hate to ask but....what does mead taste like?

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Um... Even thought you'd think that all honey based alcohol would taste the same it does not. Because all honeys taste different, and then mead can also vary from dry to sweet.
Sweet mead has honey in it's flavor and then whatever other ingredients the person puts in.
Dry mead you can still taste the honey but these is usually a lot more spice and tang like dry wine. At least that's how I'd describe it.
 
Most straight or ..."SHOW" mead tastes like white wine with a predominate honey flavor. You can make mead with any combination and strength of fruit or spice addition. Heck....I know a few guys making Habinaro mead.
Some mead....Redstone Meadery....is carbonated and some is still.
Redstone makes an interesting raspberry mead that is light and fizzy....sorta tastes like generic raspberry ginger ale. It's a bit light on flavor for me.
 
I have honey bees and some left over honey from last year, was thinking about making some. it doesn't have to be carbonated?
 
If you do carb then add some extra sugar, the extra CO2 in soln will change the pH to be more acidic which in my experience has led to tartness.
 
Meads generally never taste alike.
The honey will impart different characteristics to the wine.

PM me and I'll send you a bottle of my test mead from last year.
It may give you a good idea of what to expect.
or not.

BJCP judges in my brewclub loved it.
 
I wish I could find commercial mead to try, to know whether I want to make it or not.

It sounds good in theory, especially the addition of fruit and aging over years to come, but dang I would have nothing to compare it against without having having commercial mead!
 
Look into buying online, yeah it ends up being a bit expensive, but my first bottle of redstone kept me making mead. There are several very good meaderies available.
 
For those who may be near Elkton, MD visit State Line Liquors. Over the past few years they've expanded their mead selections to about a dozen producers, including Redstone and a Danish import in stone bottles.
 
I bought a bottle of mead back in January. I'm a n00b myself, but I'd suggest that once you settle on a particular mead, try to find the oldest bottle in the store. I bought a bottle of Redstone Mead that had a produced date of Dec. of 2006 back in January. Then, I thought, that it had a bit of a hot, alcohol taste to it. It was at my folks' house until Thanksgiving when I brought it back home. In my opinion, it mellowed out some more. That or my taste buds have become more refined, lol. My point is, like Revvy says, time "heals" all brews.
 
go to an Ethiopian restaurant and ask for tej, its close enough. I love the stuff, and decided i wanted to try to make it... and wiki told me it is similar to meade... and voila i have 3 meade only carboys now :)
 
I will parrot Bobby in saying that most people do not like mead. I like moderate gravity dry meads. Most commercial examples are not equivalent to homemade mead in my experience. I like the stuff my brother and I make better than anything I have bought.
 
For those who may be near Elkton, MD visit State Line Liquors. Over the past few years they've expanded their mead selections to about a dozen producers, including Redstone and a Danish import in stone bottles.

I live about 15 minutes from there and a couple months ago Readstone did a tasting but I missed it. I was pissed. Can you reccomend one that I should try as my first mead?
 
Two more good commercial examples, IMHO, are White Winter Winery and Rabbits Foot Meadery. White Winter is from northern WI, and I believe Rabbits Foot is from CA.
 
There's a vineyard in Ohio called Valley Vineyards. They have a sweet honey mead that I find absolutely amazing. Its made using clover honey, and its relatively cheap (10 dollars a bottle). It can be bought at Krogers where I live (around Dayton, Ohio). It can also be ordered online.

Estate Bottled Wine from Valley Vineyards Winery in Morrow, Ohio (just a short trip from Cincinnati, Columbus or Dayton)

You'll find it under Dessert wines. I have yet to try any of their other wines, I'm hooked on their mead. :drunk:


Tyson
 
Will have to check that out, parent's are from cinci, SWMBO is from Kettering, so I'll pick up a bottle of that the next time I am in town.

*Edit, I've heard of that vineyard now that I think about it. They are about 10 minutes from the parents, looks like I will be going for a tour, forget going to Kroger's HA!
 
it doesn't have to be carbonated?

There's as much variety in mead styles, as beer styles.

melomels, metheglins, braggots, rhodomels, pyments, sack meads....just to start with.

a melomel is just a 'fruit mead'. think of how many kinds of fruits there are...its a whole sub-category of meads.

they can be dry, sweet, in the middle...still or carbonated lightly, or carb'd like champaign.

the sky is the limit.
 
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