Mead

[NTRabbit]

While i was walking through all the adult things at the Royal Adelaide Show (god im old, only seems like yesterday i thought this stuff was boring) I happened apon a wine tasting station that was serving mead. Young lady i was with loved the stuff and bought a bottle, apparently she is a big fan of mead and it isnt all that easy to come by. In order to impress said young lady, i made the bold claim that I could make mead any time i wanted with my homebrew gear.

Clearly i was not thinking with the correct part of my anatomy when i said that without really knowing if i could actually do it.

Now, i managed to find a fruit mead recipe on the Jovial Monk's forums that i can probably alter for ABV and total volume, but the lass is really fond of the spicy ones - can anyone help a fellow brewer who got a bit ahead of himself with a nice winter warming spicy mead recipe?

Also, any other information i should know about, aside from it needing about a year to age in the bottle?

Thanks guys

[undercover1]

NTR,
I have never made it, but I too have a lady friend who enjoys mead. There are a couple of commercially available ones we have tried, but as ever the HB version would probably knock spots off them. I found some recipes a while back though.
Cop this- http://sca_brew.homestead.com/files/recipe.html#MELOMEL
and this
http://davespicks.com/writing/mme/contents.html

Hope these help.

[Guest]

Making mead is, indeed, fairly easy... with a couple of caveats. Firstly, depending on the recipe it can take anywhere between 6 months to 2 years to mature properly. Secondly, honey can be fairly expensive if you want something reasonably good quality and if you plan on brewing in the sorts of quantities you might use for beer (ie, 20-25 litres).

I have a couple of 5 litre demis that I use for fruit wines and meads, which allows me to experiment with recipes without commiting to much in the way of expensive ingredients. You will probably want to venture to that strange section of your local homebrew shop where winemaking equipment and ingredients can be found. There you'll also be able to pick up some appropriate yeasts... I've noticed some recipes on the net will call for a simple ale yeast but typically these wont yield sufficient alcohol content. Consequently, champagne and white wine yeasts are quite common.

There are mead recipes on The Cat's Meow, but also check out http://www.gotmead.com. When searching for recipes, you might also use the term metheglin which is actually the appropriate term for spiced meads (while fruit meads are referred to as melomels). Some of the more common spices found in mead include cloves (which I'm not a huge fan of), cinnamon and nutmeg.

Be wary of recipes that insist on being historically accurate. Given the nature of mead (being a fairly ancient drink) a lot of brewers will try and keep their recipes historically accurate. Personally, I'd rather my mead actually tasted good. Some more "modern" additions to mead recipes include the use of yeast nutrients and tea (which adds tanins to help balance flavour).

[Dogger Dan]

NT

Just for you Kampi, I will teach teach the ways of the mead.

When I can open both eyes.

I hope the young lady and you have patience, we are talking 6 months

Dogger

[Tyberious Funk]

Sorry... that mysterious (but hopefully informative) guest was actually me.

Cheers,
TF

[undercover1]

Great post TF, I feel a bit ashamed that I took the easy option and just whacked up some old links I had saved.

[NTRabbit]

Thanks guys, firstly

1. Yes, i can be patient and wait at least 6 months for results. If I demonstrate the process itself occasionally ("This is the mead fermenting, you can smell it through the airlock" "wow!") i think it will score me some more points as well
2. I was planning in making 8L batches at the most, but probably close to 4.5L (6 bottles) at a time so that i can use a small container instead of one of my big fermenters.

The melomel recipe i found already gave me the basics on using a mead or chapagne yeast and nutrient, but the tea is new to me.

I figured making a mead historically accurate would require me to dress like a viking and speak old norse, so ive been skipping those pages that google throws at me

[NTRabbit]

NT

Just for you Kampi, I will teach teach the ways of the mead.

When I can open both eyes.

I hope the young lady and you have patience, we are talking 6 months

Dogger

Oh wise swami canuck, do you have any mead enlightenment for me?

[Dogger Dan]

Ok,

first off I am partial to the fruit types of mead because I find the heavy honey a bit much.

