Meade is so sweet

[Jerry1]

I have made and bottled my first gallon of meade. If this is the way it's suppose to taste it will be my last. It is almost sickenly sweet. I can hardly swallow this stuff. It started out as the ancient orange meade. Afterone week I pulled the oranges out and let it finish fermenting. It's been in the bottles about 2 months. Anyone know of a way to takeout some of the sweetness without pouring water in?

 

[gaudet]

That recipe will be a little sweet. You could wait til it finishes and possibly add another yeast strain that can pick up and ferment the remaining sugars. You could try lalvin k1118 or a champagne yeast that will tolerate a higher %abv and dry out your wine

 

[paubin]

Jerry, if your still monitoring this thread. Please don't take JAO as an example of good mead. In my opinion it's not good. Strictly backyard hooch. Take any good country wine recipe and substitute honey for sugar and you will have a melomel ( fruit mead) you will enjoy and be proud of. Just keep in mind that mead takes much longer to age and come into it's own. Make a small batch and bottle and put it away to age for 2 or 3 years and I'd bet you'll be very happy with it.

Pete

 

[Waldo]

A Blueberry done exactly as paubin says is absolutely awesome

 

[Jerry1]

2or 3 years!!!!!!!! I'm having trouble now just letting the wine I have set in the bottle for 2- 3 weeks before I get into it. And I've been pleased with the way it taste. My friends too!!! That is unless they're lieing to me. Don't think so, it disappears too fast. Skeeter Pee (Piscio) has made a real splash. I'm going to have to work up to that 2-3 year thingy. Man, that's gonna be tough. Bigger and more batches I guess.

 

[vcasey]

2 or 3 years old for a mead is still rather young. Look through the mead threads and pick a recipe - use a wine yeast not the bread yeast. Make a gallon, bottle it and put it away. It's only 5 bottles so you'll want to save it or put it in splits so you'll have 10 bottles. After you bottle that one make another. Like Waldo said blueberry is a great one to start with so is blackberry or a simple traditional mead. When it gets close to apple cider season add some honey to a gallon of cider with a bit of spices.

 

[ArdenS]

I agree with vcasey on that cider suggestion, I love a spiced cyser.

 

[Dean]

Yep, cyser with a touch of cinnamon and allspice is great! It's also ready quite a bit quicker too (9 months to a year) instead of the typical mead 2 to 3 year.

 

[paubin]

I make a lot of beer to keep myself from touching the mead until it's ready. If the birds keep away from all the fox grapes that grow wild around my house I'm going to do a pyment with them as an experiment.

Pete

 

[Jerry1]

As a general rule of thumb how much honey do you add to a gallon ofmeade? The recipe I had called for 3 lbs and that was way to sweet for my taste. If I want to substitute honey for a wine recipe that I have made and like, what would be the amount of honey to substitute for a cup of sugar? Or am I simply shooting for a specific sg?

 

[vcasey]

I usually shoot for a specific SG. But please don't use the ancient orange mead as a guide. If you used the bread yeast it may or may not eat all the sugars. Use a wine yeast and let your SG be the guide. Honey leaves an impression of sweetness even if the mead finishes dry and shows more as it ages. As a general rule dry meads take longer to come around the sweet meads.
Plan on investing time in your meads and while you are waiting, or even bfore you start the next one order this book: http://www.finevinewines.com/XPListDet1.asp?MM_PartNumber7313. The Compleat Meadmaker (Ken Schramm) is an excellent guide and the Falls Bounty recipe is extremely popular.