Commercial "Traditional Mead" for a newbie to try?

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Paul_F

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I'm a total brewing newbie (except for some fermented soda's... I make a decent lemon-ginger soda), and thinking about taking up some Mead making... Busily reading about Joe's Ancient Orange Mead in the Recipe forum.

I'm wondering if there's a "Traditional Mead" on the commercial market that a guy could try to see if he even LIKES the stuff!

I tried a Mead, a metheglin, I think, at a winery in North Dakota a few years ago - but didn't care so much for that one.... far too reminiscent of grass clippings. I'd love to try a "lightly sweet" mead reminiscent of... oh, I dunno... Honey? :D

Suggestions of a commercially available "traditional mead", that hobby mead-makers don't hate, to try out appreciated!

Paul F.
 
Ha ha! The perennial quandary.......

The difference between meads as how they CAN be made as opposed to how they're made because that's how a commercial maker produces them because he thinks that's what the public want......

I can't suggest a brand of traditional you might find, I don't know what'd be available to you in your area. Most of the traditionals here seem to be firmly in the "Dessert" category. Cloyingly sweet with very high residual sugars. Not bad tasting over all just very, very sweet.

You might get some idea of what's actually produced if you look at the commercial area over at gotmead and then check out their websites and then find out if its available near you......

Just remember, the US has some very convoluted and strange regs for shipping alcoholic beverages that vary widely by state........
 
Many thanks... I'm reading over at Gotmead now...
Trouble is, I don't know what's available in my area either. I've checked two reasonably well stocked liquor stores so far, and neither carry any meads. I haven't given up yet, though.
I'm looking more for a "slightly sweet" than a "damn... that's sweet!".
 
I'm looking more for a "slightly sweet" than a "damn... that's sweet!".

Good luck! Unfortunately I'm on the other side of the country, so whats available to me, probably isn't to you. If you can get your hands on a Saphouse Meadery, than those I've found to be a little on the drier side. Or at least they have the perception of dryness. Be prepared to spend some $$$ on good mead though.
 
Try Redstone meadery if you can find it, It is the best of the commercial meads that I have tried. Couldn't remember the name so I had to go buy a bottle.
 
Pretty shure CA has more selection than most of the other states like mine with meads. Im new to mead and commercial mead buying. I would say,yeah alot of them are sweet and too sweet. I checked the gravity on Chaucers mead and it was 1.04. Im having one now that tastes like cherry syrup. Its Oliver cherry mead, I like their plain origional mead which is not as sweet as Chaucers but at least can taste the honey qualities as oposed to some of the fruit ones like Olivers,its just overwhelming cherry and I can imagine the stawberry one which Ill probably skip. I had a Diehocker(Austria?) limeblossom mead it was limey kinda sweet but less than the others and way too citrusy tart in finish but awesome lime to it. I spotted a fig mead that Ill be buying soon,again though Im suspecting it will be sweet. Then there is the viking Blod in those nifty heavy ceramic bottles which costs 28$. I know Ill end up getting it some day. Its like 18% abv or something though. And Ill definatly be reusing the bottle at that price.

My amature opinon seems to think they can taste alot like whitewine though.
 
This past weekend I went to the NY renaissance fair. They were serving Carrolls mead. I'm not sure if they're local or nationwide. It was sweeter than I expected and more so than I care for but, maybe there's a Renaissance fair near where you live?

I also have a "Fairway Market" store not far and they have about 3-4 different meads for sale. I haven't tried them but as far as store bought goes, I haven't seen too many out there.
 
I believe that you can find Moniack Mead in some areas. It seems its definitely imported but by whom? Don't know.

Tried some last weekend and its pretty damn good for a standard dessert type sweet traditional.......
 
Moniack is definitely the best mead I've ever tried. And it's made right here in Scotland :)
Getting it is hard even here though...2 months I've been trying to get some from my usual supplier in Glasgow, and they've had problems apparently.

I'm about the start a mead in the next few days, will just be a plain one, but if anyone has a moniack-style mead recipe, I would really love to hear it.
 
The closest meaderies to Eureka, CA are near San Francisco. Rabbit's Foot and Heidrun. (according to Google Maps).

http://www.rabbitsfootmeadery.com/

http://www.heidrunmeadery.com/

Heidrun seems to only have sparkling mead (not that it's a bad thing). Rabbit's foot has a lot of different styles, including braggots. (Wish I could find a local place that makes a braggot in Ohio....)
 
Many thanks for all the tips!
I did find some Heidrun at a local store... but at far too dear a price (to my tender wallet, anyway).

I decided to just jump in, and start a batch of Joe's Ancient Orange Mead..
So it's now in the carboy, bubbling away.
Is it December yet?

Paul F.
 
Moniack is definitely the best mead I've ever tried. And it's made right here in Scotland :)
Getting it is hard even here though...2 months I've been trying to get some from my usual supplier in Glasgow, and they've had problems apparently.

I'm about the start a mead in the next few days, will just be a plain one, but if anyone has a moniack-style mead recipe, I would really love to hear it.

