Viking feast 2012

Just sevred up my first batch of mead at my viking feast last night. This was my first time making mead and it turned out fantastic. I only have 3 of 23 bottles left, everyone ignored my home brew beer and drank mead all night. I have decided to try and make this a annual event and hope it will get more elaborate with coustuems and such. I want to thank everyone for thier help in my mead making quest. The vast amount of knowage here defenity helped things go more smootehly. I'm now looking for ideas for next years mead which i plan on starting next weekend.

Any suggetstions for flavoring etc is very welcome. This years was blackberry flavored. thanks again for everyone's help

your pal
THE CAD

PS: how many lbs of honey are in a gallon?

I think a gallon of honey is usually 12 lbs. And congrats on the turn out of your first mead.

It'd probably be really cool iof you tried one of the Viking Blod recipes, seems the clones use cherry and or cranberry juice and the ones that are more true to the original use a ton of honey, hops and hibiscus,

I plan on making my "black berry death" again since everyone liked it, but since so much of it went I'm looking to make 2 extra 3 gallon experimental batches to try new flavors.

Brewingmedic: I'm all about heavy honey, "black berry death" had 20 lbs of honey and 3.3 lbs of black berry puree in it

I will research these Viking blood recipies, they go along with the theme which just adds to the fun

your pal
THE CAD

You might want to think a little further ahead, like a couple of years ahead & start a mead/melomel/metheglyn that ages a couple of years before serving. A nice varietal honey like orange blossom, acacia or teupelo would make for an awesome show mead.

Save that clover honey for melomels/metheglyns. Black plums make a really nice, smooth melomel; so does black currant, but a little black currant goes a long way & they're so tart it takes a while for that tartness to age out.
Regards, GF.

And if your mead is so popular, you may have to increase your production rate.

Care to share your recipe?

20 lbs blueberry honey
3lbs 1 oz blackberry puree
1 package of mead nutriants from keystone homebrew
2 packages of wyeast 4184 sweet mead

heated water to dissolve honey (10 lbs), did not bring to a boil
added nutriants and 1 package of yeast
let sit in hallway closet for about 4 months
reracked and mixed in blackberry puree with rest of honey more nutriants and yeast, back into hallway closet for 4 more months
bottled in wine bottles and let sit in the basement for 2 months

it had a nice purpleish color with a sweet taste and slight blackberry tones.

OG and SG were lost when some rubbed against the black board I keep all that info on. I think it finished some where around 1.003. ABV was estimated by beersmith at around 20-22%, wish I knew what it really was at. I know it was a bit erratic, i kept wanting to mess with it as i read more articles on line and the gears in my head continued to grind. The next batch will be put together all at once and left alone to ferment in happiness.

Well, two little tips........

If you pay good money for varietal honey, don't heat it (honey is already natures most anti-fungal, anti-septic substance. You think you're pasturising, all you're doing is evaporating away a lot of the aromatics and some of the more subtle flavour elements.

And, think of a better yeast. Yeasts sold as "mead yeast" are utter bollocks. The producers have no idea what would originally be used - probably bread yeast or wild yeasts. Plus the wyeast "sweet mead" is notoriously finicky and a pain to use. I've heard and read of more people having problems with it than successes.

It's relatively easy to make a nice, strong traditional one, then use selected fruit and/or spices to flavour the brew. Given the Viking theme, perhaps appropriate northern European herbs, fruit etc.

A yeast that would do the job, is one of the more easily available ones i.e. K1V-1116

thanks for the tips.

I only heated the water because i was told this would make it easier to stir in the honey, are you saying i should just stir it in at room temp?

found the answer in another thread, disreguard my last post.

Any suggestions on Northern European herbs, fruits etc that might be fun to use?

thecad said:

Any suggestions on Northern European herbs, fruits etc that might be fun to use?

Click to expand...

Off the top of my head would be apples, dandelion, lingonberry, juniper berries.
I lnow you can make a very nice wine with beets so maybe those too

For fruits: Lingonberry, cloudberry, bilberry, juniper berry, Blackberry, blueberry, black currants, ash berry, hawthorn berry, salmon berry, cranberry, cherry, apple, crabapple. For spices: caraway, fennel, anise, liquorice, black spruce, peppermint, spearmint, wintergreen.

