Medovukha

[Tin4]

Anyone made it?

I have a buddy in Russia raving about it.

I was hoping to get it made up before he gets back to the states in July.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Austin, What in fact is the difference between Medovukha and mead? Never made Medovukha but it seems to be very similar to mead (2 lbs of honey in about 1 gallon of water some recipes call for raisins (nutrient?) - some say add spices , some say add hops, some say add spices and hops , some add neither). What is your recipe?

 

[hunter_le five]

Fascinating. I'd never heard of this until today.

Been doing some googlery on it, and the recipes out there seem to vary quite a bit. Most seem to indicate that this is basically a low-ABV mead (and consequently has a much quicker turnaround time), but one I saw gave a range of 10-16%. Most were in the 3-8% range.

One made no mention of yeast, so I wonder if that was an error by omission, or if it relied on wild yeast/bacteria in the honey/raisins it called for? It did mention open fermentation too, but didn't say why.

One made mention of adding "bread soaked in wine yeast", which reminded me of a kvass recipe I tried way back.

As soon as I get one of my 1 gallon fermenters open, I want to try one of these recipes out. I like the idea of a 5-6%abv mead-like substance.

 

[Tin4]

Hi Austin, What in fact is the difference between Medovukha and mead? Never made Medovukha but it seems to be very similar to mead (2 lbs of honey in about 1 gallon of water some recipes call for raisins (nutrient?) - some say add spices , some say add hops, some say add spices and hops , some add neither). What is your recipe?

Don't have one yet. Trying to nail one down. Hunter covered the differences. It also takes a lot less time than mead from what I've read.

Fascinating. I'd never heard of this until today.

Been doing some googlery on it, and the recipes out there seem to vary quite a bit. Most seem to indicate that this is basically a low-ABV mead (and consequently has a much quicker turnaround time), but one I saw gave a range of 10-16%. Most were in the 3-8% range.

One made no mention of yeast, so I wonder if that was an error by omission, or if it relied on wild yeast/bacteria in the honey/raisins it called for? It did mention open fermentation too, but didn't say why.

One made mention of adding "bread soaked in wine yeast", which reminded me of a kvass recipe I tried way back.

As soon as I get one of my 1 gallon fermenters open, I want to try one of these recipes out. I like the idea of a 5-6%abv mead-like substance.

Can you post the recipe? I'm going to start it this weekend come hell or high water.

 

[Psylocide]

Don't have one yet. Trying to nail one down. Hunter covered the differences. It also takes a lot less time than mead from what I've read.



Can you post the recipe? I'm going to start it this weekend come hell or high water.

 

[hunter_le five]

Can you post the recipe? I'm going to start it this weekend come hell or high water.

This is the recipe I will be following. I cobbled it together from several recipes that were all very similar.

500g sugar
500g honey, divided
50g raisins (optional)
yeast nutrient
4 liters water
1 pkt wine yeast
1 tsp citric acid

Bring water to boil. Add all sugar, yeast nutrient, acid, and first 250g of honey. Return to boil. Cool to pitching temps and transfer to sanitized fermenter. Add rehydrated yeast and raisins. Ferment until activity begins to slow, and then add additional 250g honey. At this point fermentation can be stopped for a sweeter/lower abv beverage, or allowed to continue fermenting for a drier/higher abv beverage (I like my boozohol on the dry side). Bottle when fermentation has stabilized and drink has cleared.

I think I'll try to get mine started this weekend as well.

 

[alaktheman]

This makes me thirsty. Just curious here but wouldn't wine yeast bring the alcohol content up to high? Wouldn't you want to use a beer yeast instead?

 

[hunter_le five]

This makes me thirsty. Just curious here but wouldn't wine yeast bring the alcohol content up to high? Wouldn't you want to use a beer yeast instead?

I wouldn't be worried as much about the yeast as the amount of simple sugars.

I just ran that recipe through a few calculators, and they were predicting in the 8-12% range for ABV, which I think is higher than what we're going for here. Might need to dial back the honey and sugar some.

Otherwise, you would have to neutralize the yeast part-way through fermentation (which of course is fine if you are going for a "sweet" drink).
If you stop fermentation before the second honey addition, that actually puts you in the range we are going for (according to the calculators, anyway).

I don't see anything wrong with using an ale yeast for this, since we are going for a moderate ABV beverage anyway. I would like to try S-04, since it's cheap and flocculates out nicely.

 

[hunter_le five]

**** it. I think I'll just follow the recipe as-is, rack off the yeast cake after the initial fermentation/clearing, and add sorbate and a campden tablet before the second honey addition, and then bottle.

I'm normally not one for sweet drinks, but something tells me this one is supposed to be sweet. Probably helps with the faster turnaround too.

