HAVE HONEY

[NorthernWinos]

A girlfriend stopped over today to haul off some of these veggies...she brought over 3 quarts of honey...It looks creamy colored, kind of stiff....Not the clear-see through stuff like at the stores.

Cracked Cork just made an Elderberry Melomel...sounded good...

So, are Meads, Cyser and Melomel sweet wines?????...or can you make them dry????

I have lots of various fruit juices.....Lets hear about your experiments.

Edit: Maybe I should have put this in with the Mead Posts...?


Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[rgecaprock]

Was it whipped honey? I have some in pint containers that have that appearance.



Ramona

 

[Wade E]

You can make it however you like but most Meads are semi or sweet, it usually brings out the flavor a little bit more. Masta made a killer Cyser that I might try to replicate next year with my yearly Crab Apple harvest from the Church near me. it wasnt very sweet but the flavor was just awesome.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Hummm...we got Crabapple juice....would it be a carbonated beverage???

The Crabapples have such intense flavor...think it would go good with honey.

I don't know if it was whipped, it is local honey from a farm. I think if you heat it a bit it will turn thin and clear...Actually don't know how it got so thick and cream color....???? Maybe it was whipped.
Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[Wade E]

It is not carbonated.

 

[vcasey]

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Newbie posting here, but I’ve been experimenting with meads
for a couple of years now and I have some ideas that may help.



First thing you should do is put the honey away and pick up Ken
Schramm’s “The Complete Meadmaker” and read. Also visit the BrewBoard’s (also
called the green board) wine, mead and cider section at http://www.brewboard.com/index.php.
They have lots of threads regarding just starting out and have regular “group
brews” where everyone will make the same mead using the same or small variants
of the same recipe. Other good places to visit are Got Mead @ http://www.gotmead.com/smf/index.php?www
and Northern Brewer @ http://forum.northernbrewer.com/index.php?sid=a77a969c632ae2ac3b730017ed87e1be.

</span>Like wine, mead can
be made in many different ways dry, sweet and even sparkling. Keep in mind that
the sweeter meads will be ready to drinker much earlier then the dry but the
dry is well worth the wait. These are really best if you just hide them in a
corner and forget about then for a few years. By the way for those of you that
love oak, honey loves oak!



I have made Ken’s Fall’s Bounty Cyser and at bottling it was
terrific. I’ll bet the crab apples would add a nice twist and many meadmakers
have sparkled this one as well so you can really play with this particular
recipe.



The Falls’ Bounty Cyser recipe is in the book, but if you
just can’t wait to start here is the recipe and there are several group brew threads
on the brew board on this one so the recipe is pretty popular.



Fall's Bounty Cyser



5 Gal.

- 4.2 gallons Cider (Schramm calls for unpreserved cider but
I've used store-bought and it turned out great)

- 10 lb med-full bodied honey (use any honey you want, different honey’s will
change the taste a bit but it is still great)

- 1 lb dark brown sugar

- 8 oz raisins (chopped)

- 8 oz dates (chopped)

- 10g ICV D47 yeast (2 Packages)

- Yeast nutrient &amp; DAP



Optional spices for the Secondary fermenter: cinnamon, nutmeg, whole cloves.
Ken recommends a muslin cloth &amp; string to suspend the spice bag (if you add
the spices). I didn't add any in the last batch but I'll be adding some
cinnamon this time around. If you do add cloves, go real easy - a little goes a
long way!

Hydrate the yeast and make starter using Go Firm (Use
Go-Ferm at a rate of 1.25 grams for every 1 gram of yeast being used.
Then mix the Go-Ferm with 17mls of H2O for every gallon of wine must.)

Only warm the honey enough to get it out of the jars.

Mix honey, water, nutrient, energizer well in fermenter
(Diammonium Phosphate, (Nh4)HPO4, is an excellent nutrient supplement for meads
and wine. Use 1 teaspoon per gallon.)

Take Specific Gravity (1090 – 1105) 12 – 14.1%

Pitch yeast &amp; starter

Stir every day

Bottle Age </span>1 - 2 years



One more thing, when ever you make mead please … please do
not heat the honey any more then to make it pourable. Heating drives off the aroma.
I did an experiment with this and was surprised how much of a difference it
made.
VPC

 

[NorthernWinos]

Thanks for the Sites and suggestions...

Your Mead recipe looks like a fruit party in a glass....

Will remember not to heat the honey too much...Will just put the jars in some hot water till it liquefies.

Any more suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[vcasey]

I scaled this down to 1 1/2 gallons, made 2 batches one with apple juice and one with pear juice. I used the extra 1/2 gallons to top off the 1 gallon jugs and topped up the half gallon jugs with equal parts honey &amp; juice. Once the gallon jugs finished &amp; cleared I mixed the 1/2 gallon jugs together to finish &amp; clear. These are still a little young but I plan on opening one warming up a glass and serving with a cinnamon stick - just to sample! Now I just need a nice cold day in the next couple of months or so.

VPC

Edited by: vcasey

 

[NorthernWinos]

I'll send you a BIG bottle of cold days.....We are at 30*F and rain mixed with a few snow flakes.... Suppose to be near 60*F in a few days....

I am juicing some apples today for some more wines.......It warms the house and smells great. Now I am going to turn on the oven and make some apple crisp and bake a big squash...

Went outside and brought in more apples and picked a few last roses....Brought in more one gallon jugs too......

Have a wood fire going and it's pretty hot in here...Jim is wearing his cut off shorts.....

 

[NorthernWinos]

I started a Crabapple/Apple Cyser with some of the Honey....

Enjoying the learning process...

http://www.finevinewines.com//Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6584

Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[vcasey]

I've been following. I have a cranberry cyser that has been going since early August. It has been fermenting very, very slowly; so slowly it got off the slow boat to China because it was going to fast. The SG has been steadily dropping so I can't call it stuck just slow. I may end up letting it stay sweet and sparkling it. I also made a cranberry mead and a cranberry wine just to taste the differences between the wines.
VPC

 

[NorthernWinos]

Did you use fresh Cranberries???

I want to find some cheap fresh Cranberries this Holiday season to make wines with....Hope I get some when they are closing them out....seems they just disappear after the Holidays are over....

 

[vcasey]

Frozen ones left over from last year that I steam juiced and dried for the cyser. Ended up adding some concentrate I found at the health food store to the cyser because the cranberry was lost in the apple. Shame cranberries are only available for such a short time, I try to grab enough to last through the year but am lucky if they last til August.
VPC