just wondering

[MasterJeem]

I drank my first mead at a renaissance festival about 10 years ago and completely loved it. After some thought throughout the years and a game called skyrim, I've decided to make my own.

Where did you guys first try, hear of, and decide to start making meads?

 

[ExoticMeadMaker]

I stumbled across it....
I was a home wine maker and one day "decided" to substitute honey for table sugar in a fruit wine (pomegranate if I recall correctly). I found it to be alot easier to use honey, then it was to make simple syrup. After a couple of batches using honey I then learned about mead, so I decided to experiment with honey being a more dominant flavor.

 

[Goofynewfie]

When I was 5 my dad made a match of mead and forgot about it, I was given a bottle of that batch for my 20th birthday. It was made from honey from his beehives and tasted amazing

 

[MasterJeem]

He forgot about it??

 

[Goofynewfie]

The plan was to let it age for five years, but he quit drinking after three

 

[MasterJeem]

That's amazing. I bet it was good stuff! I would imagine that you fellas up north do a lot of home brewing. Beer was always very expensive when I used to travel there monthly

 

[TeufelHundenM198]

I got curious about mead from a video game as well. Can't remember which one now, but I remember seeing it all over the place in-game, and wondering, "does anyone even still make that stuff?" The local liquor store had some, and I completely fell in love with it.

 

[Insomniac]

One of the pubs here was serving warm mead one winter so I gave it a try. I really liked it but never saw it since until a couple of years ago found some at a farm shop. Then a friend of mine decided to make some at home, when I tried it it was far too young but still pretty tasty, the idea was there now though , I could do that...

 

[Wraithraider]

My first taste was after my mom bought me some at a Ren Faire in Maryland when I was 17. Loved it since it didn't taste like booze at all. Once I got in college I found a place that sold Chaucer's. It became my regular party drink and I would kill bottles of the stuff a night. Fast forward quite a bit, my wife wanted to start brewing but soon found she didn't have patience for it. About two years ago, I started to tinker with it since I had a renewed interest in the SCA and have been happily soused since.

 

[bk0]

There's a meadery in the Finger Lakes which I visited purely by chance. They sell a large variety of meads and blended melomels and I thought they were great! On the labels they claim to have invented a new way making mead that doesn't involve boiling.

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

I started after my grandfather passed and I was given all of his old homebrewing equipment. It brought back memories of helping him when I was a kid. I have quite a few family members that make beer already and a few that make wine so I was doing a little research on different fermented beverages, thinking maybe try something different and stumbled across a video about making a traditional mead, I had heard of it before but had no clue what it was and the more I read the more interested I became, so the ocd kicked in and I've been reading and researching mead, fermentation, yeast and honey and making a variety of flavors since. currently have 9 different meads, melomels, metheglins and a bochet going at various stages.

 

[biochemedic]

I had wanted to homebrew for several years after really getting into craft beer during college. I stumbled across a mead making "kit" for a 1 gal batch at the Pennsylvania Ren Fest, and when I moved to NC shortly after, and finally had some space, I made that mead. I turned that mead into something that ironically was sort of like a JAOM (although I'd never even heard of JAOM at the time)...added some spices, orange juice and peel to what was supposed to be a traditional mead. It came out remarkably well for me not knowing a damn thing about mead or fermentation at the time! About 2 days later I brewed my first beer (an overly hoppy ESB...) using the equipment a good friend (and groomsman) bought us for our wedding, and just kept going from there! So technically, I started as a meadmaker, never having really tasted mead before that...

 

[MasterJeem]

...at the Pennsylvania Ren Fest...

what part of pa were you from? i'm north of pgh and i go to that ren fest. where i had my first mead!

 

[biochemedic]

what part of pa were you from? i'm north of pgh and i go to that ren fest. where i had my first mead!

I lived in PGH (North Side/Brighton Heights) for 3 yrs before moving to NC...not originally from there (grew up in NJ) but have been a Steelers fan as long as I can remember, and it was really cool living in PGH for a while...

