agave mead?!

[Thor the Mighty]

ok i work at whole foods and saw some agave juice thats organic this and that and i was wondering if anyone here has tried to make a mead with that (or that AND honey)?

 

[Judd]

Well, I don't think it's really a mead if there's no honey in it. But that's not helpful.

 

[BigKahuna]

True...You can NOT make MEAD with anything but Honey. You could make Agave Wine...Just like you would make mead, but it wouldn't actually be MEAD.
I do like the idea though....just remember, you're making undistilled Tequila...NO WORM PLEASE.

 

[dubbel dutch]

I'm curious about these alternative fermented beverages... agave nectar sounds good, I'm testing out some molasses and brown sugar with some "gruit"-type herbs and a yeast cake I harvested... going on the maxim 'sugar+yeast=fire water'.

I'm really interested in brewing with birch sap (the untapped resource of New England). Hoping that it will taste like birch beer. Don't know where to find spiles locally though.

 

[ben the brewman]

i just bought a 6 bottle case off of amazon.com for $32 then i got their credit card and they gave me a $30 credit so the total ended up $2.50 for everything. thats a great deal if you ask me. i will let you guys know how it comes out

 

[slim chillingsworth]

fermented agave nectar is called pulque, not mead. distilled pulque, as mentioned above, is called tequila.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulque

 

[malkore]

I believe I've read that agave nectar is pretty tart. you may have some experimenting to do in order to get a final product who's flavors are balanced...not too sweet, not too tart...

I think trying to go dry might be bad...but, you can always back sweeten if needed.

I'd check over at gotmead.com to see if anybody's tried it...to give you a better idea of how to start.

I think its totally doable.

 

[ben the brewman]

agava nectar is 1.5 times sweeter than sugar. so i dont think it will be tart

 

[SuperiorBrew]

SWMBO uses it in her coffee, its pretty dang sweet. She even has it in those clear straws just like the honey sticks.

 

[BigKahuna]

agava nectar is 1.5 times sweeter than sugar. so i dont think it will be tart

It's only sweet until the Yeast goes to work on it. The sweetness will disappear quickly once the sugars are converted to Alcohol.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Out of curiosity, I bought some agave nectar last week. It's the consistency of warm honey and quite sweet with little flavor. I doubt that a wine made from the stuff I got would have much body or flavor. I'm not sure if the agave juice you found is similar or if it has a more characteristic tequila-like bite.

 

[potatoe]

I havent made this yet for two reasons. Firstly, the stuff costs a pretty penny. Secondly, and Yuri has already pointed this out, the stuff doesent taste like much of anything. Its closer to a simple syrup than honey or maple syrup.

Still, I;m going to break down and brew a gallon, (pry with a 2# to gallon ratio, methinks with K-111V). If all fails, I can at least run it through a still, right?

 

[BakerStreetBeers]

ok i work at whole foods and saw some agave juice thats organic this and that and i was wondering if anyone here has tried to make a mead with that (or that AND honey)?

Sounds like an interesting project. Where in CA are you? I have a buddy who works at WF Thousand Oaks and work for a WF vendor in Nor Cal.

 

[ben the brewman]

I havent made this yet for two reasons. Firstly, the stuff costs a pretty penny. Secondly, and Yuri has already pointed this out, the stuff doesent taste like much of anything. Its closer to a simple syrup than honey or maple syrup.

Still, I;m going to break down and brew a gallon, (pry with a 2# to gallon ratio, methinks with K-111V). If all fails, I can at least run it through a still, right?

yes you can run it through a still and it would make tequila. you would only end up with about 400ml or so of liquor once it was distilled out. i know a simple and easy way to make a still for very cheap if your intersted.

 

[firecrackerbob]

Ive been wondering about this myself after buying some as a sweetener... I hope someone tries it! but I agree its a pretty expensive form of sugar.

 

[wihophead]

The only way you would get Tequila from distilling it would be if it were blue agave nectar, which I highly doubt it is. So you would actually be making Mezcal.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I have a batch of Charlie Ps Prickly Pear Mead in the secondary that is tasting pretty good (if not strange).

I brewed it up last July. The gravity is down so I should bottle it soon. I don't know what's keeping me.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Agave syrup (or, agave nectar) doesn't meet the true definition of nectar, nor is it the basis of tequila or mezcal. Agave nectar is a filtered, heated product from the agave family of plants. The result is sweet and quite neutral in flavor. Tequila and mezcal utilize the strained juice (not filtered) from smashed up agave pulp, presumably accounting for the strong flavor of the end product.

 

[ben the brewman]

The only way you would get Tequila from distilling it would be if it were blue agave nectar, which I highly doubt it is. So you would actually be making Mezcal.

you can buy blue agave nectar all over the net. you can also buy the regular agave nectar to. just look around.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

you can buy blue agave nectar all over the net. you can also buy the regular agave nectar to. just look around.

Even so, you wouldn't have the makings of homemade tequila or anything remotely like it. See my last post.

 

[ben the brewman]

Juices ferment for 30 to 48 hours then they are distilled twice in traditional copper stills or more modern ones made of stainless steel or in continuous distillation towers. The first distillation produces a low-grade alcohol and the second a fiery colorless liquid that is later blended before being bottled. Alcohol content may be between 70 and 110 Proof. At this moment the liquor is no longer mezcal but tequila.

that is straight off of this web site http://www.itequila.org/made.htm

the bottles of blue agave nectar that i have are 100% blue agave nectar and thats the only ingerident so i would say the juice from the blue agave plant is a syrup like substance. you are correct a batch of fermented agave is mezcal but a distilled batch of mezcal is tequila just as stated above.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

The sweet agave nectar that most folks are referring to here is a filtered and processed product. The basis for the wash used in making tequila contains ground up plant cores and is not heat processed or purified in any way, hence the additional flavor.

But, we're not after tequila here, we're discussing a mead-like wine from commercially available processed agave nectar. All of the reading I've done in addition to the ACTUAL flavor of the agave nectar suggests that the resulting beverage will be largely neutral in flavor, NOT tequila or mezcal flavored.

 

[ben the brewman]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007XC9JU/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

check out the website above it has unfiltered dark blue agave nectar. is this what your looking for to make a more flavorful mead, wine, or mezcal what ever you want to call it.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I just did a little searching on http://homedistiller.org to see if any of our underground compatriots have tried using this stuff. It seems that a few folks have had some success at making flavorful drinks from the darker grades of agave nectar. I stand corrected that it's possible to get some tequila flavor from agave nectar - just not the really light stuff that's sold as a table sugar/honey substitute.

This company makes an agave wine from an organic product like ben posted above.

 

[Tusch]

One of those articles is quite intriguing. I will definitely have to look into their meads, you are one of several people I have seen on here recommending their product.

Found this most interesting: " By Mexican law, only mezcal made with over 50 percent blue agave in towns around Jalisco state can be called tequila."

So tequila to mezcal as cognac is to brandy?

 

[GinKings]

I made an agave mead last summer. It's still in a carboy, but it tastes pretty good already. I used 12 lbs of mesquite honey and 9 lbs of amber blue agave syrup (from Amazon) in a 6 1/2 gallon batch with an OG of 1.120. I used the amber because I thought it would have more flavor than the light syrup. The agave added a nice, mild flavor to the mead that is similar to tequila.

 

[wihophead]

One of those articles is quite intriguing. I will definitely have to look into their meads, you are one of several people I have seen on here recommending their product.

Found this most interesting: " By Mexican law, only mezcal made with over 50 percent blue agave in towns around Jalisco state can be called tequila."

So tequila to mezcal as cognac is to brandy?

Exactly, to add to this.......anything less then 100% blue agave is a mixto and if it is 100% blue agave it will always say so on the bottle if it doesn't say 100% blue agave it is considered a mixto.

One of my friends parents live in Mexico and I now have a nice little collection of very good Tequila.... he had a party a couple weeks ago and we drank 2 bottles of Cielo Blanco Tequila.....

 

[nsrstka]

I made a 3 gallon batch of Agave/Wildflower Honey mead on New Year's Day and split it into 3 one gallon batches. I tossed a different yeast into each one. 1. Montrachet 2. Lalvin K1V-1116 3. Lalvin 71B-1112. The original gravity was around 1.115 (equal parts honey and agave syrup). After 3 months, the stuff is tasting pretty good. The Montrachet one is tasting great! I don't know that I would honestly be able to tell that it was Agave nectar in there if I didn't know it, but there is a little something different to them.

 

[Uncle Fat]

Mountain Meadows makes an Agave Mead. I've had a bottle and was pleasantly surprised. At first, the Agave is a little hard to take, but after the first couple of sips, you start to taste the complexity, and it's quite nice.

www.liquidsolutions.biz/product/655333057506.htm

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I've had agave wine margaritas at a few places in NM. The flavor was great, but I've never been able to find agave wine, even at the local wineries there. I'm beginning to wonder if its made from a similar agave product. I think I've gone from naysayer to having a desire to brew a batch!