I'm not sure when spices like cinnamon, nutmeg & allspice made it to scandinavian countries, but there are MANY scandinavian recipes for food & drink that have those 3 spices in them & they've been used for a few hundred years.
Regards, GF.

gratus fermentatio said:

For fruits: Lingonberry, cloudberry, bilberry, juniper berry, Blackberry, blueberry, black currants, ash berry, hawthorn berry, salmon berry, cranberry, cherry, apple, crabapple. For spices: caraway, fennel, anise, liquorice, black spruce, peppermint, spearmint, wintergreen.

I'm not sure when spices like cinnamon, nutmeg & allspice made it to scandinavian countries, but there are MANY scandinavian recipes for food & drink that have those 3 spices in them & they've been used for a few hundred years.
Regards, GF.

Click to expand...

To add, for lakrits, you need to specify, not licorice root, but anise. Birch bark was also used in old Scandinavian brewing practices. Also hyldebær; or elderberries, and their flowers are very commonly used in mine and other Scandinavian households.

Just got very excited in addition to this post, and I now have ripe hyldebær. Ready to get to work!

Just got very excited in addition to this post, and I now have ripe hyldebær. Ready to get to work!

I've never heard of most of these herbs/fruits. Are they available in the supermartket or should I look else where? just found my buddy is allergic to juniper berries so that's out.

brewed another batch of orginal mead experiment today. Mixed all the ingredigants togethere at the start this time. saving 3lbs of honey to add later along with fresh blackberries, if i can find them, and used red star champagne yeast instead of Wyeast Sweet mead this time.

Still planning to make two 3 gallon batches of something different in the near future. I think vikings would like a variety of meads.

That we do. LOL

good to see that authentic vikings approve. What do you think i should create noble warrior?

Whatever tastes good! That's pretty much the answer any of us would give. I enjoy tart orange meads, Sweet melomels and EVERYTHING in between! I'm working on an orange/blackberry variant right now. Deep, deep coloring. But amazingly supple. I shall be using this at blot for Yule. Should be a hit with, well, everybody.


CHEERS!


P.S. Sorry for not responding sooner. I guess I didn't get an alert to this thread. lol

I ended up making a version of Viking Blod, there's a whole thread somewhere, with hibiscus, hops, caraway seeds and other goodies added in. Found up some of my buddies have wicked allergies to some of the spices (mostly juniper berries)

Not to thread jack, but you bring up a real important point. If any vintner or brewer is doing mixes of multiple ingredients it would be smart to make sure your guests KNOW what's in it. People can have allergies to the darnedest things. Mine is yeast, mold, and fungus...our former next door neighbor is allergic to watermelon (I think I'd die) and my son is super allergic to...avocados. I can't drink gin because of juniper berries either, come to think of it.

What about Swedish lingonberries? I recently found them on top shelf in grocery by the Oregon brand fruits. These are a product of Sweden, Roland brand and contents of 14.3oz/405gm jar are wild lingonberries, sugar, pectin...165gm sugar per jar and I paid $2.89/jar. Nothing more Nordic or Vikingess than a lingonberry. And they will not be available for long. I love them in yogurt, crepes, and on lefse....but am stockpiling some to dedicate to a mead.

If you have an ikea in your area some of them sell frozen lingonberries

fatbloke said:

Well, two little tips........

If you pay good money for varietal honey, don't heat it (honey is already natures most anti-fungal, anti-septic substance. You think you're pasturising, all you're doing is evaporating away a lot of the aromatics and some of the more subtle flavour elements.

And, think of a better yeast. Yeasts sold as "mead yeast" are utter bollocks. The producers have no idea what would originally be used - probably bread yeast or wild yeasts. Plus the wyeast "sweet mead" is notoriously finicky and a pain to use. I've heard and read of more people having problems with it than successes.

It's relatively easy to make a nice, strong traditional one, then use selected fruit and/or spices to flavour the brew. Given the Viking theme, perhaps appropriate northern European herbs, fruit etc.

A yeast that would do the job, is one of the more easily available ones i.e. K1V-1116

Click to expand...

Could you please elaborate on why the wyeast "sweet mead" is difficult to use? I just used it this afternoon in my first go at making mead.