Hello there,
I'm Florin from Romania. I post here amongst US people since there is no such comunity in Europe and obviously likely unknown in Romania.
I plan to open a big-scale meadory here in Romania. I hope to receive as much feedback/advices/experience exchange as possible from you guys.
Dunno how to start, ill try to take it easy, bellow:
I am doing my first tests for two recipes of mead, that i intend to mass-production. It is 2.5 months already since i brewed it and honestly i am little disapointed about the fermenting time (yes, i know it takes 6-18 months for a good mead, but i tried to accelerate if possible due to financial considerations).
My first recipe is plain dry mead, using the simplest recipe:
~ 5 kg of poliflore honey (i ****ed it up on quantiy, wrong measures - should have been 6.5~ kg)...would get more dry i guess
- 15 litres of bottled water
- 2 litres of grapes must (like poured grapes) with the purpose of helping on fermenting the "slow honey fermenting"
- 5***** class wine yeast (from my father which leads one of biggest winery in Romania)
- yeast food (or how is called?)
****
For above, i tried to make the simplest mead recipe in my view (comparable to old vikings mead)
For the second recipe:
- used 7 kg of honey
- 12 litres of water
- 1 litre of orange juice (100% natural, home grown)
- 2 litres of grapes must
- 5 batons of cinamon
More like a melomel, still not much of fruits added.
*******************
Now, the dry recipe is 2 weakers old (aprox early Oct), while the "melomel" it is 2 weeks older in brewing.
My mistakes on brewing (i assume):
1. kept the recipes in a 15-22 C degrees room (had no other place to deposit as it was too cold with winter coming)..so i kept in my home.
2. normal room (used one of the bathrooms) with daylight/nightime as usual. As i heard, daylight might hurt the recipe?
Upon regular tasting (aprox 1-2 a month...also this might hurt the fermenting by adding oxigen into the recipe, even thou it was few seconds i took a small 100 grames??).... the 2nd recipe (with more honey/fruits) always taste more and more better, really encouraging in my view. The dry one is sour as hell...even thou it got more clear in the meantime and less sour (still sour as hell).
Now, i am aware of the fact that a dry mead needs at least 6-12 months of botleing before juding the taste. Only ~3 months past of fermenting which is almost done (i assume like maximum 7-10 days and its done). Still, that "sour as hell" would go in time, while aging? or is it the recipe compromised?
The 2nd recipe is absolutely gorgeous in my opinion, at the moment it tastes almost like a natural fruit juice (still fermenting althou) and it got very strong alcohol (have not measure it yet, but it is at least 11 in my taste).
I know it sounds little bit too much of a beginner, but i am here to learn new things from your experience.
Any advices is really appreciated.
Once i have finished with my own recipe (a succesfully one especially in time speaking terms...i need it ready in 6 months...ready for sales), i can start the big scale production.
For me is a perfect business that i love so much, only that i hope to find the right ingredients/process of producing the mead.
I can buy the honey for 1$ per kg. So with 5000$ can get 5 tones, from which i can produce nearly 15,0000 bottles of 75 cl.
I have the botling/producing platform already, i only need the recipe, which i am testing right now and i am not too happy about it.
Hope to hear from you soon!
Please excuse my lack of english, hope i made myself understandable.
All the respect for you guys, the mead lovers! (we don't have anything like this in Europe...as a comunity speaking).
cheers,
Florin
I'm Florin from Romania. I post here amongst US people since there is no such comunity in Europe and obviously likely unknown in Romania.
I plan to open a big-scale meadory here in Romania. I hope to receive as much feedback/advices/experience exchange as possible from you guys.
Dunno how to start, ill try to take it easy, bellow:
I am doing my first tests for two recipes of mead, that i intend to mass-production. It is 2.5 months already since i brewed it and honestly i am little disapointed about the fermenting time (yes, i know it takes 6-18 months for a good mead, but i tried to accelerate if possible due to financial considerations).
My first recipe is plain dry mead, using the simplest recipe:
~ 5 kg of poliflore honey (i ****ed it up on quantiy, wrong measures - should have been 6.5~ kg)...would get more dry i guess
- 15 litres of bottled water
- 2 litres of grapes must (like poured grapes) with the purpose of helping on fermenting the "slow honey fermenting"
- 5***** class wine yeast (from my father which leads one of biggest winery in Romania)
- yeast food (or how is called?)
****
For above, i tried to make the simplest mead recipe in my view (comparable to old vikings mead)
For the second recipe:
- used 7 kg of honey
- 12 litres of water
- 1 litre of orange juice (100% natural, home grown)
- 2 litres of grapes must
- 5 batons of cinamon
More like a melomel, still not much of fruits added.
*******************
Now, the dry recipe is 2 weakers old (aprox early Oct), while the "melomel" it is 2 weeks older in brewing.
My mistakes on brewing (i assume):
1. kept the recipes in a 15-22 C degrees room (had no other place to deposit as it was too cold with winter coming)..so i kept in my home.
2. normal room (used one of the bathrooms) with daylight/nightime as usual. As i heard, daylight might hurt the recipe?
Upon regular tasting (aprox 1-2 a month...also this might hurt the fermenting by adding oxigen into the recipe, even thou it was few seconds i took a small 100 grames??).... the 2nd recipe (with more honey/fruits) always taste more and more better, really encouraging in my view. The dry one is sour as hell...even thou it got more clear in the meantime and less sour (still sour as hell).
Now, i am aware of the fact that a dry mead needs at least 6-12 months of botleing before juding the taste. Only ~3 months past of fermenting which is almost done (i assume like maximum 7-10 days and its done). Still, that "sour as hell" would go in time, while aging? or is it the recipe compromised?
The 2nd recipe is absolutely gorgeous in my opinion, at the moment it tastes almost like a natural fruit juice (still fermenting althou) and it got very strong alcohol (have not measure it yet, but it is at least 11 in my taste).
I know it sounds little bit too much of a beginner, but i am here to learn new things from your experience.
Any advices is really appreciated.
Once i have finished with my own recipe (a succesfully one especially in time speaking terms...i need it ready in 6 months...ready for sales), i can start the big scale production.
For me is a perfect business that i love so much, only that i hope to find the right ingredients/process of producing the mead.
I can buy the honey for 1$ per kg. So with 5000$ can get 5 tones, from which i can produce nearly 15,0000 bottles of 75 cl.
I have the botling/producing platform already, i only need the recipe, which i am testing right now and i am not too happy about it.
Hope to hear from you soon!
Please excuse my lack of english, hope i made myself understandable.
All the respect for you guys, the mead lovers! (we don't have anything like this in Europe...as a comunity speaking).
cheers,
Florin