So, what does everybody (I say everybody, but I don't suppose there are many) use?
If I'm not too late calling the local Apiarist I might get my hands on a couple of kilos of local honey. Yay!
I haven't bitten the bullet on a mead myself yet, but a lot of people use the Lalvin 71B.
Most recipes just say champagne yeast or wine yeast.
Ancient Joe's orange mead uses bread yeast.
Might avoid the bread yeast. It's been in the cupboard a while. Wouldn't trust it to make bread! I've used champagne yeast for almost everything before now (EC1118 makes a lovely elderflower champagne if it's had it's nutrients) so am going to grow some balls and try something else.
Lalvin D47 and 71B seem popular among other users, so I'll be ordering and, naturally, splitting. I'm sure I've got enough demijohns knocking about.
1 gal mead with D47 http://meadist.com/making-mead/best-yeast-for-mead-making/ (http://meadist.com/making-mead/best-yeast-for-mead-making/)
1 gal mead with 71B
1 gal each Meddyglin, Cyser and if I've enough blackberries then a Black mead too, using the appropriate yeast.
Anyone have any experience?
Have you got any recipes yet?
I've a book here by Acton and Duncan called 'making your own mead', which covers the basics, and then there are recipes all over the place in my old brewing and wine books. I bought the book mentioned because it was the only one I found that didn't call for the honey to be boiled.
The basic mead recipes will be from the book, and like I said, two gallons, one each of lalvin yeasts 47 and 71.
I'll also make a tea meddyglin, http://meadist.com/making-mead/mead-recipes/turkish-tea-metheglin/ (http://meadist.com/making-mead/mead-recipes/turkish-tea-metheglin/)
and then I'll have to see what herbs I have knocking about for the other meddyglin.
Finally, as cider season approaches, I'll be milling some apples anyway, so may as well make a cyser.
I'll post up my basic mead recipe later on, once I've picked it.
This kind of experimentation is great for the homebrewer, eh?
Edit: The book calls for Malic Acid in most of it's recipes, and some of the Lalvin yeasts are also malolactic.
Metric Mead:
1.3kg Honey (orange blossom honey inlikely to be available in Inishowen)
10g Tartaric acid
15g Malic acid
Nutrients
2g Tannin
Water to 4.5l
Dissolve the honey in 2 litres of warm water together with nutrients, acid and tannin. Make up to 4.5l with cold water and sulphite at 100ppm (2 campden tablets). 24hrs later pitch yeast.
Rack at S.G. 1020, again at 1015 and bottle at 1012. Should leave a medium sweet mead.
At all rackings top up with boiled and cooled sugar water to eliminate airspace. VERY important!
For the above I'll be using Lalvin D47 probably. Unless HomebrewWest run out in the meantime.
I presume the mead maker needs to remove disolved CO2 the same way as winemakers before bottling?
Nice one Tom, cheers. I've been doing some small batches of turbo cider and kit wines and having great fun with it. No hassles and the cleanup time is minimal. I got some 71b in especially to do a mead, so interested in seeing how you were going to approach yours. What's the idea with the tartaric and malic?
Yeah, very quick. Can't believe I'm contemplating decoction mashing in a few brews time!
The acid additions are the same as cider. Nice ph for the yeast, inhospitable conditions for other bacteria, and also the flavour element; making an otherwise insipid beverage more palatable. The malic:tartaric should be 2:1, according to the book, but doesn't say why this is. I presume it's the same reasons as beer; certain acids taste harsher than others, e.g. lactic and acetic.
The citric acid/lemon route is scorned. The tannin is, I suppose, the same reason as cider and wine, the flavour balance.
Hi Tom,
For my meads (still maturing) I used a Chardonnay Wine yeast (from a wine kit)
I would noy use craft honey to make mead as its far too good and should be enjoyed pure and on nice toast or crumpets!
For Mead in large quantities use commercial stff PARTICULARLY if you are adding Herbs/Spices/Fruits that WILL overpower the finesse of a fine craft honey!
However if some bee keeper is prepared to give you 1.7 kgs/Gallon of lovely wild honey for free then go for it!
Wow, really? I thought the idea was to get the best honey available to you. I was not going to boil it in order to preserve the aromatics etc etc. Is it worth making a straight mead out of the posh honey, and buy johnny sainsbury crap for the meddyglins then?
Check out basic brewing radio. There are a few shows about mead including one on side by side yeast comparisons on which California ale yeast came out best. There is also a show discussing the merits of different honeys as it does make a big difference on the source and those flavours will dominate the final product. I'm using rc212 yeast for a melomel which has a lot of fruit added. Apparently it helps preserve the fruit flavours. Also check out the details on yeast nutrients additions. Staged additions help yeast health. And never boil your must!
If you really want to use a craft honey then ask your bee keeper for the leftover honey from the spinning out of the frames. You can then heat it up (don't boil it!) and the wax caps and other stuff will float to top forming a sum which you can skim off.
