Never tried Mead Questions.

1. Is mead made commercially so I can try some to get an idea what they are like? If not, why? Is it an aquired taste that most consumers do not enjoy?

2. Is it hard to make? I see it takes 4-12 months, if you screw up that is alot of wasted time.

3. Do you bottle mead like beer or wine?

4. Is there anything else someone that has never tried/made mead should know?

1. Yes. Go to your local wine store and ask where they keep it.
2. No. It's easier than beer, it just takes FOREVER before it's ready to drink. 9-18 months minimum.
3. Take your pick. I prefer putting it in 1L pop bottles.
4. Make sure to add nutrient to the must. And watch out for vikings breaking into your home like those Capital One commercials.

Good Answer!
The only other thing I'd recommend is that if you try a bottle from the store, and you don't like it, you should try another....and another. There are plenty of BAD brands out there, and plenty of good.
2 of the Colorado Meaderies that are very good are:Meadery of the Rockies, and Redstone Meadery. Both produce a nice mead. For the cost of a bottle, you can make a gallon.

Kahuna is 100% right, don't think you don't mead because you don't like what you buy at the store. I bought three different brands, all of which I at least disliked. Then I bought a bottle from Redstone and it was fantastic. Granted, while I was tasting I was already several weeks into 3 different batches of homebrew mead, trusting in my fellow mead maker telling me whatever you make is home is going to be good.

As long as you are sanitary, then its hard to screw up too much.

Thank you all for the replies, this forum has been great for me!

I have another question:

Is the bulk of the time to make a mead bottle aging? How long do you spend creating it before it becomes hands off?

Well its a really hands off hobby. Get it all set up, and fermenting. Some people like to do scheduled nutrition additions, but after that its good to go. Rack into secondary at between 1.00 and 1.02. Then just sit back and enjoy. The vast majority of the time is just aging in secondary/tirtiary etc whatever you want.

Some people do like to rack it every month or two, just to get it off the lees, but it isn't always necessary

if you want mead comercially get the redrock meadery brand.

It is good and it is also what you could expect to make yourself.

"Bunratty Mead" from Ireland is basically white wine with mead added so don't think that's what mead is all about.

Redrock Mead is the ONLY mead I've heard of from multiple, educated sources, that's worth trying. You may spend $30 for a bottle of it if you can find it.

mead is easy to make. honey, water, yeast nutrient AND energizer, and yeast. wait a month, then rack it to clear for another month then bottle.

that's the super simplistic view, but it works. most will advise against boiling the honey. I don't boil it.

the aging is the hard part....you can end up with 6 kinds of mead in a short time frame, none of it at peak flavor for a year or more.

White Winter Winery also has some decent meads.

Redstone is good, no doubt about it, but the Eastern Europeans, and especially the Poles, have been making mead for centuries. Kurpiowski Royal Mead is oak aged for 5 years and is made with a 1:2 proportion of water to honey. Don't ask me how they manage to ferment the stuff at this ratio - that's one of the mysteries. Fortunately I still have a bottle left!

So there' two gallons of honey to every one gallon of water? How the hell is that even possible! I want to check out some European meads and ciders, so thanks for pointing me in a good mead direction.

Is it 2:1 in volume, or weight?

I ask since we use the weight of honey, and the volume of water, in our recipes. I too can't fathom 2:1 honey to water, even slowly feeding honey over a year....

that's hellacious yeast if so!

Or hellacious sweetness, since most of their meads seem to be in the 13-14% range. Summersolstice, do you have any bottle you would recommend?

Some day I may be able to buy a good mead in a store, have yet to find one here.
I do a lot of honey beers, and braggots, meads tie up my carboys / kegs a long time. My simple answer has been to buy more carboys and kegs.

Tusch said:

Or hellacious sweetness, since most of their meads seem to be in the 13-14% range. Summersolstice, do you have any bottle you would recommend?

Click to expand...

There are quite a few commercial meads that are very good. Malkore already suggested Redstone. I've tried 4-5 of their meads and they've all been good. At the International Mead Festival in the Denver area each year there are 100+ vendors and you get to try them all. Others I've tried and found good are listed below. This isn't a complete list and I didn't list those that aren't even available for sale in the US:

Jadwiga
Kasztalanski
Slowianski
HoneyRun
Mountain Meadows
Dansk Mjod
Redstone Meadery
White Winter
Pirtle
Medovina
Spruce Mountain
Long Island Meadery
Ring of Fire Meadery
Rabbit's Foot Meadery

This is a good start and if you can find any of these I think you'll be happy.

I was actually referring to the link you already gave for the Kurpiowski Royal Mead, but I do appreciate the list, I will have to check out a few more of those.