new to mead

[krenshaw]

i've never made mead, but would like to make a batch of it to age and have on hand to try out.. is there a recipe and instructions one here at all for a "plain" mead? both ingredients and the procedure.. i'm assuming it is similar to making regular wine, but just wanted to see what it was all about.. thanks in advance

 

[krisabsinthe]

I just made my first mead here is what I did

15 LB honey
1 gal water
1 orange
Coopers Ale yeast ( use what you like)

Heat water and add quartered orange and 10 Lb honey. Mix on low heat. When done pull the peels off the orange and scrape "the white stuff" off the peels and throw it away. Add the water/honey mix and orange peices and peels to 1 gal fermenter. After 2 weeks remove orange bits and squeeze the juice from them but leave peels and add remaining honey. Top up with water if you need, I did not. Allow fermentation to complete, clear and bottle. I just bottled this today and it is very alcoholic and very nice Im trying to get friends to donate honey for 5 gallons lol

 

[fatbloke]

i've never made mead, but would like to make a batch of it to age and have on hand to try out.. is there a recipe and instructions one here at all for a "plain" mead? both ingredients and the procedure.. i'm assuming it is similar to making regular wine, but just wanted to see what it was all about.. thanks in advance

For ease of making and obtaining ingredients for a first batch, I can only suggest that you follow the "Joe's Ancient Orange Spiced Mead" a.k.a. JAO/JAOM.

It's pretty straight forward and the ingredients can be probably be obtained from the nearest grocery type store. There are a few parts that need a little attention and following e.g. Joe's comment about being careful with the cloves, and despite what you may feel/think/know, bread yeast is the way to go with it. It doesn't make for a good dry recipe - I've tried wine yeast a number of times, as well as changing the fruit etc etc and it's only ever come out drinkable once with anything other than the original ingredients.

Yes, making meads can have some similarity to making wines but there's also a few things commonly done and techniques used that would be described as "unorthodox" by wine makers.

Here's a link to JAO recipe, and likewise, here's a link to the excellent Gotmead Newbee guide. Both are worth reading, the recipe to understand a little about how to make it, and the guide, which explains pretty much most of what you'd need to know about making meads.

Hope that helps some.

regards

fatbloke

 

[KenSchramm]

I'd go with this:

18 lbs Orange blossom honey
Water to 5 gallons, stirred throughly to mix

10 grams Lalvin D-47, or rehydrated per package directions w/12.5 grams of Go-Ferm
2.5 tsp Fermaid K, added 1 tsp at pitch, the .5 tsp with the DAP below
3 tsp Diamonnium Phosphate (AKA: DAP), added 1 tsp at a time at 24, 48 and 72 hours after pitch

All the stuff you need can be found at morewine

You can also use beer yeast (American ale works just fine), or 71B-1122, or any of the Riesling strains.

I hear there may be a book out there that can help. ;-)

Good luck!

Ken

 

[Q2XL]

I'd go with this:

18 lbs Orange blossom honey
Water to 5 gallons, stirred throughly to mix

10 grams Lalvin D-47, or rehydrated per package directions w/12.5 grams of Go-Ferm
2.5 tsp Fermaid K, added 1 tsp at pitch, the .5 tsp with the DAP below
3 tsp Diamonnium Phosphate (AKA: DAP), added 1 tsp at a time at 24, 48 and 72 hours after pitch

All the stuff you need can be found at morewine

You can also use beer yeast (American ale works just fine), or 71B-1122, or any of the Riesling strains.

I hear there may be a book out there that can help. ;-)

Good luck!

