Mead Brewing

[jkruger]

Hey all
I was wondering if anyone has had any experience brewing mead either at home or with a U-Brew type of place. I brought in about 15 pounds of honey to make a batch of mead to a local hobby brewer in Victoria around January and its still there. I was told that as of today it was at a 1045 and really sweet and te goal is to bring it down to below 1000. Last I spoke to the brewer he was going to try to put another yeast type in to speed it up tomorrow.
Has anyone else tried making the stuff? My brewer told me that the speed that it takes to make mead depends on the source of the honey and that he has seen different honey take mere weeks while others have taken up to a year. Mine is coming close to a year now.

[Mipi]

No experiences in Mead brewing, but quit some in beer brewing. If I take parallel from there, my guess would be, that temperature and yeast type is far more important then the worth (Honey or malt). After all yeast is digesting sugar and the sugar is sugar. For sure, honey have the influence; depending of how much fermentable sugar is in it.

At least you should count on all tree things; temperature, yeast and honey.

I know I haven't helped a lot, but hope I did a bit.

Good luck with brewing.

Mipi

[Madadh]

I Really enjoy making mead. I have made 6 batches so far and found that I like the following recipe best:

Two gallons of honey ( I like either Wild flower or Buck Wheat)
Heat one gallon of water and add honey, this will make it easier to mix.
Fill a 6 or 6.5 gallon carboy with honey/water mix and water to 5.5 gallon mark.
Add 5 tablespoons of yeast nutrient
Stir mix vigorously ( I use an attachment for my power drill), this will add air and help fermentation.
Add yeast and cap carboy with a vapour lock. ( allows CO2 out but no oxygen in)
Let sit and ferment for 1 month.
Shift to a new carboy and replace vapour lock. Use a siphon and leave as much sediment as you can behind. Leave in this carboy for 3 months.
Here is the hard part. Bottle and leave in a cool place for at lease a year.

I am getting mead that runs between 20 and 22 percent alcohol content. It has been drinkable after one year, fine after two, and I am waiting to see what 3 years will do. For added flavour either add oak chips during the three months in the second carboy or get a small oak cask and let your mead age in it for 6 months to a year.

I get my honey over the internet at The Bee Folks. Their prices are not bad and they deliver.

[NewEnglander]

I've tried several meads in the past and have usually been disappointed with the results. The one that worked best was a recipe called Joe's Ancient Orange Mead.
This fall I gave a cyser (cider with honey) another go and found a recipe and method that worked very well. It managed to keep some of the apple flavor of the cider and not dry out too much. Let me know if you'd like the recipe.

Also, is there anything to keep in mind if scaling down the above recipe?

[DougC]

One quick question: Is mead more similar to beer or wine when finished? The reason I ask is that I have had "mead" at Ren Fests and it tasted like really sweet wine...thanks

[mull]

I brew beer and mead frequently and the type of yeast used is very inmportant. Several types beer yeasts will not make good mead as the alcohol content is too high (starting with too much sugar in the mix and cannot complete the converstion).
Did you use a yeast for mead (or champagne, which also works well)to begin with?
If your brewer adds the right yeast and jump starts the process it should still turn out ok. Mead does take a long time to convert and then smooth out, but it's so worth the wait.
Joe

[NewEnglander]

One quick question: Is mead more similar to beer or wine when finished? The reason I ask is that I have had "mead" at Ren Fests and it tasted like really sweet wine...thanks

I would consider mead a honey wine. You can also make a mead-beer hybrid called braggot.

[Madadh]

Mead is the original wine. Grapes did not come into use until civilization had moved the forest back and wild honey was harder to find. Grape were chosen because their flavour was closest to the original mead.

I use a champaign yeast.

[DougC]

thanks

[lethearen]

I used to brew my own mead. A lot of things can change how long it takes... temperature, yeast strain, water quality/attributes, and yes even the honey itself. While it's true that honey is "just sugar", different honeys have different pH values, and the pH can greatly affect the speed. And processed honey may take a different amount of time than raw unfiltered honey. There are also other chemical (or natural) additives you can add to feed and/or kickstart the yeast.

Oh, and how much mead you're making... at 15 lbs I'm guessing you're making a 5 gallon batch... so yeah, I've had a 5 gallon take anywhere from a couple months to well over a year to finish up. You just have to be patient.

Meads are just honey wines, as been said above. At renn faires (and other places, really), you do have to pay attention. Some "meads" are actually white wines with honey added for flavour. These are properly called pyments. Some others are actually made from honey, possibly with other flavourings. A fruit flavoured mead is called a melomel. A mead with spices (generally "sweet" spices like cinnamon or vanilla) is a metheglin. And like NewEnglander said, a beer mead is a braggot. Of course, you'll rarely see mead labeled commercially as anything other than "mead"... I think only home brewers know the other terms ;)

As for sweetness... well, mead runs the gambit. Some meads are really (REALLY) dry... others can be really (REALLY) sweet. And anywhere in between. Sweet meads are called "sack" meads. I don't think dry meads have a special term, but I could be wrong.