First Mead suggestions?

[Big Tex]

I noticed that Jamil had his Melomel advance in the NHC. Maybe he could share a good Mead recipe with the group?

[Bugeater]

Still thinking about this project. Just acquired another 5# of the same honey. Petedadink's method looks intriguing so I may give that a try. Any suggestions on the best yeast to use for a sweet mead?

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Petedadink]

Last mead I did was a 3 gal batch . Starting OG of 1.06 and finished at 1.015. Not really sweety but tasty. I used 3 packs of dry lager yeast. 5 lbs honey. It fermented out in 4 weeks. Added sparkeloid to clear. racked to 3 gal keg. Chilled and drank. It tasted young , some bread doughy that eventualy went away but it was tasty after another month, Low gravity worked well for a session mead.

[rhino777]

Wyeast Sweet Mead yeast

[seanhagerty]

I used that and the folks at gotmead.com suggested a starter. I used apple juice and the wyeast sweet mead yeast. For my first attempt at a mead this batch turned out ok.

[Brewbear]

Hey Bug,
www.gotmead.com has a mead calculator that's helpful. #12 for a 3 gallon batch sounds better, K1-V1116 is a beast! D-47 is better, my preference runs towards the D-47 or DV10. The recipe suggested for the chocolate mead...it will take at least 1 year before it will start to taste ok. For kicks, you can try a 1 gallon batch of ancient orange (see gotmead site or holler at me) and it is ready to drink in a couple of months or so. The other advantage for a first mead, this recipe uses regular bread yeast that likes a temp. range up to high 70's. It gets better with time. Oh, yeah! It finishes sweet with a nice orange&honey flavor. After aging about 5 months, it kicks ass!

Hope this helps,
Cheers
Brewbear

[filmlabrat]

Bug, my mead pretty well sucks, but that's OK for you because you don't have to drink it.

Here's a couple of things I've learned.

12# of honey in a 5 gallon batch even with extra fermentables will only make a dry mead.

My last batch (in 1999) had an OG of 1.093 and a FG of .997. Alcohol harsh and absolutely no sweetness. Also had 24# of apricots and 12# apples. Used Cote de Blanc yeast.

For that batch I threw everything together at the beginning. The resulting apricot and apple flavors and aromas were mostly scrubbed out during the long and vigorous ferment. If I had it to do again, I would add the fruit after the honey had fermented out.

I'm about to try an orange Melomel with 16# of honey (5 gal) with no water, only fresh orange juice from our tree out back. Plan to use the Wyeast sweet mead blend. I'll let you know how it works out in a couple of years!

I'd suggest starting simple and basic. Once you have that right, then expand you horizons with extra stuff. To many wild variables makes mead like mine!

Good luck with your's old buddy!

[Lars]

12# of honey in a 5 gallon batch even with extra fermentables will only make a dry mead.

My last batch (in 1999) had an OG of 1.093 and a FG of .997. Alcohol harsh and absolutely no sweetness. Also had 24# of apricots and 12# apples. Used Cote de Blanc yeast.

Don't be afraid to back sweeten your mead! This is how many great meads are made. Several of the mead makers I know let their meads ferment to comlpete dryness and then backsweeten. This way you can have better control over the finsihed product too. I backsweeten both meads and my ciders.