Mead!

Having another go at making mead. I'm not entirely convinced that there's enough honey in it, but there should be. Last year was purely cappings honey, this year I topped it up with pretty much everything that wasn't this year's (including some very old rows honey) to try and get it up to strength for two demijohns worth.

Last year it didn't clear but still had the desired effect but was perhaps a bit too sweet for most (and a distinct taste of cough medicine). This year I've tried to be a little more precise but am now in the wait and see bit.

If I have any advice, don't leave solution in a sterilised bucket for any length of time, after a week, half my mead ingredients were mouldy already :(

Nellie -- what's the recipe you recommend I have never made mead

I have made wine many times in the past
The cough mixture effect happens with wine sometimes as well either stray yeasts or the cambden tablets for sterilising /stopping fermentation ?
I haven't had a great honey crop this year -- too dependant on rape-- so small quantities will be the order of the day :)
I have read you need to mature mead for a long time ? what do you think ?

Depends on the recipe.

If you look out on the interweb thingy, there are recipes that are supposed to be ready after 6 months.

I'm trying the simple approach again, no boiling on general faff required.

The original recipe called for 3lbs of honey per Gallon (5 pints) but I don't think that's enough so I've upped it to approximately 5lbs of honey per demijohn.

To that mix I added 1/4 of a cup of very strong tea, half a teaspoon of marmite/vegemite and the juice of a lime and approximately 1 gram of wine yeast.

Hi Neil
If you want to make a 12% wine strength mead you need 3 1/2 pounds of honey to the gallon.
5lbs will give you 17% alcohol and very few yeast strains will tolerate that.
What usually happens is that the fermentation 'sticks' at maybe 13% or 14 % and you are left with an alcohol with a specific gravity or 1020 or higher which is sickly sweet.

Honey is too expensive an ingredient for serious wine making. I make about 50 gallons of apple wine every autumn and the windfall apples are free.
I have just spent 3 solid hours pressing apples in a wine press and shredding another 25k to soak for pressing next weekend.

The downside of this is that you get to see all the alcohol you drink in 12 months lined up in 5 gallon fermenting vessels and it is a frightening sight.

Beats walking to the off licence and paying for it though.

This yeast should, it was suggested by the man as a high strength strain. I found 3lbs just seemed too weak a solution and didn't ultimately taste of very much so I've upped the concentration with an old jar or two of the year before lasts honey in addition to the cappings. I'll see what happens to it, I'm quite enjoying playing around with the recipe and seeing what works and how it turns out at the moment.

So, if it does turn out that it's appallingly sweet at the first rack off, what are my options? Can I simply take 1/3rd off (for argument's sake) each demijohn, top it up with water, make sure it still tastes of something, maybe add a little more yeast and carry on?

When a fermentation sticks it can be hard to start it again. The best option would be to remove some of the sickly solution, top up with water and add a half pint of actively fermenting yeast. Keep it somewhere above 20c.
Make your wines lower alcohol and just drink more of it if you feel the need.

Mead needs yeast nutrient to ferment out properly as there is no nutrient for the yeast in the honey.

I don't think the fermentation is likely to be an issue, the yeast should be good to 18+% according to the pack and the man in the shop. I do wonder though whether I might have overdone the honey to water ratio and personally I'd rather have a drier than sweeter drink.

The mead has a nutrient (vegemite, marmite is too harsh imo) and tannin. both Of which I can top up as per quantity.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger

Nellie -- what's the recipe you recommend I have never made mead

I have made wine many times in the past
The cough mixture effect happens with wine sometimes as well either stray yeasts or the cambden tablets for sterilising /stopping fermentation ?
I haven't had a great honey crop this year -- too dependant on rape-- so small quantities will be the order of the day :)
I have read you need to mature mead for a long time ? what do you think ?

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DR the official recipe is:

3lbs of honey
1/4 of a mug of stewed tea (for the tannin)
1/2 teaspoon of yeast extract as a nutrient
5ml of lemon juice (citric acid?) I used a couple of old limes in mine rather than chuck them out.
Yeast as per instructions which seems to be typically 1gram per demijohn if you buy a 5gm packet
top up with water to fill.

That's what I'm working from and playing around with

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nellie

DR the official recipe is:

3lbs of honey
1/4 of a mug of stewed tea (for the tannin)
1/2 teaspoon of yeast extract as a nutrient
5ml of lemon juice (citric acid?) I used a couple of old limes in mine rather than chuck them out.
Yeast as per instructions which seems to be typically 1gram per demijohn if you buy a 5gm packet
top up with water to fill.

