Mead making...

[MadL]

Give Stynky th' Raspberries!

*thwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthw*

naw, really, raspberry mead is mighty fine! (especially warm'd, 'n with some rum mixed in!)

[michaelsbagley]

Give Stynky th' Raspberries!

*thwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthwthw*

naw, really, raspberry mead is mighty fine! (especially warm'd, 'n with some rum mixed in!)

Funny story about raspberry mead... Okay, maybe not funny, but interesting... well maybe not interesting... but it's a story, albeit a short story.

A friend of mine from back in Toronto and I pitched in together to make a 5 gallon batch of raspberry mead, and it was really good (probably my second favourite!). Anyways, so we buy dozens of pounds of raspberries to make this batch of mead, and after fermenting, there is all this seedy pulp left. My friend being the very artsy type starts playing with the extracted pulp and seed mixture rather than throwing it into the garbage like it was supposed to. Well he starts forming the pulp into a small statue. He presses the pulp and seeds into a small mass and starts to form and manipulate the gunk until it comes out looking somewhat like a statue of his own head, flipping haircut and all. He still has that self portrait of himself made with the raspberry pulp from that batch of mead... And we made that stuff about 6 or 7 years ago! I should try and get him to send me a picture of the statue and post it for a laugh.

[Cpt Sophia M Eisley]

Hey Michael - Any chance you might be brining some of this down to Searle's in March? It'd be an interesting thing to try. I've been reading this thread off and on since it started, and am wondering what's the oddest fruit someone's used to make the stuff? I'm wondering if pomegranite juice would make a nice mead.

[michaelsbagley]

Hey Michael - Any chance you might be brining some of this down to Searle's in March? It'd be an interesting thing to try. I've been reading this thread off and on since it started, and am wondering what's the oddest fruit someone's used to make the stuff? I'm wondering if pomegranite juice would make a nice mead.

Hey Sophia, I'll likely bring some of my home made cheery wine and be more than happy to share that, but I think the mead will still be to young to drink at that point. I'm actually going to try and hold off on digging into the mead until next PiP to give it a bit of a chance to age.

And yes, I think pomegranite mead would freaking awesome, my wife even believes so more than I do.... If only pomegranite's weren't so damn spendy, I would make some... I may some day decide to spoil the wife and make some anyways, but as the availability of pomeganites is starting to dry up for this year, it may have to wait until next year.

[Dutchman]

ohhh michaels mead!!! good stuff. as if this pesky new allergy to alcohol is not bad enough- now i'm reminded of this!!!!!! bugger!

[Cpt Sophia M Eisley]

Dutch - Alcohol allergy? Really and for true?

Sadly, I have to limit my intake of beer (a light intolerance to a few ingredients), but by and large I seem to handle libations in moderation.

Michael - That'd be fantastic! I've never tried a homemade batch of wine before (at least, I don't think I have).

I may have to keep an eye out for pomagranates down here, as I do see them often. Yeah, they can be pricey at times, but I think I can splurge on a few and make a couple of batches of mead. Perhaps a gallon or two for this year's PiP.

[Dutchman]

the doctor calls it an "adverse reaction". phoey to that!!! I call it an allergy. discovered it a few months ago. got ahold of some bad home brew- orginally thought it was oysters, which would have just been the end of me, and can't get near anything now. Kept a hard cider down at PIP, but wished i had not about ten minutes later.

[MadL]

I've been reading this thread off and on since it started, and am wondering what's the oddest fruit someone's used to make the stuff?

hmmm, perhaps some Passion Fruit Mead be th' way t' th' wench's heart...

Begad! am I think'n out loud again?!?

Aye, I too must limit me own intake o' alcohol; when I reach me limit I must let out me breeches then go fer a refill

[michaelsbagley]

Michael - That'd be fantastic! I've never tried a homemade batch of wine before (at least, I don't think I have).

I may have to keep an eye out for pomagranates down here, as I do see them often. Yeah, they can be pricey at times, but I think I can splurge on a few and make a couple of batches of mead. Perhaps a gallon or two for this year's PiP.

