Venturing into mead... Possibly...

Lil Sis #2 is getting hitched next June.... Since most of the immediate family are not beer drinkers (hey more for me!) I was thinking maybe a mead to take with and present to the fam damily...

If I got it running soon, would that be enough time?

If so, what would be a fairly idiot-proof recipe for a first shot?

T.I.A.

so many questions..so little time.

1. are you looking for dry, semi, or sweet?
2. basic or fruit, or spiced or........?
3. something quick and basic, or one that'll take a bit more time and effort?
4. Still or Carbonated?

Once you answer a few more of those questions, I am sure more people will be able to offer you some advice.

Dan

PS- welcome to the forums.

Well damn... Didn't know there were so many variables...

Um... Let's see...

I would say sweet, basic / fruit (maybe more towards fruit), I have until June '09, and probably still...

Thanks

Basic + Sweet.
Strawberry is a tough fruit to get in the winter, but noting says LOVE like Strawberry Mead!

The sooner you start this, the better. It'll just beginning to be drinkable in 8 months.

I given the current season and this being your first mead I think an excellent way to go would be a cyser. Get some fresh pressed apple cider from a local orchard. Add honey to bring the gravity up to around 1.1. Follow the staggered nutrient additions as detailed by hightest in the sticky. Rack to a secondary after about 1 month. 4 months later add sorbate and sulfite and back sweeten to the desired sweetness. A few more weeks then bottle. You could also add oak cubes while bulk aging if desired.

It should be quite good in June and get better with time.

I find my cysers ferment with out a problem and there is no extra material to deal with when racking. Plus they are very tasty.

If you want more of a fruit flavor then I like blueberries, raspberries and elderberries, pick your favorite. All of the strawberry recipes I have seen make it seem like strawberries are a little difficult. Not something I would want to try for my first attempt.

Craig

My vote goes to Joe's Ancient Orange. There have been perhaps thousands of mead makers begin with this almost foolproof recipe. I've made at least a dozen batches and have seen very few people who didn't like it. It takes about 30 minutes to make, and is ready in three months. The original recipe makes one gallon but you can just multiply everything (except the yeast) by five to get five gallons. You can make the original recipe and try it in three months and if you like it you'll still have time to make several more gallons by next June.

I'll agree with you there. It's alot simpler than the Cyser recipe for a first timer. I'd say go with the MAOM or JAOM....or even Joe's Grape Mead. You can't go wrong with any of those and should turn out well for you.

Dan

CBBaron said:

...If you want more of a fruit flavor then I like blueberries, raspberries and elderberries, pick your favorite...

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cranberries also add a nice touch to a cyser (or cider)...

hightest said:

cranberries also add a nice touch to a cyser (or cider)...

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Right you are. Just bottled 5 gal of Cran-Cyser. 3 gal sparkling and 2 gal sweet. Both are really good already. And this was with cheap Costco juice and honey not the good stuff.

Craig

CB - I'd love your recipe for that Cran -Cyser..sounds really good. And in my neck of the wood (Wisconsin) I live near all the Ocean Spray and private cranberry fields and factories and Cranberries right now are SO CHEAP..I could make a large batch of this without breaking the bank. Also, across the river LaCrescent MN, is the apple capital of Minnesota, and Cider is plentiful and cheap right now too, so it would be a GREAT time to make this.

Dan

PS--if anyone would like fairly cheap, fresh whole cranberries let me know and maybe we could arrange something.

summersolstice said:

My vote goes to Joe's Ancient Orange.

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I am the Loan Dinosaur here. I really DON't like this stuff. I have 3 batches of it, and none are very good. BEAUTIFUL! Easy, but just not very good. I actually poured this glass out!

The good thing is that you can make it and make your decision from there. It is as good when it's clear, as it is 8 months later.

BigKahuna said:

I am the Loan Dinosaur here. I really DON't like this stuff.

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You are not alone. I typically stay away from topics that involve this recipe style (short-cut meads). As it is unusual to actually see a reply like yours, I had to let you know that there is at least one other person who feels the same..

BigKahuna said:

I am the Loan Dinosaur here. I really DON't like this stuff. I have 3 batches of it, and none are very good. BEAUTIFUL! Easy, but just not very good. .

