Mead

[Finman]

Rapid mead: a bottle of vodka and 3 raisins.
.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A bit of trivia for you. Melomel comes from the Welsh word for Honey - Mêl
Mead is the anglicisation of Medd which is Welsh for mead. Methegilin has the same origin but to be more specific methegelin was said to be a medicine rather than just an alcoholic drink.
The Welsh for medicine is moddion - derived from medd (mead)
The Welsh word for doctor is Meddyg which goes back to the dark ages and the doctors of Myddfai - the sons of the lady of the lake ('Prince' Charles's Welsh gaff is in Myddfai - Llwyn Wermwd,the wormwood hedge, another medicinal reference) and just demonstrates that essentially mead, medicine and doctors are inseparately intertwined
In a nutcase - mead is a medicine so essential for your health and wellbeing

Thank me later

 

[Erichalfbee]

A bit of trivia for you. Melomel comes from the Welsh word for Honey - Mêl
Mead is the anglicisation of Medd which is Welsh for mead. Methegilin has the same origin but to be more specific methegelin was said to be a medicine rather than just an alcoholic drink.
The Welsh for medicine is moddion - derived from medd (mead)
The Welsh word for doctor is Meddyg which goes back to the dark ages and the doctors of Myddfai - the sons of the lady of the lake ('Prince' Charles's Welsh gaff is in Myddfai - Llwyn Wermwd,the wormwood hedge, another medicinal reference) and just demonstrates that essentially mead, medicine and doctors are inseparately intertwined
In a nutcase - mead is a medicine so essential for your health and wellbeing

Thank me later

Now come on …… you don’t like mead do you really?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Now come on …… you don’t like mead do you really?

yes - especially a mead made by shire meadery from some of my single apiary honey (got a bottle of carreg Cennen dry here waiting for an excuse to be opened).
And anyway - isn't it a fact that the worse a medicine tastes, the better it is for you?!

 

[Erichalfbee]

isn't it a fact that the worse a medicine tastes, the better it is for you?!

So they say

 

[bignikki]

I'm a wee bit shocked at the cynicism in this thread.
I've always had fair to absolutely blinding (oops! Perhaps not the best word!!!) Results making mead!
I make it with capping wax, the frothy honey from the top of buckets, unripe honey, anything but the best honey.
Honey, water,, a bit of strong tea for tannin, lemon juice, year nutrient and I like a bit of Apple juice in it too for malic acid. Chuck a Camden tablet per gallon in to sterilise it all for two days.
Then stir vigorously to disperse the Camden tablet and Chuck in a wine yeast. You can buy a mead yeast even.
Ferment in a bucket for a week put in demijohns till it stops bubbling. Bottle it.
Keep for five years.
That's it!!
Ok there's a bit more to it than that and,no, you don't have to keep it for that long.
I'll be seeing in the bells with a glass in my hand in a couple of hours.
So happy new year to you all!! And all the best for 2022.

 

[pargyle]

I've tasted some lovely mead, clear bright and good flavour, like most things it takes practice.

Who made it and was it before or after you had Covid ?

 

[BigAshW]

This is my basic mead recipe

Makes 25 litres

9.5 kg honey

313g raisins

5 mugs strong black tea

Two orange zest

OG 1.110

Lalvin D47 yeast.

 

[pargyle]

Or freeze the mead, remove the ice and have an improvised honey spirit...

But don't tell HMRC as distillation by any means of alcohol in the UK is illegal without a licence ...

 

[Wilco]

But don't tell HMRC as distillation by any means of alcohol in the UK is illegal without a licence ...

Thought it was only by distillation by evaporation that is illegal? Guess trying the freezer techniques is going to stay on the bucket list for a while then...

The law is a bit of a sod on this one though- illegal without a licence but you can only get a licence for stills which do over a certain number of hectalitres at a time, which basically means only large scale producers (business) can do it. Several EU countries have an exemption for small scale/personal production.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Thought it was only by distillation by evaporation that is illegal? Guess trying the freezer techniques is going to stay on the bucket list for a while then...