Ken

Listen to this man and you cannot go wrong. Yeh, his book is pretty good too ;-)

 

[SpamDog]

I just made my first mead here is what I did

15 LB honey
1 gal water
1 orange
Coopers Ale yeast

Did you mean 5 gal water? 15 lb is more than 1 gal of honey, no way it all fits in a 1 gal fermenter, plus that is way too much honey for the yeast, I usually use 15 lbs to 5 gal water then stablize and sweeten with another 2 to 3 lbs. You might want to check your brewlog on that one.
To the OP, some people find that a traditional mead is hard to start with, I like recommending people start with a melomel (fruit mead) the fruit can cover some of the POSSIBLE issues with a new person not being proficent with managing their fermentation. I am a big supporter of the JAO and anything that Ken says

Spamdog

 

[funkapottomous]

I just made my first mead here is what I did

15 LB honey
1 gal water
1 orange
Coopers Ale yeast ( use what you like)

Heat water and add quartered orange and 10 Lb honey. Mix on low heat. When done pull the peels off the orange and scrape "the white stuff" off the peels and throw it away. Add the water/honey mix and orange peices and peels to 1 gal fermenter. After 2 weeks remove orange bits and squeeze the juice from them but leave peels and add remaining honey. Top up with water if you need, I did not.

probably because you had fifteen pounds of honey in a one gallon fermenter.

Seriously though, I think the consensus is roughly 3 to 4 pounds per gallon of water, I hope that was a typo.

 

[motobrewer]

check the stickies.

especially this post:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/what-i-learned-nhc-183897/#post2423398

check out that pdf. it's awesome.

i really don't know what krisabsinthe is trying to do. basic recipe is 15 pounds (just over a gallon of honey) to 4 gallons water for 5 gallons.

 

[huesmann]

Wow, Ken Schramm is a member here! Awesome.

 

[Tulloran]

15 LB honey
1 gal water
1 orange
Coopers Ale yeast ( use what you like)

LOL, I hope that's a typo!

Although... I would like to see the OG on that!!!

"What does it mean when the hydrometer just sits on top of the liquid?"

 

[krisabsinthe]

Nope I wasn't a typo but I was highly suprised that the yeast held out as long as they did. But by all means if there are people that know more than me listen to them lol what I do know is that I for sure maxed my yeast out and it will take some time to mellow out. Thanks for the info, next time I'll make 5 gallons with the 15 LB and see how that goes. I'm not sure what my OG was but it was quite syrup like and I did do a starter, which I had forgot to mention. Again seeing as Ken wrote a book, probably listen to him

Edit: Upon review I was indeed wrong. I used 5 LB to begin with and added 1.5LB later on. I had to review what I bought, I was certain I used 15Lb total but I also thought i bought 10Lb at first, but it was 5 then 3 more later, which I used half of. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[SpamDog]

I used 5 LB to begin with and added 1.5LB later on. I had to review what I bought, I was certain I used 15Lb total but I also thought i bought 10Lb at first, but it was 5 then 3 more later, which I used half of. Sorry for the confusion.

Now that sounds like some yummy sweet mead! No worries on the confusion, It happens to all of us. As some advice to everyone on here, I like to be OCD about my logs so I know EXACTLY what I did. It really helps me to track down what I did so I can replicate the things I like about a mead, and avoid the things that come out not so great.

SpamDog

 

[fatbloke]

Wow, Ken Schramm is a member here! Awesome.

Ken is a member of various forums, as I understand. It's great to know that someone as knowledgable as he is, is in the background trying to help us mere mortals.....:rockin:

 

[hroth521]

Wow, Ken Schramm is a member here! Awesome.

http://www.amazon.com/Ken-Schramm/e/B001KCJ71K

Ken Schramm's book is not just "a" book, it's THE book to read if you are a novice mead maker or want to be.

Full disclosure: I have no financial interest in Ken Schramm or his book. I have bought it and read it however, and found it extremely useful.

 

[BigKahuna]

http://www.amazon.com/Ken-Schramm/e/B001KCJ71K

Ken Schramm's book is not just "a" book, it's THE book to read if you are a novice mead maker or want to be.

Couldn't agree more! Mine is nearly wore out! Its like a bible to me!

 

[Meadrol]

Out of curiosity, BigKahuna...when your books wear out do you rip out the pages and stuff them around your waistband to keep your grass skirt from falling around your ankles?

 

[BigKahuna]

Out of curiosity, BigKahuna...when your books wear out do you rip out the pages and stuff them around your waistband to keep your grass skirt from falling around your ankles?

SHHHHHH! Don't give away the Kahuna Secrets!