Trying my hand at mead.

[auk1124]

(Adjusts Viking helmet)

I have absolutely no experience homebrewing, and really don't drink much at all, but thought I'd try my hand at a batch of redneck mead and see what happens.

My recipe is based on the Joe's Ancient Orange recipe that is all over the innernets. I don't have a carboy or an airlock, so I went the redneck way of rinsing out two 2-litre plastic Tonic Water bottles, and I'm trying the EZ-Caps that Amazon sells.

2 pounds Clover Honey
1 pound Wildflower Honey
1 small can drained mandarin orange segments
1 small can drained grapefruit segments
2 whole cloves
some ground nutmeg
1 cinnamon stick
2 half-teaspoons of Safale S-04 dry ale yeast
handful of raisins

I dissolved my honey in a couple of cups of tap water over medium heat, and ground a bit of nutmeg into the mixture. Then I split the mixture more or less evenly between my two Tonic Water bottles. While the honey was cooling in the bottles, I added the orange segments to one bottle, the grapefruit segments to the other (I'm experimenting, after all). I broke my cinnamon stick more or less in half and put a piece in each bottle, plus a clove and about 15-20 raisins. I then filled the bottles to about 90% full with tap water, and shook the bejeezus out of each bottle.

After the bottles were basically at room temp, I put half a teaspoon of S-04 yeast in each bottle, swirled each bottle a bit, and capped with my EZ Caps. Bottles are sitting in my basement in a dark stairwell right now, probably around 72-74 degrees Fahrenheit down there. My plan is to check the bottles every once in a while to see if more water needs added, but otherwise let em sit for a couple of months and see what happens. I have no idea whether this recipe will make anything drinkable or not, but we shall see.

I'm sure a serious homebrewer would laugh at this recipe, but what the heck. I have about fifty bucks invested, and that includes the EZ Caps (which are supposedly re-usable) plus several different yeasts to play with. If I get undrinkable toxic sludge, I may try some grape juice wine or hard cider or something.

 

[YetiDave]

That sounds like it'll probably work pretty well, at a guess I'd say you'll end up with a mead around the 10% mark. Spiced mead seems to benefit very well from ageing, so if it doesn't taste all that great to start off with then don't despair! It will certainly be drinkable

 

[cb91710]

Mmmmm.... Love Mead.

I've done a few batches. I always do a 64oz (50/50 water honey rather than the "commercial" 48oz), and I age for 6 months on the lees in the primary fermenter.

My first batch came out at about 14%, my last batch was closer to 17%!
I used three strains of yeast... basic bread yeast to get the ball rolling, a commercial sweet mead yeast, and finally a champagne yeast that is tolerant to 22%. With a 64oz must, there's plenty of sugar for a nice long fermentation. I'm still getting active fermentation at 45 days! I don't need any bottle bombs, so I leave it in the primary fermenter.

This is good and bad. My final product is heavily colored and has a very full body, BUT it is not completely clear. It's not cloudy, it is just not transparent. For this reason, it will never win any ribbons because competition judging treats it as a white wine, and it is expected to be light and clear.

I use Florida Tupelo honey, but little else in flavorings. While clarifying the honey, I drop in a mesh bag that contains two sectioned oranges, one sectioned lemon, and 1 sectioned lime. I don't squeeze them... just let the bag hang in the pot while the honey clarifies.

 

[cb91710]

That sounds like it'll probably work pretty well, at a guess I'd say you'll end up with a mead around the 10% mark. Spiced mead seems to benefit very well from ageing, so if it doesn't taste all that great to start off with then don't despair! It will certainly be drinkable

All mead benefits from aging!

Mine is quite drinkable, but still very "green" at 6 months. The taste is good, but there's a definite "topnote" followed by a bit of alcohol "burn" aftertaste.
After a year, it is completely smooth and loses the topnote/aftertaste... and it just continues to smooth out from there.
Oldest bottle I have now was bottled in 2008... I started the must in September 2007... and it's still good (have about 5 bottles left from that 6 gallons, I need to get another batch going)

 

[auk1124]

That sounds like it'll probably work pretty well, at a guess I'd say you'll end up with a mead around the 10% mark. Spiced mead seems to benefit very well from ageing, so if it doesn't taste all that great to start off with then don't despair! It will certainly be drinkable

Thanks for the encouragement, I'm looking forward to tasting whatever I end up with. I may try my hand at some hard cider next. Or maybe some blueberry mead.

 

[cb91710]

Or maybe some blueberry mead.

Pomegranate rocks!

 

[slugg77]

Um, I JUST opened this Dogfish 90 minute and was TRYING to enjoy it before all the mead talk. Thanks. Thanks a lot!

Be sure to tell us how it is going, and don't forget pics.

 

[YetiDave]

I'm brewing a dark cherry and chilli mead at the moment all mead does benefit from ageing, I just noticed a huge difference with spiced mead aged just an extra one or two months

 

[Dave258]

I just remembered I have about 7, 12 oz bottles left of the first mead I made 2 years ago. I guess tonight is as good as any to crack one open!

 

[Samurai-5]

I'm doing this and am into my second batch.....Should be somewhat ready in October.

http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/fast-cheap-mead-making.htm

 

[cb91710]

I'm doing this and am into my second batch.....Should be somewhat ready in October.

What I like to do is when I bottle (even though I age it in the fermenter on the lees for 6 months), I will rack most all of it into traditional wine bottles and cork them, but I will rack one bottle with a screw-top so I can draw a sample and see how it's coming along. I keep a can of nitrogen for purging the oxygen out of the bottle before recapping.

I'll only do that if I'm low or out of "stock". Normally, I'll still have a few bottles left when I'm ready to bottle a new batch so it's not a problem to give the new batch a full 12-18 months.

 

[April Dawn]

MMM Mead! I just bottled two batches of honey mead one is Orange blossom and the other is wild honey! Now I am going to leave it bottled a few more months and enjoy

 

[The Chandos]

I cannot buy mead as good as the stuff I make! And I don't mean that to toot my own horn, but simply that commercial mead is always so darn sweet. I always use champagne yeast, let primary fermentation go for a month, secondary fermentation for six months, and always age for 12 months. Period. I get a dry but flavorful mead every time. It's a long wait, granted, but worth it. My favorite recipes have been to make a 10 gallon batch with one gallon of honey mixed with a wine kit, but I've also made muscadine, scuppernong, cherry, peach, and other versions that have all been superb. I think the key has been the yeast (champagne will go very dry) and aging (the longer the smoother the better). Good luck!

 

[April Dawn]

I agree. The mead I just made has aged for almost 7 months and now bottled. I made two kinds of Kahlua as well . There is nothing as good as home made So worth the wait.

 

[cb91710]

I cannot buy mead as good as the stuff I make! And I don't mean that to toot my own horn, but simply that commercial mead is always so darn sweet.

I agree completely.

I've tried 3 or 4 different commercial meads and I've only found one (at Tom's Farms in Corona, can't recall the name of the mead!) that was really good.. and it was not "pure" but was a pomegranate/raspberry.

Mine is pretty sweet being a 64oz, but the extra honey really kicks the alcohol levels up.