I'm guessing that the maker of Moniak isn't overly excited about sharing HIS recipe? :D
Maybe I'm naive, but it couldn't hurt to ask 'em, could it?
 
I'm guessing that the maker of Moniak isn't overly excited about sharing HIS recipe? :D
Maybe I'm naive, but it couldn't hurt to ask 'em, could it?
Not so sure that there is much of a recipe, other than honey, water, yeast and nutrients, with honey to back sweeten and acid too taste.

There's still room for some variation even with minimal ingredients like that. Honey type, yeast, etc. Their trick seems balancing..... it still tests reasonably high gravity out the bottle but has the highest acid/pH result of the 5 commercials I've tasted.....

I couldn't spot any tannins or oaking in the bottle I tried......
 
In fairness, that's the recipe for ALL mead though...

Given the acidity, I was thinking it could be done with a JAOM-style recipe, or maybe the MAOM variant...
I'd love to know though (since I've not tried either), is do they actually have a perceivable orange taste to them?
Or are the oranges basically just there for citric acid, and don't leave a real taste once it's all done?
 
In fairness, that's the recipe for ALL mead though...

Given the acidity, I was thinking it could be done with a JAOM-style recipe, or maybe the MAOM variant...
I'd love to know though (since I've not tried either), is do they actually have a perceivable orange taste to them?
Or are the oranges basically just there for citric acid, and don't leave a real taste once it's all done?
No, there's some orange taste to them. In fact you have to be careful to stick to the recipe as closely as possible.

My first attempt turned out Ok by accident. I made it to 1 imp gallon, not 1 US gallon, but there was still enough sweetness to balance it OK.

The biggest balls up you see when reading some of the mammoth JAO threads is that people try to be clever and replace the bread yeast with wine yeast, then when it ferments dry and comes out tasting bitter and hideous, they wonder why.

The use of a whole orange can impart some pithy bitterness, but normally there's enough residual sweetness to balance that. You do have to take Joes word for it about the cloves though, he spot on. More than a couple and it can be vvv clovey, as to make it almost undrinkable.

I've got some Fleischmanns someone sent me from the States to try later on this year when I get some space back (bloody builders for another 6 weeks or so), but I've made it successfully with tesco's, Co-op, Allinsons and Hovis yeasts.
 
No, there's some orange taste to them. In fact you have to be careful to stick to the recipe as closely as possible.

My first attempt turned out Ok by accident. I made it to 1 imp gallon, not 1 US gallon, but there was still enough sweetness to balance it OK.

The biggest balls up you see when reading some of the mammoth JAO threads is that people try to be clever and replace the bread yeast with wine yeast, then when it ferments dry and comes out tasting bitter and hideous, they wonder why.

The use of a whole orange can impart some pithy bitterness, but normally there's enough residual sweetness to balance that. You do have to take Joes word for it about the cloves though, he spot on. More than a couple and it can be vvv clovey, as to make it almost undrinkable.

I've got some Fleischmanns someone sent me from the States to try later on this year when I get some space back (bloody builders for another 6 weeks or so), but I've made it successfully with tesco's, Co-op, Allinsons and Hovis yeasts.

Well I just got me 3 pounds in ASDA of their cheapest ****test honey.
I'll admit, after reading all the threads, I'm still going to try using a generic wine-yeast. I'm after a higher ABV than the 10% stuff that bread yeast will crap out at, and I'm thinking I can just back-sweeten to mellow out the taste...
 
Well I just got me 3 pounds in ASDA of their cheapest ****test honey.
I'll admit, after reading all the threads, I'm still going to try using a generic wine-yeast. I'm after a higher ABV than the 10% stuff that bread yeast will crap out at, and I'm thinking I can just back-sweeten to mellow out the taste...
Well, I get less worried about the quality of the honey with mels and meth etc. As I've never been into mild or subtle.

Bread yeast does about the 12% or so area, but hey.....its your brew. I'm sure if you wanted to you could make it an 18% JAO but the higher the strength the longer it seems to take to mellow etc.

Which sort of defeats the idea of it being a reasonably quick brew to make.....
 
Ive got some African Fig mead they also have a coffee one. Cant think of the name off hand (Sun-Honey maybe? wait.. its IQhilika) but aparnatley that is where mead originated from-Africa,which I didnt know till I read the bottle. So now I feel special I have some real African mead.

That and I will have some Vikings Blod to try tomarrow for my 40th Bday. Picked up an Oliver watermellon mead,shure it will probably be sweet but doesnt sound nearly as cloying as the cherry cough syrup mead they had,I could be wrong though. Ill save that one for a later day.
 
Tried a Masons Manor Traditional mead today and it was quite enjoyable. I
thought I'd try a commercial mead and this is the only one available in B.C. Liquor Stores so that's what I got. It was labelled with a sweetness level of 5 and smelled of apples. You can really taste the honey but it has an acidity that helps to counterbalance the sweetness.
 
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