My wife's cousin keeps bees.....

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

GIusedtoBe

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2007
Messages
428
Reaction score
3
Location
Knoxville TN
So I decided to make a mead. He sells different types of honey but says the most in demand is cottonwood? Maybe it was something else but anyway what would you say is the best honey and yeast to produce a nice traditional mead that was a bit on the sweet side like Irish mead?

Thanks,
Al
 
honey: what ever you can get
yeast: Lalvin D-47, 71-B

Then just come up with a recipe and post it here for consideration

cheers
 
I vote for the D-47 too. The Red Star Cote des Blanc is another great alternative that is readily available.
I've never had a honey I didn't like other than Wild Flower, and Brandon has a point about the orange blossom. It's standard for commercially available show mead.
 
clover honey is cheap and very neutral. it tends to produce a mead comparable to a dry white wine. orange blossom makes a more complex mead, people usually say to stay away from dark honey like buckwheat but used in small amounts like 1/5th or less of the total fermentables its added a nice character so some meads Ive made. as for yeast you should be able to find the specs of any type of yeast you can buy online, look at its attenuation the higher the percentage the more dry it will make your mead.
 
Thanks for the replies. All my LHBS had was Red Star Pasteur Champagne so I don't think I will be using that yeast since I think it ferments out dry and I want a little residual sweetness. I guess I'll have to shelve my mead plans until I need something else from one of the online retailers and I'll order some D-47 then.

Thanks again,
Al
 
Well, just about any wine yeast you use will take the mead to dry. If you want a sweet mead, maybe using a liquid sweet mead yeast will help, but even that may take you to dry. It SHOULD leave some residual sweetness, though. I think it's called Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast or something like that.

You can always ferment it, then after it's finished, you can stabilize it and sweeten to taste if you're not planning on bottle carbonating it.
 
Back
Top