"Quick" Mead... Possible?

Hey guys,

A co-worker of mine asked me if it would be possible to make a batch of mead that would be drinkable in like 3.5 months. She has a daughter that was supposed to be getting married in May of next year, but has now decided to move the wedding up to the end of October (Halloween). She was planning on making a batch of mead and thought that she had more than enough time to make something good. Now she is not sure if it is possible. As the resident "expert" on all things homebrew (meaning that I know slightly more than non "experts") at our place of employment, she asked me if I could come up with anything. So...

Any ideas out there? I would think that if you kept the original gravity on the lower end of the usual mead spectrum you would be off to a good start. Yes? Would you want to ferment it with champagne yeast to just blow through the must and spend the small amount of time letting it "age"?

Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Thanks

I'm sure someone way more knowledgable will answer you, so here is the little info I can offer. From what I've read here, sweeter meads tend to be drinkable more quickly than dry meads. So your co-worker may want to avoid champagne yeast and use a sweet mead yeast or Lavlin D-47 instead and use more honey.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...I want to try this.

What if you use Nottingham yeast. Take your must to 1.080, then if notty poops at 8% you'll get around 1.015 final gravity. The lower ABV% and the sweetness will leave you with something that should be drinkable early.

Go to the Mead recipes section and print her the recipe for Joe's Quick Mead. Joe claims his was ready in 5 weeks. I've made this with various juices a few times and, in my experience, it takes more like 8-10 weeks. That's still pretty quick for a tasty mead.

definitely keep the ABV low. i wouldn't use bread yeast either (JOAM) simply because it may throw off flavors that won't age out, and doesn't clear as easily.

a good ale yeast that only hits 10% max ABV is a good route. it'll be a lighter mead, on the sweeter side to mask any 'youngness' that remains.

the bread yeast doesn't give any off flavors that we could ever detect, but it does not clear. And then if it does and you look at it funny, it will go cloudy again.

BigKahuna's got a good idea, with the notty. Sweat meads are drinkable faster, so get the og up to keep the fg up. Plus non-wine drinker's tend to like sweat wine's better.

Also, watch out on that D-47, we had it go to 13.2%, which ended up not making a sweat mead.

z987k said:

Also, watch out on that D-47, we had it go to 13.2%, which ended up not making a sweat mead.

Click to expand...

This begs a question of reliability. I wonder how many times in 100 that stuff leaves people dry when they wanted sweet?

good, question. And I don't know, but I'm sure we'll use it again and see.

Weird thing is the D-47 attenuated out more than it should have and the ec-1118 pooped out way early, in the exact same must.

This has happened to me a couple of times, friends just don't understand the time factor in making either beer or mead.
When I have to make a quick mead due to someone's Pi$$ Poor Planning, I always go for a low OG, and use WL001, or 1056. High attenuation and just keep the OG to a level where the yeast will tire out after 2 to 3 weeks and leave just enough sweetness in the mead.
I then let it sit in secondary for as long as I have time to then either keg or still bottle it. Depending on the demands of the groom I may had a little quality vodka that does not smell or taste like gasoline to kick it up a bit. (Any suggestions would be great, I don't go for the hard stuff so my experience is limited).
One note, one batch kind of died early on me, and I noticed it a little late so it was a sweet mead.