Mead

Gundog48

Gundog48

Gundog48

Associate
Joined
13 Sep 2009
Posts
1,612
Location
Maidstone, Kent
I'm planning on brewing some mead shortly having never tried it before. Has anyone here got much experience with it? I've done a lot of reading and I plan on borrowing my Granddad's wine making equipment, but what I haven't found much on is how you actually drink it. In the films it is drunk from a tankard or drinking horn in large quantities, whereas it is generally savoured like a wine from what I have gathered. If I wanted it to be drunk like a beer by the pint, should I be looking at a special recipe?
 
I have sampled mead, I have tried making mead. One was bad, the other was an unmitigated assault on my tastebuds.

I'd encourage you to try some mead before you embark on making it, since personally I find it fundamentally unpleasant! The other point to note is that mead is meant to be kept for several years ideally, so you'll need space to lay it down for a while.
 
Try it,might be an utter waste of time making so much.
I had I think a 600ml bottle, me and my mate drank it all in one sitting as we had ran out of other stuff, felt fine until we drank that lol
 
I thought about making it, but after I priced it up it wasn't really economical. The cost of honey at the moment is crazy.

It's an OK drink, I've never in my life ever fancied a pint of mead but if someone has some I'll happily try it.
 
Would have to agree that if you've never tried mead in the past, before brewing you're best to pop out and buy some so you can taste it first.

While I quite like it, personally, it's a very unusual flavour and not exactly quaffable, so a small batch brew would likely be best if making your own.
 
I had some when I was much younger but I can't honestly remember what it tasted like. I liked it though. I've also been put off making it because of the price of honey. The problem is there is a lot of scope for it to go wrong with home brew, so unless you're an experienced brewer and you know what you want your mead to taste like, I'd just pop into a National Trust property and buy a bottle from there, because they sell traditional English drinks like sloe gin (real, not Gordons) and meads.
 
I've been making mead for quite some time now. I currently have a 5 gallon batch aging.

Mead is drunk like wine. The old ancient recipes where they were typically drunk from horns and whatnot didn't use the sort of yeast we use today - it was also nothing like modern mead. Drink a glass of ancient mead and you'd probably get food poisoning! We have totally different tolerances to the crap they had floating in it in those days.

You -could- drink mead by the pint, however, mead has so much sugar in it that yeasties can quite easily keep chugging away for ages (depending on their alcohol tolerance of course). The mead yeast I use has a cutoff of about 22%, most of my meads finish at about 18-20%. I don't think I'll be drinking that by the pint. ;)

I suppose you could use a lower tolerance yeast, but you'll have so much left over sugar, you'll end up with something that tastes like melted down pick n mix.

Meads are drinkable as soon as they've finished fermenting. Don't believe the myth that they need several years to age. It's all down to personal taste. Higher alchol meads tend to need a while to age to allow the alcohol to somewhat settle, and for the taste to refine. It also allows the mead to clear, letting the sediment and other crap sink to the bottom - this also refines the taste (though this can be done in 7 days with the use of bentonite).

I'd recommend doing a 1 gallon batch, to see how you get on. Mead is said to be really easy, but it actually isn't!

Oh, and for God's sake, use yeast nutes and energizers. Honey sugar is not the sort of sugar yeasties like to eat!
 
How difficult is it to find mead in the shops? I've never been able to find any. Is it a 'niche' drink, hence not being stocked anywhere but specialist shops and online retailers?
 
Jonny69 said:
What's your recipe DcD? (and what honey do you use?)
Click to expand...

I'm currently brewing a metheglin.

Rough recipe:
5 gal. spring water
15lbs Blossom honey
Cinammon
Cloves
All Spice
Energizers
Nutes etc

My next mead will be a brochet burnt mead, quite a strange mead that dates back years.
 
As a beekeeper can I point out that what you want is cooking honey. Cooking honey is honey with over 21% water content which cannot be sold a eating honey as the high water content makes it liable to naturaly ferment. This should be a lot cheaper than buying regular eating honey.
As to where you'll get cooking honey from, your local beekeepers association might be able to put you in touch with some poor soul with high moisture honey.
 
Cheers DcD. Good to know your honey quantities :)

gurusan said:
I've made a few batches of Joe's Ancient Orange Mead. If you're just starting out to brew I really recommend this recipe.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/

It uses basic ingredients, even normal bread yeast! It's super fun, finishes extremely quickly, and is super tasty!
Click to expand...
Excellent. I'd seen this recipe and it looks good. Nice to know someone who has actually made it :D
 
Been following this with interest, it's been something I've wanted to make for several years, but the 6month to a year is putting me off.

PlacidCasual said:
. Cooking honey is honey with over 21% water content which .
Click to expand...

got any links? I can't find where to buy it, actually saying that I can't find anything other than this thread about it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom