What do you think of this recipe I've found...

[Pyro]

Found this recipe but I don't see a boil times or even paturization times...just dump into the fermenter. It didn't seem right to me. Do you think that boil or pasturizing times are implied here? Has anyone made mead this way? Seems like the lazy-mans method. What quality of product do you think you'd get? Just curious.

http://www.thegrape.net/browse.cfm/2,1440.html

 

[homebrewer_99]

I read the recipe...the answer is "mead".

I would pasteurize the honey first by boiling for 15 mins, add the other ingredients (except the yeast) and skim all the time...remove from heat...done.

 

[drobbins]

I'm a rookie with my first 2 batches in carboys, but I made my first mead at a meeting of the local homebrew club on national mead day and everybody there said not to boil or pasteurize your honey
if you do you'll boil off some of the aromatics and change the flavor
I'm sure you'll find different opinions on this but I just mixed honey, nutrients, RO water and yeast to a carboy and aerated the crap out of it (my second batch had vanilla beans added)
at first racking it tasted great
of course you could still boil your water to make sure it's clean

Dave

 

[homebrewer_99]

You are right, boiling does throw off the honey flavoring, but you should still pasteurize it...180F water let sit for 15 mins should do it.

 

[NurseNan]

I don't boil, and I have no problems. No-boil mead making does not mean lazy. Many people do it.

 

[MikeRLynch]

I also use the no boil method, I just warm the water over medium low heat to dissolve the honey easier. I think the logic behind not boiling or even pasturizing is that most meads are fairly high alcohol, and like wine, it is the alcohol level that kills the critters. I think somewhere between 10 and 12 percent is the point where bacteria are killed off. Essentially you're depending on your yeast to make enough alcohol to sanitize your mead.

mike

 

[Poindexter]

I also use the no boil method, I just warm the water over medium low heat to dissolve the honey easier. I think the logic behind not boiling or even pasturizing is that most meads are fairly high alcohol, and like wine, it is the alcohol level that kills the critters. I think somewhere between 10 and 12 percent is the point where bacteria are killed off. Essentially you're depending on your yeast to make enough alcohol to sanitize your mead.

mike

Yup. The other thing is there is so much sugar -> and such a small amount of water <- that nothing is growing in there anyway. To ferment it you have to dilute it.

Besides honey, jams and jellys are a way to "dehydrate" fruit so it doesn't spoil.

Same principle as salt pork or salt beef, just sugar instead of salt.