Wedding Mead

Sometime in January (hopefully soon) I'll be brewing my first mead (going to use a kit from Northern Brewer). I'm getting married in August, and hope to open my first bottle then. A friend of mine told me he and his wife brewed some mead 5 years ago, and they drink a bottle a year every year because it keeps getting better. My idea was to have my first bottle of mead for our wedding, then save the rest of my bottles and open up a bottle at each anniversary afterward. My question is, how long does mead keep improving? I know that wine is supposed to peak at some point; does mead do the same? (Not that my palate is smart enough to really tell when it's peaked...)

I seem to recall reading somewhere, that the max improvement is 7 to 8 years (it's in one of the books I've got - can't remember which one......).

I'd suggest that if you're gonna make some for a wedding, then a good sized batch (or batches) of JAO should be ready in time for that, whereas, there's a likelihood that a traditional wouldn't be. So make a batch of both, then you've got yer ass covered.......

regards

fatbloke

Agreed.

I took a class last month, and the teacher talked about swingtops really only working for short term storage, like 2 or 3 years (what you bottle is what you get because, at best, you're just blending the flavors and hotness).

Beyond that, he talked about mead needing the micro-oxygenation from the specialized corks available so it can truly age like wine for a few more years. If or when there is a significant peak, or a significant decline after that, I don't know.

I can say that in 2004, with my unsophisticated palate, my then-9-year-old wedding mead in swingtops was friggin' awesome as a divorce celebration, and I didn't notice any off-flavors or decline, and it was very drinkable for all involved.

That said, I plan to save annual "vintages" for 1,3,5,10 and 20 years. With my focus on high-gravity, high-ETOH, still metheglins, I don't expect a worst case scenario of opening up a bottle of vinegar or liquid cardboard with my kids for their 21st birthdays, or with my girlfriend on our 20th anniversary.

jasonsargo said:

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I can say that in 2004, with my unsophisticated palate, my then-9-year-old wedding mead in swingtops was friggin' awesome as a divorce celebration, and I didn't notice any off-flavors or decline, and it was very drinkable for all involved.

That said, I plan to save annual "vintages" for 1,3,5,10 and 20 years. With my focus on high-gravity, high-ETOH, still metheglins, I don't expect a worst case scenario of opening up a bottle of vinegar or liquid cardboard with my kids for their 21st birthdays, or with my girlfriend on our 20th anniversary.

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Well there's the "school of thought" with brews that are being made for the long term i.e. high alcohol, higher than normal tannin, etc etc so as to sort of mimic a red wine that's made for ageing/storage/collectors etc.

Especially if it's something you make when the kids are born and so on (ha! depends on where you are as to how long you need to keep it, the US has one of the longer waiting periods because of the historical hostility to booze - I seem to recall some of the EU has drinking age of 16, and here it's 18).

I haven't heard of any point where it starts to degrade though, just a limited period whereby it improves to a certain point but then stops and doesn't get any further........

regards

fatbloke

RedGuitar said:

I'm getting married in August, and hope to open my first bottle then. A friend of mine told me he and his wife brewed some mead 5 years ago, and they drink a bottle a year every year because it keeps getting better. My idea was to have my first bottle of mead for our wedding, then save the rest of my bottles and open up a bottle at each anniversary afterward.

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I did what your friend did and what you plan to do. This doesn't answer your question, but brewing in January for a wedding in August might be ambitious time-wise. My mead was much better at 1 year than it was at 8 months.

The seasoned mead brewers here could give you some tips on managing the fermentation to avoid off flavors. You'll need to do that to make up for lack of aging time.

Yeah, I know I'm behind. This will be my first mead, and the idea didn't occur to me until a couple weeks ago. I guess we'll see how it goes.

I'm making a dry mead, as SWMBO prefers dry wines to sweet wines. Will that make a difference on being ready by August?

Open one on your wedding. Keep 25 bottles and open one bottle each year on your anniversary date till you reach your silver anniversary. If you are really ambitious make a double batch and do a Golden Anniversary Mead

Make sure to use Fermaid K and DAP. I also use GoFerm to rehydrate my yeast (check the sticky above). Also make sure your ph is above 3.5. I started my first mead this past April and it is still fermenting because my ph was too low and I didn't use Ferm K & DAP (added acid blend/Papazian's approach DONT DO THAT). I have since made 4 other meads which are still aging but totally done fermenting. My orange blossom has been bottled and was only a 3 gal. batch. It is delicious and will get better with time. Smaller batches take less time to finish, but there may be some hotness if it hasn't aged for a long period. I would use a lighter honey like the Orange Blossom NB sells and not get too crazy on the ABV if you want something decent by August.

RedGuitar said:

Yeah, I know I'm behind. This will be my first mead, and the idea didn't occur to me until a couple weeks ago. I guess we'll see how it goes.

