I could use alittle advice on my first mead before I begin. What I have is a gallon jug, about 12.5#, I think, of premium grade raspberry blossom honey. I'd like to make a straight traditional style mead, maybe a little on the sweet side. Should I ferment to dry with say, Lavin 1118, and back-sweeten with honey? Or should I try to manage the sweetness with a different yeast? Also, if someone has one; What's a good, foolproof recipe for a five gallon batch? I've seen several in books and online. They're all about the same, but alittle bit different. What's your favorite? I just don't wanna waste all this good honey on some horrible tasting concoction! Thanx! - Ev
First Mead Coming Up
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smurfe
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The only Mead I have ever made is the Joe M's Ancient Mead which is a sweet mead and actually very, very good. I have made 2 batches of it. One by the original recipe and used oranges for flavor and made a gallon and one I modified and made a 5 gallon batch. I used kumquats to flavor this batch.
I ended up with 4 gallons though as I fermented this in the carboy and not my fermenter bucket and lost close to a gallon when racking due to all of the fruit and lees in the bottom of the bucket. If I would of racked it before I de-gassed it I wouldn't of lost the gallon as all of the fruit sank to the bottom of the carboy and was like 6-8 inches thick.
The best Mead I ever drank was from THIS RECIPE It was slightly sweet and just fabulous. It uses a different honey though so I don't know what the flavor profile would be using the honey you have. There were quite a few websites that will give you recipes. If you can get a copy of the October - November Wine Maker magazine there is a great Mead article with a variety of recipes. Good reading.
Smurfe
I ended up with 4 gallons though as I fermented this in the carboy and not my fermenter bucket and lost close to a gallon when racking due to all of the fruit and lees in the bottom of the bucket. If I would of racked it before I de-gassed it I wouldn't of lost the gallon as all of the fruit sank to the bottom of the carboy and was like 6-8 inches thick.
The best Mead I ever drank was from THIS RECIPE It was slightly sweet and just fabulous. It uses a different honey though so I don't know what the flavor profile would be using the honey you have. There were quite a few websites that will give you recipes. If you can get a copy of the October - November Wine Maker magazine there is a great Mead article with a variety of recipes. Good reading.
Smurfe
D
Davdef
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as was pointed out to me in another thread, you don't have to actually get your hands on the magazine
http://winemakermag.com/feature/629.html
http://winemakermag.com/feature/629.html
smurfe
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So Evets, did you ever decide on a recipe for your Mead? I have been thinking of starting one myself. I am in the same dilemma on trying to decide which recipe I am going with. Probably the one I linked to in my above post if I can acquire the correct type of honey locally.
Smurfe
Smurfe
