mead questions

[marosell]

I've read fermentation to take a couple weeks in different carboys, and i've read to keep switching carboys for months;

I've read carbonate it and don't carbonate it, what is mead usually?

I've read fruit in the primary, and I've read fruit in secondary or tertiary. I've read use juice as the fluid to mix the honey with and I've read use water.

Most of these contradictions are right here in the homebrewtalk mead recipe forum. Getting very confused because there are so many different directions. Are there any easy answers or simple recipes out there?

I just want to make a 5 gallon batch of something easy and delicious, made from honey

-Thanks

 

[user 574]

I'm just now bouncing into this myself & making a batch tonight. There are some people here that have been providing me some assistance on this thread I started. I also have been reading a bit on the www.gotmead.com site. I found http://home.comcast.net/~mzapx1/ to be interesting as well.

If you have the Joy of Homebrewing book there are some recipes in there, or they have a recipe database on the gotmead site too. But in usual HBT form, people here always are a great help as well. I'd recommend the newbie guide to making mead for a start down the path though.

 

[flowerysong]

I've read carbonate it and don't carbonate it, what is mead usually?

Mead is usually still, but can be carbonated.

I've read fruit in the primary, and I've read fruit in secondary or tertiary.

Right. Fruit added to the primary will tend to add less fruit flavour than fruit added to a later stage.

I've read use juice as the fluid to mix the honey with and I've read use water.

That depends on which style of mead you're making. If you want to make a cyser or a pyment, you would use apple juice and grape juice respectively; on the other hand a traditional mead uses only honey, water, and yeast.

Most of these contradictions are right here in the homebrewtalk mead recipe forum. Getting very confused because there are so many different directions. Are there any easy answers or simple recipes out there?

They aren't contradictions, any more than having red wine and white wine and madeira and champagne and prosecco are contradictions. There are many different variations of mead, just as there are many variations of grape wine.

The only limit to what you can put in mead is your imagination; the only limit to what you should put in mead is your common sense.

I just want to make a 5 gallon batch of something easy and delicious, made from honey

So do a little background reading, head over to the recipe section here or at Gotmead.com, and brew up a batch.

An example of a metheglin (spiced mead):

16 lbs honey
12 oz fresh ginger
1.5 lbs sugar
5 tsp yeast nutrient
Lalvin EC-1118 yeast

Directions:

Infuse ginger by boiling sliced ginger with the sugar in six cups of water.

Put the ginger infusion, yeast nutrient, and honey in the carboy. Add water to bring the volume to about four gallons; mix and aerate by shaking the carboy or stirring vigorously. Top up to final volume. Pitch yeast.

Rack to secondary after two weeks. Rack again once the mead clears and the SG remains stable (probably two to four months). Bottle now, or bulk age for six months and then bottle.

 

[mgayer]

I totally agree with FlowerySong. So many receipes and so little time! Mead is not found as easily as wines and it is hard to get the wine community to stopp looking down their noses at what can be a most wonderous drink.

Variations occur as much if not more than they do with wines. Follow the link flowerysong posted as there are tons of informational post. A lot of us are also on that board, use what you feel most comfortable with. Just look in the mead receipe section here and you can find a few great receipes to get you what you want.

One thing I would tell you! All of us that have been brewing a while have our own style and ways of doing things. There are several ways of doing what still turns out great meads, wines and ciders. To boil or not boil honey is a hot topic. Does it mean its wrong if you do or don't? It means there are many ways and styles. I have had my style for years but am trying things a different way on a current mead.

If you need clarification on anything just ask and we'll be glad to offer suggestions and help. The Complete Meadmaker is a good book to have for reference material.

Best of luck on your searching. What are your taste as far as delicious? Try a Cyser first. Apples and honey work very well together and you could start with just using apple juice, honey, water, yeast and a few nutrients to make a very good drink.