The forgotten mead in the cellar.

I have taken a couple years off from brewing due to being unusually busy with several other interests. It being winter and me feeling caught up on most projects I brewed for the first time last weekend. This involved in part going through my collection of Corney kegs and cleaning them and getting them ready for use.

One, to my surprise, was full of lager. I had marked it "lager" but for one reason or another thought the lager had been consumed and there was nothing in there but water.

I knew one of them had sweet mead in it. The mead, a very basic one made up of locally produced honey, Wyeast Sweet Mead, and water. At the last racking (which was some years ago) it had a strong medicinal taste, not especially pleasant.

I racked it off to a clean keg and set it aside under a little CO2. There was a fair amount of leeds.

Today I opened up the keg and pulled a sample with the thief. The years have made an enormous difference, and I now have an excellent beverage on my hands.

I'm ordering bottles and corks.

Moral of the story: mead takes time, measured in years. Have patience and a cold cellar.

A fellow brewer opened up a bottle he's had for a few years this weekend and it was amazing... So I'm learning patience as I brew. Being a New Yorker I really don't have patience...
It's the anticipation of the result that keeps me waiting.

I do have a question:
"Wyeast" is this an abriviation for White Labs Sweet Mead yeast or is this a different strain?

No, Wyeast is White's competitor.

What great discovery to find!

Forgotten mead. An excellent variety. Not much chance I'll have that any time soon. But the cellar is expanding, and the varieties on hand are increasing.

I can't wait to have enough brew on hand that I end up losing a few.

Tusch said:

I can't wait to have enough brew on hand that I end up losing a few.

Click to expand...

Same here. I look forward to the day that I have over a dozen diffrent brews that are over a year old. Also, looking to the day that I have several dozen brews in the basement aging or finished aging. Meantime just experimenting with diffent flavors and types to find what I like best. The best dozen flavors will be keepers and ones to improve. The 31 flavors of mead. Heh heh.

HaH, good to see you are back into it. I would love to see some pics of your work.