Table mead??

Anyone make a mead that is not super high abv and just regular beer strength? Would topping off with more water to make a lighter more "poundable" mead work?

I'm going to have like 4 batches or normal strength stuff going, but I was wondering if a lighter/easier to drink lots of mead can be made.

Ideas?

jezter6 said:

Anyone make a mead that is not super high abv and just regular beer strength? Would topping off with more water to make a lighter more "poundable" mead work?

I'm going to have like 4 batches or normal strength stuff going, but I was wondering if a lighter/easier to drink lots of mead can be made.

Ideas?

Click to expand...

I'm a bit of a noob myself, but I was considering this as well. I was thinking of making a batch a little lighter on the honey, say enough for a OG of 1.040, and letting this go to full dryness, then stabilizing and backsweetening a bit.

I'm not sure what this would do to final flavors, though.

Tracy's Quick Mead

An ale-strength honey beverage rather than a honey wine, which most meads will be. But really, all you need to do is start with a 1.040-1.050 OG. Ran across a 48-hour recipe, but can't find it right now.

I believe these are called hydromels?

I haven't done this, but if I had a kegging setup, I would.

I made one with some spiced herb tea. I came out pretty good and was ready to drink about 6 months earlier than I would consider drinking any of my other mead. One thing I wish I would have done is add some acid blend to it. I don't usually use acid in my mead so I didn't think about it but because it's so mild, it could use a bit more "bite". If I had used regular tea it might have that bite from the tannins but I used herbal. Oh well.

Hi Jezter,

Roughly speaking 1 lb of honey adds 1% alcohol (by volume), so 6-7 lbs of honey in 4.5 gallons water (1 gallon of honey = 12 lbs in weight) would produce 6-7% abv mead. Either a basic show mead or a JOAM-like version would work out fine for you too - once you ferment it at cool temps.

All the best!

jezter6 said:

Anyone make a mead that is not super high abv and just regular beer strength? Would topping off with more water to make a lighter more "poundable" mead work?

I'm going to have like 4 batches or normal strength stuff going, but I was wondering if a lighter/easier to drink lots of mead can be made.

Ideas?

Click to expand...

the only issue i see is that actully the honey will still leave the meade heavy and it will sit in your stomic heavier then beer... so pounding it down wont work so well... but yest in a basic honey fermentation just about 2lbs per gallon would do what your looking for... just over 8% maybe... under that your gonna be fighting it fermenting to dry... but actully temperture regularion will help with that, and of course stopping fermentation before you drop to low will help as well.

Cheers

yes you can just add water to take the abv down to what you are looking for.

I would reccomend boiling the water first and then cooling it to get the oxygen out, otherwise it will just taste like you added tap water to it.


This works well especially if you have a keg. 2 gallons of 16% mead and 2 gallons of water. Lightly carb it and it's real nice.

This is intriguing.....

I make a great mead that seems to fit your description of "Poundable". I'll try to describe my process.

6 Gal of spring water, boiled and cooled to room temp in 1 7½ Gal glass carboy.
10 lbs orange blossom honey.
5Tbls Citric Acid (I know it's a bit much, especially for mead... trust me)
1oz Dried Elderberries in a hop bag
3 Large Habenero Peppers diced also in the hop bag.

Mix water and 6 lbs of the honey well, Pitch yeast (I use dry red-star champagne yeast). Drop in hop bag with elderberries and peppers. Ferment between 55 and 65 degrees.

In 10 days, rack once to get the dead yeast out and remove the fruit and peppers, let it rest another 10 days, rack again. Now add the acid and the remaining 4lbs of honey. Bottle immediately. Leave the bottles in a dark cool spot for 1 month and let them build a little fizz. Test one after the first month and see if it's carbonated. If so, move all bottles to the fridge and chill them. The mead should be around 8% abv and sweet.

Age is everything with mead. Even though they're in the fridge, let them stay there undisturbed for 18 months if possible. It'll be good right away, but significantly better with time.

The acid content seems a bit extreme, but cold stored unfermented honey can get musty, the acid cuts that down for a resulting texture and body like a cold soda.

The hot peppers I'm sure are discussed in other places on this forum, but if it's a foreign concept and seems too weird, don't worry. Over time they mix with the honey's sweetness and make a ginger-beer-like crispness in the mead. It's not overpowering at all, and not hot like people might expect.

I know I've seen similar recipes on the net (ingredient wise) but as stated by the other posters, temperature control and timing are everything if you want a light easy to drink mead.

BrewinJack said:

the only issue i see is that actully the honey will still leave the meade heavy and it will sit in your stomic heavier then beer... so pounding it down wont work so well...

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How do you figure? A light honey wine will be very dry and easy to pound. However it won't have much flavor on its own.

Honey has a very light flavor and is fully fermentable so a low gravity mead will not have much body or flavor. It may leave you disappointed. However you could do something like Redstone does with their nectars. Redstone nectars have fruit flavoring, are back sweetened and carbonated. This combination makes a flavorful beverage with good body. Very drinkable.

The combination of sweet and carbonated is difficult to accomplish when bottle conditioning but you may be able to use lactose or splenda to lightly sweeten the sparkling melomel. Other options include making a sweet still mead by stabilizing the mead and back sweetening or making a dry sparkling mead.

You may want to try several options to see what fits your tastes best.

Craig