Most of this I have learnt through readings of Charlie Pap. It is actually very easy to make but takes time

Here is a Full Honey recipie
(US so divide by 2.2 and round a bit to come close, its not the end of the Universe)

10 lbs orange blossom honey
3 lbs buckwheat honey
1 teaspoon Irish moss (just on principle really)
champagne yeast
1 tsp yeast neutrient (need to use it to prevent lagging fermentations or stuck fermentations)
2 tsp citric acid

add honeys and acid to 1.5 gallons of water and boil 30 min adding Irish moss for last 10 min

Place in primary and bring to 19 litre mark with water (I use distilled)
Add yeast and yeast neutrient and ferment for 7 days. Transfer to secondary

Bottle when clear, adding 3/4 cup dex for priming. (this is about a cup and a bit of additional honey, check the conversion)

You can drink within 2 weeks but really should sit for about 6-9 months.

Next Version

and if this isn't panty remover I don't know what is, use sparingly

10 lbs Honey (I use Billy Bee or some such) say 5 kilos
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 cinnamon sticks
1.5 oz cascade hops (bittering)
1 teasp Irish Moss
6 lbs peaches (3 kilos or so)
yeast neutrient (1 tsp)
Champagne yeast
2/3 cup packed brown sugar (priming)

add honey, lemon juice, hops , cinnamon sticks to 1.5 gallons distilled water and boil for 20 min, adding Irish Moss for last ten. Remove cinnamon sticks.

Add pitted peach slices to primary, add just off boilng mead to primary and let sit for 10 min to pasturize peaches

Add distilled water to make up to 23 litres (remember the peaches are included here so you should see say 19 litres of liquid at the end) Add yeast neutrient and yeast, ferment in primary seven days, transfer to secondary leaving corruption behind. Ferment until clear, bottle (bulk prime with brown sugar so mix into a slurry with distilled water and add to brew. I suggest that you should shift your mead off the yeast bed before bulk priming so that is two transfers you are doing. 1 from primary to secondary, one from secondary back to primary for bottling)

Allow to carbonate. Should let this one sit 6 months to 1 year.

If kids show up nine months after drinking this don't blame me.

Dogger

[gregb]

if this isn't panty remover I don't know what is

Just off to the shops for some honey then....

Peaches - fresh ones? (Just heading into stone fruit season now)

Cheers,

Greg

[NTRabbit]

I have some further questions;

1. Why cant you funny North Americans switch to a real measurement system?

2. Thats a lot of bittering hops for a drink i didnt think was bitter at all, what does that do for the mead?

3. Im guessing these are sparkling meads? Because the meads i tasted the other week werent carbonated at all, was kind of looking forward to being able to put it in large sealable bottles that normally couldnt handle the pressure of bottle conditioning. Could i make according to the recipes and just not carbonate?

4. I had heard that it can take up to 2 months to ferment one of these out, is this true? If it is, im going to buy a small 10 litre container and just make about 8 litres at a time, because i dont want one of my beer fermenters tied up for so long. If its only going to take 2-3 weeks at most, then i might consider making a full sized batch

[Guest]

I can't answer any of your questions atm, but i can offer adviece.
DONOT use Eucalyptus honeys (or any honey that could have been made from eucalyptus necter) and spicey meads need longer in the bottle than fruity ones. most spicy meads should sit for upwards of 12 months (7 years optimum). all of this gleaned form a guide to country wines that my dad has from england in the 60's. woman who wrote it was considered 'the authority' in all of england, and a fair few people in england can brew some pretty good stuff.

keep it reel

[Dogger Dan]

NT,

1. We are metric here in Canada, I am billingual in the units and I love watching you squirm when doing the exchange.

2. The Hops are very mellow as there is a lot of sweet and 1.5 oz cascade for 20 min isn't alot really. (thats uhhh 39 gm right give or take)

3. The first recipie can be done uncarbonated, I like them carbonated. It allows me to blame any fat head I have the next day on the bubbles.

4. Yes it can tie up your equipment so just halve the recipie or water ever it takes. Option 2 is to rack a fair bit as this will drop the yeast out of suspension.

And always use distilled water, it isn't beer so you don't want to add charecter through the water, it needs to be pretty clean tasting

Might actually get one going this weekend, I have a spare fermentor

Dogger

[NTRabbit]

NT,

1. We are metric here in Canada, I am billingual in the units and I love watching you squirm when doing the exchange.

Luckily i know how to handle decimal places

3. The first recipie can be done uncarbonated, I like them carbonated. It allows me to blame any fat head I have the next day on the bubbles.

What about the second recipe, can that be done uncarbonated? Perhaps i could split the batch up, do half still half sparkling.

4. Yes it can tie up your equipment so just halve the recipie or water ever it takes. Option 2 is to rack a fair bit as this will drop the yeast out of suspension.

