No One Actually Likes Mead

[hunter_le five]

Picked up a bottle of the Traditional. Planning on drinking it tomorrow night.



I think they had a few of the others, but I don't remember which.

'Twas good.


(burp)

 

[clairecunn83]

'Twas good.


(burp)

Awesome! Try one of the carbed 'nectars' next. Those are my fave. They're dryer and very refreshing.

 

[hunter_le five]

Try one of the carbed 'nectars' next. Those are my fave. They're dryer and very refreshing.

Neat. I'll do that.

 

[TeufelHundenM198]

People tend to love some of my meads. I had a wine tasting last summer with ~50 bottles of the good stuff and my guests nearly drank all of it. My most popular ones are a Raspberry Vanilla melomel and a dry Tupelo mead aged in American Oak. Surprisingly, the least popular was the JAOM.

But, I'm sort of in the right place for meads to flourish. Redstone Meadery, mentioned above, is the most distributed Colorado winery... they ship to something like 20 states, I can't recall right now. There are also 40 craft breweries in my county alone, so the whole state is basically set up on trying new things and having delicious adventures.

Like Black Island Brewer mentioned, you have to put things in the proper frame of reference for folks. For many people, mead is a new and novel concept, as nearly everyone I know either had no clue what mead was or only had a passing familiarity with the name itself, having never actually tasted it. So from that point, it takes a lot of people by surprise since most are so in tune with the standard grape wine varieties and mead can be such a wide deviation from that. I've found that if I give a good description of the product before they taste it, it helps many new drinkers get into it. This is similar to going to a nice restaurant and asking the Sommelier for a recommendation. A good one will bring out the bottle and describe the whole experience for the customer, from the nose to taste to finish leaving the drinker excited for it. If you give someone a similar experience for the mead, it'll definitely increase your success.

 

[ArrogantDusty]

A lot of great wisdom on this forum. Thank you all. I do let my meads go about a year, regardless of ABV, before I pop one open. I'm really looking forward to this next set that I made but I have a few months. I followed a lot of recipes that were said to be amazing. I'll try to remember to update everyone.

 

[threeway]

I like mead. I like lamb. Makes me feel like a Viking. I don't like beer and have given up on that. I've noticed lately I can't drink much mead before dozing on the couch. Oh well. It will last I guess!

 

[dchmela]

I am just getting into making meads and how to properly add nutrients and such and really love it. Just another beverage to create! I have been influenced a lot lately by one of Cigar City Brewing's newest ventures, Cigar City Mead and Cider. It is in a great old building in the Ybor City section of Tampa. They usually have 8-9 ciders and 4-5 meads on tap as well as a couple of beers. It has been a really interesting way to see how they are creating different flavor profiles for straight mead, melomels or cysers. If you are in the area and actually do like mead (and ciders), this is a must visit.

 

[ArrogantDusty]

People tend to love some of my meads. I had a wine tasting last summer with ~50 bottles of the good stuff and my guests nearly drank all of it. My most popular ones are a Raspberry Vanilla melomel and a dry Tupelo mead aged in American Oak. Surprisingly, the least popular was the JAOM.

But, I'm sort of in the right place for meads to flourish. Redstone Meadery, mentioned above, is the most distributed Colorado winery... they ship to something like 20 states, I can't recall right now. There are also 40 craft breweries in my county alone, so the whole state is basically set up on trying new things and having delicious adventures.

Like Black Island Brewer mentioned, you have to put things in the proper frame of reference for folks. For many people, mead is a new and novel concept, as nearly everyone I know either had no clue what mead was or only had a passing familiarity with the name itself, having never actually tasted it. So from that point, it takes a lot of people by surprise since most are so in tune with the standard grape wine varieties and mead can be such a wide deviation from that. I've found that if I give a good description of the product before they taste it, it helps many new drinkers get into it. This is similar to going to a nice restaurant and asking the Sommelier for a recommendation. A good one will bring out the bottle and describe the whole experience for the customer, from the nose to taste to finish leaving the drinker excited for it. If you give someone a similar experience for the mead, it'll definitely increase your success.

Any chance you have a recipe for the Raspberry vanilla? That sounds amazing.

 

[TeufelHundenM198]

Any chance you have a recipe for the Raspberry vanilla? That sounds amazing.

For 5 gallons:

12lbs Wildflower honey

7lbs Raspberries in the secondary
5 whole split vanilla beans in the secondary

Lalvin D47 yeast. I always follow the staggered nutrient addition schedule, and I like to rehydrate with Go-Ferm.

I like to wait until the mead is virtually clear before adding fruit and vanilla, then I let everything sit in there for at least a month before racking it again for further bulk aging. I generally bottle at 1 year. If you have the option of getting some quality raspberries from a local source, I'd highly recommend it. I grow all mine, so it varies a bit from year to year.

It's the bottle on the left. That year's berries gave it such a brilliant ruby color, I almost hesitated drinking it. ...Almost.

 

[ArrogantDusty]

Awesome! Is that middle one a brochet?

 

[TeufelHundenM198]

Yep. If you haven't made one yet, a Bochet is one of those fun oddball drinks to have around for extended aging and special occasions.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Alright, I'm sorry. That was harsh. I chose that title to get all the mead lovers in here, ready to fight me about it.

Here is what the title should have said, "I haven't made a mead that people LOVE yet. My beers and my Apfelwein (edworts rather) are loved by the masses in my life, but my meads are usually online grabbed by the people that latch onto the fact that they are high ABV.

That said, I enjoy them, but not as much as other things. I have never even had a mead that I would say was better than 3 out of 5. I've only made 5 that I have actually tried yet. I have 6 others, mostly melomels, that I've still got another few months on.

What are your experiences with meads? Do you find that they are an acquired taste that don't prefer, or are the right ones loved by all? Thanks!

How old is this mead? I don't even think about drinking my mead till it's bulk aged at least a year. I've had mead that took 4 years to get good, but when it got good, it got REALLY GOOD! Think of mead in years, not months. I'll bet if you tuck those meads away for a year or 2 & then have the same people do a blind taste test, they'll rave about it.
Regards, GF.

 

[bernardsmith]

How old is this mead? I don't even think about drinking my mead till it's bulk aged at least a year. I've had mead that took 4 years to get good, but when it got good, it got REALLY GOOD! Think of mead in years, not months. I'll bet if you tuck those meads away for a year or 2 & then have the same people do a blind taste test, they'll rave about it.
Regards, GF.

I think if you ferment mead at low temperatures (like cider) and you use a less aggressive yeast than champagne yeasts mead is very drinkable in 4 -6 months. You ferment at high temps and you encourage violent fermentation then you may need to wait years...