 

[MasterJeem]

I grew up here and have lived all over the country, but I always come back. It's an amazing city

 

[Matrix4b]

When I was introduced to the Pagan Community in Denver there was a guy name Green Oak that used to always bring a bottle to the Drum Frenzies, called that at that time, now I suppose that they PC'd the name down to Drum Circle. I like it a lot and my favorite of his was an Orange Mead that had very little bite but was very smooth. Tasted many of his brews and he was famous in the comunity for it, his his name Green Oak. He even invited me to aprentice under him once but I turned him down at that time. I then had a friend that did it and recomended Ken's book: Complet Mead Maker. I decided to try it after give a plastic carboy and some other basic equipment, got the book from my uncle. So I tried my first batch, turned out wonderful. Just a strait Desert Mead with 1 1/2 gallons or 18 pounds of honey and 4 gallons in a 5 galon container and Lavin D47 yeast. Turned out soo good, I was hooked. I am now on my 25th to 30th batch here 4 years later and going on brew containers. Only one failure of a mead: A watermellon mead where I accidently let the watermellon juice that I was using get a bit sour prior to useing it. But all the other batches are loved.

Matrix

 

[MasterJeem]

I'm glad I started this thread. These are all great stories

 

[Goofynewfie]

I would imagine that you fellas up north do a lot of home brewing. Beer was always very expensive when I used to travel there monthly

Surprisingly I know very few people who do it.
Right now I live in alberta, but grew up in a fishing village in nova scotia that during prohibition was a huge rumrunning port, one of the biggest clients was Al Capone. Some of the older generation down there actually have a way of brewing beer inside a pumpkin that i wish I would have learned

 

[MasterJeem]

I've heard of this pumpkin method. I may have to research it, sounds interesting.

So you're not from newfoundland? I absolutely love Alberta. Had a ladyfriend in red deer

 

[Goofynewfie]

My grandmother was from newfoundland, but I was born and raised in nova scotia, part of my family line can be traced there back till 1753 when my ancestors came from germany. In newfoundland we can trace back to them leaving county cork during the potato famine

 

[MasterJeem]

My friend and I have wanted to take a road trip there for years. We're from Pittsburgh, so it's going to be a haul.

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

Some of the older generation down there actually have a way of brewing beer inside a pumpkin that i wish I would have learned

Ive heard mention of this as well but have yet to meet anyone who has done it or stumbled over it in anything I've read. It's definitely worth researching. It could be a really cool fall project for the forum, maybe taylor it for a braggot, like the leap year thing, everyone can put their own spin on it.

*Edit*

So I did a quick google search, found some articles and videos, basically they use standard brewing techniques. I found one that used two pumpkins a huge one and a medium one, the huge one they turned into a mash tun by adding a spigot and diaphragm like you would in a plastic cooler type set up and then the medium one for their primary fermenter for an all grain batch. The other did a partial mash batch using a tiny pumpkin that they roasted and added to the boil for flavoring then a medium sized for their fermenter.

They both basically cut the top like a jack-o-lantern, scraped the inside out real good and poked a hole that the airlock fit into. when the top was replaced after the wort was added it actually made a tight seal.

This could take the spiced pumpkin recipes that there are threads about to a whole new level.

 

[MasterJeem]

Ive heard mention of this as well but have yet to meet anyone who has done it or stumbled over it in anything I've read. It's definitely worth researching. It could be a really cool fall project for the forum, maybe taylor it for a braggot, like the leap year thing, everyone can put their own spin on it.

I like this idea a lot! I can't imagine it being all that difficult.

 

[MasterJeem]

Here we go.

http://www.sloshspot.com/blog/02-25-2009/How-To-Brew-Pumpkin-Beer-in-a-Pumpkin-in-20-Easy-Steps-125

I just got beersmith 2 if you want me to play around with recipe ideas. A braggot would be nice. Maybe a cinnamon pumpkin with buckwheat honey? Something like a dunkel for October?

