Low alcohol Mead?

[NorbertHonny]

Hi guys,

My first post so a little about me, I'm from the UK and hoping to make some mead. I'm one of those poor folk with allergies - had a serious bout of food poisoning and after that *poof* I was allergic to to most things. So to fill that empty hole where my well aged cider used to be I'm going to make some mead. I think I've come to the right place.

I've been reading the forum, and other various recipes and I'm going to have a crack at a fairly standard mead recipe to get some experience. But what's getting me is that these meads generally come out with alcohol at levels akin to wine and above. What I'd really love to achieve is a mead with a strength around 4-7% that I could drink by the pint, rather than by the glass.

So I got to thinking on that, if I use less honey I'm going to get the right strength but a very weak mead. And if I interrupt the fermentation at 5% having used a lot of honey it may well be far too sweet.

Am I right? or would either of the above turn out ok.

I had got to wondering if say using hops aswell as honey might produce sufficient flavor aswell as a low alcohol content.

thanks chaps, have a good one

 

[TheBrewingMedic]

Its possible to make a flavorful low alcohol or low gravity mead, and using less honey would be the way to go.

Do you prefer a dry beverage or slightly sweet?

Yeast choice will be important

Adding hops (which will put it into a braggot category if mead) or other spices is a good way to add more flavor.

Hops, coriander and orange zest is always a good combo.

What size batch are you looking to start with?

 

[NorbertHonny]

For a beverage in the 4-7% range I like both dry and slightly sweet, so any info on both would be greatly appreciated.

At the moment I'm making a gallon of something standard using champagne yeast for what I hope will be maybe a slow to mature, but fool proof exercise.

Once that is underway, I think 5 gallons would be a good bet on the low alcohol front, if I was confident of success. Heck, maybe even more, given that honey is the main expense and I won't need as much of it as normal.

And whats the score on acid additives?

 

[roadymi]

I think your challenge will be producing a drink that has good mouth feel and taste.

Not knowing your allergies hard to make suggestions.

Oat milk would be one suggestion.

I assume since you departed from cider you can't have apples? Cyser would be nice

 

[NorbertHonny]

this might require some thought, i'm not allergic to everything - but I'm giving it a dam good try! all fruit is out, as are all grains. I tell you people, you don't want to get c-difficle! one of the more bizarre things I'm now allergic to is boiled tap water, no one believes me when I tell them, I figure its down to some water additive that breaks down upon boiling.

Anyhow I digress, I have read that carbonation might improve mouth feel, but I'm not convinced it won't adversely affect other characteristics. Making a braggot seems like a good idea on paper but I'm not sure I want a hoppy taste, be good to try out though.

 

[Brann_mac_Finnchad]

My second mead was a low gravity raspberry.

You could try out something from Digby as well. He wrote down several low gravity "quick" meads.

 

[Insomniac]

A low abv mead is called a hydromel, might help with searching for recipes.