My first mead (for real this time)

[seth8530]

Ok, guys and girls. I was down in Georgia (dont ask why) and i happend on a farmers market in the middle of a festival and they were selling honey for 45 bucks for the gallon.. Needless to say i walked away with 13.75 lbs of honey for 60 dollars. So i have decided to make mead. Im shooting for a gravity of 13 percent and I was wondering if their was anything i needed to know about it besided the lack of nutrients.. Should I add spices or fruit to it? any ideas?

 

[fatbloke]

Ok, guys and girls. I was down in Georgia (dont ask why) and i happend on a farmers market in the middle of a festival and they were selling honey for 45 bucks for the gallon.. Needless to say i walked away with 13.75 lbs of honey for 60 dollars. So i have decided to make mead. Im shooting for a gravity of 13 percent and I was wondering if their was anything i needed to know about it besided the lack of nutrients.. Should I add spices or fruit to it? any ideas?

Well, it depends on what it is that you're actually looking for.

Something that's very "wine like" ? If so, then a dry traditional.

Or maybe something that still shows some of the honey character? well that's also gonna be a traditional, but probably with back sweetening.

Or maybe dry sparkling ?

Or is there a local fruit that you like ? maybe you could try that or just something that's in season at the moment.....

Maybe it's something a little more "exotic" that you've got in mind, maybe like a Bochet (burnt honey mead) ?

You've plenty of choices, but you'll have to narrow things down a little as basically, you've got the start of just about anything.

If you want "easy", then google for the JAO recipe - and whatever you do, make it "as per the recipe", then you'll have a benchmark to work from. Don't doubt the presence of orange peel, pith and all. Don't over do the spices, as that can make it undrinkable. Just follow the instructions......


Hence, it's up to you what direction you want to head in.......

 

[seth8530]

I want a traditional mead. One that would not be odd for a viking to drink. I do plan on back sweetening it. What kind of spices would be good to use?

 

[seth8530]

Im also shooting for a bout 12-13 percent alcohol and i want to use my lavlin champagne yeast that i have on hand. Along with a healthy helping of nutrient.

 

[seth8530]

Ok, i decided on a strawberry mead. My recipe is as follows.

12 lbs strawberry in panty hose.
13.75lbs of farmers honey.
one pint of home made strawberry butter.
pectic enzyme and wine tannin.

right now the gravity level allows for an 11 percent potential. Im hoping after i let this sit over night that the pectic enzyme will go to work on the strawberrys and will raise it up to about 13 to 14 percent.

Any questions or comments? suggestions?

 

[seth8530]

Ok, the potential has now dropped down to about 10 percent with no fermentation. So im gona go and buy two more quarts of honey and shooting for about a 15 percent potential. I think i have about 6.5 gallons of mead ^_^

 

[seth8530]

ok added four and a half pints of dark honey and it seems to of brought the sugar level up to somewhere between 13.5 and 14 percent potential. im gona try and wait till tomorrow and then i will check the level before pitching in the yeast.

 

[fatbloke]

There's little point in quoting "alcohol potential", as that's rather meaningless. Here, and many other forums, it's mainly "gravity" readings/measurements (expressed to 3 decimal places), or maybe a "brix" measurement, as that's popular in the US and is easily converted to gravity measurements.

Champagne yeast is not really good to use, as you'll find that it does seem to blow a lot of the flavour and aroma elements straight out the airlock and the resultant mead can take a long time to recover, if ever.

You end up with a mead that's likely to be "alcohol hot" and when that flavour fades, unremarkable tasting mead that's not really very distinctive.

Most wine yeasts are good for at least 14%. D47 is popular, but really needs to be fermented in the mid 60's F, otherwise you can get a lot of fusels..... 71B is good and produces meads that can be drinkable a little quicker than might otherwise be the case. K1V is also good, has a higher alcohol tolerance and a very wide temperature range. Yes, meads can taste a little "rough" when young but it seems to age beautifully.

I'm also a fan of D21 (much harder to get in home brew sized packs though).

So, also, to get the maximum out of the strawberries, I'd suggest that you ferment the mead without the fruit to start with, then add the fruit into secondary, or even tertiary. Again, the very vigorous first part of the ferment can easily reduce the fruit flavour/aroma part, which is usually why a lot of people will split the fruit, or put it in secondary (or tertiary), because it seems to preserve more of the fruit flavour and can also help toward making the mead drinkable earlier.

As for your initial question about spices, well I'd say that the spices should match the fruit i.e. ones that have a proven link like apple and cinnamon, etc etc. Strawberries ? well if you consult anyone with a little "cheffy" type knowledge they seem to go well with, of all things, black pepper. Though I like them (well as a smoothie) with a little vanilla. Either way, it's worth heeding Joe Mattioli's advice in the "JAO" recipe about not over doing the spices, when he alludes to cloves. It's very easy to use too much and make a batch undrinkable, so with the spices, it really does seem that "less is more".

regards

fatbloke

 

[seth8530]

Alright, well its too late for a different choice of yeast. You think i could get more strawberry goodness by leaving these in from the primary and into the secondary? Also, i dont want it to be dominated by strawberry. I want it to be mainly mead with a strawberry flavor in it.

