Mead: never again

There should be a big sign on the side of the highway to warn people about mead. About how it tastes like sugar water prison liquor junk. I would pay tax dollars for that.

I've never bought mead so i don't know what it's supposed to taste like. I've had plenty of beer and the beer I've brewed is reasonably acceptable or better. Same with apple cider. I've had wine but I would never attempt to make it.

But when I tasted mead I made from a "ez" recipe I found on these forums, I could not imagine drinking another sip. It was strong and it tasted like.... if McDonald's made liquor, it would taste like this.... soulless, no character, junk. A cheeseburger has more character. In theory it sounds nice but it lacks complexity. I dumped that batch without a second thought and I have no regrets.

I have no experience with mead but from what I have read about it, it gets better with time, and when I say time I mean years.

I've never had mead either. Every recipe I see makes me think it doesn't taste so great...

Shoulda concentrated it and seen if it was worth your time then....

I have tasted mead and yes it isnt great, however I wouldnt compare it to anything made in prison... I have tasted "Pruno" its fruit cocktail with bread thrown in that has been fermented in a bag or another container that sits in a toilet until it ferments... I think sipping on mead would be like sipping a fine wine compared to pruno...

But dont let the taste of mead hinder you from brewing other things such as beer or sake. Even with beer there is unfavorable piss water and then there is finely crafted brews that makes you appreciate the taste again. Maybe the recipe you tried wasnt good? Who knows?

When it's done RIGHT, it's beyond great. If you rush it though, or don't use quality ingredients, you'll get something piss-poor. Mead takes MUCH longer than beer to go from pitching of the yeast to bottle, or glass. IMO, you should plan a year for anything up to about 14%, 16-18 months for up to 18% and longer if you go above 18%.

Lumping all mead into your category, since you made an 'ez' recipe (post it up) is just foolish. It's like someone getting a poorly made steak and then saying all beef is crap.

BTW, I made my first mead in 2010. I still have a decent amount in bottles. Most of what's left wasn't bottled for a full year. I also have batches made last December that are not yet bottled. I have no worries about these being great batches (from what I've sampled so far, they're on track for greatness).

Let's just hang on a minute here.

"I have tasted mead" is not the same thing as "I have tasted good mead".


I have tasted good mead, and good mead is definitely worth drinking. In fact a brewer in my homebrew club is an accomplished mead maker and brought his multiple gold-medal winning traditional mead, along with his runner-up BOS peach melomel, to our last meeting. They were both fantastic, and both scored extremely well in the competition. The traditional mead was something like 41, and the peach mead was 44.5, which is possibly the highest score I've ever seen in a competition. The peach mead was so good that I can't imagine how good the beer was that actually beat it for BOS. As soon as I tasted it I thought, "there's been some kind of mistake...this should have won."

And these are not the first good meads I've had...simply the most recent. There is another semi-local brewer who makes lots of meads, and he was at NHC last year pouring several. They were all fantastic. His "date rape melomel" was my favorite homebrew of the entire conference, out of the hundreds that I tried throughout.

So please don't give up on mead just because you haven't had a good one yet.

I was hesitant to tie up a carboy in something I've never tasted. My daughter who is a big renaissance fair gal was lobbying big for this. I stopped into BevMo & picked up a bottle. I'm glad I did.

I took one swig from the glass & threw it out. Poured out the whole bottle, and it wasn't cheap! I think I paid $30 for it.

I will never brew this ever.

I remember my first mead attempt. I made 12 bottles and had planned to have one a month after 3 months from its birth. Rocket fuel or paint remover would best described the taste when it was younger then 6 months old. At 8 or 9 months something magical happened and it shifted into something fantastic. Those remaining bottles were gone shortly after.

I think its rather unfair to claim all mead is terrible and souless. Which recipe did you use? How long did you age it for? And probably most importantly; what kind of Honey did you use? Cheap-o megamart stuff that may not even be real honey? Or did you get honey from a bee farm or reputable seller? The quality of the honey is as important if not more important then aging it.

Not saying that mead is your thing, but whenever I get a bottle from the local meadary I simply cannot get over how fantastic it is. Better then any fine wine I have ever had.

Slyko said:

I was hesitant to tie up a carboy in something I've never tasted. My daughter who is a big renaissance fair gal was lobbying big for this. I stopped into BevMo & picked up a bottle. I'm glad I did.

I took one swig from the glass & threw it out. Poured out the whole bottle, and it wasn't cheap!

I will never brew this ever.

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I've never bought mead, but I did try a bit from one of the people from the LHBS I used to visit. That's what drew me to make my own.

