seanf76

Recipes 

I need a good mead recipe. My friend has bees and is giving me 15 lbs of honey. Do I make a 6 gallon batch or 5 different 1 gallon batches

seanf76

Recipes 

Meant 5 gallon

TheShadowfox

Recipes 

It really depends on what you want to do. Do you plan on making a sweet mead? High alcohol content? Spiced or fruity?

Golddiggie

Recipes 

That will get you about 14% ABV... Change it to 4 gallons total volume and you're in the 17% area.

If it's really good honey, I would just make a traditional mead.

I would wait for a late season harvest if it was me though. Get the darker stuff that has much more flavor to it. I picked up some from a guy in Woburn that was a mid-season harvest and I'm not at all impressed. Seriously lacking in flavor. Both the honey and the mead made with it. Color is also very light. A far cry from the first meads I made using honey from NH that was intense in flavor (both by itself, or just as honey, and once made into mead).

I would ask for a small sample to taste before you take any honey. Granted it's free, but I'd rather have really GREAT [free] honey than ho-hum [free] honey...

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Hopping Tango Brewery

跟猴子比丟屎 ・ Gun HOE-tze bee DIO-se

On Tap: Caramel Ale, Mocha Porter II, MO SMaSH IPA
Waiting/Carbonating: 12.5% Wee Honey II, 8.9% Old Ale, English Brown Ale, Lickah ESB, Mocha Porter II
Fermenting
K1: MO SMaSH IPA
K2:
K3: TripSix
On Deck: Caramel Ale
Aging:mead
Mead [bottled]:Oaked Wildflower Traditional, Mocha Madness, Blackberry Melomel, maple wine


...the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed

Meadrol

Recipes 

If that were the case then why carmelize the honey and make a really great bochet from ho hum honey? Hey....free is free.

Golddiggie

Recipes 

Heathen...

__________________
My RocketHub Project

Hopping Tango Brewery

跟猴子比丟屎 ・ Gun HOE-tze bee DIO-se

On Tap: Caramel Ale, Mocha Porter II, MO SMaSH IPA
Waiting/Carbonating: 12.5% Wee Honey II, 8.9% Old Ale, English Brown Ale, Lickah ESB, Mocha Porter II
Fermenting
K1: MO SMaSH IPA
K2:
K3: TripSix
On Deck: Caramel Ale
Aging:mead
Mead [bottled]:Oaked Wildflower Traditional, Mocha Madness, Blackberry Melomel, maple wine


...the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed

Meadrol

Recipes 

Snob...




J/k!

Golddiggie

Recipes 

Hey, at least you're making yourself a nice target for the bees...

For the meh honey, figure out some other flavors to add to it. You could let it ferment, then drop several split and scraped vanilla beans into it for a few months (up to about 6)... Or maybe some really course grind coffee beans (stuff you like to normally drink of course).

I plan on adding flavor elements to the 'meh' mead I have sitting in vessel now (started it in December). It's only about 14%, and about 4 gallons volume. Just trying to decide what to add to it... I do have plenty of vanilla beans on hand... Hmmmmmmm

Think I need a glass of my [18% traditional] 2010 mead to help me decide.

__________________
My RocketHub Project

Hopping Tango Brewery

跟猴子比丟屎 ・ Gun HOE-tze bee DIO-se

On Tap: Caramel Ale, Mocha Porter II, MO SMaSH IPA
Waiting/Carbonating: 12.5% Wee Honey II, 8.9% Old Ale, English Brown Ale, Lickah ESB, Mocha Porter II
Fermenting
K1: MO SMaSH IPA
K2:
K3: TripSix
On Deck: Caramel Ale
Aging:mead
Mead [bottled]:Oaked Wildflower Traditional, Mocha Madness, Blackberry Melomel, maple wine


...the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed

seanf76

Recipes 

it is honey from last years hives

bk0

Recipes 

Make 5 gallons of semi-sweet mead, then split it into five 1 gallon secondaries and add different fruits and spices to each.