 

[bernardsmith]

why would a recipe include sugar? The sugars in honey are all simple. Wouldn't take the yeast any more time or be more stressful to ferment a recipe made only with honey.
The raisins are presumably included as nutrient - but nitrogen and the various nutrients added in packaged nutrients are presumably more focused and don't run the risk of introducing sorbates or pesticides into the must.
Adding citric acid before the fermentation has ended may stress the yeast by dropping the pH too low - so you may want to hold off adding any acidity until you are ready to bottle... and boiling the honey presumably makes brewers feel more at home, but there is no chemical reason to apply any heat to honey unless your plan is to boil off volatile flavor and aromatic molecules... honey is for all intents and purposes bacteria free (not enough moisture). You can measure its shelf life in years even if kept at room temperature - and honey is, in and of itself, a bactericide

 

[hunter_le five]

why would a recipe include sugar? The sugars in honey are all simple. Wouldn't take the yeast any more time or be more stressful to ferment a recipe made only with honey.
The raisins are presumably included as nutrient - but nitrogen and the various nutrients added in packaged nutrients are presumably more focused and don't run the risk of introducing sorbates or pesticides into the must.
Adding citric acid before the fermentation has ended may stress the yeast by dropping the pH too low - so you may want to hold off adding any acidity until you are ready to bottle... and boiling the honey presumably makes brewers feel more at home, but there is no chemical reason to apply any heat to honey unless your plan is to boil off volatile flavor and aromatic molecules... honey is for all intents and purposes bacterial free (not enough moisture) and is in and of itself a becatericide

Good questions. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much information out there. If Russia's homebrewing dark age was anything like ours, I'm guessing some of the recipe is fairly arbitrary and/or based on an older (poorer) understanding of best brewing practices.

All of the sugar could probably be replaced just as easily with more honey, agreed.

Raisins are probably unnecessary if you are using a yeast nutrient, though I doubt they will hurt anything either. Nobody seems to have issues with using them in JAOM.

At first I thought maybe the acid should be added at the end of the recipe for flavor, but all the recipes I saw that included it in the must. I know acid can be used to lower a must if the PH is too high, but I honestly don't know what the PH of honey and water is, so I don't know if that's the reason. At any rate, adding acid prior to fermentation is not unheard of, but I don't know how common it is in honey-based beverages.

Agreed on the boiling thing too. I know a lot of old-school mead makers used to do this, but I'm not sure there's really any necessity to it. Again, just following the recipes I saw. Might have been due to the poor sanitation in the days of yore in Russia?

 

[bernardsmith]

....

At first I thought maybe the acid should be added at the end of the recipe for flavor, but all the recipes I saw that included it in the must. I know acid can be used to lower a must if the PH is too high, but I honestly don't know what the PH of honey and water is, so I don't know if that's the reason. At any rate, adding acid prior to fermentation is not unheard of, but I don't know how common it is in honey-based beverages....

Honey has no chemical buffers that stabilize the pH when it is being fermented. That means that it is quite likely that the pH can drop very quickly to levels that inhibit or prevent further fermentation by the yeast (about 3.0 or thereabouts). Where acidity is important in wine making is in ensuring that the wine won't spoil (and knowing the pH tells you how much SO2 you need to add to inhibit oxidation)... As far as taste goes - the only way (IMO) to know whether to add lemon juice or tartaric acid or malic or a mixture is ... to taste the wine. A TA of about 0.6% has enough zip and zing... but TA is not pH and the only way to know if your wine or mead needs more or less acid is to taste it... TA is about flavor. pH is about spoilage - and fermentability

While many folk who try their hand at mead add all kinds of acids (acid blend, lemon juice, tartaric acid etc) to the honey as they pitch the yeast those are the same people who say that their wines routinely smell of "rhino farts" or that their meads take years before they are drinkable or their meads simply stop fermenting at levels of sweetness that can peel the enamel off your teeth...OK, yer pays yer money and yer takes yer chance... I am no expert (been making wines seriously for only a few years although started wine making about 20 years ago) but producing hydrogen sulfide in a mead or wine implies that your technique is wrong; having your wines or mead stall tells me that your process is poor; and assuming that yeast will give up while there is still plenty of sugar to ferment suggests that brewing might be your forte not wine making...

 

[hunter_le five]

Alrighty then.

 

[orangehero]

Often what's sold as Medovukha is a strong semi-sweet honey flavored liqueur. The word can refer to a variety of products. What's called mead and all it's variants here would be considered medovukha.

Similar to this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krupnik

 

[kempshark]

Do any of you have any success with making this?......just curious, because I was thinking of making a flavored Medovukha just for something fun to try.

 

[SternCoarth]

Do any of you have any success with making this?......just curious, because I was thinking of making a flavored Medovukha just for something fun to try.

I myself will be looking into it, the russians made it locally when i was there a few years back, it was almost more common then water in the rural town of Suzdal i had stayed in for awhile, in most accounts the recipe relies on passed down knowledge or things your just 'supposed' to know, ill look into it with some russian friends to see if i can get a more accurate way to make it, it was really good when drank, obviously as an alcoholic beverage it didnt provide a quenching taste like water but it did provide a very refreshing and mellow but sweet but mellow the most accurate description i suppose would be refreshing water that tastes like pure summer happiness instead of quenching your thirst it brings joy, also they had several 'styles' i guess you would call them when i was there, atleast 3-4 of them all local.

Anywho, ill see what i can find, hopefully it goes well.

EDIT: im in contact with a friend in Moscow iv known for awhile, he does not know himself being urban but he said he would see around for me, hopefully it proves through.