HELLO..MEAD MAKERS

Hello Mead Makers....

A friend brought over 3 jars of creamy looking honey yesterday...So, the light bulb went off.... ......Mead!!!!! Or Cyser, or Melomel

I am thinking of a dry style with a stronger fruit base...Like Chokecherry and then Wade mentioned Crabapple....that sounded even better.

Are there any basic recipes around that a novice can follow....I would like to make about 3 gallons to start with.

Any help or suggestions will be welcome.

NW, do you know the weight n the honey you have, most Meads call for different rates of honey so we will need to know how much you have. Lots of Mead recipes calll for 2.5 - 3 lbs. of honey per gallon.
Edited by: wade

2 ½ lbs honey
</span>1 lb Chopped Golden Raisins
</span>2 24 oz Frozen Apple Juice Concentrates (Substitute your juice here)
</span>5 Peppercorns Bruised (Optional)
</span>1 Cinnamon Stick
</span>1 Whole Clove Bruised
</span>1/2 Tsp. Acid Blend
</span>1 Tsp. Yeast Nutrient
</span>¼ Tsp. Tannin
</span>1 Gal. Water
1 Packet Pasteur Champagne Yeast

This is a 1 gallon recipe including extra for topping off later.
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Edited by: wade

Are the raisins necessary??? I'll have to get some golden ones...soon. Think I will leave out the spices on the first batch to see if we like it...maybe one gallon would be better....I've got nothing but time to make more this coming winter.

My Crabapple Juice is pretty strong, think I will have to water it down a bit....

I have more than 3 quarts...will have to weigh it and guess what the jars weigh.

When using Apple type juice will it be called Mead....I see all these other styles have different names...Now I have to learn what each is made out of.

Thanks...

When using apple, it will be called Cyser. It is also one of my favorite types of meads as I find that it matures faster and is usually quite nice by about 18 months. Traditional dry or sack meads take at least 2 years or more before they start to taste very delicate and flowery (like honey should taste). Drinking them before this time and they are okay, but after 2 to 3 years they become spectacular.

I still have to bottle a vanilla mead that I made, inspired by Scott (Masta) that I started in early 2006 that is just now getting good. Prior to 24 months old, it was just aweful and had a medicine like character.

I am doing more searching OnLine to find out more about these Meads...so much to learn...and...such fun to learn about things we can make with what we have on hand...

MEADS......

<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><t><tr valign="top"><td>Cyser</font></td>

<td>Cyser is a combination of honey and apple cider.
This is the strong drink of Biblical times. Both the honey and the cider
will ferment to a clean dry wine which makes a great sparkling wine when
primed with corn sugar or honey when bottled.</font></td>
</tr>

<tr valign="top">
<td>Pyment</font></td>

<td>Pyment blends honey, grape juice and water. It
is a great light wine for summer. You will be amazed at how much grape
character comes through and the honey flavored finish is excellent.</font></td>
</tr>

<tr valign="top">
<td>Melomel</font></td>

<td>Melomel is made from honey, water and any fruit
other than grapes or apples. We use seedless fruit puree in our Melomel
which gives perfect results batch after batch.</font></td>
</tr>

<tr valign="top">
<td>Metheglin</font></td>

<td>Metheglin starts with traditional mead but has
herbs and spices added. A simple kitchen spice rack will provide what you
need or for a more exotic wine check our herbs and spices for beer, wine
and mead makers.</font></td>
</tr>

<tr valign="top">
<td>Hippocrass</font></td>

<td>Hippocrass is a combination of Pyment and spices.
You must choose your spice wisely so as not to impair the flavor of the
honey and grape.</font></td>
</tr>

<tr valign="top">
<td>
</td></tr></t></table>

The scale reads 14# with the jars...one is plastic...Guess I have probably 10# of honey...or more.....Also have some from Sam's club...kind of runny stuff.



So, should be able to make a couple gallons of Crabapple/Honey Mead or Cyser...what would you call it?????

I have lots of full flavored grape juice.....combined with honey would that be called Pyment?????

As well I have lots of Chokecherry juice....combined with honey would that be called a Melomel???

So maybe just a gallon, 1½ gallons or two of each.......Glad I kept back some of the gallon jugs....Gave some away because we were embarrassed to have so many of them out in the shed.

So many Meads to try.....this will help pass the winter months .....

Ordered 2 books today...i have to learn more about this Honey of an adventure.

Ordered:
Making Wild Wines and Meads
Making Meads A Complete Guide

Any more that would be helpful???

All this for 3 jars of Honey....but think this is going to be fun....

The names are correct or correct enough. I think youll like the meads then again I think anyone would like a good mead.

I'd say you have enough honey there for close to 5 gallons of mead. If you want to try Joe Matioli's Ancient Orange, your runny sam's club honey would be great for that. All you need is a 1 gallon jug, 3# of honey, 1 or 2 naval oranges (even clementines are VERY nice), 2 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, and a small handful of raisins and you are good to go. Add some traditional (not bread machine or quick rise) bread yeast, I use Fleishmanns, shake it all up to mix well and put in a warm dark place for 3 months under airlock. Do not move it, shake it, or play with it, and in 3 months, you will have a very clear and nice mead.

I've experimented lots with this one. Using wine yeast, makes it take about 1 year for it to get good. Using bread yeast, and once it's clear, it's quite good. The Fleishmanns yeast I use has *every* time almost taken this mead to dry, which should be somewhere near 13.5 to 14%. I'm still baffled that it can do this consistently. I've not had the same luck with bread machine yeast. I also have not tried a moist yeast cake that you can get in high end baking sections of specialty stores.