That's what I'm working from and playing around with

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Nellie thanks a lot I started some today but didn't remember your recipe as well as I thought I had .
so it contains 3lbs of honey (ok there)
57ml of lactic acid (had that for making flower wines) eek!!
1 cup of lemon tea oops!!
some yeast nutrient (don't know what that does) from Ebay :)
1 packet of yeast (turns out thats way too much)

Tasted like nice lemonade before the yeast went in
So all in all I expect the airlock to clog and a jolly big bang landing me in trouble again LOL!

Nellie
Bubbling now :)

How many days before we can drink it ?

Can a high dose of lactic acid be fatal :)

I should have written your recipe down

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Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger

Can a high dose of lactic acid be fatal :)

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Surely you could use Tonto as the first volunteer for working out the LD50 for lactic acid.

PS. None of your old cups of tea for me, you can get it all here. The ingredients are quite inexpensive.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Home-Brew-Online-Shop

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jon

Surely you could use Tonto as the first volunteer for working out the LD50 for lactic acid.

PS. None of your old cups of tea for me, you can get it all here. The ingredients are quite inexpensive.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Home-Brew-Online-Shop

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Tonto can't drink.
One ginger beer and he's gone on the warpath.
Besides it's going to be too good for the likes of him.
But you right I might just give him a dose of lactic acid and check what happens:)

Should knock all the mites off him.
He'll emerge in spring like a new man.

The ethanol is a good internal cleanser. You should encourage him.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jon

Should knock all the mites off him.
He'll emerge in spring like a new man.

The ethanol is a good internal cleanser. You should encourage him.

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Is that the antifreeze the Italians were putting in their wine a few years back Apparently it makes it really sweet but all your hair falls out and your gums bleed a bit.
still it's cheaper than adding sugar :)

By the way they have a nice still at the website
What do we call distilled mead again :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nellie

DR the official recipe is:

3lbs of honey
1/4 of a mug of stewed tea (for the tannin)
1/2 teaspoon of yeast extract as a nutrient
5ml of lemon juice (citric acid?) I used a couple of old limes in mine rather than chuck them out.
Yeast as per instructions which seems to be typically 1gram per demijohn if you buy a 5gm packet
top up with water to fill.

That's what I'm working from and playing around with

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Hi,
got 20 liters on the go just now (but with lots of spices/chilli/ginger), going to have a crack at this today, any recommendation on what honey to use (or not)?
Have some rape honey I am keen to be rid of...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Calum

Hi,
got 20 liters on the go just now (but with lots of spices/chilli/ginger), going to have a crack at this today, any recommendation on what honey to use (or not)?
Have some rape honey I am keen to be rid of...

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I used the stuff I had handy including half a jar I use at breakfast
I am slightly regretting that now though 'cause there was a little bit of toast floating on the top this morning.

Rape honey should be very popular with your customers but I'm sure you can sacrifice a bit for the greater good :)
Heather honey has protein so might be difficult to get clear (just guessing)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger

Heather honey has protein so might be difficult to get clear (just guessing)

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Pectolase will clear pectin haze and amylase will clear a starch haze.
I bought 500g of pectolase to add to my apple wine.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/problems.asp

My guess would be that any haze in mead wasn't pectin - that is part of the plant cell wall and pulpy fruits have quite a bit. Heather honey has other proteins.

Isinglass might do it (if there was a problem), but that would be an issue for vegetarians perhaps. Anyway, who wants to make mead from heather honey?!

My one and only large batch of mead was made from oilseed rape honey, set and dissolved out of scraped comb in water. There was some pollen which might have added the nutrients which I didn't bother with. The mead was delicious (after a year or two). Time I repeated the experiment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gavin

Time I repeated the experiment.

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...but it still makes more sense to use apples rather than honey!

Strictly speaking Jon that might not be mead.
Sounds a bit like cider to me

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger

Strictly speaking Jon that might not be mead.
Sounds a bit like cider to me

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Caught me on a technicality with your legal mumbo jumbo.

Could we go halfers and try cyser instead?

If we called it Pfizer we might get some donations from a well known company

(alternatively a law suit might follow)

I think honey free mead sounds safest like caffeine free coffee Label it :-

"Brewed to an original SBAi recipe "

"Warning may contain nuts"

THat's on my list of things to try, but I'd like to sort out a successful batch of mead first then start to give cider/cyser a go.

Hi Nellie

I read somewhere the medicine taste is caused by too little acid
There's no danger of that in my batch I've gone a bit overboard.
Still it might be useful as a varroa treatment.

Gavin's keeping his recipe to himself I think he might have plans to enter some in the Dundee flower show next year (he won some honey thing this year).
I'm going for "worst dressed Beekeeper" myself

Ta for that nugget, very handy to know. I know the competition is steep, but aim high I say, I always put coal, dust, buts of dead bee and small children in my honey just to make the judges life more interesting. I did use reflectors once but that just got me banned.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger

I'm going for "worst dressed Beekeeper" myself

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I thought you looked quite dapper with the mask and the Stetson.
Nothing like minimal protection.
You must have those hybrid bees well trained - or maybe you just push Tonto in front of you like a human pin cushion.

