I like Chaucher's Mead, but I have a pal who lives in an old school house here in Vermont and she makes killer mead.

Even a blueberry one that is good with lobster.

Awesome. I've made mead before (back during my Pagan days) but no longer have the equipment. Would love to do it again. I like the taste of it and the historical connection. Though, of course, people back in ancient times didn't sterilize everything or chemicals or have all sorts of glass equipment.

I plan on making Meade with my first honey harvest this summer. Is it worth the effort?

I'd need to get me a drinking horn first....

Scruffinator: I'd need to get me a drinking horn first....

and wenches, don't forget the wenches

I remember in a previous mead thread someone said that Bunratty mead (as in the castle in Ireland) was pretty awful. I wouldn't know, since the bottle I had was drunk by a previous roommate and his alcoholic friend, who promised up and down that he'd replace it for me, but never did. He DID though, get so far behind in rent without telling me that a cop and locksmith showed up one day and told me I had fifteen minutes to get my shiat and get out.

So... looking for a good mead that isn't to hard to find. Honningbrew or Blackbriar?

Sorry mead dudes, but archaeological evidence has beer being at least 2000 years older than mead.

Beer has been dated to 9500 BCE, mead to 7000 BCE

miniflea: I remember in a previous mead thread someone said that Bunratty mead (as in the castle in Ireland) was pretty awful. I wouldn't know, since the bottle I had was drunk by a previous roommate and his alcoholic friend, who promised up and down that he'd replace it for me, but never did. He DID though, get so far behind in rent without telling me that a cop and locksmith showed up one day and told me I had fifteen minutes to get my shiat and get out.

So... looking for a good mead that isn't to hard to find. Honningbrew or Blackbriar?

I've had Bunratty and Chaucer's....but haven't had the others you speak of. The store-bought brands I've had didn't taste much like the homebrewed mead I've had. The store-bought were much sweeter. Less body.

Again, I don't know Honningbrew or Blackbriar, but I'd go with homebrewed mead over store-bought.

miniflea: I remember in a previous mead thread someone said that Bunratty mead (as in the castle in Ireland) was pretty awful. I wouldn't know, since the bottle I had was drunk by a previous roommate and his alcoholic friend, who promised up and down that he'd replace it for me, but never did. He DID though, get so far behind in rent without telling me that a cop and locksmith showed up one day and told me I had fifteen minutes to get my shiat and get out.

So... looking for a good mead that isn't to hard to find. Honningbrew or Blackbriar?

Viking Blod (new window)

(not my picture)

Good stuff, best way I can describe it is scotchy with a floral kick, but not girly floral, viking floral. Like Bob the angry flower, if he was a viking...

shivashakti: Again, I don't know Honningbrew or Blackbriar, but I'd go with homebrewed mead over store-bought.

WOOOSH

stuhayes2010: I plan on making Meade with my first honey harvest this summer. Is it worth the effort?

I would say it is. My stepfather was ab apiest (sp) and he and his cohorts in the honey mines would often just take the scrap wildflower honey, fill a plastic 55gallon drum halfway with honey, and top it off with hot water to dilute, then, just wait.
No inoculation with a yeast strain, just a spontaneous wild ferment. Covered the drum ports with cheese cloth and just waited.
Was some of the best mead I ever had.

But yeah, its very easy to do. I usually use 5lbs of honey per 1gal of water and pitch with a french red wine yeast.
If any one tells you to use champagne yeast? Punch them in the neck and curse them as a liar. While it is very alcohol tolerant, it makes for a very dry yeast with little to no character IMHO.
There are also the rules of thought on boiling. To boil or not to. I personaly perfer to just heat up the must enough to fully disolve the honey and believe that boiling destroys too much of the aroma and honey characteristics, and can also lead to scalding and carmalization that can lead to malt extract brewing flavor a lot oof times found in beginers homebrew.

stuhayes2010: I plan on making Meade with my first honey harvest this summer. Is it worth the effort?

Depends on the focal length...

\sorry

Cerebral Knievel

I usually go 3-4 lbs per gallon and heat it to ease the disolving process. Boiling isn't needed. I've had success with numerous yeasts and did manage to do a sparkling mead with champagne yeast. It was decent but not worth the extra efforts involved. i would agree on the red wine yeast. It leaves the honey characteristics in place. I usually bottle mine in the small size empty Chimay bottles.