I'm making a dry mead, as SWMBO prefers dry wines to sweet wines. Will that make a difference on being ready by August?

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Yes, because it's easy to go over the top with a dry mead and make something that is "alcohol hot" - and would normally take some ageing to get the alcohol hot taste to mellow out of it.

Otherwise the only real way to cure that quickly is to back sweeten - then you still might need a little acid to balance the sweetness.....

Fermaid K and DAP are yeast nutrients? Sorry, I'm not familiar. Haven't had to use any of these in my beer brewing.

http://home.comcast.net/~mzapx1/FAQ/SNAddition.pdf

I don't use staggered nutrient additions, I like putting them in all at once.
This is what works for me :

1.25g of GoFerm per gram of yeast pitched with rehydration water at 104 degrees
5g of Fermaid K added with yeast for a 5gal batch (4gal of water + honey)
15g of DAP added with yeast for a 5gal batch (4gal of water + honey)

Some may say this is too much or too little and you will find different amounts all around these quantities, but this has worked well for me in the last few batches I have made. Click on the "Sticky: Mead Making FAQs" at the top of the mead forum page for more detail. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/sticky-mead-making-faqs-83030/

Diammonium phosphate is an excellent, cheap source of available nitrogen for yeast. You have to evaluate it carefully for flavor and aroma profile if you use it as a sole supplement.

Fermaid K is a well balanced yeast nutrient that was formulated based on many years of
experience of yeast production.

Can be purchased here: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/winemaking-ingredients/additives/other-additives.html

It being January and theoretically time to make the mead and all, here is my two cents (actually, it's more like a dime or so, but I'm a gas bag).

A mead with a little residual sweetness will reach drinkability much more quickly than a dry mead.

Using some fruit will also make for a more quickly palatable mead. Using a lot of fruit will help even more.

Nutrient additions are a must.

Lalvin 71B and KV 1116 will drink better young than D-47 or other yeast strains. If you want this ready in 8 months, avoid EC 1118 and Montrachet like the plague, and RC-212 like, well, like a yeast that's going to take too long to age. To some extent, you will be making a choice between younger-drinking and older-drinking. If you want to be sneaky, you could do a 10 gallon batch, and do 5 gallons with 71B and five with a longer aging yeast, and you'll have some fun mead to compare down the road.

Keep head space in the meads that you are bottling for the long haul to an absolute minimum. Some Burgundy houses leave a millimeter of air space.

Ken-mo

I was looking at just getting a kit from northern brewer, and the instructions claim that it can be drinkable within 3 months or so, which goes against everything I've read on here. Thoughts?

By the way, where does everybody recommend buying honey? Is there a good place on-line to buy bulk honey at a low price? Should I try to find a local honey supplier at the farmer's market? What do y'all do?

RedGuitar said:

I was looking at just getting a kit from northern brewer, and the instructions claim that it can be drinkable within 3 months or so, which goes against everything I've read on here. Thoughts?

By the way, where does everybody recommend buying honey? Is there a good place on-line to buy bulk honey at a low price? Should I try to find a local honey supplier at the farmer's market? What do y'all do?

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The telling determinant will be the yeast strain they have selected. Let us know what they have in the kit and what the recipe looks like and we'll let you know if three months is reasonable or not. A medium or sweet mead with the right yeast is doable in three months.

I have always tried to support my local beekeepers. The farmers market is a decent place to start. With some Google searching or a call to your state extension service you should be able to find a beekeepers club - that's a great place to make contacts if you are looking for folks selling in 1 or 5 gallon quantities at prices that are a good deal for both buyer and seller.

KenSchramm said:

It being January and theoretically time to make the mead and all, here is my two cents (actually, it's more like a dime or so, but I'm a gas bag).

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You make me chuckle sometimes Ken

I've read the book, so I rather suspect that you have more mead making knowledge in a "pinkie" finger, than most of us will accumulate in a life time....

Ha ha!, good point about the "January" thing though...... S'pose I'd better get my finger out, to make up my Buckwheat, Italian Chestnut and Rewarewa batches.....

Seasons greetings etc.....

regards

fatbloke

RedGuitar said:

I was looking at just getting a kit from northern brewer, and the instructions claim that it can be drinkable within 3 months or so, which goes against everything I've read on here. Thoughts?

By the way, where does everybody recommend buying honey? Is there a good place on-line to buy bulk honey at a low price? Should I try to find a local honey supplier at the farmer's market? What do y'all do?

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You should use the NB Orange Blossom Honey. I have never ordered honey from them, but I used Orange Blossom and 71B-1122 (page 30 The Compleat Meadmaker). Everyone loved this mead and it only took 4 months from start to finish. This was only a 3 gallon batch and I used a filter. It is a little "hot", BUT is totally acceptable and delicious. You won't believe the flavors in that Orange Blossom honey, it is AMAZING..........THANKS KEN (your book has taught me just about everything I know about mead, I just started this year and have 5 batches under my belt.) !!!!!

