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OfflineArtnotwar
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Anyone here have any experience with Mead?
    #22016779 - 07/29/15 07:34 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead

Quote:

Mead (/ˈmiːd/; archaic and dialectal "medd"; from Old English "meodu") is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops. (Hops act as a preservative and produce a bitter, beer-like flavor.) The alcoholic content of mead may range from about 8% ABV to more than 20%. The defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the beverage's fermentable sugar is derived from honey. It may be still, carbonated, or naturally sparkling; and it may be dry, semi-sweet, or sweet.

Mead is known from many sources of ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. "It can be regarded as the ancestor of all fermented drinks," Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat has speculated, "antedating the cultivation of the soil."




Anyone tasted it, or made Mead?

I thought honey wasn't normally used in fermentations because of its antibacterial properties?

Sounds like something I'd like to try making.


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Until the 20th century, reality was everything humans could touch, smell, see,
and hear.
Since the initial publication of the charged electromagnetic spectrum, humans
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Offlineundersativaskies
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: Artnotwar]
    #22016814 - 07/29/15 07:42 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

I like meade. Can get you pretty twisted. If you can find it get a bottle of vikings blood and split it with a buddy. Kind of religous thing between my roommate and I.


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OfflineYrat
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: Artnotwar]
    #22026207 - 07/31/15 09:16 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

i've made several gallons of mead.  i love it.  i need to make more soon.  needless to say, i ran out quite awhile ago.

and viking blod is the shit.


--------------------
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil
to one who is striking at the root."
-Henry David Thoreau
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InvisiblecowsRmeat
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: Yrat]
    #22044084 - 08/04/15 07:32 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Quote:

Yrat said:
i've made several gallons of mead.  i love it.  i need to make more soon.  needless to say, i ran out quite awhile ago.





It usually takes a few months or so, doesn't it? Its not as quick as a beer brew, is it?


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OfflineTheHerbalColorado
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: Yrat]
    #22057773 - 08/07/15 10:19 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Quote:

Yrat said:
i've made several gallons of mead.  i love it.  i need to make more soon.  needless to say, i ran out quite awhile ago.

and viking blod is the shit.




I don't have nay experience with brewing. Do you guys think it would be difficult to model a homemade mead after Viking Blod?


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OfflineNizzyJones
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: TheHerbalColorado]
    #22057982 - 08/07/15 10:59 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

CowsRmeat: Yeah it takes quite a bit longer in secondary. At least a few months.

Quote:

TheHerbalColorado said:
Quote:

Yrat said:
i've made several gallons of mead.  i love it.  i need to make more soon.  needless to say, i ran out quite awhile ago.

and viking blod is the shit.




I don't have nay experience with brewing. Do you guys think it would be difficult to model a homemade mead after Viking Blod?




IIRC thats a sweet mead, right? Sweet meads are definitely easier to brew than dry. Getting your hands on hibiscus and balancing the hops right would be the main challenge.


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Offlinemakaveli8x8
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: NizzyJones]
    #22089744 - 08/14/15 12:51 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

mead done right is really tasty, better than wine.  but when you do mead wrong it can be pretty bad as well.

so if you do it, invest the time and money to get the gear to do it right.  i did it with beer bottles and they all turned out crap, could have been brewed a little different/wrong i dunno, but the stuff i put into a different bigger bottle turned out perfect.

long story short, basically just make sure you are really clean, treat it like an open wound, keep it clean, work fast, make sure you get a good fermentation going, ect ect


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InvisibleOeric McKenna
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: makaveli8x8]
    #22089770 - 08/14/15 01:10 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Ive brewed many batches..
Its the finest!


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OfflineSatyr604
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: Oeric McKenna] * 1
    #22093817 - 08/15/15 07:29 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Right now, I have about 10 litres of grape mead, 10 litres of plum mead, 4 litres of bochet mead and 4 litres of mead with mixed fruit. All of it is made with fruit from my own garden.

If you're just starting out, I can recommend a JAOM, or Joe's Ancient Orange Mead. It's a nearly foolproof, cheap recipe, ideal for beginners and the result is really tasty. Once you've got a first batch under your belt, try a bochet. It is, in my opinion, the best kind of mead around and nearly impossible to get commercially.

Mead isn't that hard to make, really. It tends to be more forgiving when it comes to sterilization and all that. Of course, you should always see to it that you work as cleanly as possible, but it seems to be less vulnerable to infections and the like.

If you do not have a carboy/demijohn, it is possible to just get one of those gallon jugs of water in the supermarket and use that to brew in. Stick a balloon or condom on top as a ghetto airlock. However, don't leave it in there for too long (I'm talking in the order of months), since it'll oxidize the mead at some point. Aging is best done in glass.

