malkore

Recipes 

Mead making...it can be a curse. I always end up getting on a mead making kick for a year, and then my stuff has to sit 1-2 years in bottles to reach peak flavor.

I actually have 6 bottles of mead that are 11 years old..3 bottles of 2 different styles.

You just cannot knock back a lot of mead like you can beer, or even wine. I've done 2 bottles of wine in an evening with the mrs. but 2 bottles of mead...you'd find me south of the border, naked, next to a dead donkey wearing a tutu.

Mead is fierce stuff.

Honestly I'd start on the simpler side. Look at Joe's Ancient Orange Mead (or any of the variations, including my own), or make a straight mead: water, clover honey, yeast, and a little nutrient.

then age it 12 months before trying any. it only gets better.

the price of honey does make 5 gallon batches of mead run high $$. figure $60 on average for non-exotic honey.

__________________
Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10

masonsjax

Recipes 

I've recently been thinking about making some mead. I brew a lot of beer, and have done apfelwein a few times. I really don't want 5 gallons of mead though. I'm thinking I'll just make a gallon batch or two.

__________________
I aim to misbehave.

TVarmy

Recipes 

Ah. Looks a bit pricy for me ATM. Maybe if I can get a part time job this summer (college student).

I'm expecting I'd probably need to drink mead by the wine glass, because I'm kind of a lightweight.

__________________
Zorillo Brewery: Jinxing the hops since 2010.
Primary: Edwort's Robust Porter, Hard Lemonade
Secondary: Air
Bottled: Apfelwein, Wheat Stout, Edwort's Haus Pale Ale
Thinking about: more Citrus Hefeweizen, Strawberry Blonde, Apple Graff, Lambics

Yooper

Recipes 

Oh, then make a couple of one-gallon batches! You can primary them in buckets, then rack to a Carlo Rossi wine jug for secondary. A #6 bung fits, so it'd be a much more manageable expense and wouldn't require an expensive carboy (or more than 3-4#s of expensive honey!).

Even the JOAM is pretty good, and it's relatively cheap to make compared to the "good" meads. Since one glass can put you down, you can bottle in beer bottles and get a couple of small glasses out of each bottle.

__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

AZ_IPA

Recipes 

I love making one gallon batches of mead (don't know if it's been said, but you'll get about 9 "beer" bottles out of a gallon of mead):



Joe's Quick Grape Mead is by far my favorite, and at seven months in the bottle tastes like a really nice red wine with a delicate honey nose

MedsenFey

Recipes 

LOL.

You make a good argument for scaling back the ABV a bit. If you bring them in at 10-12%, you can actually enjoy them in a satisfying quantity without discovering you have a new tattoo the next morning.

For new mead makers there is often a notion that higher ABV equals more flavor. The truth is quite the contrary. Ethanol actually masks other aromas in scientific testing, and has a similar effect on flavor components.

__________________
"Our results are merely the result of carefully managing the transformation of bee spit into yeast excrement."
--- Wayneb

TVarmy

Recipes 

Well, I started some of Joe's Ancient Orange Mead, using a blood orange I had lying in the fridge. I didn't have an airlock free (for 2 months), so I decided to use some sanitized tin foil instead. If it works for starters, it should work for a gallon jug. Next batch, I'll pick up some more bungs and airlocks.

__________________
Zorillo Brewery: Jinxing the hops since 2010.
Primary: Edwort's Robust Porter, Hard Lemonade
Secondary: Air
Bottled: Apfelwein, Wheat Stout, Edwort's Haus Pale Ale
Thinking about: more Citrus Hefeweizen, Strawberry Blonde, Apple Graff, Lambics