No idea what you bought, but (like most things) you can easily buy crap as not. I've had many people tell me how they also tried store bought mead and didn't like it at all. But, they really, really like mine.

I've had best results, so far, with my traditional mead batches. Simply made with good regional/local wildflower honey, quality yeast, treated right and given the time needed to clear/age and become great. From what I've been told, most commercial meaderies pump out their mead fast. IMO, that's probably half the issue with the meads in bottles now.

Also, not sure what you consider 'not cheap' but that's also very subjective. I have zero issue paying $25-$50 (or more) for a bottle of wine. I also know that the chances of that $10 bottle of wine being the same quality is minimal (at best).

Slyko said:

I was hesitant to tie up a carboy in something I've never tasted. My daughter who is a big renaissance fair gal was lobbying big for this. I stopped into BevMo & picked up a bottle. I'm glad I did.

I took one swig from the glass & threw it out. Poured out the whole bottle, and it wasn't cheap! I think I paid $30 for it.

I will never brew this ever.

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I've never had a commercial mead that I liked. It's all too cloying, in my experience, because I guess they rush it to the shelves or back sweeten way too much.

I've many homemade meads that truly are nectar of the gods.

My batch did not taste like rocket fuel or paint thinner. I did a fine job fermenting and letting it sit for a few weeks. It tasted the way it was supposed to. I used champagne yeast which is super clean and has not much character. I didn't say it tasted bad. It just tasted empty and strong. There's no point to it. If I wanted to get drunk there are better ways. If I wanted--want-- to enjoy a drink, mead is permanently at the bottom of my list. Life is too short.

Champagne yeast is the worst to use on mead. No wonder your extremely young version tastes empty and strong.

It's like making a Belgian beer with US-05 and then saying the Belgian beer style sucks.

AZ_IPA said:

I've never had a commercial mead that I liked. It's all too cloying, in my experience, because I guess they rush it to the shelves or back sweeten way too much.

I've many homemade meads that truly are nectar of the gods.

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Totally agree with this. There is some terrible commerical meads out there. Syrupy and cloying and everything a mead should not be.

To the OP, I still think you jumped the gun on pouring it out after only a sip, more so if that mead was less then a month old. I really don't think mead will be good before 6 months, even the 'quicky' recipes.

I would have bottled that mead and sat on it for a year. If it was still terrible then I would toss it, but thats just me. Again maybe mead is not your thing, but a good mead should have plenty of character, especially if its been allowed to mellow which would remove that strong alcoholic taste.

iambeer said:

There should be a big sign on the side of the highway to warn people about mead. About how it tastes like sugar water prison liquor junk. I would pay tax dollars for that.

I've never bought mead so i don't know what it's supposed to taste like. I've had plenty of beer and the beer I've brewed is reasonably acceptable or better. Same with apple cider. I've had wine but I would never attempt to make it.

But when I tasted mead I made from a "ez" recipe I found on these forums, I could not imagine drinking another sip. It was strong and it tasted like.... if McDonald's made liquor, it would taste like this.... soulless, no character, junk. A cheeseburger has more character. In theory it sounds nice but it lacks complexity. I dumped that batch without a second thought and I have no regrets.

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Change your name to iammead then things may work out?

I have had some good mead, I have had some great mead. I have my own bee's so my mead is in the good side, but I had a hand in it from the start to finish.

iambeer said:

My batch did not taste like rocket fuel or paint thinner. I did a fine job fermenting and letting it sit for a few weeks. It tasted the way it was supposed to. I used champagne yeast which is super clean and has not much character. I didn't say it tasted bad. It just tasted empty and strong. There's no point to it. If I wanted to get drunk there are better ways. If I wanted--want-- to enjoy a drink, mead is permanently at the bottom of my list. Life is too short.

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I believe you are putting too much stock into one recipe and damning the whole lot because you didn't approve of the outcome.
1. You were tasting too soon.
2. There are more recipes.
3. Honey is like grain, different pollen and nectar are different flavors. Its endless the different types, styles and choices making mead, much like beer.

Wow. A lot of mead hate here.

You didn't try the McDonald's honey packet mead recipe that was floating around here a while ago did you? I could see that tasting like something McDonalds would make.

I have been extremely impressed so far with the delicious and complex flavors involved with mead and mead making and find them quite pleasurable to drink. I have only had very dry meads and melomels which taste nothing like too sweet honey drink. The real key that I have learned is that time and patience make the mead. If you get impatient and drink a mead too early, I can see the rocket fuel analysis or too sweet alcoholic drink critique being valid. I have never had a commercial mead either but do it right and be patient and the rewards are quite nice.

