basic mead

Adapted from a this recipe, scaled down to 1 Gal. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/drink/views/201058

3 lb. silverbow clover honey (comes in a miniature plastic milk jug)
1 Gal. water
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 packet red star Cote Des Blancs wine yeast

1 Gal. batch in a growler. Just messing around, seeing what I get.

fermentation was going a little slow, so I added about an ounce of orange juice to see what it would do. harmless I figure, since other recipes call for zest of orange or even orange adjuncts. fermentation seems to have picked up.

you need yeast energizer in addition to the nutrient.
energizer = DAP
nutrient = other vitamins

thanks for the tip, I'll definitely do that. hope it's not too late for this batch. It is fermenting pretty good now, maybe the OJ had some tasty stuff in it for the yeast.

next 1 gal batch I'll add yeast energizer. That's the good thing about small batches, if you screw up it's not the end of the world.

why is it that you need to add yeast nutrients to meads but its not usually recomended with beers?

It has to do with the chemistry of honey (lacking in nitrates or some other compounds that yeast need). However I have read some reference that say you can get by without it, it will just take longer.

After almost 1 month, this experimental 1 gallon batch is pretty darn good. I've never tried mead before, but I like this stuff. I'm using a wine thief to take samples from the secondary. I seem to keep taking more and more samples. The recipe I used for this calls to 2-4 weeks primary, and 1-4 months aging in secondary, however I don't know how much longer this batch will be around.

I bottled this several months ago after it cleared, put it in the cupboard and basically forgot about it.

I just cracked open a bottle and man it is good stuff! It carbed somewhat in the bottle, so next time I'll wait longer to bottle it. A few ounces at a go is plenty for me. I could easily see getting plastered on this stuff if you didn't use moderation. It sneaks up on you.

I'm liking mead now. It just takes a while and you have to be patient, but this basic recipe turned out great.

It is so freeken cool to bring these things full circle. There are a lot of recipe discussions here that are left open ended, and bland. This is Awesome. Congrats on the big new mead!

I agree...I love hearing AND seeing about the finished product. Nothing drives me more crazy then a thread that sounds promising and then it just goes dead and you never hear about it again.

Dan

this recipe sounds very easy. i'm beginning to start playing mad scientist with one gallon batches. i never tried a mead and this looks like one that is hard to mess up!

I'm not a big fan of energizers and nutrient addins. I usually just add a cup of super-steeped orange pekoe tea (tetley tea that's been steaping for like, fifteen to twenty minutes with two teabags per mug) to the wort while the honey is disolving in it. When all is said and done, it doesn't affect the flavor of the end product, but it gives the yeast something else to chew on.

Also, if you can, get "Raw" honey, Usually found at organic food stores. I find it makes for tastier brew.

a varient of this I'm trying right now, I've substituted real maple syrup for honey. I'm excited about when that's ready. A true Canuck Brew!

I am about to make my first mead and wonder what would be the best honey to use. I have had recommendations to use clover or orange blossom. What do the forum members suggest for a recipe; honey, yeast and any additions.
Thanks.
Mike.

Welcome to HBT Mike!
Honey is a personal choice based on likes and availability. Orange blossom sounds good but so does clover and both would make a nice mead.

The basic mead recipe is pretty much 3 pounds of honey to a gallon of water. Nutrients are needed but you need to follow the directions on the package as they differ between manufacturers. After that the sky is the limit for additions.

One of my favorites so far has been Vanilla mead but I've done plain, cyser, orange, and spiced. I even added some herbal tea in one. The one I've been meaning to get made is a ginger mead.

The trick with mead is to have a lot of patience. That is the most important ingredient.

What is mead? Simply put, the current definition is basically any beverage in which honey makes up the majority of the fermentable sugar. But that's still an arbitrary call. Yet another one of those "who gets to decide" things that pretty much define the human power dynamic.

My favorite honeys to get started are orange blossom and raspberry blossom. I am a firm believer in the nutrient additions. I made too much fusel-infused garbage before I figured that out that I'll never go back (yes, I've made many crappy meads). You can have very good mead without infinite patience if you keep your yeast happy.

The Joe's beverages get very divergent reviews. I've had a few I liked, and some I didn't like at all (I get to taste a lot of other people's mead).

I wrote a book on mead. Some folks find it useful. The only pitch I will make is that with the cost of honey these days, it's probably a decent hedge against wasting that money you spent on honey making a batch that you don't really like.

Meads do require patience... at least a year in the bottle before they start to get good.

Hi, I am new to the forum and I have been brewing in two Mr. Beer kegs for a little over a year. I've brewed about 12 batches since last June. I finished reading the 'Joe's Ancient Orange Mead' thread today and am interested in trying my hand at a mead. Has anyone used a Mr. Beer keg for a primary fermenter for a mead? I realize the plastic is oxygen permeable, so was considering fermenting a mead in the Mr. Beer keg for 2-3 weeks and then transferring to two 1 gallon jugs with airlocks, with the realization that those bottles would be left a lone for many months. Is this a bad idea?