The law is a bit of a sod on this one though- illegal without a licence but you can only get a licence for stills which do over a certain number of hectalitres at a time, which basically means only large scale producers (business) can do it. Several EU countries have an exemption for small scale/personal production.

Legal minimum Size of stills has now been reduced since the 1750 gin act was repealed in 2008.

 

[Fritillary]

"In a nutcase - mead is a medicine so essential for your health and wellbeing"
Well I could believe it!
And the first time I tasted mead which made me think: this really is a class act; why are we not all making this and turning people on to this great drink? is when a bottle of mead won the Best in Show item at the Honey Show at the Royal Welsh. Well, we (stewards & co) tasted it and it was just so good...

 

[mbc]

A bit of trivia for you. Melomel comes from the Welsh word for Honey - Mêl
Mead is the anglicisation of Medd which is Welsh for mead. Methegilin has the same origin but to be more specific methegelin was said to be a medicine rather than just an alcoholic drink.
The Welsh for medicine is moddion - derived from medd (mead)
The Welsh word for doctor is Meddyg which goes back to the dark ages and the doctors of Myddfai - the sons of the lady of the lake ('Prince' Charles's Welsh gaff is in Myddfai - Llwyn Wermwd,the wormwood hedge, another medicinal reference) and just demonstrates that essentially mead, medicine and doctors are inseparately intertwined
In a nutcase - mead is a medicine so essential for your health and wellbeing

Thank me later

And to meddwi is to get drunk!
Blwyddyn newydd dda pawb
Happy New year all

 

[Curly green finger's]

Who made it and was it before or after you had Covid ?

Ask @mbc it was his friend that made it.
Also an old boy I use to know made sparkling mead and probably the best gooseberry fizz this side of the shire.

 

[pargyle]

Thought it was only by distillation by evaporation that is illegal? Guess trying the freezer techniques is going to stay on the bucket list for a while then...

The law is a bit of a sod on this one though- illegal without a licence but you can only get a licence for stills which do over a certain number of hectalitres at a time, which basically means only large scale producers (business) can do it. Several EU countries have an exemption for small scale/personal production.

No . The law relates to distillation by any method and concentration by freezing the distillate is also illegal in the UK without a licence....but there are yeasts that will get to 20% by fermentation and that's a pretty pokey drink if you cam make it palatable !

 

[Wilco]

No . The law relates to distillation by any method and concentration by freezing the distillate is also illegal in the UK without a licence....but there are yeasts that will get to 20% by fermentation and that's a pretty pokey drink if you cam make it palatable !

Thanks, read through gov guidance last night and there's a cunning 'or by any other means'.

 

[pargyle]

Thanks, read through gov guidance last night and there's a cunning 'or by any other means'.

Yes they have you there ... Whether or not the HMRC would go to the trouble of prosecuting you for a gallon or two of high alcohol peach wine frozen down in a gallon plastic container like Invertbee comes in and then the distillate used as the base for a sweet fruit liquer in the way you make sloe gin is doubtful. Depends on how much attention you draw to your illicit distilling ... and whether you leave the evidence around to be found.

 

[mbc]

I used to have a lovely still made from a couple of stainless steel buckets welded together and a stainless pipe full of rasher rings for the condenser, the alcohol was vicious with a greasy film that needed filtering through a carbon filter before drinking.
Eventually after a number of years the alcohol ate through the cheap stainless steal buckets and I never got round to replacing them. Happy days though.

 

[Wilco]

Yes they have you there ... Whether or not the HMRC would go to the trouble of prosecuting you for a gallon or two of high alcohol peach wine frozen down in a gallon plastic container like Invertbee comes in and then the distillate used as the base for a sweet fruit liquer in the way you make sloe gin is doubtful. Depends on how much attention you draw to your illicit distilling ... and whether you leave the evidence around to be found.

True but probably not worth the risk.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Be OK using one of these Then