Extended mead aging?
 

I’m a homebrewer who has only recently become interested in branching out into ciders, meads, and other varietals. I’d like to take my first stab at a one-gallon batch of mead, and the long aging process for this type of wine has me thinking of planning ahead for some nice ‘occasion wines.’ Specifically, I’ve got a three-month-old daughter and I’d love to give her a bottle of some mead I’ve made on her graduation day or wedding day. I just think it would be a lovely thing to give her something that I had anticipated sharing with her when she was still so young.

But anyway, with what I have in mind, I did have a couple questions for the mead-heads over here…

When does mead hit its ‘peak’ flavors in general, or is this something that depends on the particular recipe? If I’m considering aging a mead for around 20 years then I want to be sure it doesn’t taste like vinegar when I finally uncork it. In short, am I thinking along the right timeframe for this type of wine?

For the lengthy aging period I’m talking about, does someone have a recipe they’d recommend? As a newbie, I’d appreciate a recipe that is not horribly difficult for a mead first-timer to pull off but really becomes something special over the long haul.

Thanks… :)

Most traditional meads have the potential to age that long.

And by Traditional, I believe that Medsen means a strait honey mead with no adjuncts.

Find a good honey varietal and follow the simple process of making a mead. Remember to sanitize everything that is going to touch the mead.

Most meads will get better over time but from what I have read the most stable of meads are the ones that are simply honey, water, yeast.

Check out the Sticky, it will give you lots of help.

I also heartily recomend Ken Schram's book "The Complet Mead Maker". It is kinda known as the bible of mead making.

For your purposes, I definitely would not suggest the great newbie stand by of JAO. But I do recomend finding a good honey and some good water.

I am sure that you can get a good suggestion as far as longeivy from your local brewshop on what wine yeasts would be good.

Good luck, I was thinking on doing something like this myself.

Matrix

Thanks for the advice, let's meet back here in 20 years and compare notes!