Not just home made wine.... Home made cherry wine! I hand picked (okay I had help) a five gallon bucket of cherries from a friends tree, then hand pitted them (that I did by myself). Yes I am insane!

If you would like some help formulating a recipe for pomegranite mead, please let me know. I'd love to be a help on that if you would like. Actually, I'm going to go dig through my resources right now and post a recipe for a one gallon batch in a few minutes...

Okay, neither of the two books I own that essentially are my wine and mead making bibles have anything to say on Pomegranate, but good old reliable Jack Keller has a recipe for pomegranate wine... If you replace the 3 pounds of sugar for 3 pounds (maybe 3 1/2 pounds) of a good honey, you should have a fine pomegranate mead recipe. I would suggest going with a sweet and fragrant honey (avoid clover honey like the plague despite the fact it is the easiest and usually the cheapest to buy). Maybe an orange blossom honey, or a wildflower honey... anything like that... Nothing too dark (buckwheat honey would be too dark for the pomeganates, as would tupelo honey)... And wow, 10 to 15 pomegranates for a one gallon batch of mead is going to be very spendy! You will only get about 4 or 5 standard wine bottles of mead out of a one gallon batch, so do keep that in mind.

Now to clear something up, clover honey CAN make good mead, but it is very bitter when fermented, so you wouldn;t want to use it with anything delicate in flavour like pomegranates.

Edited January 4, 2009 by michaelsbagley

[Rumba Rue]

Many years ago at a now defunct Ren-faire there use to be the Brewer's Guild and they would have mead, beer, and wine tasting competitions.

That year, someone made some honey Meade that was incredible! Yes it won first place in the Meade catagory, and overall top winner of all.

I have never tasted another like it. The stuff sold in the stores is nothing more than wine sweetened with honey....not the same as a true Meade.

[Cpt Sophia M Eisley]

That's something I wish I could see at an event (brew making). I mean, I've seen the Coors brewery tour how many times?!

Question Michael on pomegranate mead - Seems the fruit is getting scarce here in Central FL (for the season). I think a few local health food stores carry the juice (100%, no artificial junk). Have you ever substituted the real thing for the store bought variety, er would you even recommend it? The other thing is if I decide to wait until pomegranate comes in to season, I wonder how many I'd need to buy to fill up a few gallons. I'm thinking a truckload.

[michaelsbagley]

That's something I wish I could see at an event (brew making). I mean, I've seen the Coors brewery tour how many times?!

Question Michael on pomegranate mead - Seems the fruit is getting scarce here in Central FL (for the season). I think a few local health food stores carry the juice (100%, no artificial junk). Have you ever substituted the real thing for the store bought variety, er would you even recommend it? The other thing is if I decide to wait until pomegranate comes in to season, I wonder how many I'd need to buy to fill up a few gallons. I'm thinking a truckload.

Hey Sophia, the problem with brewing at events... Is one of the key and most important ingredients in any brewing is hygiene... And keeping a clean environment is almost impossible at most events... Not saying it can't be done, but it is a challenge that probably outweighs the potential benefits (or problems).... The other bigger issue, is that even a short ale/beer take at least theree or four days to brew, and most events are only two or three days long.

As for your question on pomegranates, the season (from what I have been told) is from October to January (from whereever they are imorted from), so right about now is when they are getting scarce... and if you look back a few posts, I posted the link to the recipe for pomegranat wine and some suggestions as to how to convert that to a mead recipe. The quantity was 10 to 15 peices of fruit per gallon, which is a lot... and I tend to stick to the higher end in case where ranges are given.

As for using fruit juice, I've used it in the past, and will likely use it again(not pomegranate juice, but fruit juice in general). It can work, but it is harder to find recipes using juices than raw fruit. The actual process of making the mead/wine etc. becomes easier when you use a juice over a raw fruiit, but ratios and recipes are harder. I would need full computer access (meaning to do this at home), but if you would like some help and really want to do this with pomegranate juice, let me know, and I will work with you to see if we can come up with a recipe using juice...

