What makes 'body' in a mead?
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Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
Don't let it finish too dry. Just as with beer, the FG will determine the body level. I typically want mine to end up at least 'medium' in sweetness level. Which means above 1.006 for the FG. IME, this is not difficult to do, if you have an idea of what you're doing. You have a few different options on how you get there too.
brewingmeister
Well-Known Member
Well, as horrific it may sound to many out there...heat the honey.
The comparisons on the heated vs non heated honey result in some tasters saying the mead with the heated honey has more body.
The comparisons on the heated vs non heated honey result in some tasters saying the mead with the heated honey has more body.
Heating would increase quantities of HMF...wonder if that would add to the 'body' I must admit my Costco mean has lots of body...almost like I added glycerin.
Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
HEATHEN!! You have other, much better, methods. Including back sweetening and just formulating it to not finish dry.
I'd rather not add glycerine to my mead. IMO/IME, better to use as few items in it as possible.
Gold I didn't but this mead finished at 1.00 and still has a nice mouth feel. Could there be other contributing factors?
Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
Besides it's mead and not beer you mean?? IMO/IME, a mead can still have good body and finish about 1.000. It's 'dry' range is .990-1.006, which doesn't mean that it has no body, but it will have less then when at a higher FG. My maple was at 1.008, but the perceived body of it is much higher than a beer at the same FG. Just like with wine, where it can finish on the dry end (for FG) but still have good body. Simply put, don't equate the same FG's between beers and types of wine.
Fair enough sir, I was just trying to hypothesize why 'brewingmeister' said that heated honey mead finished with more body...that is a different contributing factor other than sugar content...but maybe not.
brewingmeister
Well-Known Member
Uhh yeah so I'm a non believer in your god because I state facts about mead. Well that is just super fantastic to hear! My meads are generally nowhere near sweet btw so feel free to talk until you are blue in the face and pass out though cause I'm not listening.
Mead can be made in so many different ways from a show with just three ingredients (water, honey, yeast) to some sort or okra debacle.
You might find this enlightening...
the setup: http://www.washingtonwinemaker.com/blog/2007/06/05/making-mead-the-controversy-over-boiling/
the results: http://www.washingtonwinemaker.com/blog/2008/10/28/making-mead-testing-the-controversy-over-boiling/
I have made mead in just about every way imaginable. That includes boiling, not boiling, warmed, show, sack, many varieties of melomel, cyser, metheglin, and well yeah it's not my first rodeo.
So should you boil or not? It's your mead, do whatever the hell you want. Personally though if you have some sort of super fancy honey with a fragile flavor a non heating method would probably be the best process. Similarly if you have a mediocre or poor quality honey if might actually help it to be heated.
Golddiggie
Well-Known Member
:cross: :fro:The ONLY batch I've not used great honey in was the base for a batch that will be getting a lot of flavor from other elements. So it didn't make sense to use great honey. Plus, the honey was donated to me by someone at work (as a thank you for something I was able to do quickly for him, work related actually). Otherwise, I follow the no-heat method with my must and get great mead out of it.
BTW, I don't really care how you make a mead. But if you're going to ask for my opinion on it, and such, then you're going to get what I've found. I've also found that if you select the right yeast, you'll get even better mead batches. Which means not using the liquid yeast 99.5% of the time. Lalvin Labs offers yeast that's great for making mead. I actually won't use any [liquid] yeast that's marketed for mead. I know I'm not alone in this either. :cross:
brewingmeister
Well-Known Member
not once.
Relating back to the original question asked about what gives a mead body... Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about anything, but this is my current understanding.
Someone suggested that stopping a ferment early would give it body, but I have a hard time understanding that. I feel like there is a difference between leaving sugar in solution and having body. Someone else also pointed out that you can have a dry product that can still have a fuller body, which to me indicates that body is a result of a lot more than just FG and sweetness.
If anyone knows about this, I'd be really interested to learn!
Someone suggested that stopping a ferment early would give it body, but I have a hard time understanding that. I feel like there is a difference between leaving sugar in solution and having body. Someone else also pointed out that you can have a dry product that can still have a fuller body, which to me indicates that body is a result of a lot more than just FG and sweetness.
If anyone knows about this, I'd be really interested to learn!
Hell ya....this is my thots exactly
This seems to be a rather poorly defined term.
Accepting the above as a correct definition, I would say that there would be 3 factors contributing to the "body" of a wine/mead etc.
1. Surface tension.
2. Viscosity.
3. The warming effect of alcohol on the inside of the mouth.
It seems to me, that a good body would be low surface tension, highish viscosity, high alcohol. That would mean a liquid mixture with a high alcohol content, that would account for the warming effect and the low surface tension, and another component that increases the viscosity of the liquid somewhat. Sugar in solution would fit the bill to increase the viscosity, so would glycerin, or a whole host of other compounds.
Those are my thoughts on the matter, I hope that was helpful.
And, as always, have nice day.
To me a good body is caused by tannins acidity and alcohol. With Mead I like a medium body. Ilike it just under that thick milky feel...endless I go with a dark fruit melomel then I like if full bodied and heavy on the tongue
Interesting, I would say that tannic acid adds to the complexity of the flavor rather then the body. That's part of the reason I said body was a poorly defined term. Different people define it different ways.
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