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honeywine · 10-16-2012, 12:39 AM

Hello all,

I'm looking for a small brewer to help me create samples of a honey wine I'm launching in the next year. Anyone in the Brooklyn/Manhattan/Queens area?

**landshark** · 10-16-2012, 01:03 PM

Wouldn't honey wine just be mead?

And with my experience, a good mead takes 2-3+ years to age.

**cheezydemon3** · 10-16-2012, 01:06 PM

How small does he have to be?

**bluemoose** · 10-16-2012, 01:12 PM

I'm 5'2". Let me know.

**cheezydemon3** · 10-16-2012, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluemoose

I'm 5'2". Let me know.

Got me beat, but somehow I think he must need a smurf or something. Guys like you and me aren't that hard to find.

**landshark** · 10-16-2012, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheezydemon3

Got me beat, but somehow I think he must need a smurf or something. Guys like you and me aren't that hard to find.

The blue skin tone of a smurf might throw him off though. I would think it would be hard to concentrate with a little blue brewer running around in a diaper.

Smurfette on the other hand... well, also hard to concentrate.

**Golddiggie** · 10-16-2012, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by landshark

Wouldn't honey wine just be mead?

And with my experience, a good mead takes 2-3+ years to age.

Yup, its mead. How long it should/needs to age has a good amount to do with the strength, yeast used, honey used, and processes used. A LOW ABV mead could be ready for bottles in a year (or so).

BTW, mead, like other wines, is heavily [flavor] influenced by the honey used. The honey can be very different from year to year even if gathered from the same hives at the same time. So, unless the OP has the same batch of honey he used available, mead made now could be very different. If he's looking for help in actually making the batches of mead, the that's a bit different. If that is the case, then he can also PM me about it.

**cheezydemon3** · 10-16-2012, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golddiggie

Yup, its mead. How long it should/needs to age has a good amount to do with the strength, yeast used, honey used, and processes used. A LOW ABV mead could be ready for bottles in a year (or so).

BTW, mead, like other wines, is heavily [flavor] influenced by the honey used. The honey can be very different from year to year even if gathered from the same hives at the same time. So, unless the OP has the same batch of honey he used available, mead made now could be very different. If he's looking for help in actually making the batches of mead, the that's a bit different. If that is the case, then he can also PM me about it.

But how TALL are you?

camiller · 10-16-2012, 02:28 PM

A commercial meadery opened here (actually Bellevue, NE) late last year. They seem to manage fermentor to bottle in 3-months, and the mead is quite good! So good in fact that their first production run sold out in weeks after their grand opening, of course their second production batch was already in the fermentors so they closed for a couple months and had a second grand opening. Once the second batch was bottled they installed new larger fermentors (IIRC they went from six 50-gallon fermentors to six 200 Gallon fermentors). Of course the second batch sold out and after another brief closing they reopened and have been open since.

Point being it doesn't take 2-3 years for mead to be good.

Dankbrewer · 10-16-2012, 04:23 PM

Al Boyce in Minnesota makes meads really well and has then ready in just a couple of months. he use over pitches yeast, and yeast nutrient and aerates daily for the first 14 days of fermentation. I've tasted his mead when it's only a couple months old and it is fantastic. If you just pitch a pack of yeast, then yes, you will have to wait 2 years before the fusels are gone, but if you don't create the fusels to begin with then you can drink rather quickly.