So then, mead...

[JamezF]

I have about ten pounds of honey from cappings and suchlike. My son and I fancy having a go at making mead which I've never done before. I have Lalvin EC-1118 and D47 yeast that should be good to ferment to around 15-18% ABV and some generic yeast nutrient. I also have (literally) gallons of home-grown apple juice that could be used to make an experimental cyser, frozen raspberries and blackberries that might work for melomel and I think I should be able to fit demijohns into my honey warmer so I can use it as a temperature-controlled fermentation cabinet (I have one in the brewery, but it's full of beer at the moment). Other than that I'm largely ignorant of the dark arts of making mead and related products.

Anyone care to suggest good recipes to start with? (Ones that don't involve "Forget that. Spread it on toast and eat it" )

Are there other fruit that work well in a melomel?

James

 

[W0otz]

Not much use to you, but I'm in a vaguely similar situation having been given https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B093QG5VQF/ for Christmas. It came with a basic recipe but I'm interested to see what other options people have tried and tested, rather than picking random recipes off the web.

The closest I've ever got to brewing is Elderflower "champagne" so I've got a lot of learning and experimenting to do!

 

[plain_hunt]

I have about ten pounds of honey from cappings and suchlike. My son and I fancy having a go at making mead which I've never done before. I have Lalvin EC-1118 and D47 yeast that should be good to ferment to around 15-18% ABV and some generic yeast nutrient. I also have (literally) gallons of home-grown apple juice that could be used to make an experimental cyser, frozen raspberries and blackberries that might work for melomel and I think I should be able to fit demijohns into my honey warmer so I can use it as a temperature-controlled fermentation cabinet (I have one in the brewery, but it's full of beer at the moment). Other than that I'm largely ignorant of the dark arts of making mead and related products.

Anyone care to suggest good recipes to start with? (Ones that don't involve "Forget that. Spread it on toast and eat it" )

Are there other fruit that work well in a melomel?

James

I use recipes from the attached, and have made the Basic, Blackberry and Modern very successfully. The blackberry is very good. I also tried organise using fruit juice, very dry, and rose hip, which was more like a medium dry. It might have some cyser recipes, I’ll have a look when I get home.

 

[JamezF]

Thank you. That seems like it might be a reasonable place to start.

James

 

[colinc]

I have been playing with this in its crudest form this winter. Home grown raspberries worked better than some shop bought I tried, blueberries did nothing, added some vanilla essence to raspberries which smelled good in fermentation but not noticeable when finished. Blackberries have been my favourite so far.

 

[W0otz]

Sort of followed this recipe: Joe's Ancient Orange Mead Recipe
Used Mangrove Jacks yeast as recommended, didn't weigh out or measure the honey, just measured the starting/finishing gravity.

Made the batch on 1st Jan, bottled today. Using this calculator it's ~15.5%


Having drunk the 2 glasses (dregs, a bit cloudy from the yeast) I can confirm it's definitely alcoholic. I've not tried mead before and I don't know how representative mine is - it's got similarities to a dry white wine, yet is definitely its own thing. I'm not a wine drinker but the 2 glasses went down very easily!

 

[plain_hunt]

I use recipes from the attached, and have made the Basic, Blackberry and Modern very successfully. The blackberry is very good. I also tried organise using fruit juice, very dry, and rose hip, which was more like a medium dry. It might have some cyser recipes, I’ll have a look when I get home.

Just reminded to look - no cyber recipes in the book, but why not try mixing a quantity of apple juice with honey instead of other fruit and fermenting it? It can’t be that hard, can it??

 

[Bluebell1985]

Sort of followed this recipe: Joe's Ancient Orange Mead Recipe
Used Mangrove Jacks yeast as recommended, didn't weigh out or measure the honey, just measured the starting/finishing gravity.

Made the batch on 1st Jan, bottled today. Using this calculator it's ~15.5%
View attachment 35526View attachment 35527

Having drunk the 2 glasses (dregs, a bit cloudy from the yeast) I can confirm it's definitely alcoholic. I've not tried mead before and I don't know how representative mine is - it's got similarities to a dry white wine, yet is definitely its own thing. I'm not a wine drinker but the 2 glasses went down very easily!

I’m informed you should let it mature for a minimum of 6 months before drinking. I have 25 bottles of 5 different flavours on the go. I sampled the excess and found it to be very potent