I order my honey from ebeehoney.com in Ashland, OH. I am originally from there and now live in Columbus. The guy who owns ebeehoney is very nice and extremely cautious about how he obtains his honey. He has a PHD in chemistry and doesn't use any chemicals:rockin:. He is also VERY selective about who he buys his honey from since he harvests and resells honey. He makes sure that what he resells is top of the line and produced organically just as he does with his bees/honey.

RedGuitar,

A word of warning stick with opening a bottle for your anniversary. I have made 2 anniversary mead for my friends back in 2008 to give it to them for their wedding presents on their first anniversary.

I thought I did everything correct to get my timing down and have done for them by their first anniversary but......

It is still aging.....still a little hot, but tastes damn. So, I'm hoping it will be ready for their third anniversary. (Plus looks like I get to keep to 2 bottle for myself since 2 anniversaries have past :cross

Also a key to remember your mead will be done when IT'S wants to be done,
and when it is, it is truly rewarding.

KenSchramm said:

The telling determinant will be the yeast strain they have selected. Let us know what they have in the kit and what the recipe looks like and we'll let you know if three months is reasonable or not. A medium or sweet mead with the right yeast is doable in three months.

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Here's the link to the kit I was looking at buying: http://www.northernbrewer.com/default/dry-mead-kit.html

I was looking at the Orange Blossom Mead in Compleat Meadmaker (and just this morning realized the author of said book is apparently helping me out on here). SWMBO likes dry wines, though, so I was looking to make something dry. What would be required to convert that Compleat recipe into a dry one?

If you are talking about the recipe on page 25, that recipe will be dry if you use a higher attenuating yeast, like KV-1116. You could use 71B and reduce the amount of honey by a pound or two.

If you buy the kit, that yeast will take 12 lbs of honey to absolute dryness. That mead will not be in peak form by August. I'd add two or three more pounds of honey to that recipe if you want something deliciously drinkable late this summer.

So if I use the first recipe given in Compleat and change to that yeast strain, will I have a quaffable dry mead by August? How does the yeast work differently to make a dry drink vs a sweet one?

Maybe I should buy a mead for the honeymoon and save the homebrew for anniversaries...

RedGuitar said:

Maybe I should buy a mead for the honeymoon and save the homebrew for anniversaries...

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You should try making your own and buy some if it doesn't turn out they way you want it. Every mead I have made yet, only 9 so far, have been better than anything commercial I have bought.

With that being said I have made an OB mead with 71b and it turned out very drinkable 3 months after it was finished. It finished dry and then I added a cup of OB honey to the 5 gallon batch and bottled it in flip tops. I was hoping it would carb but every bottle has been flat so far. 9 months later I am happy they are flat and that they have a bit of residual sweetness. I attribute its readiness to the fact that it fermented in a cool basement in Febuary. It stayed a constant 57 degrees F for the ferment.

Anybody know the ideal temperature for Lalvin 71B-1122?

So, a few weeks ago I made the mead, using the recipe from "Compleat Meadmaker" (the first recipe in the book). It's in primary right now, and will be transferred to secondary this weekend.

My next question is; when I bottle this mead, understanding that some of these bottles will sit for 20+ years ideally, what is the best way to bottle it in order to keep it from going sour? Traditional corks? Synthetic corks? Wax? Bottle caps?

What conditions should mead be kept at in the bottle to better assure long-aging doesn't spoil it?

RedGuitar said:

My next question is; when I bottle this mead, understanding that some of these bottles will sit for 20+ years ideally, what is the best way to bottle it in order to keep it from going sour? Traditional corks? Synthetic corks? Wax? Bottle caps?

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Looking forward to an answer to this. When I did what you are doing, I used bottle caps and wax, primarily because using my existing beer brewing setup was easy, but I thought the caps might not last long enough.

For the 1122 yeast I believe its 60/65

What do you brewers think about heating honey? I made a 5gal batch and heated it to 145f for 30 min. Better than boiling? Can you just skip the heating? I got my mead from a honey guy at a farmers market in culver city. He has been in the honey business for 50 years and says its the best honey for mead.

Well, today is our first anniversary. Here's the bottle we'll be opening in just a few hours Thanks to those who helped me figure out how to make it. Here's hoping this batch will be like our marriage; good after one year, but getting better and better.

So, how was it???

I absolutely loved it. My wife liked it, then loved it after it warmed up some and got some air.

It also went great with the carrot cake she made and sittin on the dock.

Is it just the light or is there an inch of sediment in the bottom of that bottle?

Yeah, there was a lot of sediment. This being my first mead, I didn't transfer it enough times, and this bottle was the last I filled. There wasn't quite an inch, but it did get transported 4 hours in a car shortly before this picture was taken, which kicked up some.