If i halve the recipe, do i halve everything (except yeast and nutrient) as well, including the hops? Could i also adapt this recipe in future for different fruits, ie 3kg of mixed berries, or (if i can get some) quandong? The young lady was so impressed with the Quandong Mead that she bought a bottle.

And always use distilled water, it isn't beer so you don't want to add charecter through the water, it needs to be pretty clean tasting

Distilled water is something i can get, my old mans work makes the stuff, he is always bringing home a bottle for mums Iron.

[Dogger Dan]

It should all work as you have suggested

Dogger

[NTRabbit]

Thanks for all that dogger, I picked up a 15L fermenter and most of the ingredients today, getting the rest tomorrow and the distilled water on monday so it will probably go down then.

This fermenter is pretty cool - for only $5 more than a 15L food grade jerry from Bunnings (after my 10% discount voucher) its essentially a full on proper fermenter that stands at only half the height. Big see through lid, right shape, all the works. Glad i didnt buy that Jerry last night.

Final questions; when i rack after a week or so am i leaving all the fruit behind as well? Im being forced to use canned fruit, since most tree fruits are not in season and berries are frightfully expensive, so im going to hunt down some cans with no preservatives. Saves time on slicing and pitting though.
Also, about the yeast nutrient - I've heard that if i boil some discarded packets of yeast (i have 3 from kits i bought saflager for) in a small amount of water to make a slurry, this makes a good nutrient - true or false? Id like it to be true, because the nutrient is fairly expensive.

I think thats all the info I need to be secure in pitching everything

[Dogger Dan]

Yes,

Leave the fruit behind. I did a peach beer with canned peaches and it was pretty good so it can work. They were packed in light syrup.

Yeast Neutrient shouldn't be that pricey, lik 2 bucks for a years supply. I would talk to the HBS about that. I don't know about using boiled yeast, simply because the yeast neutrient is so cheap here. I wouldn't like to risk guessing though.

Dogger

[NTRabbit]

Yes,

Leave the fruit behind. I did a peach beer with canned peaches and it was pretty good so it can work. They were packed in light syrup.

Yeast Neutrient shouldn't be that pricey, lik 2 bucks for a years supply. I would talk to the HBS about that. I don't know about using boiled yeast, simply because the yeast neutrient is so cheap here. I wouldn't like to risk guessing though.

Dogger

Its $6.75 for 100g of yeast nutrient at the Brewcraft SA stores, not really sure how much of it constitutes a teaspoon until i see it. Guess I'll find out, have to go back tomorrow to get my Cascade hops, the store didnt receive any in its shipment this week.

[Dogger Dan]

I am thinking its a steep price but 100g will go a long way, remember, you only need it for the mead, the beer has all the goods itself.

I was wondering about a starter but I really wouldn't know what to do. Fact is I just sprinkle the yeast on dry.

Read some high octane recipies last night calling for 10 lbs honey over 11 L

This may work but a little will go a long way

4.5 kg honey
3.2 kg fruit (they used raspberries but those peaches would work if you drained off the syrup, may want to do that anyway regardless of recipie more I think about it, syrup will be like glucose or fructose or sucrose)
yeast neutrient (0.25 tsp)
champagne yeast

Combine honey with 5 l water, boil 15 min, skim off albumin (white stuff on top)

Add to fermentor which also has the fruit in it (sanitised of course) let sit for 20 min to pasturize

Top up to make 13 litres with distilled water, add yeast

Rack after two weeks leaving fruit and remaining corruption behind and continue fermenting until clear. I would try and get this off the yeast bed as fast as possible so it may require additional racking. If you have some CO2 handy give it a shot into the empty fermentor to stop oxidation prior to transfer

Bottle flat after it is clear

Opens at, (get this), 1.14 (yeap didn't miss a zero)
Finishes at (steady) 0.996

Ye Ha. Don't be driving after a few of these.

I like this recipie out of all the ones I have seen, I would carbonate though

Dogger

[bobbioli]

Hello everyone. I've picked up most of the ing. dogger, gonna use a P.E.I. honey, now I don't know if this is sac religious but a local church priest sells the honey. AnywayI was also wondering about canned peaches but I'm sure I could find the real deal. I cannot find irish moss though, this must be for clearing, local brew shops stopped selling it. There are lots of other clearing agents guess any one will due
P.S.some say i'm onthe highway to hell anyway