As usual, the waiting is the hardest part.

My love for you is like a clock....BERSERKER! Would you like to suck my cock?.....BERSERKER!

miniflea: I remember in a previous mead thread someone said that Bunratty mead (as in the castle in Ireland) was pretty awful. I wouldn't know, since the bottle I had was drunk by a previous roommate and his alcoholic friend, who promised up and down that he'd replace it for me, but never did. He DID though, get so far behind in rent without telling me that a cop and locksmith showed up one day and told me I had fifteen minutes to get my shiat and get out.

So... looking for a good mead that isn't to hard to find. Honningbrew or Blackbriar?

Black-Briar Reserve is absolutely fantastic.

18%? I get loopy on two Duvals at 8.5% on an empty stomach. 6 months is a long time to take, but some of us like to pickle veggies.

Anderson's Pooper: Cerebral Knievel

I usually go 3-4 lbs per gallon and heat it to ease the disolving process. Boiling isn't needed. I've had success with numerous yeasts and did manage to do a sparkling mead with champagne yeast. It was decent but not worth the extra efforts involved. i would agree on the red wine yeast. It leaves the honey characteristics in place. I usually bottle mine in the small size empty Chimay bottles.

As usual, the waiting is the hardest part.

Yep, I've used sherry yeast as well with nice results. Put a kinda "nutty" back taste to it. but overall I've been a fan of the French red. Good tolerance and leaves all the good parts intact. the last time I used Champagne yeast, it came out tasting like Chardonnay. I had also used Sour wood honey as well, and that stuff is pretty "dry" in it's sweetness as well, so it all came together into something that tasted like a standard dry white table wine with barely any honey notes left in it.

It was lovely, yes indeed, but it wasn't what I was looking for when I made it.

So, Lately, when I get around to actually making hooch at home. I usually do meads in one or two gallon batches. More manageable on the fermentation side. It's also easier to experiment with particular Honeys, wild flower here, sour wood there, apple over there..

Of course, Being in the Zymalugucal trades I often to get to take advantage of the brewery's resources. So the last time I did a 5 gallon batch of braggot, I took 20 pounds of wildflower, and then used the Wort from our English style IPA to do the dilute.

that stuff is starting out at 17.5 degrees Plato, and the additional honey cranked it up to around 32, All the additional Nutrients available to the yeast had it really kick off and roll pretty steady and fermented out fully within a month..

so that was nice...
that stuff was very, very nice and the hit of the wedding reception. we only had about a gallon left for the "honey moon"

if we were to make it commercially, we would have to cut the Honey way back because the vagaries of the Brewery license. it would be considered more wine than beer, and that's a no no. and I believe it would be out of the style classification because I believe to be properly considered a Braggot the fermentable sugars need to be at least 50/50, but its preferred to have it favor the Honey side. and that is where the license issue would come into play, as it could only ever be 45/55 at the most to the beer side.
That's how I understand it at least.

Damn.. now I'm getting bad ideas again.

The problem with mead is that it reeeeeeally needs time to age. I made a sweet mead about 3 years ago that I let age for about 10 months. It wasn't too bad, nothing special. It sat in a keg relatively untouched for a bit for another 15 months. Good lord is it delicious! Anyone toying with idea of making mead, do plan on just setting it aside for a long time, it will make a huge difference compared to how quickly you can turn around other fermented beverages.

Damn.. I'm messing up my numbers... that Braggot was around 21%abv so the Plato had to be closer to 52!

Fusorfodder: The problem with mead is that it reeeeeeally needs time to age. I made a sweet mead about 3 years ago that I let age for about 10 months. It wasn't too bad, nothing special. It sat in a keg relatively untouched for a bit for another 15 months. Good lord is it delicious! Anyone toying with idea of making mead, do plan on just setting it aside for a long time, it will make a huge difference compared to how quickly you can turn around other fermented beverages.

yep, that's why I either do Braggots, or small batches. it's easier to stash a two gallon carboy or packaged in the deep dark and cold recesses of the crawl space and forget about them that way.

Gee, I should get into this.

Donnchadha: majestic: My love for you is like a clock....BERSERKER! Would you like to suck my cock?.....BERSERKER!

Did he just say "making fark"?