This link has info about smells and aftertastes.

http://www.home-winemaking.com/winemaking-3c.html

Did Nellie really say bee butts in the honey ??

You need a finer mesh that colander has to go :)


Re the outfit the gloves come in handy
Tonto is not scared by bees his skin is like hand tooled Spanish leather

Damn you stupid autocorrect on the phone, one of these days I'll leave a post typed out on the phone exactly as the autocorrect thinks it should be. I had something in a mail, "drones" maybe, autocorrected to "Giraffes" last night which might possibly have confused the new beek I was about to send it to if I hadn't spotted it.

I know some people love them but honey shows do nothing for me.

As the Bee said to the Varroa "Giraffe" (Needs a Scottish accent :) )

I can't type anything on the phone poperly so I niver uze it.

If at first you don't succeed -- skip the skydiving

Though the bubbling might have slowed so I have added some more honey.
Then I had a genius idea and bunged in a few aspirins and paracetemol.
Built in hangover cure -- how good is that :)

Good plan, next step add the bacon, sausage, egg and beans ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nellie

Good plan, next step add the bacon, sausage, egg and beans ?

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That's brilliant !! :)

I'm guarding this mead carefully because the last time I made wine (some years ago) I have a deep suspicion that the cat may have drank some of it during the night and then to cover up his crime he piddled in the jar to make up the missing contents.

When we drank it everyone agreed that was what must have happened.

I've nailed up the cat flap for the duration of the ferment

I don't get caught twice :)

If you want your mead to "taste of honey" you need a honey with a fairly pronounced flavour to start with.I think O.S.R. honey is a bit bland and results in a very mild "honey" taste.Another mistake is to try to obtain a very high alcohol mead as this will also give "off" flovour.I've got a recipe that got a "first" at the Royal Show many years ago - I'll see if I can find it and post it on the web.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GRIZZLY

If you want your mead to "taste of honey" you need a honey with a fairly pronounced flavour to start with.I think O.S.R. honey is a bit bland and results in a very mild "honey" taste.Another mistake is to try to obtain a very high alcohol mead as this will also give "off" flovour.I've got a recipe that got a "first" at the Royal Show many years ago - I'll see if I can find it and post it on the web.

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Stop teasing lets have that recipe :)

Had to use rape honey though because its all I had (have included some toast)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger

Stop teasing lets have that recipe :)

Had to use rape honey though because its all I had (have included some toast)

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Still looking

Two recipes:- but first activate yeast as follows:-
1/4 pint water
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon tartaric acid
mead yeast
1/4 teaspoon yeast extract(marmite or similar)
1/4 teaspoon ammonium phosphate

Place the water,sugar,tartaric acid and yeast extract in a pan,bring to the boil.Put hot into a sterilised bottle and cover.Do this gradually so as not to crack the bottle.When ONLY WARM add the ammonium phosphate and shake to dissolve.When only LUKE WARM add the yeast,place a tuft of cotton wool in the neck of the bottle.(Choose a bottle that will fill to about 5/8 full).Leave to stand in a warm place(70 deg to 80deg)for 48 hours.

Recipe No1 :- Dry mead.
3lb - 3 1/2 lb honey dissolved in enough water to make 1 gallon.
Previously activated yeast.
Bring honey and water to the boil,reduce heat and simmer for a maximum of 5 minutes.Stand on one side to cool.Filter thro a wine bag or similar into fermentation jar,when lukewarm add the activated yeast and plug the neck of the fermentation vessel with cotton wool and leave for 2 days.When the first vigorous ferment has died down insert the airlock.Keep in a warm temperature - between 65 deg and 80 deg is ideal.When fermentation ceases,stand the vessel in a cool place for a month,then siphon off into clean sterilised bottles and cork.Keep as long as possible before drinking !.

Recipe No 2 :-Sweet Mead.
4lb -4 1/2 honey dissolved in enough water to make 1 gallon
previously activated yeast
Follow the method for dry mead as previous.
If at the end of the fermentation the mead is not sweet enough,add another 4 ounces of warmed honey and stir up the contents of the vessel.Replace the airlock and leave for a further 3 weeks.

General note.
Stronger flavoured honeys make for a more intense "mead" flavour.Higher alchohol content can give "off" flavours.Mead definately improves with time - don't drink it "too young" let it mature.Whil'st simple,this recipe was the winner and best in show at the Royal Show in the 70's.The honey used was Lime which gave a pale mead and the mead had matured for 1 year before the show.

mead in the Guardian