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I've found only one person locally that didn't like this mead, but that was opposed to 20 or so who did. I know that taste is subjective but, overall, it's a very popular mead. I entered a two-year-old variation made with pineapple in the Muse Cup competition in Ft Collins, CO this year and it took second place in the Pyment category.

Hightest and BigK, I would tend to agree with you, in that it is simple and quick. For more "refined tasters" such as yourselves and how much Mead and Cyder you guys make, this product may just be TOO SIMPLE..meaning, it doesn't have complex flavors or aroma and has a bit of a bite to it that a young, simple mead would tend to have. Maybe you guys are making excellent products now that make this one seem cheap and "not so tasty" anymore.

Maybe you guys could expound on what it is you don't like exactly with this one?

I don't know..just a thought.

Dan

I doubt that it has anything to do with being a "refined taster". Like many things people consume, we all have our personal preferences. While I enjoy both sweet and dry, still & sparkeling, meads, I do not like the quick styles (like JOA). Perhaps it does have something to do with how traditionally made mead ages.

Please know that my comments here were not intended to start an "us against them" dialog. Instead, it was only meant to express a personal (subjective) opinion...

hightest said:

While I enjoy both sweet and dry, still & sparkeling, meads, I do not like the quick styles (like JOA). Perhaps it does have something to do with how traditionally made mead ages.

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Just to clarify, do you mean that something like JAOM doesn't age well, or takes too long to age?

hightest said:

I doubt that it has anything to do with being a "refined taster". ...
Please know that my comments here were not intended to start an "us against them" dialog.

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These 2 sentences sum it up. I know many many many more people that like the joam...as opposed to HighTest and I that don't. Summersolstice makes the best damn Likka I've ever tasted, and he likes it....this totally negates the theory of refined taste.

I do not like the super powerful Clove / orange pith flavors in the Joam. I would not say that I don't like ANY "quick" mead, it's just this one.
Again to agree with Hightest on this...it's TOTALLY subjective.

lordbeermestrength said:

Just to clarify, do you mean that something like JAOM doesn't age well, or takes too long to age?

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I can't honestly say. I've never made a "Joe's" type mead, but I have tasted a couple of samples from those that have made it. And as BK noted, the predominance of orange/clove is not my "cup of tea".

As far as aging goes, I again can not comment on the "joe's" style. Yet, I suspect (by its very nature) that it is not intended to last that long, so long-term aging seems condtradictory to its creator's concept.

Label me a traditionalist. I like to take my time with my mead, and aging them 3-5 years (or more) is no big deal. I fill in the waiting time with beer, cider, and wine.

FWIW, I have a couple of bottles of a sparkling maple mead from 1998 that pours (and looks) like a dark amber champagne - special occasion bottles...

lordbeermestrength said:

Just to clarify, do you mean that something like JAOM doesn't age well, or takes too long to age?

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JAO ages very gracefully. I know it's a quick mead designed to be consumed quickly but, as my mead cellar grows, I can't drink it as fast as I make it and I've had several previous, and current, batches of JAO that are over two years old and, like most other meads, it improves with age. My recent second place melomel at the Muse Cup in Colorado was a JAO pineapple variation that was over two years old.

It doesn't surprise me to find that a couple of people posting here don't like JAO. It does tend to be a bit overboard at times, depending upon how it's made, on cloves, sweetness, and the pithy orange peel flavor that BK described. I've found that in order to moderate these flavors I now use two cloves per gallon and thin-skinned oranges, clementines, or tangerines. The thin skinned varieties don't have the thick white pith that the more commonly used navel oranges have.

BTW - I started another gallon of JAO in the tangerine variation yesterday afternoon.

interesting. I think I may try it with Clementines. That sounds nice.

Thanks again guys for all your comments, thoughts and opinions. And I too do not want to advocate NOR start an "us" verses "them" MEAD WAR! I just wanted honest to goodness up front answers as to why hightest and BK don't like them. I thank them for their answers.

Dan

I will most likely try another batch (made 1 and it's good for 1 glass) and try some decent honey and maybe peel the orange and throw in the zest. Then again that's alot of work for the simple JAOM. Maybe just a tangerine like mentioned. I've only had one other commercial mead at a Renaissance festival and have to say I prefer my JAOM to it. Could be though because I knew somewhat to expect with a mead where as when tasting the first one I had no clue what a mead was to be like. The thickness of it shocked me.