Meethos: miniflea: I remember in a previous mead thread someone said that Bunratty mead (as in the castle in Ireland) was pretty awful. I wouldn't know, since the bottle I had was drunk by a previous roommate and his alcoholic friend, who promised up and down that he'd replace it for me, but never did. He DID though, get so far behind in rent without telling me that a cop and locksmith showed up one day and told me I had fifteen minutes to get my shiat and get out.

So... looking for a good mead that isn't to hard to find. Honningbrew or Blackbriar?

Black-Briar Reserve is absolutely fantastic.

She's an absolute pleasure to work for. In fact, I almost feel guilty for taking her money. Why, just the other day I was commenting to my fellow meadery workers how lucky we are to be working for such a charitable family.

miniflea: So... looking for a good mead that isn't to hard to find. Honningbrew or Blackbriar?

Blackbriar is the Walmart of mead. Buy local. Buy Honningbrew. Your Hold will appreciate it.

I'm happy this headline came along just as I was deciding what to write in a Valentine card.

Subby, for once you've done me proud.

Bleyo: miniflea: So... looking for a good mead that isn't to hard to find. Honningbrew or Blackbriar?

Blackbriar is the Walmart of mead. Buy local. Buy Honningbrew. Your Hold will appreciate it.

Bleyo: miniflea: So... looking for a good mead that isn't to hard to find. Honningbrew or Blackbriar?

Blackbriar is the Walmart of mead. Buy local. Buy Honningbrew. Your Hold will appreciate it.

Blech. Honningbrew tastes like rat poison.

Moonstruck Meadery in Bellevue, NE (new window)

Great stuff. They make about four-five kinds of mead and it's selling about as fast as they can make it.

clovis69: Sorry mead dudes, but archaeological evidence has beer being at least 2000 years older than mead.

Beer has been dated to 9500 BCE, mead to 7000 BCE

I presume you got those numbers from Wikipedia?

Mead's date is prefixed with "earliest archaeological evidence".

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

I vouchsafe for Magpie Mead (new window) if you're in the northeast.



Try the Red Raspberry

stuhayes2010: I plan on making Meade with my first honey harvest this summer. Is it worth the effort?

Nuttin honey

Cerebral Knievel

My first batch was for a friend's reception. At the end of the party there were 2 bottles left. I gave one to the groom and told him to hold it for their 1st Anniversary. I stashed the other one and lost it when we moved. I found it in a box about 4 years later. it was f-ing amazing!

Looks like it's time to pick up some yeast. I have 4# of honey in the garage. Could be ready for July 4.

MadCat221: clovis69: Sorry mead dudes, but archaeological evidence has beer being at least 2000 years older than mead.

Beer has been dated to 9500 BCE, mead to 7000 BCE

I presume you got those numbers from Wikipedia?

Mead's date is prefixed with "earliest archaeological evidence".

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Yes, I'm inclined to agree with the popular theory that mead was mankinds earlist form of hooch and it was a found beverage. Much in the same way that there is a certain joy to be found while out berry picking you find those squishy berries that make you feel a little funny when you eat them.
And I'm also inclined to agree that beer was a major reason that humanity discoverd agriculture and ultimitly civilization itself.
The idea behind THAT for the non hoochy folks who don't understand the theory, is that when humans were hunter gatherers, cereal grains were far more rudimentry than they are now. It would take a lot of energy to gather said grains. So the grains would be stock piled and stored. One day a earthen jar was left out in a storm and flooded, and after a couple of days the hominids came back to the soupy mess. They didn't want to waste the hard gotten grains so they drained off the water and dried out the grains and made flour out of it to make their bread. That's malting in its most rudimentry form, and that the flooding and drying induced a bit of germination in the grain and caused some of the starches to converted to sugar, it made better and tastier bread.
Flash forward, the bread that got stored in the earthen jars once again got flooded and when they got back to them, some one decided to drink the frothey bong water contained withen, found that it was good and saught to reproduce the process. So now you are growing the grains you used to gather in a controlled process, you pick and choose the seeds of the best performing plants for producing the most grain. And they saw that it was a good thing.
By this time the hunters are now wrangling and keeping, and raising the animals they used to hunt to be slaughtered at liesure instead of expelling the energy to hunt them down, kill, butcher, and transport the protien back to the tribe.
All the while the excess grain is being turned into that frothey beverage that helps folks get closer to their gods, and aeconomy develops to support all this.

