Mead in time?

[JRGould]

I have a class about food/drink in the ancient world and as a final project we have been asked to make something that people ate/drank a long time ago

The instant I learned about this project I started researching the prospect of brewing up some mead for the class and have come to a bit of conflicting information: some people say that your mead will not be drinkable for a year or more, while others contend that 2 months is plenty of time to make a drinkable mead. Which is true? I will have to serve my mead in mid May, do you guys think this will be enough time?

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by JRGould
I will have to serve my mead in mid May, do you guys think this will be enough time?

you can have a fully fermented, alcoholic beverage by then, but it will have a very strong alcohol taste and will start to taste "good" after close to a year.

[MrNate]

Originally posted by JRGould
...we have been asked to make something that people ate/drank a long time ago

The laws of human behavior and probability would seem to dictate that someone, somewhere, sometime a long time ago drank a mead that had aged only a few months.

On the other hand, you could always try making an ancient Egyptian beer or an ale with mugwort instead of hops.

[kilkil]

You could make a low gravity (around 1.065 OG) mead. They would taste better after a shorter hold time.

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by kilkil
You could make a low gravity (around 1.065 OG) mead. They would taste better after a shorter hold time.

good call - use a "sweet mead" yeast so that it will leave some body and sweetness.

[JRGould]

Originally posted by HogieWan
good call - use a "sweet mead" yeast so that it will leave some body and sweetness.

Sweet, I got some sweet mead yeast, a crapload of honey, some yeast nutrient, a new carboy, and enough hopes and dreams to float a zeppelin. It's mead time.

[HogieWan]

lwt us know how it turns out.

[Cosmic Charlie]

Here's a recipe for a mead that you don't have to age (although I have not tried it myself). The recipe is for a 1 gallon batch, but you can scale it up.

http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_rapidrecipe&page=viewrecipe&recipe_id=119

[JRGould]

So I've pretty much done all of the sanitizing/cooking involved with this batch and am just waiting for everything to be the same temp before I pitch (forgot to take the liquid yeast out of the fridge until just now) But now I'm wondering if I've got enough honey in my must. I used 12 lbs, which turned out to be just about 1 gallon (4qts) while the recipe I used called for 5-6 qts. Do you guys think I should go grab another 3lbs before I pitch?

[Payson]

I used 12 lbs

I've seen sweet mead recipes calling for 12 pounds for a 5 gallon batch. In fact, More Beer sells one with 12 pounds. You should be fine!

[untothee]

Just wondering how this turned out...


EDIT: Nevermind. Just saw user profile-hasn't logged in since March......



well, maybe he'll chime in.