store bought mead

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I was at wholefoods and saw that they carry an mead in there wine section, so I picked up a bottle.

Rabbitfoot meadery
dry mead 13% abv

I have never had mead before, my first impression is that this is very sweet, almost dessert wine. And they have a sweet mead, cant even imagine how sweet this would be.

Is this how most meads come out, if so I think this may not be for me.

How would you best describe the flavor of your meads?
 
Just be cautious and read the label carefully.

I once bought a bottled mead only to discover after a closer look that it was white wine with honey blended in. Horrible stuff.

From there I decided the best way to understand what mead is is to make a 1 gallon batch.

Holy crap that was good.
 
Is this how most meads come out, if so I think this may not be for me.

Don't be turned off of mead by tasting a store-bought brand. That'd be like trying Lindemans Framboise and deciding you don't like Lambics because they are too sweet.

The beauty of making your own mead is you can make it however you want. If you like dry wines you can make dry meads.
 
+1

I personally love dry wines with fruit characteristics. I've made multiple dry mead of various strengths and flavors (strawberry, date, traditional, etc). Dig a little deeper on the mead forums and you will find plenty of info. It's not to expensive to get started either. (I recommend JOAM for your 1st, everything can be bought from a grocery store)
 
The local stores here have Chaucers, Bunratty and Redstone. Bunratty says right on the bottle that it's just a white wine with honey added. I got a bottle of Chaucer's at Whole Foods. That stuff smells like PVC and doesn't taste much better.

I did get a bottle of Redrock Traditional Mead at the Specs close to my house. It's DELICIOUS! I wish they had some of their melomels, but the Specs close to home is rather small. I may have to check at one of the larger ones in Austin.
 
All varieties of Dansk Mjød are quite good. Beware...high alcohol content. I guess you would characterize them as Metheglins (and 'Sack' at that) since they are made with ginger, carroway, hibiscus, and hops.

I do not particularly like Redstone Meads.

And B. Nektar Meadery Wildflower and Orange Blossom Honey is satisfactory.

I generally do not like the commerical Melomels and Pyments of any label.

Trouble is finding a shop that carries mead at all let alone a selection.

I am trying to procure some Lithuanian Mead from by Baltic comrades, but it is no easy task...can't find anyone that carries/imports it"
http://www.midus.lt/en.php?p=Products&gid=7
I suspect it is good...

I will be starting my own mead this week...maybe even tonight.
 
I was at wholefoods and saw that they carry an mead in there wine section, so I picked up a bottle.

Rabbitfoot meadery
dry mead 13% abv

I have never had mead before, my first impression is that this is very sweet, almost dessert wine. And they have a sweet mead, cant even imagine how sweet this would be.

Is this how most meads come out, if so I think this may not be for me.

How would you best describe the flavor of your meads?


Meads can run the range from uper dry (S.G. 0.995) to dessert sweet (S.G. 1.040+). Are you a wine drinker, by chance? Only reason I ask is if you're use to the taste of wine then I can see where meads may come off sweet. Even a 'dry mead' might seem sweet compared to a dry wine. I think what really sets meads apart is their complexity (fruits, spices, varietal honeys, oaked, etc). Personally, I can't stand wines. Just my preference. So I don't have a good gauge to see how a wine would compare to a mead. My local meadery (Celestial Meads) has an open house every Saturday where they let you taste free samples of all their meads. Great way to really see what you like and don't like.
 
Thanks for all the replies, good food for thought.

I currently have 5 gal that is down to 1.020 and is still sweet and 1 gal at 1.000 that is completely dry no sweetness at all.

The only differences were the brand of honeys used, the plan is to just keep them in the back and let them age out, very interested to see how they come out.
 
I just got done bottling a 5 gallon batch that measured 1.00. It seems much sweeter than most wines that I drink. I prefer dry red wines. It was aged 1 year. I have tasted some dry commercial meads and they have very little taste at room temp, if you chill them they have no taste at all! I bought a few bottles of this mead so I am going to hang on to them for a year to see if the sweet taste returns to them.
 
Brothers Drake meadery from columbus,OH is REALLY GOOD for production stuff. As a side note one of the brothers is roaming this forum from time to time.

