Barter mead for honey

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Mikemarcus

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Hi all

I'm an avid mead maker. Until now I have been using supermarket bought honey and tap water. However I would like to start brewing using locally souced honey and river water.

Would anyone like to barter some London honey for a few bottles of mead? Preferably this would turn into an annual arrangement.

Mike
 
Up until now I have been making it on a small scale. My current batch was just 18 bottles. I'm looking to start brewing on a slightly larger scale now, possibly 50 litters per 6 monthly batch.

I'm also looking into creating a hopped mead at around 6-8% to be consumed in the same way as beer. I'm going to need a heavier, more full bodied honey for this though. Maybe heather honey or something similar.
 
If you are actually from London, then would the river in question be the Thames?

I suspect that you really need to rethink your proposition as river water may not be quite the ingredient that will create the right image. Visions of small African boy with small tin can and big thirst down by the local river.

Perhaps rainwater would be a more apposite ingredient. There has been a lot of it available of late.
 
No. The river in question is the Dollis Brook. I have traced the sources and as far as I can tell (unlike the Thames) there are no sources of contamination upstream. In addition I will get a sample lab tested for industrial pollutants. It will then be passed through a 4nm filter to remove biological contaminants and boiled for extra safety.

Rain water doesn't have a good mineral profile and would result in a rather insipid mead. You will find that most beer breweries source their water from local rivers. In fact brewers in the US add mineral salts extracted from the river Burton to their IPA recipes as they believe that it will result in a more authentic brew.
 
I've had a similar request in Devon from a chap at the recycling centre- quite looking forward to having honey to swap!
 
Hi all

I'm an avid mead maker. Until now I have been using supermarket bought honey and tap water. However I would like to start brewing using locally souced honey and river water.

Would anyone like to barter some London honey for a few bottles of mead? Preferably this would turn into an annual arrangement.

Mike

Where in London are you?
 
In fact brewers in the US add mineral salts extracted from the river Burton to their IPA recipes as they believe that it will result in a more authentic brew.

I didn't know it travelled that far but I have heard of UK breweries which import water by the tanker from Burton for their beer.
 
No. The river in question is the Dollis Brook. I have traced the sources and as far as I can tell (unlike the Thames) there are no sources of contamination upstream. In addition I will get a sample lab tested for industrial pollutants. It will then be passed through a 4nm filter to remove biological contaminants and boiled for extra safety.

Rain water doesn't have a good mineral profile and would result in a rather insipid mead. You will find that most beer breweries source their water from local rivers. In fact brewers in the US add mineral salts extracted from the river Burton to their IPA recipes as they believe that it will result in a more authentic brew.

interesting! I was considering making mead using reverse osmosis water... i guess calcium carbonate, magnesium sulphate and Mg chloride are added??!?
 
I live in NW7

My current mead is 11% and I make both sparkling and non sparkling versions.
 
I suppose you are using some 3 lbs of honey per gallon at that figure?

PH
 
Spot on PH - 1.36kg = 2.992lbs:drool5:
 
Try jacking it up to 4lbs, and in return the Alc level goes to 15%+ which makes for a better mead. 11% just seems a bit of a waste of a bottle...lol

PH
 
11% is really well balanced but I'm interested to try a stronger mead. I wonder how strong would be too strong?
 
Well in my opinion its as much about taste as alcohol content. I have tried pretty hard to create a balanced brew.

One of the reasons why I go for 11% is that its a perfect percentage for sparkling mead. It seems that the bubbles are really fine at this level of alcohol.
 

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