Also i have a 1.05 starting gravity and right now it is at 1.097

 

[fatbloke]

Alright, well its too late for a different choice of yeast. You think i could get more strawberry goodness by leaving these in from the primary and into the secondary? Also, i dont want it to be dominated by strawberry. I want it to be mainly mead with a strawberry flavor in it.

Also i have a 1.05 starting gravity and right now it is at 1.097

You might have to clarify the numbers, because 1.05(0)? is lower than 1.097

You've put the fruit in the primary, well that's fine. If you did find that there's not enough strawberry flavour, then you can always steep some in it later to increase it.

Well done getting it underway. Oh and I presume you're using the same user name over at gotmead. There is a few other places with mead forums, I try to keep my eyes open as I don't care where info comes from, just that its good.

regards

fatbloke

 

[seth8530]

Yep, thats me over their. I started an acct because i wanted to learn specifically about mead making.

Sorry, i miss typed it.. as of today it is at 1.040. and moving finely.

I mainly want just a little bit of colour and flavour from the strawberry. Since this is my first mead i want it to be more about the honey and less about the fruit inside of it.

 

[seth8530]

Ok, the gravity is at 1.000 right now and ive got pics to prove it.. Tell me what ya think

 

[fatbloke]

Ok, the gravity is at 1.000 right now and ive got pics to prove it.. Tell me what ya think

Well at 1.000 it's well on it's way to being dry........ not surprising using champagne yeast though.....

Still, not to worry. if you want it "medium", then you can always stabilise it with sorbate/sulphite, then cold crash it if you have the fridge space to do that.

If you want more fruit flavour, you can chuck a couple of lb of fruit in it (in a muslin/cheesecloth/whatever bag) and let it sit for a couple of weeks or so.

You can just rack it off the lee's to let it clear naturally over time or you can hit it with finings.

Either way, it's gonna need to be aged to be at it's best......

 

[seth8530]

I def agree that it will need time. Mead is atleast 6 months, but a year is in order?

 

[fatbloke]

I def agree that it will need time. Mead is atleast 6 months, but a year is in order?

Yer never really know Seth, all you can do is make a calendar and take a little taste, maybe every 4 months, maybe every 6.

Some come good in that sort of 6 to 12 month time frame, but some people will leave it considerably longer.

I've read that mead continues to improve for 7 to 8 years..... how correct that might be is anyones guess. Most of us don't want to have to wait for that long, as we don't have the storage for enough batches to "tick over" with such an extended period

 

[seth8530]

haha indeed indeed. The mead is tasting rather interesting to me right now. It has a strawberry wine bite to it. Followed my a kinda creamy honeyish taste. It is completely and a sort of nuttiness. I assume that is from the yeast?

 

[fatbloke]

haha indeed indeed. The mead is tasting rather interesting to me right now. It has a strawberry wine bite to it. Followed my a kinda creamy honeyish taste. It is completely and a sort of nuttiness. I assume that is from the yeast?

Dunno Matey. I can't see where you posted about which yeast you ended up using.

It could be a bit mad though i.e. you get plenty of fruit now, with just a little honey, whereas in 6 months time it might be all honey with little if any fruit.

Yes, the yeast might indeed be giving you the flavour you're getting now, but equally, you might be getting the right amount of fruit and depending on the actual plants that derived the honey, as to why you're getting a bit of the creamy thing.....

It's part of the reason why some go straight for a varietal, as they've got an idea about what the resulting flavour will be, whereas others just go for wildflower as it's much more of a "lucky dip"......

Just give it some time Matey, let it do it's thing. I suspect it'll be worth the wait.

regards

fatbloke

 

[seth8530]

ok here is an updated picture. I took out a half glass to try and sample the taste and try and figure it out.. In the light it looks as follows.. however in the dark, it has a much darker rosy colour..

When i smell it i get a honeyish smell with a possible hint of strawberry ( remember it is completely dry) with a slight alcohol smell following it.

When i swirl the glass it leaves a clear film like coating ( is this called legs?)

When i put it in my mouth i first get a strawberry flavour followed by a slightly creamy honey taste. then it gets kinda bitter with a lasting creamy ish taste.. It def needs time for the alcohol to mellow in it but it is surprisingly tame for being 14 percent and this young.



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FB: I used ec 1118 yeast on it because it was all i had at the time.

The creamy thing is what is throwing me off. I have no idea where it could of came from. MLF seems unlikely to me. And the relative mellowness of this mead is surprising me. Ive never made anything with 14 percent alcohol that is thing young that is this mellow. Plus it dont taste bone wrenching dry even tho the hydrometer reads below .996

 

[seth8530]

Ok, ive added fining agents because im gona be forced to rack soon do to moving out of a "volatile area for mead" after which im gona bulk age it in a safe location for as long as it needs it in a nice and cool basement.

The gravity looks to be about .992 or .994 so i feel pretty safe calling it dry.

Oddly enough, it doesnt taste completly dry. Alot of the bitter and nuttiness went away when i cleared it .

As best i can describe it it has a mild strawberry wine flavour followd by something different that i cant quite put my nose on.. Might be a slight hint of creaminess. Which is then followed by by an alcohol ness that is hot yet surprisingly tame considering its age. It does numb the pallet tho after less than a ounce of tasting which i find curious..



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[Kleftiwallah]

Methalglyn is the stuff you want to make. Cheers, Tony.