Birth of a Mead

I bought a semi-sweet mead kit from Northern Brewer last Fall, brewed it and have had it in an old unplugged fridge since then. It's crystal clear and gave it a taste tonight. Still a little 'green' but still very nice. I am going to 'backsweeten' it with my own honey. I actually had to use algebra tonight. Basically, took about 200 mls, added measured honey until it tasted where I want it, sweet with noticeable honey tones, but not too sweet. Extrapolated out how much honey it will take to get 5 gallons to that same specific gravity and taste, and I'm ready to go.

I added two stabilizing chemicals tonight - because when I add the honey, if there are any yeast ready to spring into action, turn that honey into alcohol, and the mason jars I'm going to bottle this stuff in into bottle bombs. Tomorrow evening I'm going to add the little more than a pint of sweetening honey called for, and then it gets fun.

2.5 gallons of the sweetened mead are going in the fridge to cold chill/clear up post-honey addition, then I'll bottle when I'm sure there is no fermentation activity. I'm going to use pint Mason jars to bottle so folks can just put a jar in the fridge when they want one, and drink right from the jar when it's cold.

The other 2.5 gallons I am going to do a 'melomel' with (that's mead with a fruit addition). Going to use some of my homegrown blueberries (couple quarts) and put them into secondary along with some split vanilla beans. I'll put the berries and beans in a new set of panty hose so I don't get particles/solids into my mead. I'm going to let that sit for a week or two and then it'll go into the cold chill mode too and be bottled once it's reasonably clear.

Excited to see how these come out. Mead gets better and better with age, so I'm going to try and put some of each away and give it a couple years.

I also plan on making a mead batch with 8 pints of my own honey.

Brpken record here, but there's a meadery up here called the Hilltop Berry Farm that you should visit. They use fruits as well and their stuff is delicious.

Love me some good mead, let us know how it turns out!

Moved both my sweet mead batch and blueberry w/vanilla bean melomel to the fridge to sit for a couple months. Same mead, just added about 3 lbs of mashed blueberries and vanilla beans to 1/2 the batch. Amazing the color change.

Geez Boone, you must have a walk-in fridge, for all the stuff you got !

Walk-in closet where I do most of my brewing (the wife LOVES this!), and I also have 2 kegerators that I sometimes use. Here's the first sweet mead I will ever have done with nothing but my own honey. I think it's going to be a beautiful dark mead. It's going to sit for at least a year. 2015 BGO Tailgate! I will bring some mead and melomel to this year's tailgate for those coming.

Sweet Mead and Blueberry/Vanilla Melomel (that's mead with fruit added). Took a taste and they are pretty tasty already. Tucking away now that I've got them bottled and see how they taste in a couple months.

Drank some of my mead the other night. It's really amazing. Tempted to break into it tonight but I am heading to Charlotte tomorrow with my brother and don't want to start a trip with a hangover, besides been taking a break from drinking the past month or so (except for my little mead testing session). Goaldeje, I'm definitely setting aside a few jars for you I'll bring up with me in October.

***Edit: Oh - to hell with it, broke some out anyway It'll be interesting to see how my FF draft goes in a couple hours

So, last year, set aside about 12 lbs of my own honey, and then made simple mead with it. It's been in my closet for over a year now. A couple of weeks ago, I added about 10 lbs of fresh peach pulp to the mead (in a new nylon stocking). Siphoned the peach mead into a clean carboy last night, chilled it overnight, and since it had started refermenting added some K+ sorbate/K+metasulfite to stop the fermentation. In a week or so, I will taste and then 'backsweeten' with some more honey. The idea is to knock down the yeast to a point that they won't start reproducing again and ferment the added sugar. The desired end result is a sweet peach mead without carbonation, not peach grain alcohol. Mead is a lot trickier than beer for sure. Depending on how quickly the mead clears and how it tastes, I may bring it to the BGO tailgate, or I may bottle it in wine bottles and put it away for another year.

My father in-law started his own hive this year but has no where near 12 gallons of honey! Lol He has scupanine and muscadine vines in his yard so I'm trying to convince him to make a mead this fall. If successful, I'll hit you up for some tips. I'm all about homemade beverages, I am originally from WV.

Wow - my daughter and I finally got around to tasting the year old mead I made from last summer's honey - the batch I soaked 5 lbs if peaches in awhile back. Pretty potent and tasty and very sweet. I will be bringing some in wine bottles to the Tailgate this year along with homebrews.


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