I used a champagne yeast to ferment the mead and once it started boy did it go! I had a boil over from the demijohn. Give it plenty head space for the primary fermentation!
I've done a few batches of mead. try to do 2 5L batches a year so I have a nice supply. I've had good results from Notty. Ive also used youngs cider yeast, champagne , a wine kit and at the moment I have a brett mead going about 4 months now.
My favorite by far was my Meadacolada.
5L batch
1.8 Kg honey
Topped up with pineapple juice
fermented with champagne yeast
Dry coconutted with 100g desiccated coconut for aprox 1 month
Age as long as possible.
Note to self BREW THIS AGAIN ASAP.
I've made maybe 30 brews of mead, usually 25 litres, over the last few years. I do like the EC-1152 for dry meads, but I've discovered that it can take a long time to condition if your kitchen is warm, or changes temperature. For sweet ones the D47 seems to yield drinkable stuff much quicker, especially for melomels.
The last brew I did was based on a recipe from Sir Kenelme Digby's Closet, Unopened, a 1650s recipe. It included an egg and a large amount of bogmyrtle. I'm really curious how it'll turn out. The egg is used initially as a hygrometer - keep adding honey until an egg floats, the size of a groat - then as a flocculant - stir the egg in, before you heat up the honey to pasteurise it and get the random crap to come out of solution. Some of the recipes tell you to boil the honey until the egg shell is dissolved (I assume by malic and gluconic acids), which can 'dull sharp flavors'. EC1152 can also metabolize malic acid. Another recommendation in the book was to boil the honey in a 'sweet iron' pot, to make it more palatable. Sweet Iron is lead. Might skip that one :)
Oh, and if you want a laugh, Neil Delamere's new TV show "Holding out for a Hero" explores Grace O'Malley's fondness for mead, with yours truly brewing up a batch on a riverbank :)
Hi Guys,
I hope you don't mind me posting on your thread, we have brought in a new mead kit which might be of interest to you http://geterbrewed.ie/mead-honey-wine-ingredient-kit-en.html
We brought these kits in from Prestige in Sweden they are the world's best at manufacturing yeast.
Thanks for all the imput, folks. I'll be taking it all in, digesting it, and hopefully starting my first one in a couple of weeks.
The mead kit does look useful in that it has all of the additives in one handy place, saving buying several tubs that may only get used once.
I'll keep an eye out for the Neil Delamere show! Good man yourself!
Well Tom, did you kick off your meads yet? Just today I bought 3kg of honey, so I'm fully committed now. :)
I'm wondering could I risk splitting the sachet of yeast for two separate batches, or would that be asking for trouble? I think the Lalvin sachets are for 5gal, but I don't know if that applies to mead as well as wine...
I split all the time. I usually only do single gallons of wines and stuff. It's designed for high sugar anyway, so wouldn't worry a whole lot about it. Rehydrate as usual. I'm a big fan of yeast nutrients though. Really helps reduce hot alcohols in my limited experience.
As for mead? Not quite got around to it yet. Need to order some supplies. It's mead or the car tax.
What are you making with your honey?
Cool, maybe I might have a crack at 2 meads then.
I have only 1 sachet of nutrient though. Not sure about splitting this in half.
I was planning on doing a plain mead made with 50/50 blended/wildflower honey. Might add 1tsp tannin and 1tsp citric acid, based on the little research i've done.
The other batch will probably end up as a cyser or a melomel. Will leave the acid out of that one as there's probably enough acid in the fruit or juice. Will split the sachet of 71B in half.
I'm in unfamiliar territory here! If any of this sounds bonkers, someone please say so! :)
Finally, I stuck this mead on this evening.
700g wildflower honey
900g blended honey
2tsp nutrient
1/2 tsp tannin
1 tsp citric acid
Lalvin 71B
The honey is Holland & Barrets. Not exactly artisan product, but I'm hoping the wildflower variety might give it a little character. I'm hoping that I've preserved whatever aromatics are in the honey by not heating the must at all. I just blended the honey into the bottled water using a sanitised stick blender. Worked a treat.
Have some honey left, so might do a melomel or a metheglin.
That makes 1 gal, aye?
Was it reasonably priced, to make a batch?
Oh yeah, 1 gal batch.
If I remember correctly, the honey cost me just under 20 euro which struck me as reasonable. For that price I got 2 x 350g wildflower and 2 x 900g bog standard blended variety. And i've one of the 900g jars left over. There was a special offer on at the time though.
Not the cheapest gallon of booze to make, admittedly. I did the same volume of spiced applewine using lidl aj for probably a fraction of the price.
Last night I walked into the room where this mead was fermenting and was bowled over by a big licorice smell, which I can only hop is coming from my mead. If it's coming from the Irish Red I have conditioning alongside it, I'm in trouble... 8)