Cheers

[Poopdeck Pappy]

I can't believe I missed this one for so long, I'll be making this real soon.

[RustyNell]

Mickey... I'm a beginner and definitely want to try my hand at meade, if I'm going to make an attempt i'd prefer to make a large batch so i can leave a few bottles to age longer as you suggested. What's the best thing to put it in to ferment, and to vent it etc. is plastic OK (ie giant big water jugs) Where's the best place to get supplies... and what do I really need. I see so many recipes and ways to do it... i shall insted trust your experience.

[michaelsbagley]

Hey Nell,

I started a new thread for Mead Making 101.... I'm going to go through all the steps there in order to help you get started, as I imagine there will be plenty of others some day down the road that may have many of the same questions...

I'm going to try and keep the discussion here, and keep the Mead Making 101 thread justt about steps... But we;ll see how that works out.

Cheers!

[RustyNell]

Thanks... you rock! I tried to make some last year for PIP but didn't give myself enough time, and I think I contaminated it changing bottles... needles to say it didn't tase so good and we threw it out. I wanna take extra care with the next batch if I start it now it should be some good hat swapin juice for PIP this year.

[RustyNell]

How about a sparkling mead? Is that possible? It sounds like it might be good, especially with a flavored mead.

Has anyone tried?

and how would the process be different in order to get it to effervesce?

[michaelsbagley]

How about a sparkling mead? Is that possible? It sounds like it might be good, especially with a flavored mead.

Has anyone tried?

and how would the process be different in order to get it to effervesce?

I have a bottle of commercial sparkling mead in my fridge right now (damn I should have packed that for RF5!)...

There are a few ways to carbonate sparkling mead... The traditional Champaigne method (works easiest if you are doing a dry as in not sweet at all mead), or you can use modern kegging systems to force carbonate. There are a few other methods out there that I stumbled across, but those are the main two I know about.

And sparkling mead is goooood... Bot the plain and flavoured varieties...

[RustyNell]

and that method is?? sorry absolute beginner here...

[michaelsbagley]

Okay, the champagne method in brief....

Make your mead as normal, but aim for a dry mead, i.e. using a hydrometer to make sure your initial sugars compose less than about 13% of the total volume.

One the mead is finished as per normal, put it into champagne bottles (using champagne bottles is IMPORTANT as normal bottles can't handle the pressure of carbonation), add about a teaspoon of sugar or honey to each bottle.

Now an additional feature of most modern American champange (or sparkling wine) bottles, is that they can be corked, or capped (like a beer bottle). After you have capped (which mean you will need a beer capper and caps) the mead in the champagne bottles, let it sit for a week standing up (standing up is important).

At this point you will have sparkling mead, but it still should be aged, AND you will have some yeast sludge in the bottom of the bottle. If you are okay with wasting the bottom swig or two of mead and don't mind ignoring the yeast sludge, then you are good...

But most people would then use a "riddling" board to slowly tip the bottles over the course of a few weeks (this is a hard one to explain, and would work better with pictures I don't have)... But least to say, a "riddling" board is not a chunk of wood that tells cryptic jokes. Once the bottles have been slowly turned almost upside down over the period of weeks using the riddling board, you would then pop the cap and try to extricate the little bit of sludge which would now be at the top of the bottle (hence the slow turning the bottle upside down). At this point you could cork and wire the bottle shut in that pretty and fancy way that spakling wines and champagnes are done.

Ooooh, I was able to find an image of a riddling board online Look here although I prefer the double sided ones on hinges rather than the single ones that are leaned against the wall.... This is a very easy thing to make, even for those with little wood working skills. And a hinged version of the riddling board below.

And these few pages from This Google Book explain and diagram out the use of a Riddling board... It is not the whole book, but there are enough pages shown to get the idea.

[Cpt Sophia M Eisley]

Hey Mickey - I'm going to start on the Pomegranate mead this weekend. Got a few milk and water jugs set to start off, and will be acquiring a few of the glass variety (along with whatever else you noted to me) as well. I'll start a separate thread to note how it's going in a few weeks.

