb of honey per gallon of water, plus nutirents and a little acid and ferment out for a strong dry mead. Sweet mead can be nice but its often too strong. I belive the commercial mead manufacturers don't use all honey either, I have heard that most use equal parts of sugar and honey, which gives the flavour but a cheaper wash that finishes faster, and which may be a consideration if you don't have cheap honey available or want to experiment with a few different recipes.
Sarah D

My mead from last summer is ready now, and is quite dry in taste as that's how I like it. I use a very simple recipe - honey, water, yeast and one egg white, that's all. I made methyglin too, which is very good, with a slight medicinal taste, so you feel it is doing you some good as well as making you happy. Laughing Very strong, both of them.
Treacodactyl

When do you use the egg white?
Sarah D

Whisk one egg white in per gallon as it is heating up. Helps to clear it.
Lloyd

When we say "strong", what are we talking here?
sally_in_wales

Well, when we make mead we commonly get 13-14%
Lloyd

Shocked Laughing drunken
farmwoody

We made mead a few years ago but it was slightly too sweet for our taste.
Perhapes we ought to try a different recipe or is it supposed to be sweet?
Yeh, yeh, I know its made from honey, what should I expect but you know what I mean? Embarassed
Sarah D

Madman wrote:
When we say "strong", what are we talking here?


I don't measure mine, but I know it's strong............... Laughing
cab

Sarah D wrote:
Whisk one egg white in per gallon as it is heating up. Helps to clear it.


Oh, cunning!

I find that I often have to keep at gently heating the honey and water for almost an hour... How long does the egg white take off that?
cab

farmwoody wrote:
We made mead a few years ago but it was slightly too sweet for our taste.
Perhapes we ought to try a different recipe or is it supposed to be sweet?
Yeh, yeh, I know its made from honey, what should I expect but you know what I mean? Embarassed


Honey is basically diluted sugar (fructose and glucose mostly, with some other stuff, in varying quantities). It's got other traces in there giving it flavours. You can make mead sweet or dry, depending on how you like it. I prefer a medium mead, so I use 3lb per gallon. If I want a sweet one I use more, if I want a dry one I might go as far as 2 1/2 lb. But to be honest, if you get a yeast that'll go to (n) percent alcohol, simply get the starting gravity (by chucking honey and anything else you want in) to where it'll leave it more or less as dry as you want it.

Strikes me that there's a lot of mead know how on display in this discussion... Do we want to start looking at what else we should add to this and turn it into a 'How to make mead' article?
jema

cab wrote:
farmwoody wrote:
We made mead a few years ago but it was slightly too sweet for our taste.
Perhapes we ought to try a different recipe or is it supposed to be sweet?
Yeh, yeh, I know its made from honey, what should I expect but you know what I mean? Embarassed


Honey is basically diluted sugar (fructose and glucose mostly, with some other stuff, in varying quantities). It's got other traces in there giving it flavours. You can make mead sweet or dry, depending on how you like it. I prefer a medium mead, so I use 3lb per gallon. If I want a sweet one I use more, if I want a dry one I might go as far as 2 1/2 lb. But to be honest, if you get a yeast that'll go to (n) percent alcohol, simply get the starting gravity (by chucking honey and anything else you want in) to where it'll leave it more or less as dry as you want it.

Strikes me that there's a lot of mead know how on display in this discussion... Do we want to start looking at what else we should add to this and turn it into a 'How to make mead' article?


I think I might pester "Meadmaker" on team-ninja Smile
Sarah D

cab wrote:
Sarah D wrote:
Whisk one egg white in per gallon as it is heating up. Helps to clear it.


Oh, cunning!

I find that I often have to keep at gently heating the honey and water for almost an hour... How long does the egg white take off that?


I just put it in with the honey and water, heat gently until honey dissolved and get it to blood heat to add the yeast. Works every time for me.
Treacodactyl

So the egg white go into the fermenter with everything. I assume any particles stick to it and you have a reasonable clear mead. Sounds like a top tip to me. Razz
Sarah D

Being me, I have no idea how it works, particle wise or otherwise, I just know it does Laughing . I found the tip in a book and have always used it, and seem to recall that the method has been used for a long time now.
wellington womble

I want a mead article. I'm a total novice when it comes to brewing, but I'll give it a go. We often camp in the new forest, and the mead shop in burley brings back very hiccuppy memories! Like cough mixture, without having to be ill!
jema

Sarah D wrote:
Being me, I have no idea how it works, particle wise or otherwise, I just know it does Laughing . I found the tip in a book and have always used it, and seem to recall that the method has been used for a long time now.


I have seen that tip with an explanation somewhere or other. I will see if I can rake it out.
cab

As ever, Jack Keller has the answer:

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/finishin.asp
jema

A page wll worth a bookmark Smile nice one Cab.
cab

jema wrote:
A page wll worth a bookmark Smile nice one Cab.


You must've seen Jacks site before? It's a cracker, I'm not aware of anywhere else with so many wine recipes. They're often overly American so the quantities are a little out, but not so far out that they don't work.
Bugs

Does it make any difference if you use set or clear honey?
cab

Bugs wrote:
Does it make any difference if you use set or clear honey?


It's easier to get the clear honey out of the jar. But as you're likely to be simmering it for a while anyway, there's nothing to be lost in warming the jars (I nuke them in the microwave for a wee while) before pouring them into the pan.

I've not noticed any difference in the end product.
Bugs

Excellent, thanks Cab, I'll buy the set one then, I think, less likely for me to spill it Embarassed

I'm buying it from Suma this time, still not got off my rear and found a local supplier, so I am thinking of buying a big tub...one they do is Zambian but it is organic and fair trade, does that cancel me out or not? Confused Embarassed
cab

Zambian... I think I know the one. Really dark with a bit of spiel about honey badgers on the tub? If it is that one, it makes a dark, malty, almost slightly beery mead. Very pleasant; make it a trifle sweet, but be prepared for it to take an age to clear. All three of the batches I've made with that one took forever.
Bugs

That sounds like it - http://www.tropicalforest.com

(PS badgers always make me laugh. The idea of a spiel about badgers... Laughing Laughing Laughing )
cab

Now your honey badger is quite a different prospect to your basic european badger... And yes, that's the one Smile

Makes an interesting mead, but perhaps not a 'classic' mead. Worth making.
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