First Mead ever

So after reading all these forums and having two gallons of JAOM cooking, i decided i should actually try a mead! So- went to my local wine/beer store. They only had three available( all local Maryland vineyards). I grabbed one and tried it out tonight! Very tasty!!!!! It was made with hot peppers. The mead starts out sweet, BAM, spicy hot! Two seconds later, sweet sweet honey! I'm very happy and cant wait to try more!

If my mead turns out half as good, I'll be stoked, especially since the mead I bought is 18$ for 355ml....

I notice that a lot here and over at Gotmead, when posting questions etc, focus on asking about the actual making/fermenting part......

This, IMO, often misses the point. Obviously you can't make mead that tastes like scotch, but the other parts of the honey jar to bottle process influence what it's likely to taste like when being drank.

There are so many things you can do which modify the taste.....

One of the things that pisses me off here, is that of the commercially made meads, most of them seem to be made to taste cloyingly sweet, with the view that they pray on peoples preconceptions. Its made with honey so it should taste a lot like a watered down honey sort of taste, which to my mind is total bollocks.....

You can get enough different ingredients, so unless you're trying to clone a specific recipe its entirely up to you how it comes out.

It amuses me no end when people make a batch only to find that young meads taste pretty damned hideous, whereas the amazement they experience when they've aged some and how it changes with time...

So as you learn more about the making and get more experience at it, just remember what can be done with back sweetening, or a bit of acid, maybe some tannin, fruit or juice, etc etc.

Make the most of the wonderful natural thing that is honey......

Obviously I've never made a mead that I've tasted since my oldest batch is 19 days old. I feel like i have to stick with simple recipes a few years since they do take so long to age and it will take so long to see what works and what dosnt.

Can anyone recommend a good commercial mead?

One of the few meads that I've had commercially that arent very sweet is the "sugar maple" by
saphouse meadery, But Im not sure if they distribute to your area.

Hmmm, well I'm a quest now! Gonna find all the mead I can locally and drink em!

Tonight I sampled my first batch of JAOM 25 days after its birth. I know it's young, prob not fully fermented, but, very tasty. A tiny bit sweet with a hint of orange and clove. In a month or two ill bottle it and the two other variations I made and am saving them for Christmas gifts to give out.