basic mead

Jack · 05-12-2008, 06:09 AM

I hate sweet meads that I've tried commercially, but have heard good things about home made meads. As a result, I mixed up a basic dry mead recipe found in the Complete Joy of Homebrewing as a 1/2 gallon batch. To ensure a dry result, I pitched a liquid champaign yeast. No nutrient was used, and nothing was pasteurized or boiled before use.

After ten months in the fermenter, it has a sweet flavor up front and but seems drier in the aftertaste. Is this normal? Or is it indicative that my fermentation has become stuck?

The flavor is ok right now, but doesn't seem like anything to write home about, so I'm thinking about figuring out something to add to it or blend it with. Maybe in raspberry season, I should throw some raspberries in to give it a little bit of tartness?

**Yooper** · 05-12-2008, 12:34 PM

Do you have a hydrometer? A reading will tell you if the mead is finished or not. I'm betting that it's done, but can't tell without a reading.

**BigKahuna** · 05-12-2008, 03:32 PM

The mind plays tricks on you weather you know it or not!
I think that many people perceive mead as "Sweet" because your brain equates the honey flavor with "sweet". I am always amazed at how "Sweet" even the driest mead I can find seems. Upon careful tasting...I do realize that it is dry...but 30+ years of honey=sweet is a hard habit to break.
I would be sure that for 10 months it should be done fermenting.

Jack · 05-12-2008, 10:33 PM

YooperBrew, I guess I haven't taken a hydrometer reading because I never bothered to take an initial reading so I figured it wouldn't be that useful. But come to think of it, if the gravity is ~1.010 it'll probably be done, but if it's ~1.30 it probably won't be.

BigKahuna, that's a definite possibility. A lot of commercial meads that I've found at the liquor stores are just god awful sweet. Mine is a LOT drier than that, so it could just be my mind playing tricks on me.

tranceamerica · 05-13-2008, 09:14 PM

I recently bottled a batch of the exact same mead recipe. The "antipodal mead". I used all of the ingredients he recommended - including the yeast nutrient - and mine finished in 3 weeks.

I'm currently carbonating it, and so haven't tasted it in a couple of weeks, but at bottling time, it had a nice floral honey flavor (that was a bit "sweet") but also the dryness. I've had drier mead, but this was very nice. At this point, I'd say that the honey notes, and the dry notes haven't blended yet, but after a few months, I'm sure it will be amazing.

The next time I do it (which will be soon), I will add a bit more acid blend, to take some edge off the alcohol flavor.

Really, this is an amazing drink, and even at bottling time (when it was green) it is one of the most wonderful things I've ever made. And much simpler than beer...

I did this same recipe a few years ago, w/o the yeast nutrient. It fermented forever, and after 6 months, I got sick of waiting and bottled it. It was probably still fermenting. But it was amazing & dry. I'd always use a dry champagne yeast for this, because I still find it to be "sweet" (due to the floral/honey flavor) even when it's dried out by the yeast.

I did another batch using a sweet champagne yeast, and was less impressed.