Thinking of trying out mead-making

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TVarmy

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I'm thinking of trying my first mead, but I'm curious about what I should know first. I skimmed the chapter on mead in Papazian's book, and I thought it made mead-making sound like a lot of fun. However, I figured I could get some more current advice from this group.

I liked the sound of his prickly pear mead, but this far north, cactus fruit is rare and expensive. Any good recipes for a first time mead maker that would work well with affordable NJ fruits? I'm thinking maybe blueberries?

Also, how much does a 3 or 5 gallon batch of mead usually cost? I'm thinking I'll be going to either my homebrew store or farmer's market to buy that much honey. I already have yeast nutrient, campden tablets, and yeast energizer.

And should I use a 6 gallon fermenter for 5 gallons of mead, or is my 5 gallon carboy (which I use for wine-ish recipes) safe? Does it develop any sort of krauzen?

And do all mead recipes take about 6 months a year to condition? I'm thinking I'd like to make a mead for this Halloween to throw a Wickerman party.



Sorry for all the questions. I just don't want to go in blind. My late father made a batch, and it was disappointing by my mom's account, so I don't want to blow a lot of ingredients.
 
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PS: I've made beer and apfelwein, so I'm not completely new to home-fermenting.
 
I have made blueberry mead and it is in the third racking stage now (can't remember what it's called:eek:) I put half the berries and most of the honey in the primary and then racked over the other half of the berries and another pound of the honey in the secondary, after about 10 days in the secondary I racked into two gallon jugs with airlocks to age, and the second jug had much sediment in it... But I didn't use a mesh bag for my fruit and I regret it!! it was a pain to rack out from under all those berries and they got sucked up the racking cane etc... I will be using a fruit bag next time..
But the primary and secondary were done in my brew buckets.

Cost wise the honey was $2 a pound and the berries were $8 per bucket this summer (those big ice cream buckets full)
I used 6 pounds honey and 4 pounds blueberries and the juice and zest from two lemons.. I hope that gives you a kind of cost basis to go on. I made two gallons. Ran out of honey and berries or I would have made more!:D
The flavor is very nice and fruity and it did ferment out really dry, but not like the white grape/peach mead that I did earlier that is like rocket fuel.. so I am hoping that it will be ready quicker than one year! and that the flavor holds thru with aging. Oh and the color is just beautiful and deep red.
 
Yeah, I'm thinking I'll use food-grade buckets for the meads, since they ferment so long. Good tip on the bags for the fruit.
 
Yeah, I'm thinking I'll use food-grade buckets for the meads, since they ferment so long. Good tip on the bags for the fruit.

You can use buckets for primary, but not for secondary. The headspace is just too wide. You'll need a carboy, with a very narrow opening, and top up to near the bung for secondary.

I'd start with 5.5 gallons or so, to have 5 gallons in the carboy topped up.
 
Oh man! I used buckets for the primary and the secondary, but after the secondary I put the wine into glass, is that gonna screw it up too much?
The airlock during the secondary bubbled quite alot during the 10 or so days it was in the bucket.
it looks ok.
 
Well, I have a free 5 gallon carboy. I was thinking of using either a used frosting tub (like you can get from donut shops) or a Lowes bucket for the primary if it doesn't have too much of a head. Secondary is only a few weeks, right?
 
Oooh. Fair enough. I could always just make apfelwein in buckets, I guess. Or bite the bullet and buy another fermenter. We need a smiley face that's just hemorrhaging cash on this site.
 
Mead making...it can be a curse. I always end up getting on a mead making kick for a year, and then my stuff has to sit 1-2 years in bottles to reach peak flavor.

I actually have 6 bottles of mead that are 11 years old..3 bottles of 2 different styles.

You just cannot knock back a lot of mead like you can beer, or even wine. I've done 2 bottles of wine in an evening with the mrs. but 2 bottles of mead...you'd find me south of the border, naked, next to a dead donkey wearing a tutu.

Mead is fierce stuff.

Honestly I'd start on the simpler side. Look at Joe's Ancient Orange Mead (or any of the variations, including my own), or make a straight mead: water, clover honey, yeast, and a little nutrient.

then age it 12 months before trying any. it only gets better.

the price of honey does make 5 gallon batches of mead run high $$. figure $60 on average for non-exotic honey.
 
I've recently been thinking about making some mead. I brew a lot of beer, and have done apfelwein a few times. I really don't want 5 gallons of mead though. I'm thinking I'll just make a gallon batch or two.
 
Ah. Looks a bit pricy for me ATM. Maybe if I can get a part time job this summer (college student).

I'm expecting I'd probably need to drink mead by the wine glass, because I'm kind of a lightweight.:tank:
 
Oh, then make a couple of one-gallon batches! You can primary them in buckets, then rack to a Carlo Rossi wine jug for secondary. A #6 bung fits, so it'd be a much more manageable expense and wouldn't require an expensive carboy (or more than 3-4#s of expensive honey!).

Even the JOAM is pretty good, and it's relatively cheap to make compared to the "good" meads. Since one glass can put you down, you can bottle in beer bottles and get a couple of small glasses out of each bottle.
 
I love making one gallon batches of mead (don't know if it's been said, but you'll get about 9 "beer" bottles out of a gallon of mead):

Apple_Raspberry.jpg


Joe's Quick Grape Mead is by far my favorite, and at seven months in the bottle tastes like a really nice red wine with a delicate honey nose :tank:
 
You just cannot knock back a lot of mead like you can beer, or even wine. I've done 2 bottles of wine in an evening with the mrs. but 2 bottles of mead...you'd find me south of the border, naked, next to a dead donkey wearing a tutu.

Mead is fierce stuff.
LOL.

You make a good argument for scaling back the ABV a bit. If you bring them in at 10-12%, you can actually enjoy them in a satisfying quantity without discovering you have a new tattoo the next morning.

For new mead makers there is often a notion that higher ABV equals more flavor. The truth is quite the contrary. Ethanol actually masks other aromas in scientific testing, and has a similar effect on flavor components.
 
Well, I started some of Joe's Ancient Orange Mead, using a blood orange I had lying in the fridge. I didn't have an airlock free (for 2 months), so I decided to use some sanitized tin foil instead. If it works for starters, it should work for a gallon jug. Next batch, I'll pick up some more bungs and airlocks.
 
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