[Littleneckhalfshell]

Okay, the champagne method in brief....

But most people would then use a "riddling" board to slowly tip the bottles over the course of a few weeks

And these few pages from This Google Book explain and diagram out the use of a Riddling board... It is not the whole book, but there are enough pages shown to get the idea.

the one important part and not so easy part is found in the instructions you posted regarding the riddling board.

once the bottles are turned upside down and the sediment is allowed to collect in the Neck of the bottle, it is not just uncapping it, if you did so, you would lose most of your mead. A sad thing, if you are not prepared. Anyone who wants to do this may want to experiment with some simple sugar wine first to get your technique down. I speak of the part where the instructions tell you to 'freeze' the neck of the bottle in salt and ice (like you make icecream in a hand crank machine). It is necessary to freeze the neck so that you don't lose the carbonation along with the sludge that you want to get out. In fact, I would make an argument with the site, as they speak of having the ice plug 'blow out'. I always thought you froze the neck to the point where the shoulder of the bottle prevented the ice from being blown out, you then 'scraped' away the used yeast sludge and then quickly topped off the bottle and re-capped or corked. think of the bottles of champaign you have seen that just gushed out a fire hose stream and how little was left for the glass, fine in locker rooms, but not so fine if you actually want to taste the stuff. But either way, I would say to practice first. Maybe use some soda for practice, if you don't want to make up a simple sugar wine. But please, don't waste your mead due to a inexperienced attempt at riddling. I would rather go with the loss of the little bit down at the bottom of the bottle, like people do with home brew, bottle conditioned beer, than to have the mead rush out when you uncap it upside down to get rid of the yeast sludge.

[MadL]

Michaelsbagley; have ye seen this list? The Prickly Pear blend sounds interesting as does "Queen Elizabeth's Mead", get some Pumpkin Mead ready for next Halloween. The Tropical Ambrosia Melomel may not be bad either.

100 Mead Recipies

[michaelsbagley]

Here's a neat little tidbit... The below quote is from the "The accomplisht cook or, The art & mystery of cookery" by Robert May which is a 1685 text on cooking. So for those die hard GAoP purists, this is a period mead recipe as printed over 300 years ago.

To make excellent Mead much commended.

Take to every quart of honey a gallon of fair spring water, boil it

well with nutmeg and ginger bruised a little, in the boiling scum it

well, and being boil'd set it a cooling in severall vessels that it

may stand thin, then the next day put it in the vessel, and let it

stand a week or two, then draw it in bottles.

If it be to drink in a short time you may work it as beer, but it

will not keep long.

Or take to every gallon of water, a quart of honey, a quarter of an

ounce of mace, as much ginger and cinnamon, and half as much cloves,

bruise them, and use them as abovesaid.

Otherways

Take five quarts and a pint of water, warm it, and put to it a quart

of honey, and to every gallon of liquor one lemon, and a quarter of

an ounce of nutmegs; it must boil till the scum rise black, and if

you will have it quickly ready to drink, squeeze into it a lemon

when you tun it, and tun it cold.

To make Metheglin.

Take all sorts of herbs that are good and wholesome as balm, mint,

rosemary, fennil, angelica, wild time, hysop, burnet, agrimony, and

such other field herbs, half a handful of each, boil and strain

them, and let the liquor stand till the next day, being setled take

two gallons and a half of honey, let it boil an hour, and in the

boiling scum it very clean, set it a cooling as you do beer, and

when it is cold, take very good barm and put it into the bottom of

the tub, by a little & a little as to beer, keeping back the thick

setling that lieth in the bottom of the vessel that it is cooled in;

when it is all put together cover it with a cloth and let it work

very near three days, then when you mean to put it up, skim off all

the barm clean, and put it up into a vessel, but you must not stop

the vessel very close in three or four days, but let it have some

vent to work; when it is close stopped you must look often to it,

and have a peg on the top to give it vent, when you heare it make a

noise as it will do, or else it will break the vessel.

Sometimes make a bag and put in good store of slic't ginger, some

cloves and cinamon, boil'd or not.