jkrug

Recipes 

I have looked for recipes for basic mead recipes. I have one but I am not to sure what I have to do to get it started. Do I have cook the honey? What do I need to do to get started?

fatbloke

Recipes 

If you look over at the Gotmead forums, their excellent "NewBee" guide is linked in the left hand side dialogue/links box (yellow background colour) is a very helpful read to the new mead maker.

Welcome to the forums......

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jkrug

Recipes 

Thanks for the quick response. Yes the site is great. I have one more question, the recipe calls for bread yeast. Do you think i could use one of the red star yeast instead?

1 gallon batch

3 1/2 lbs Clover or your choice honey or blend (will finish sweet)
1 Large orange (later cut in eights or smaller, rind and all)
1 small handful of raisins (25 if you count but more or less ok)
1 stick of cinnamon
1 whole clove ( or 2 if you like - these are potent critters)
optional - a pinch of nutmeg and allspice (very small )
1 teaspoon of Fleishmann’s bread yeast ( now don't get holy on me--- after all this is an ancient mead and that's all we had back then)
Balance water to one gallon

Bluespark

Recipes 

No, use bread yeast. Champagne yeast will take it dry, magnifying the bitterness if the pith. This recipe is good the way it is.

fatbloke

Recipes 

Plus one on that.

The dryness will indeed focus the flavour on the bitterness from the orange pith.....

The bread yeast will get to about 12% ABV as it is.

The recipe makes for a sweet, reasonably well balanced nice drinkable brew.

I know it says its drinkable once the fruit has dropped but I much prefer mine after its had about 6 months ageing....S' up to you....

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"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away". Tom Waits.

Oh, and here's some blog stuff!

jkrug

Recipes 

Thanks for all the input. One more question. I was wanting to make 2 Batches but only have 6lbs of honey. Would cutting it down to 3lbs per batch have a big negative effect on alcohol content or anything else? Thanks again for all the input.

fatbloke

Recipes 

Probably not.

I routinely make it to the numbers......just the wrong numbers i.e. 1 gallon or should I say 1 imperial gallon a.k.a. 4.55 litres rather than 1 US gallon/3.78 litres but still with 3.5 lb of honey. So it wouldn't be so sweet, but sweet enough.

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"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away". Tom Waits.

Oh, and here's some blog stuff!

jkrug

Recipes 

Thanks for all your help. It is appreciated. Can't wait to get started.

CreamyGoodness

Recipes 

I'm certainly not the pro that bloke is, but I will tell you that after 30+ gallons... its a good recipe the way it is, it is difficult to mess up too badly, and it is far too drinkable for your own good.

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You are more likely to have a threesome with members of the Japanese women's curling team whilst spinning a plate on your head than you are likely to screw up a batch of JAOM.

fatbloke

Recipes 

Wotcha Creamy, not seen you posting around the bazaars recently....

Anyway, I'm no Pro! Just a bloke who's fascinated by the making of mead (especially traditionals).

I make far too much and don't drink enough of it. I'm bone bleedin' idle when it comes to bottling, hence I get to bulk age quite successfully

But I made about 5 gallons of JAO before I realised my screw up, making it to imperial gallon quantities, rather than US gallon ones. Hence finding out that it still seemed to taste fine when a little less sweet.

Dry (yes I have made a couple with wine yeast, but they've always needed back sweetening to mask the bitterness) is .......... bleargh! It's not a good dry recipe, though if it was made with just the zest and segmented flesh it might be fine - I've been too damn lazy to find out !

So it's just easy to try and help others not to make the same mistakes that I have (a lemon based variant wasn't too bad either, but damn! a lime variant was disgusting).....

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"What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away". Tom Waits.

Oh, and here's some blog stuff!