Adding hops.

Who's added hops to their mead? How'd it turn out? Any tips or recommendations on strains?

I just made this which calls for 1/2oz Saaz hops. It has been fermenting along for a few days now so I have no idea how it is gonna taste... It smelled delicious before popping the airlock on it though!

Sounds tasty. If ya dont mind, shoot me an update when she's finished.

One of our local meaderies, B. Nektar, makes an IPA mead. I didn't particularly care for it, even though I like the others they make. On their website I linked to, they say they use Chinook, Cluster and Cascade.

Local guy as well...I dont much care for the IPA either. The others are o.k.

Smokejumper said:

Sounds tasty. If ya dont mind, shoot me an update when she's finished.

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Should be a few months before it is ready to drink, but if I remember I will!

Also dont know how to classify this mead. Based on the brief descriptions on gotmead.com it can be a Cyser, a Melomel, or a T'ej. I prefer the latter because it sounds cool! Any thoughts on what this can be classified as?

tims5377 said:

Also dont know how to classify this mead?

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You can kind of go any direction you want, it'd definitely fall into the open mead category at mazer cup.... mead, melomel, metheglin, braggot, cyser, it's yours, pick the one you like the best

First mead I made was with 16 pounds local and 2 oz of chinook. Called it "hops and honey" and won thrid place a local wine competition in the "other" category. It was really good, hops didn't shine but did add a nice complement to the honey. Honey was just a local wildflower but was way better than the stuff I get from Dutch Gold.

PariahVineyard said:

First mead I made was with 16 pounds local and 2 oz of chinook. Called it "hops and honey"

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How did you add your hops? Did you boil them, make a hop tincture, or just add them to primary?

When i did it i boiled the honey amd some water, added the hops and let them go for aboit a half hour. Then i added my fruit. No idea how it turned put yet but it smells good!

Fathand said:

How did you add your hops? Did you boil them, make a hop tincture, or just add them to primary?

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boiled 5 lbs of honey and a gallon of water with the hops at 15 minute increments starting at 60 minutes, 1/2 oz at each addition.

I just started a one gallon experiment batch this past weekend after trying and loving B. Neckter's 'Evil Genius' the other week at a beerfest.

3lbs wildflower honey into carboy
2 earl-gray tea bags - steeped in two cups of 212f water for 10 min (only poured maybe 3/4 of a cup in the carboy)
Boil 1 gallon water
.25oz Chinook for 30min
.25oz Cascade for 10min
pitched S-04

Had an OG of 1.110

I plan on letting it ferment out then transfer to secondary for 1 month. I'm thinking of dry-hopping it, with some whole leaf German Tettnang I have lying around, for a week after the month of secondary but wont decide till I draw a sample then. Going to carb it to 1ish volumes when I bottle.

System hiccup

I do not think it would be considered T'ej just because it is hop based. T'ej is a traditional Ethiopian honey wine/mead made with dried leaves and wood from the gesho tree, shiny leafed buckthorn. I know there are many alternate recipes out there using woody hops in place of the gesho. Interesting question though. I do enjoy the T'ej I have made with the gesho you can now find at Ethiopian shops and such. You can find gesho in a shop in CA, http://shop.brundo.com/product.sc?productId=38