Quote:

Ancient Orange Mead (by Joe Mattioli)
1 gallon batch

3 1/2 lbs Clover or your choice honey or blend (will finish sweet)
1 Large orange (later cut in eights or smaller rind and all)
1 small handful of raisins (25 if you count but more or less ok)
1 stick of cinnamon
1 whole clove ( or 2 if you like - these are potent critters)
optional (a pinch of nutmeg and allspice )( very small )
1 teaspoon of Fleishmann’s bread yeast ( now don't get holy on me--- after all this is an ancient mead and that's all we had back then)
Balance water to one gallon

Process:
Use a clean 1 gallon carboy
Dissolve honey in some warm water and put in carboy
Wash orange well to remove any pesticides and slice in eights --add orange (you can push em through opening big boy -- rinds included -- its ok for this mead -- take my word for it -- ignore the experts)

Put in raisins, clove, cinnamon stick, any optional ingredients and fill to 3 inches from the top with cold water. ( need room for some foam -- you can top off with more water after the first few day frenzy)

Shake the heck out of the jug with top on, of course. This is your sophisticated aeration process.

When at room temperature in your kitchen, put in 1 teaspoon of bread yeast. ( No you don't have to rehydrate it first-- the ancients didn't even have that word in their vocabulary-- just put it in and give it a gentle swirl or not)(The yeast can fight for their own territory)

Install water airlock. Put in dark place. It will start working immediately or in an hour. (Don't use grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away in the 90's)( Wait 3 hours before you panic or call me) After major foaming stops in a few days add some water and then keep your hands off of it. (Don't shake it! Don't mess with them yeastees! Let them alone except its okay to open your cabinet to smell every once in a while.

Racking --- Don't you dare
additional feeding --- NO NO
More stirring or shaking -- Your not listening, don't touch

After 2 months and maybe a few days it will slow down to a stop and clear all by itself. (How about that) (You are not so important after all) Then you can put a hose in with a small cloth filter on the end into the clear part and siphon off the golden nectar. If you wait long enough even the oranges will sink to the bottom but I never waited that long. If it is clear it is ready. You don't need a cold basement. It does better in a kitchen in the dark. (Like in a cabinet) likes a little heat (70-80). If it didn't work out... you screwed up and didn't read my instructions (or used grandma's bread yeast she bought years before she passed away) . If it didn't work out then take up another hobby. Mead is not for you. It is too complicated.
If you were successful, which I am 99% certain you will be, then enjoy your mead. When you get ready to make different mead you will probably have to unlearn some of these practices I have taught you, but hey--- This recipe and procedure works with these ingredients so don't knock it. It was your first mead. It was my tenth. Sometimes, even the experts can forget all they know and make good ancient mead.




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InvisibleBacchus
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: Artnotwar]
    #22095934 - 08/15/15 06:24 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Quote:

Artnotwar said:
I thought honey wasn't normally used in fermentations because of its antibacterial properties?




Yeast is a fungus.


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OfflineArtnotwar
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: Bacchus]
    #22097343 - 08/16/15 02:22 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

What the fuck? How did I go all these years without knowing that? I always thought yeast was bacteria.


--------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Until the 20th century, reality was everything humans could touch, smell, see,
and hear.
Since the initial publication of the charged electromagnetic spectrum, humans
learned that what they can touch, smell, see, and hear... is less than one
millionth of reality.
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OfflineBlueKoi
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: Artnotwar]
    #22134096 - 08/24/15 06:26 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

I drank it once at a festival and ended up crawling back to my tent because I lost the ability to stand upright.
I don't like wine or beer but I do have a taste for mead. The one I like was made with maple and it had a pretty interesting taste.
I'm thinking about brewing some here at the house, and if I remember correctly it takes close to a year to get a smooth taste to it.


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OfflineAchillita
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: BlueKoi]
    #22144448 - 08/26/15 03:49 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

I'm planning to make some mead for the hell of it. 3 pounds of honey in a gallon, with some baking yeast and raisins. and then a balloon on top. It's supposed to be some really easy way to make mead. After the yeast doesn't make as much CO2(it's told by the balloon), I put it in another container to age.

I'd like to try my hand at this before i try and get serious. I'm curious though, How does aging the mead help the flavor? Will it not taste as well right after the main fermentation?

Sorry, I'm a noob at this.


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Offlinemakaveli8x8
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: Achillita]
    #22144499 - 08/26/15 04:32 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

it'll taste like fire (higher alcohols), as it ages those deterate/gas off/ w/e  and that leaves the smoother tasting ones behind.  Basically yeast makes alot of different kinds of alcohols, rubbing alcohol for example you wouldn't drink, but yeast makes it in small amounts.

anyways just spend the $1 and get real yeast.  honey is expensive, you should at least try to make it somewhat right


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We were sent to hell for eternity :hellfire: Ø:omgawesome:h®
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Offlinemakaveli8x8
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: makaveli8x8]
    #22144504 - 08/26/15 04:36 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

thats also why people use wine bottles, the cork lets it slowly gas off more natural, it also lets the flavors concentrate because it gas's off more/volume decreases slightly


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We were sent to hell for eternity :hellfire: Ø:omgawesome:h®
We play on earth to pass the time :foreheadslap:

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OfflineYrat
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: makaveli8x8]
    #22146205 - 08/26/15 12:33 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

i usually use a champagne yeast for mead to get a nice high alc %, EC1118 I believe


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to one who is striking at the root."
-Henry David Thoreau
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Offlinemakaveli8x8
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: Yrat]
    #22149269 - 08/26/15 10:11 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

yah i always use those lalvin yeasts or whatever their called.  Those liquid yeasts seem like a marketing thing and way overpriced


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We were sent to hell for eternity :hellfire: Ø:omgawesome:h®
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OfflineSatyr604
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Re: Anyone here have any experience with Mead? [Re: makaveli8x8] * 2
    #22151443 - 08/27/15 01:13 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Quote:

I'm planning to make some mead for the hell of it. 3 pounds of honey in a gallon, with some baking yeast and raisins. and then a balloon on top. It's supposed to be some really easy way to make mead. After the yeast doesn't make as much CO2(it's told by the balloon), I put it in another container to age.

I'd like to try my hand at this before i try and get serious. I'm curious though, How does aging the mead help the flavor? Will it not taste as well right after the main fermentation?

Sorry, I'm a noob at this.




On baker's yeast:

I've done quite a few batches with bakers yeast. It's not that it won't work or that it'll turn out bad. It's possible, but not ideal. Here are some things you should be conscious of:

-One of the main advantages of baker's yeast is its will to survive. It's a really tough strain of yeast that doesn't need much pampering. Yeast starters? Nutrients? Ideal temperatures? Psh. Get it in there and it'll fight for its share of sugar and it won't stop feeding, pooping out alcohol and co2 till it's dead.

-Unfortunately, that's pretty quick. Bread yeast will poop out a lot of co2, since it's supposed to leaven and aerate dough. It will not produce that much alcohol. Your maximum abv will be around 8-10%. You can, theoretically, achieve higher abv's by stepfeeding, but it's not really worth it. You want higher abv's, get a different yeast.

-Because it stops fairly early, it has a tendency to leave lots of residual sugars and produce a rather sweet mead.

-Your resulting brew will have a, well, bread-y flavour.

-The biggest difficulty while working with baker's yeast, is that it barely flocculates. You should rack your mead when the lee's (sediment) gets to the bottom and your brew is quite clear. With bread yeast, this can take quite a while. This sob won't settle down. On top of that, when it does settle down, it's extremely easy to kick it back up again. A gentle shake is all that's needed to go from crystal clear to opaque again.

That said, it's not impossible to use baker's yeast. Hell, it can produce some pretty nice brews. But be aware of the difficulties it brings along and ask yourself whether it's more trouble to get some actual wine/ale yeast than dealing with everything I described above.

On raisins:

Good. Raisins are a great source of nutrients for the yeast. Baker's yeast isn't picky, but nutrients never hurt.

Bringing it over to another container:

This is called 'racking' your mead. You can rack to a secondary container when it's done fermenting, which is indeed indicated by less production of co2. However, even then I would personally wait at least another two weeks before racking, just to be sure. Mead should never be hasted.

Once it is in your secondary carboy and all the sediment has sunken to the bottom, which can take quite a while when using baker's yeast, it's time to either rack again or to bottle to age it. Some people advise to age it in the secondary, yeast and all, but I wouldn't do that. Leaving your mead on a sediment of dead yeast can cause nasty off-flavours to develop. Once the mead is crystal clear, get it off the sediment. I prefer aging in bulk, rather than in individual bottles.

If you're going to add herbs or spices, the secondary is the time to do so. Do not leave them in too long, some spices like cloves or peppercorns can become overwhelming. If you plan on adding fruits, you can add it in either primary or secondary. If you add fruits during primary, some of the sugars in the fruit will ferment together with the honey. The sweetness of the fruit will be less, leaving the more 'complex' flavours. If you add fruit during secondary, the sugars will remain intact and it will sweeten your mead somewhat and give a stronger fruit taste.

Why age your mead?

Right after it's done fermenting, the mead will have a harsh alcohol taste and will taste like rocket fuel. It'll burn, even if there's very little alcohol in there. If the yeast is still in there or the mead is still cloudy, these can affect taste as well. If you used fruits, or especially herbs and spices, these tastes will mellow out with age. This is a good thing to know if you've overdone it. It'll age out. The more it ages, the more the tastes in the mead will blend into a whole. It's more a unity of tastes, rather than different, seperate tastes put together. If that makes sense.

This is not fun to hear, but mead is either a question of patience till a batch is done or of just forgetting about batches you've made entirely. I advise the latter, it'll be the easiest. Make the mead and when it's time to age it, put it in a closet somewhere and forget about it for as long as possible. I have demijohns that have been sitting here, aging for at least two years now.

Mead doesn't require a whole lot of skill, knowledge or attention. It does require patience. And lots of it. However, the recipe I posted earlier of JAOM is the fastest I know.


--------------------
To do: sclerotia, DMT, mushrooms, LSA, mescaline.


Edited by Satyr604 (08/27/15 01:20 PM)


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