Most of the chain store meads are crap, they taste like soggy cardboard and wet horse smells.
Thy have oxidized as been chemicaled to hell.
 
vanillamead.jpg


OMFG... this is DELICIOUS!
 
The local stores here have Chaucers, Bunratty and Redstone. Bunratty says right on the bottle that it's just a white wine with honey added. I got a bottle of Chaucer's at Whole Foods. That stuff smells like PVC and doesn't taste much better.

I did get a bottle of Redrock Traditional Mead at the Specs close to my house. It's DELICIOUS! I wish they had some of their melomels, but the Specs close to home is rather small. I may have to check at one of the larger ones in Austin.

Next time I am down at SouthPark Meadows Spec's, I am gonna pick up a bottle of the Redrock Mead. I have never tasted commercial mead before and I am kinda curious. I should check at Twin's as well, I have a standing 10% discount there.
 
The Specs on Brodie and Lamar is where I found the Vanilla Cinnamon. They had the traditional, a carbonated Boysenberry (I got a bottle of that, but haven't opened yet) and another with apricot in it. Not being a fan of apricot, I skipped that one. They did not have the raspberry.

If you should hit the Specs in Southpark Meadows, please let me know what varieties of Redstone they have. I'd appreciate it.
 
I checked at Twin's in SouthPark tonight, all they carry is a Chauser(?). At 14 bucks, I wasn't going to bite. With all the cases of mead I have at home, it didn't seem like a good deal to me. I am gonna try to get over to Spec's this weekend and check them out.
 
Chaucer's is definitely not worth it. Smells like PVC and doesn't taste much better. Let me know what you find at that Specs! It's kinda on the way over to my parent's house, so I can swing by there some weekend.
 
I think That you should all try a place called Valley Vineyards. They're only 40 minutes away from where I currently live, and they do ship! They sell a Raw clover honey Mead, with the honey coming from the same supplier that I use. It is the best Commercially available Mead that I have tried, thus far.

And you'd never believe it, because it's only $9 a bottle! :mug:

Jonas
 
@huntingohio Thanks for the props. We aim to the be the best, using only local honey and fruits. We do not distribute outside of Columbus OH and never will so I'm not on here to promote commercially. I'm Woody Drake, of Brothers Drake, and I started homebrewing in 1994 and keep learning, so I'm here to encourage more homebrewing and delicious mead - as well as learn from the best, which are the homebrewers.

I've found I can make mead bone dry to ice wine sweet, depending on what kind of yeast I use, how much sugar I start with, how long I let the yeast go, and whether or not I choose to add sweetness back at the end. More than anything I'd suggest befriending a beekeeper and using fresh local honey for your homebrew. Mead will age like Katherine Hepburn so put it back and, especially with the dry meads, it's best 3-5 years in. Sweet and semi-sweet are a minimum of 6 months. Also, if you are doing a melomel, put fruit in the primary and the secondary. It really helps create more layers of flavor. Just primary = scrubbed/earthy. Just secondary = too juicelike. primary + secondary = complexity.

keep brewing! and as Charlie would say "relax. have a homebrew" :mug:
 
I've been waiting patiently for an American mead in Australia, or at least one that will ship it to me. I only have one type of mead over here, and it isn't all that great. B.Nektar looks so delicious :(

P.S. Any chance of shipping me a few bottles, Woody? :)
 
I've become quite partial to a meadery in Portland, ME near my girlfriend's house, called MeadWorks. They have a fascinating method for their fermentation that I couldn't begin to describe beyond saying it looked like a scene out of Space 1999. Their mead is slowly "pushed" through a series of long, vertical tubes in which boiled and dried chunks of ginger (all the flavor removed) infused with a yeast reside. They hand carried the yeast back from Africa, after consulting and working with Dr. Garth Cambray of Makana Meadery. Should any of you wind up in Portland I highly advise a visit and a tour. They do tastings all day from what I've seen, and the people there are all very friendly and enjoy talking mead. They're the ones, actually, who inspired me to try making a capsicumel.

Oh, and their HoneyMaker Dry Hopped Mead is delicious.

Cripes I sound like an advert....
 
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