Judging the entire category by one "ez mead recipe" may be jumping to conclusions. Would you judge the entire beer category off one batch of natty light?

I did my first traditional batches with EC-1118 yeast (a champagne yeast) and had them come out great. Of course, I gave them a year (and more) to age before trying any.

It sounds like the OP didn't use good methods to make the mead (could be the fault of the recipe). Thinking that mead will be ready to drink in a time frame like beer is just stupid (not being harsh, just honest). Try a recipe/method posted by an experienced mazer, like those found on the Got Mead forums next time. Mead also benefits (tons) from aging time (in bulk then in bottles). It also will continue to clear for a good amount of time. More than a full year from pitching.

I'm planning to make a couple of batches of mead within the next week or two. Just need to decide how strong and which yeast I will use. Those are two important factors/decisions for mead.

iambeer said:

My batch did not taste like rocket fuel or paint thinner. I did a fine job fermenting and letting it sit for a few weeks. It tasted the way it was supposed to. I used champagne yeast which is super clean and has not much character. I didn't say it tasted bad. It just tasted empty and strong. There's no point to it. If I wanted to get drunk there are better ways. If I wanted--want-- to enjoy a drink, mead is permanently at the bottom of my list. Life is too short.

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Those "quick meads" are usually sack meads or close to it and tend to be very sweet as a variety. My "Ancient orange" turned out like that, peeled a layer of skin off my tongue at one month . Most of the forums you would have read about it would also have warned you about young meads, and plenty of talk about that not being a "true" mead. Mead is just wine using honey for the sugar component at it's heart. You can't make decent grape wine in a month. I have several one gallon batche s bulk aging for over a year now and they are entirely different animals from when they were young.
And I still won't expect to crack one open for another year except for "destructive testing".

Also, Champaigne yeast is best for high SG must and\or high Alc content, or making champaigne. Lalvin D47, 71B, or EC1116, are best. Good honey will also make a world of difference. Great honey wil knock you socks off.

Good honey, correct yeast, patience, sanitation, and patience will serve you well allways. A bad recipe is a bad recipe. Not every car is a Yugo.

weirdboy said:

Let's just hang on a minute here.

"I have tasted mead" is not the same thing as "I have tasted good mead".


So please don't give up on mead just because you haven't had a good one yet.

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Yeah that's kinda like saying the first hamburger I have had is from Mickey D's and I'll never have another one again.....

A "quick mead" like joes, and a properly made mead that has aged for a year or 10 is NOT the same thing.

I'll have to keep my eyes open for a commercial one, so I can try it.

Thanks for the advice all. What I got was this:

1. I don't know what good mead tastes like and I never will because it's not commercially sold.
2. I have to age fermented honey water for a good 28 months before it tastes interesting.

I agree with these things therefore I repeat myself: never again. Life is too short.

My P street Whole Foods has mead but I didn't buy it because the packaging looked like backwoods people made it and yet it was still over priced.

Additionally, a helpful comment in this thread warned me about too sweet commercial mead... kind of like what I made. Too sweet, too much ABV.

PS my next post will be titled: 90% of US Craft Breweries: never again. As in, there are only a handful of decent craft breweries in the US that make beer worth buying. In the meanwhile, 50% of German Breweries: never again.

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JK, Mead isn't my thing, but neither is a lot of drinks.

I have had good mead that my brother made. He also has some sitting and waiting to taste decent.
I like mead when it's good, but it's not cheap to make, it takes a LONG time to do right and if I mess it up I don't know for a long time.
I like other people's mead.

I would probably make it if I did it with an experienced mead maker.

Mead is great if you do it right, it needs time.

What's two years? your kid crapped his pants for longer then that.

Mead doesn't take years!!!!!!!!!

Sure, if you throw some honey, water, and EC1118 in a jug and ferment at 72, it will take awhile.

But with proper technique - proper pitch rate, aeration, degassing, fermentation temp control, staggered nutrient additions, etc. - it is a factor of weeks/months, not years.

I've had 21 day old mead from a member on this forum and it was great!

AZ_IPA said:

I've had 21 day old mead from a member on this forum and it was great!

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To be fair, that mead was filtered using some kind of crazy commercial filtering system. It was tasty, though.

Slyko said:

I was hesitant to tie up a carboy in something I've never tasted. My daughter who is a big renaissance fair gal was lobbying big for this. I stopped into BevMo & picked up a bottle. I'm glad I did.

I took one swig from the glass & threw it out. Poured out the whole bottle, and it wasn't cheap! I think I paid $30 for it.

I will never brew this ever.

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Just like anything its not for everyone. Just like many people wont like sour beers, but for others its the most amazing thing in the world.