 

[Goofynewfie]

I will ask my father next time I talk to him, I'm not sure if he knows how to do it or not. if he doesnt I'm sure he knows somebody that does. I think the way they do it is a lot simpler, but I'm not positive

 

[MasterJeem]

It did seem like a bit much, but wasn't anything a decent braggot maker couldn't handle.

I think I'm going to go overboard and get one of those gigantic pumpkins.

Just a thought... Braggot doesn't need as much time to age. Should be good after just 3 months, so we could do this and have it ready by this fall. Only problem is that there are no pumpkins until at least September for most people. I guess we'll just have to age it a year

 

[Matrix4b]

I have read of this pumkin technique as well. In the Fall you see a few threads popping up on it. As I understand it you do need to seal the pumpkin's outside with parfin wax bath then drill your hole for your airlock. From what I have read from people that have successfully done this it adds a lot to the mouth feel and a bit more developed of a pumpkin flavor as pumpkin doesn't lend it's flavor well to it. The pumpkin was mostly used as a primary fermenter then finished up in a glass fermenter or in a bucket. Sounded interesting but a bit too much for me. In my fermenting room it may get dammaged.

It would be great to have at holloween, a jack-o-lantern face pined or drawn on it with two air locks at the top bubbling away. The kids would make something something odd about that one.

Matrix

 

[MasterJeem]

haha, would be a lot of fun. now... how do we carbonate it and transfer it to a pumpkin to serve out of?? that would be a party!

 

[Matrix4b]

haha, would be a lot of fun. now... how do we carbonate it and transfer it to a pumpkin to serve out of?? that would be a party!

Possibly force carbonate through a kegorator. Also, it may not carbonate it but dry ice would chill it and provide that smokey effect. Or both, you could pump it through the pumpkin with a kegorator and put in a tap in the bottom. fill it up with dry ice and then just fill the pumpkin when needed. Each time you fill the pumpkin it should be good for a few draws out of the tap and provide a breathing smoke effect. It would be a bit of a work but the effect would be cool looking. Now that would be a great party favor.

Matrix

 

[MasterJeem]

I am absolutely loving this! If you put the mead in the pumpkin, drop the dry ice in, then place the entire thing in an igloo cooler and close the lid, it should carbonate it.

 

[Matrix4b]

I am absolutely loving this! If you put the mead in the pumpkin, drop the dry ice in, then place the entire thing in an igloo cooler and close the lid, it should carbonate it.

Um, not really. It may have some small bubbles but not enough to be truely carbonated. For real carbonation you would need to force carb through a kegorator. Bet you could rent one from a liquor store. Mostly when the dry ice hits the warm (warm to the dry ice even if it has been nearly frozen first) then you get the dry ice fog effect, it doesn't get time or the ability to integrate into the mead. For that you would need something to contain the pressure. Also, don't put mead or any liquid in a two liter bottle and a bit of dry ice in it to attempt it that way. The pressure will be too great and you will get a bottle bomb with the two liter bottle in less than a minute. CO2 gas in dry ice form is like 32 vomules bigger, which would amount to at least 5 atmospheres of pressure or something close, even the best champaign bottles can handle like 3 atmospheres. I think beer and soda is typically carbonated to about 1.5 atmospheres. I may be a little wrong on my numbers but I know it is a BIG differerence.

So really for carbonation, you need to start off with it carbonated or use a kegorator to force carbonate it. I have also heard people use 2 liter bottles and a CO2 tank set up with 2 presser valves to do it. Sorta like that SodaStream machine over at SodaStream.com.

Sorry to rain on your parade, I just wouldn't want you disapointed when it didn't work.

Matrix

 

[MasterJeem]

There is a local root beer bottling plant that carbonates their products using large vats and not quite airtight lids after dropping some dry ice in. I've made "fizzy fruit" by putting them in a closed cooler for a while. I would think that it should have a somewhat carbonating effect on the liquid as well. I guess I'll just have to try