any mead makers?

[danno]

I'm picking up two gallons of honey from the head apiarist at the University of Minnesota, plan on making at least one 5 gallon batch of dry mead, then I'll figure out what to do with the rest later on. Any pointers or ideas? I already went and picked up another carboy to dedicate to this project for the next six months or so...

[YamahaXS]

sounds like you know you are in for a long term project... :D

i suggest consider using a champagne yeast....

[toneyc]

The Wyeast Dry Mead yeast, #3632 is what I have used for my dry meads. It does a good job. I just read Making Mead Honey Wine by Roger A. Morse and he recommends boiling the must for 10-20 minutes because it promotes clearing. I'm only on my 4th batch of mead, each one of them has turned out wildly different. My first batch was excellent! A nice, dry, sparkling mead. The second batch wasn't as dry, I got impatient. The third batch was almost tasteless because I only used about half a gallon of honey. I just made up the 4th batch two weeks ago and it is bubbling along nicely. I think I boiled my first batch and haven't boiled any of the rest but I think I will go back to it for batch number 5.

On a side note, I have never read a book that was such a collection of opinions as this Morse book and the beer brewing book that came with my initial brewing setup. Are all brewing books this opinionated? Don't get me wrong, the book was informative and worth the read but just struck me as very chatty.

:) Toney.

[danno]

Toney, the other mead makers I've chatted with have explicitly said not to boil the honey, as it affects the taste. They were all pretty unanimous about that, they recommended a 170º for 10 minutes to get rid of any impurities... I guess it would be the equivalent of not mashing at too high a temp because of tannins....

[paul84043]

What do the tannins do the the beer? Do they give it the "astringent" flavors that I have heard about??

[YamahaXS]

tannin flavor = cup of tea that sat with the bag steeping too long... its very noticable.


the one (out of two) batch of GOOD mead that i have made, I just boiled long enough to dissolve the honey, about 10 minutes most.

[MmmBeer]

I am planning on wasting a secondary on mead... not wasting, using, but neways.... Is a year in the secondary too long? With no yeast nutrients? I don't want it fast... I want it GOOD...

[toneyc]

From what I've been reading lately, bulk age in the carboy until it clears then bottle it and age it for as long as possible.

:)
Toney.

[mlsuggs]

OK, here I can comment a bit. I've been doing meads for several years now (since 1997), and here's what I've found:

Meads are *far* more forgiving of "sanitary lapses" than beer. Which is not to say that you shouldn't sanitize--no need to get out of the habit. :)

Much of the aging of meads is to reduce what I call a "medicinal" taste, which I've come to associate with "young" meads. My theory on the matter: Honey contains some *really* complex sugars, which the yeast turns into some unusual flavors at first. These age out, after time. It also takes the yeast quite a while to metabolize some of the sugars (and their resulting off-flavors).

Aging mead for a year or more is not unusual. I recently racked a batch into a *tertiary* fermenter; it had been in secondary for nearly two years. (Yes, it's still fermenting, albeit slowly. Chocolate mead. Mmmmmm...)

My experiences with White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast have been less than wonderful. I find it to be a slow starter, and prone to "stuck" fermentations. My recommendation: use a Champagne yeast, or other relatively flavor-neutral wine yeast. If you want something sweeter, add honey as it goes to bring the gravity up. This is more expensive (more honey), and takes longer (see above), but makes for some outstanding meads. Alternatively, you could use a "regular" beer yeast--something I haven't yet played with as much as I would like...

To boil or not to boil... I, personally, don't boil the honey. If other ingredients require a boil (such as hops, to extract the oils), I boil those first, let the mix cool to 160 degrees or so, then add the honey. I try to keep the temp at 160, plus or minus, for about 20 minutes, to pasteurize (to whatever extent I can), then let it cool & pitch the yeast.

And for mead literature, at any rate, yes, it's all *very* opinionated, and there are many contradictions between the books. All I can give, personally, is my own experience. YMMV.

Happy to help,
--Michael