Mead me in St louis

K

Kevin the grey

Joined
Aug 26, 2005
Messages
4,106
Recipe for a 1 Gallon Batch of Mead
3 lbs honey
3 qts water
1 package wine yeast

There is a whole bunch of gobbledygook after that short list . I cannot follow it. I do not have the equipment.

I wish to make my mead in the most rudimentary fashion. Perhaps even a smaller batch than this in case my crude set up needs a little tweaking.

I spoke with a man who said you could get a one gallon jar some cheese cloth and your ingredients . Everything else just makes it easier. (or more complicated) The Valve is somewhat replaced by the cheesecloth. Fermentation is supposed to be much quicker due to its open nature . No tubes or funnels needed . You can just decant into a couple of smaller jars.

Please be gentle with this musty starter.:rolleyes:
I will have little else than previously mentioned . I do have a nice stainless steel pot to give me a fighting start with a relatively sterile beginning.

Also If this can be transposed into making mete or apple wine that would be great.
 
For a straight mead I prefer:

3/4 gal water
1 quart honey
1tsp malic acid
1tsp tartaric acid
1tsp grape tannin
1 package champagne yeast

Some say boil the mixture or sulfite it a few days before and then pitch the ingredients.

Let the mead set for a min of 2 years. It will be dry, not syrupy.

I love mead and have made it many many times.

for a good sparkling mead recipe go to The Joy of Homebrewing book and look up Barkshack Ginger Mead.
 
I've done mead with a similar recipe, but used Irish ale yeast and added a yeast nutrient supplement (available at most brewing stores). It was ready a bit sooner (perhaps one year?).

By all means use either an airlock or a rubber stopper with a flexible hose. Put the end of the hose into a container of water to make an airlock. The cost is minimal (maybe $3 for an airlock and stopper, way less than the cost of the raw material), and with an open fermentation, you never know what type of yeasts you will get in your brew. The resulting flavors can be unpleasant. Also, disinfect everything with bleach and water before you start.

Open fermentation can work in Europe , where the wild yeasts are supposed to be brewing yeasts. The belgian brews are open fermented, IIRC. I understand that here in North America the native yeasts are bread yeasts, and they can ruin your brew.

Pat
 
Apple wine is a wee bit trickier. I've done some good ones, other batched continued fermenting to high pressures. The explosion of 12oz glass bottles at 3am will wake you up.

There are a number of good texts on just wine and mead. Well worth the effort. I'd second the referral to Papazians book. I've been meaning to try the Barkshacks mead for years. Maybe this winter.

Pat
 
I made the Barkshack with black raspberries.

I put it in a 5 gallon keg and at about six months pumped some out. YUCK! Like bad Dandelion wine.

I stuck it in my cellar meaning to dump it out later. However later was like 2 years later when I decided to clean out the cellar. I thought I'd pump some more out just to see what it tasted like.

Killer, all the off flavors had dropped out and it was very dry and raspberry ey.:thumbup:

Frank Androczi, who ran Little Hungary Farm Winery here in WV till he died always said at least 2 years. He made some killer melomel. I still have like a case of it. It is almost brandy like. Has a lot of apple and pear in it.
 
Gents I am listening to the voice of experience . There just has to be a bit more necessity and bare bones thrown into the mix . Hey I could call this the "Skull and cross Bones" mead

What do I need to do to make mead with what I have ?
I know the basics seem simple to one who has moved beyond them.
I don,t mind dry mead. There is a lime one that is very interesting .
I prefer a sweet slightly musty one. I think this is all in my favor.
Isn,t a sweet mead one that is less mature?
Would the musty come from a cruder process?

I had some a buddy made that was earthy ambrosia.
A beautiful buzz in the night .
A restful sleep with a clear head the next morning.
Though I was wearing a bra when I woke up. :confused:
 
Sweet mead just has more honey. When the alcohol level gets to a certain point the yeast stops working so you have more sugar left.

I find the musty kind of ones you are talking about are usually heavy on the honey.

Outdoors,

Don't know about the papazian mead being quick. However in my experience they have all improved with age except one hibiscus metheglin and a raspberry wheat honey beer I made once.
 
HD:
I thought P. said you could drink the Barkshacks at 6 mos, but I may be misremembering.

I did one mead with champaign yeast that we drank too early - we called it 3 swallows mead. The taste was rank, but after 3 swallows, you didn't care :) A few bottles made it to 18 mos, and it was excellent by that time. My ale yeast mead was quite drinkable at 8 mos, but didn't change much from that point up to the 1 year aniversary.

A quick point: you can use sulfites to stop the fermentation at whatever point you like. I'm allergic to them and I prefer not to add any chemicals to my brews, so I don't use 'em. They do work, though and many winemakers use them.

You can also adjust final sugar levels by chosing yeasts that die off with lower alcohol levels. E.G., the champaigne and wine yeasts can ferment to high levels, likewise some belgian ale yeasts. The irish style yeasts (and other beer yeasts) die out at lower levels.

Pat
 
I too have found myself to be allergic to sulfites . Do they not work by killing?
I prefer a more pleasant rapport with my palate.
Thanks for the links. It is time I stopped dilly dallying. I have an excellent blend of
Argentine and Canadian honey .

If I was just more forthright when I could get unpasteurised honey for a dollar a pound. :p
All the Free bee parts you could eat . It just adds fiber. :thumbup:
 
You'll want to pastuerize anyway, Kevin. But you and your jar of tomatoes already know that, eh? :)

Pat
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top