Neko-chan
Lovin' The Homestead
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miss_thenorth
Frugal Homesteader
Hey Welcome!! there are a few threads on mead here, but I'm sure they are buried, as they are quite old.
mead has been on my to do list for quite some time, but i have never gotten around to it. Maybe i will try it soon though, as I just picked up a bunch of honey at half price. It is pasteurized though (my intent was to use it for baking, and save the good stuff for raw consumption). Is pateurized ok?
mead has been on my to do list for quite some time, but i have never gotten around to it. Maybe i will try it soon though, as I just picked up a bunch of honey at half price. It is pasteurized though (my intent was to use it for baking, and save the good stuff for raw consumption). Is pateurized ok?
freemotion
Food Guru
I have ten gallons of mead bubbling away in my livingroom, and wifezilla makes mead. I've never made it before, so I don't know how it will come out. I tried some recently and it was amazing! So I found a recipe for the one I tried and jumped right in with five gallons. It is made with honey (raw wildflower), vanilla beans, and cinnamon sticks. I used Montrachet yeast, recommended at my local wine and beer making supply store. I also made a batch of orange-ginger mead, made with juice and zest of 8 lbs of organic oranges and a few ounces of organic ginger and more of the raw wildflower honey and the same yeast as the other batch.
You might enjoy Sandor Katz' book, Wild Fermentation, which has instructions for tej, an African honey wine made with wild yeasts captured in your kitchen. Tej is ready in a few weeks, not a year or more like mead. He has recipes for a couple of flavors, like coffee-banana!
12-14% alcohol is not bad, pretty normal. Anything over 18% can kill wine yeast, or so I'm told.
BTW,
You might enjoy Sandor Katz' book, Wild Fermentation, which has instructions for tej, an African honey wine made with wild yeasts captured in your kitchen. Tej is ready in a few weeks, not a year or more like mead. He has recipes for a couple of flavors, like coffee-banana!
12-14% alcohol is not bad, pretty normal. Anything over 18% can kill wine yeast, or so I'm told.
BTW,
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Neko-chan
Lovin' The Homestead
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whogroomer
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Hi,
I'm new to the site and this is my first post. I've been homebrewing beer, mead, wine, and moonshine for the past 15 years. Mead is an acquired taste, but once you get the taste for it you will be hooked. I've made a few 5 gallon batches. My most recent being from my friends fathers honey bees (bass wood) and about 5 quarts of organic strawberries from my local farm cooperative. It's amazing, although once you use fruit it is then called a melomel.
My suggestions are to keep it simple, as mead is already pretty flavorful. Think about if you want to carbonate or not. Traditional mead is not carbonated, but you can make a nice sparkling mead by following the same steps to carbonate as you do when making beer.
You can use wild yeasts, but if you want more control over your finished product, pick up some yeast from a homebrewing store or online. However there is something about using wild yeast that will lend the mead a personality to your region. That is if you don't get bacteria instead.
Mead also improves greatly with age, like a wine. So make and store batches durring the year, so you have a supply on hand.
Good luck.
I'm new to the site and this is my first post. I've been homebrewing beer, mead, wine, and moonshine for the past 15 years. Mead is an acquired taste, but once you get the taste for it you will be hooked. I've made a few 5 gallon batches. My most recent being from my friends fathers honey bees (bass wood) and about 5 quarts of organic strawberries from my local farm cooperative. It's amazing, although once you use fruit it is then called a melomel.
My suggestions are to keep it simple, as mead is already pretty flavorful. Think about if you want to carbonate or not. Traditional mead is not carbonated, but you can make a nice sparkling mead by following the same steps to carbonate as you do when making beer.
You can use wild yeasts, but if you want more control over your finished product, pick up some yeast from a homebrewing store or online. However there is something about using wild yeast that will lend the mead a personality to your region. That is if you don't get bacteria instead.
Mead also improves greatly with age, like a wine. So make and store batches durring the year, so you have a supply on hand.
Good luck.
freemotion
Food Guru
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Neko-chan
Lovin' The Homestead
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whogroomer
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You should be able to make vinegar from any alcohol with mother. Probably get a bottle of apple cider vinegar (labeled with mother) to add to the amount you want to convert. However I have not successfully made vinegar yet. I tried but ended up discarding the batch due to moving, and I made it out of foul beer and it just didn't seem appetizing to use for anything. As with yeast I would think the efficiency of the mother would only be effective in a certain percentage of alcohol. I'm not sure what % that would be, or what temperature is ideal.
You can always build a small 5 gal still out of an old half beer keg and some copper pipe. Then you can convert any beer/wine/mead experiments into paint stripper
However I'm sure your mead will be delicious, if your not into it right off the bat. Bottle it and give is some time.
You can always build a small 5 gal still out of an old half beer keg and some copper pipe. Then you can convert any beer/wine/mead experiments into paint stripper
However I'm sure your mead will be delicious, if your not into it right off the bat. Bottle it and give is some time.
kristenm1975
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Woohoo whogroomer! Would you be willing to post pics of your still and how you made it? I tincture like crazy and going to run out of the good everclear soon, so I'd love a way to make something like it myself for the purpose of medicine that lasts and lasts.
Thank you!
Thank you!
I recommend champagne yeast for mead. Just from our experience. We have a friend who has been making it for going on 15 years or so and his is really good so I usually end up trading for a couple bottles.
As to cooking with it... eheh.. Get a good sweet spiced mead. Marinate apples in it and then bake them slowly with the marinade until it's all a gooey mess. Put this over fresh vanilla ice cream. Then write me a thank you letter
As to cooking with it... eheh.. Get a good sweet spiced mead. Marinate apples in it and then bake them slowly with the marinade until it's all a gooey mess. Put this over fresh vanilla ice cream. Then write me a thank you letter
