Mead

[jonc]

Hello

Has anybody made mead, and was it good? I like the idea of honey based alcohol, but have tried it.

I've got a demi-john of parnsip and one of ginger (a similar recipe to that mentioned in another thread) on the go, but have 1 more demi-john to put into use :) It's either mead or blackcurrant I think..

Jon

[Chickpea]

I *luuuurve* mead, but the one time I tried to make it was a) very expensive and b) a complete disaster so I never tried again. But I hope you have more success than me.

[Luath]

This is how I make mine:

Put 3 1/2 lbs honey into a jam pan or similar with 1 gallon of water, heat until simmering, lower heat; whisk in 1 egg white; skim scum/froth off if it forms.
Remove from heat, cool to blood heat, add activated yeast, cover and leave in warm place 24 hours. Transfer to demi-john and ferment out.
Best left a couple of years if you can 8) I can't, and am looking forward to trying last year's quite soon, made with honey from my own bees.

Let us know how you get on.

[ina]

My one-time result was like Chickpea's - never repeated.

In Germany we had rather nice fair trade mead - haven't seen it here yet - has anybody else? I think making it yourself is only worth it if you have more honey from your own bees than you can eat. If you have to buy it, it's either going to be blimming expensive, or the cheapo stuff from China...

[jonc]

Yes, I think it could work out quite expensive - especially if it turns out to be a disaster!

Thanks for the replies :)

[Luath]

My recipe is fairly bomb-proof - give it a go.

[Cab]

Mead is dead easy, but made the old fashioned way (just with honey, water and yeast) it takes a long time to mature to being smooth and tasty... So I cheat :)

If you can get one of the little cans of concentrated grape juice, add one of those to best part of a gallon of water and 3lb honey. Get this warm, a low simmer, add half a teaspoon of citric acid or the juice of half a lemon, and a teaspoon of yeast nutrient, and a cup of strong tea. Keep it at this temperature, skimming off the scum, for maybe half an hour to an hour, till theres not much more scum coming off it.

Ferment it with a champagne yeast. Really. It helps a lot.

Don't fret over racking too much, you'll get away without touching it much if, like me, you're lazy.

And its ready pretty quick.

[hedgewizard]

That sounds pretty good, but I was with Chickpea until two minutes ago!

[Shirley]

It's on my list of things to do but I've now eaten half the honey It is expensive too - the honey was almost £4 per lb jar from the local producer. Hmmm perhaps I might wait this one out.

The recipe I was going to use is from the Country Kitchen magazine and it's similar, but slightly different, to Luath's.

Apparently it was the Celtic drink of Marriage, and has to be kept in bottles for a long time. You need sterile bottles and corks, or plastic lids for this.

3.5 lb runny honey (I've since been told that it doesn't necessarily have to be runny honey - I've got thick aberdeenshire honey that I was going to use!)
Boiled Water
Vitamin C tablet
Spoonful of yeast

Simply dissolve all the honey in water and fill to the neck of the demijohn. Add a vit C tablet and yeast. The fermentation is often slow to start.

The wine is racked off as usual, and left alone for many months. Bottle when the sediment is all racked away. With each racking give a shake. At this point the mead will taste awful. A year later and the slow chemistry will have changed the brew into something that does not taste in any way like honey.

[jonc]

I'm still tempted to try this... :)

What does the vitamin C tablet do?

I quite like the idea of things that need to be left a long time - the complete opposite of 'popping to the shops' ;)

[red]

oh - I'm making mead for the first time - blagged 3 jars of 2004 honey from my parents who keep bees. boiled it with water.. scrimmed off any froth, added a bit of tea, and then bunged it in the denijohn with some wine yeast. it was working by that afternoon. its nearly finished, so will be racking off soon. yet to find out if its any good!

also have rhubarb on the go too. i love watching the bubbles through the airlocks....

red

[Shirley]

Sounds good!! Let us know how it tastes in a year or so lol...

[red]

well you know - nothing ventured nothing lost...


no wait... nothing ventured nothng gained.... 8) that's it

[jonc]

Well, it's on the go :) Bit of a combination of the recipes - dissolved the honey to a simmer, skimmed off froth, added an egg white, let it cool, addecd some tea for tannin, lemon for acid, some yeast nutrient and some yeast and off it went. Bubbling nicely :)

I'll let you know the result in a year or 2 ;)

Not sure what the egg white bit does - kind of went to lumps as it hit the water, and took me a while to get all the lumps out Thought I'd give it a try though :)

[The Chili Monster]

Found this US site today: http://www.gotmead.com/index.php
Appears to have a busy forum.

BTW, if you replace part of the water with fruit juice (or pieces of fruit) isn't it melomel that you're producing rather than mead?

I like the idea of strawberry and mint.

Is it true that if you use wild honey you need not add yeast, just nutrient? Thinking of stockpiling honey to spread the cost.