Hi!
After trying my hand at a peach white wine and a mixed berry red wine (both of which are still aging, can't wait!) I have found myself becoming more and more fascinated by mead. To see what all the fuss was about, I purchased a bottle of Lurgashall English Mead over the net and gave it a try. It was fantastic!! I'm in love.
I want to make myself a nice mead. But, seeing as how true to honey smell and taste the English Mead was, I think I would like to do something similar. This means, a simple mead, no spices or added fruits! (However, I have heard that without adding certain things like tannin, etc. the taste can be rather insipid. Therefore, I will keep an open mind about this.
Since I am going to be making a simple mead, I think I would be better off with a stronger tasting honey. I was thinking of choosing a darker honey like buckwheat or manuka. Actually my first choice would be something like honeydew -- I'm thinking of perhaps a New Zealand honeydew. [Is this really honeydew ie. produced by aphids? Or is this just a dark honey? The product page doesn't mention anything about aphids :cross: ]
I would prefer a mostly dry but slightly sweet mead, with a fairly high alcohol content (somewhere between 12% and 15%). My plan is to age is for quite a long time (around 4 years). Most of this aging will be done in a 6 gallon carboy (ie. bulk aging). During the aging process, whenever I rack the mead, I am planning on topping up with additional honey water (I figure if I do this enough, the sweetness vs. alcohol will eventually win out over the yeast. Plus, I won't dilute my mead if I use honey water.)
What kind of yeast should I use for this? EC-1118? Or would that strain tend to shoot my alcohol level up to around 20%? Also, how many litres of honey will I need to buy? I can buy 500 g. jars, so ten of them would give me about 5kg (10lb); is this about right? Or will I require more?
How much tannin, yeast nutrient, etc. should I use? Also, is it really necessary to add things like raisins? I would like to keep my mead "pure" if possible, but if the taste is really that insipid with straight honey, then again, I'm open to suggestions.
Thanks in advance for your advice!
After trying my hand at a peach white wine and a mixed berry red wine (both of which are still aging, can't wait!) I have found myself becoming more and more fascinated by mead. To see what all the fuss was about, I purchased a bottle of Lurgashall English Mead over the net and gave it a try. It was fantastic!! I'm in love.
I want to make myself a nice mead. But, seeing as how true to honey smell and taste the English Mead was, I think I would like to do something similar. This means, a simple mead, no spices or added fruits! (However, I have heard that without adding certain things like tannin, etc. the taste can be rather insipid. Therefore, I will keep an open mind about this.
Since I am going to be making a simple mead, I think I would be better off with a stronger tasting honey. I was thinking of choosing a darker honey like buckwheat or manuka. Actually my first choice would be something like honeydew -- I'm thinking of perhaps a New Zealand honeydew. [Is this really honeydew ie. produced by aphids? Or is this just a dark honey? The product page doesn't mention anything about aphids :cross: ]
I would prefer a mostly dry but slightly sweet mead, with a fairly high alcohol content (somewhere between 12% and 15%). My plan is to age is for quite a long time (around 4 years). Most of this aging will be done in a 6 gallon carboy (ie. bulk aging). During the aging process, whenever I rack the mead, I am planning on topping up with additional honey water (I figure if I do this enough, the sweetness vs. alcohol will eventually win out over the yeast. Plus, I won't dilute my mead if I use honey water.)
What kind of yeast should I use for this? EC-1118? Or would that strain tend to shoot my alcohol level up to around 20%? Also, how many litres of honey will I need to buy? I can buy 500 g. jars, so ten of them would give me about 5kg (10lb); is this about right? Or will I require more?
How much tannin, yeast nutrient, etc. should I use? Also, is it really necessary to add things like raisins? I would like to keep my mead "pure" if possible, but if the taste is really that insipid with straight honey, then again, I'm open to suggestions.
Thanks in advance for your advice!