Farking mobile, and it's Friday night for me in the beer mines. Please forgive any errors in speeling and grammerz

whither_apophis: Scruffinator: I'd need to get me a drinking horn first....

and wenches, don't forget the wenches

It's a complicated process, you will need more than just wenches. You will need scwewdwivers, a pair of pwieweirs, 20 feet of sterwul tubing...

Bleach? For sanitizing? Iodine or Star San all the way. No rinse FTW!

Ahh mead :D Like drinking sunshine in a cup. Potent, face-numbing Viking berserkergang sunshine.

What is great about this stuff is the individual components are legal to buy, so any kid can make a batch.

forstmeister: Bleach? For sanitizing? Iodine or Star San all the way. No rinse FTW!

Bleach is perfectly cromulant as a sanitising solution, but most people over do it, you really only need About a table spoon per five gallons. And ill also say, the fark any thing from star.. if you going to go with a O2 based sanitizer then onestep is far better. But none of that would replace iodaphore solution or blended phosphoric/nitric acid as a holder sanitizer.
shiat, straight up heat is just fine.most farkers have a dish washer and that, belive it or not is just fine for getting bottles and general equipment ready and sanitary for use.
At home, if I'm not hijacking the hard core chems from work, I'm using TSP for a caustic, amd bleach and heat as a sanitizer.
In the beer mines proper we are using caustic soda as the cleaner and nitric/phosphoric acid as the sanitizer. NaOH..12?
That's what we've been doing the entire 18 years in buisness, and have never had to sewer a tank because of bacterial infection the 12 years I've been working there.

...and me with Danish ancestry....:P


Viking juice, it's what's for kittens

Only if I can do this naked.

I have a Kings thirst for the frosty brew!

Anderson's Pooper: Cerebral Knievel

My first batch was for a friend's reception. At the end of the party there were 2 bottles left. I gave one to the groom and told him to hold it for their 1st Anniversary. I stashed the other one and lost it when we moved. I found it in a box about 4 years later. it was f-ing amazing!

Looks like it's time to pick up some yeast. I have 4# of honey in the garage. Could be ready for July 4.

I'm still going through the 100+ lbs I have left of the wildflower after charlie passed away, and still talk to the guys who were, and still operating the hives, as far as I know all I gotta do is ask, and I can get all the scrap honey I want. Once again.. theat scrap honey is what they call wildflower simply because it cannot be identifiedn to one particular source. The stuff I get is dark, rich, and fillef with flavor. Its like a blend of sourwood, blackberry, strawberry, cotton wood, hickory, apple.
Its like just a color degree down from light molasses and it is indeed a beautiful thing, and besides being a great tasting honey, it makes a fantastic mead or braggot.

RookStar: I have a Kings thirst for the frosty brew!

pretty sure I left out an apostrophe. but whatever. Ignore TFA and drink up!

Cerebral Knievel: forstmeister: Bleach? For sanitizing? Iodine or Star San all the way. No rinse FTW!

Bleach is perfectly cromulant as a sanitising solution, but most people over do it, you really only need About a table spoon per five gallons. And ill also say, the fark any thing from star.. if you going to go with a O2 based sanitizer then onestep is far better. But none of that would replace iodaphore solution or blended phosphoric/nitric acid as a holder sanitizer.
shiat, straight up heat is just fine.most farkers have a dish washer and that, belive it or not is just fine for getting bottles and general equipment ready and sanitary for use.
At home, if I'm not hijacking the hard core chems from work, I'm using TSP for a caustic, amd bleach and heat as a sanitizer.
In the beer mines proper we are using caustic soda as the cleaner and nitric/phosphoric acid as the sanitizer. NaOH..12?
That's what we've been doing the entire 18 years in buisness, and have never had to sewer a tank because of bacterial infection the 12 years I've been working there.

I know bleach is acceptable, but I wouldn't use it. I use iodophor solution for my sanitizing needs. A lot of people swear by Star San, as well as many others, but I don't know anyone personally who uses bleach for homebrewing. In my friends brewery, they use caustic.

Weird. I just decided today that instead of brewing another batch of beer, I'm gonna do mead. Then I see this.

Funny how the universe works sometimes.