Using DME, LME or Wort for Session Mead?

[Mellow Meads]

I'm looking into making more sessionable meads and have heard that adding some LME or DME to the must can greatly improve body, bring more complexity and also provide a much better environment for the yeasties. To clarify, I'm looking at making something that is more mead than beer, so not your conventional braggot. I want the honey to be the key player, but I would also like some of the sessionable characteristics of malt to provide what the honey lacks; so I would guess I should opt for lighter malts. As I understand, most mead makers use LME or DME for how easy it is to prepare in such small amounts, however, I do have easy access to malted grain and fresh wort, so that is equally open to me. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has experience with using LME, DME or wort for this purpose and what their process/ratios were. If it helps, I'd be looking to make no more than about 20L sticking between 6-9% final ABV. Any advice or other suggestions are also greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[madscientist451]

Thanks for posting!
I've made a few Braggots in the 10-12% ABV range, and added honey to lower ABV "session" brews, but it never occurred to me to make a session mead with malt added for body.
If you are familiar with all grain brewing, I go with that over using extract. The reason is that LME and DME are designed to make a beer with a standard body and mouthfeel.
If you make a standard-body brew and add honey, the result will be somewhat "thin".
If you go all grain, you use ingredients to increase the body, like carapils and wheat malt and even add honey malt (or whatever suits you) for flavor.
I did a quick google search for "Session Braggot" and there are quite a few recipes out there.
Here's an article that discusses a two-stage process for making a Braggot. Basiclly add the honey after the beer fermentation gets going, then adding some nutrient and stirring.The examples given are for high ABV brews, but at the end it mentions scaling back a beer recipe to 5% ABV, then adding 3-4 lbs of honey to end up with a 8-9% Braggot:
http://meadadvocate.org/wp/posts/2014/05/27/two-stage-braggot-recipe-formulation/

 

[dmtaylor]

Of your options, LME would give the most body of all. However I personally would sooner use lactose or maltodextrin which are flavorless vs. LME unless you really do want a braggot. The trouble also with adding LME, DME, or wort is that you're adding more fermentable sugars to your session mead. In my experience, you'll have a devil of a time making it truly very sessionable unless you water it way down, so there's this tug-of-war of adding more fermentables vs. watering down.

 

[bernardsmith]

I agree that dmtaylor makes a good point: if you are looking for a session mead then add another 40 points a gallon to a honey must (or mead ) is a move in the wrong direction, but there is nothing to prevent you making two separate batches - one, a low ABV mead made with either a flavor-rich honey (meadowfoam or Tupelo, for example) or a mead with chocolate or fruit and the second, a simple ale (perhaps a SMaSH). Total gravity might not exceed 1.050 and the FG might be close to 1.008.