Took the plunge with Joe Mattioli's spiced Mead

[Tequilla6]

As I said before this was for my youngest son and his girlfriend. They came around this weekend and actually bought some purchased meads with them so I could get a feel for what they wanted in the mead. They also bought their own brew. Their brew was weak of body and although smelt of honey the taste of honey was only in the background really. They had used a standard wine yeast.

the commercial products were both different one was very sweet and the taste of honey was somewhat cloying on the throat. the other was not as sweet but the honey aroma and flavour came over very prominently. Mine on the initial tasting was somewhere in the middle of the homebrew and the drier Mead product. I guess I am interested how they keep the sweetness and overpowering honey flavour within their meads. I presume they use Sulphates to stop the fermentation and maybe add additional honey to the product afterwards.

You seem to have done this before and the brew is looking good by the way, Whats you take on mead, should it be as sweet or drier and is the honey flavour prominent in your brew?

Cheers

[Pronay]

As I said before this was for my youngest son and his girlfriend. They came around this weekend and actually bought some purchased meads with them so I could get a feel for what they wanted in the mead. They also bought their own brew. Their brew was weak of body and although smelt of honey the taste of honey was only in the background really. They had used a standard wine yeast.

the commercial products were both different one was very sweet and the taste of honey was somewhat cloying on the throat. the other was not as sweet but the honey aroma and flavour came over very prominently. Mine on the initial tasting was somewhere in the middle of the homebrew and the drier Mead product. I guess I am interested how they keep the sweetness and overpowering honey flavour within their meads. I presume they use Sulphates to stop the fermentation and maybe add additional honey to the product afterwards.

You seem to have done this before and the brew is looking good by the way, Whats you take on mead, should it be as sweet or drier and is the honey flavour prominent in your brew?

Cheers

This is only the 2nd 'mead' I've made, the other one is bulk aging in a demijohn, I tried a glass after 1st racking and it tasted 'hot' but could definately taste the honey coming through

I'll be keeping them dry as I prefer dry to sweet

[mshergold]

Hi. I fancy having a go at this, but have a question regarding conversion of American recipes to metric (or even imperial) measurements. I'm sure I read on a forum that someone had made this but thought that it wasn't that great because they'd assumed that a US gallon was the same size as an imperial gallon. Can anyone give me some advice on this?

[FlourPower]

It doesn't really matter if you're only making a gallon. The American's are 4 fl oz short on each of their pints (they forgot 16 oz a pound, 20 fl oz a pint). 1 USG =133 fl oz, 1Imp Gallon = 160 fl oz

In making a gallon the difference of using a 'propa' imperial gallon will make it a little dryer. If you wanted to upscale size it might be worth it but adding an extra 4oz of honey would just be hassle when it comes in pound jars anyway.

[Tequilla6]

There, even I forgot about the differences between US and UK imperial. I assumed that as the poster was from west Yorkshire it would be UK imp. but it highlights my point that an OG reading once the ingredients are in place is all important. This tells you your start point and whether you need more water or more honey. The rest of the ingredients are fairly arbitrary and I would not adjust until I had completed a batch to decide what I wanted to enhance flavour wise or reduce.

I'm now on my 3rd batch of Mead. The first (This one) is locked away and has yet to be tried as the flavour was not there from the off and should improve with time as its definitely a dry mead. The second where it was fermented completely out and honey added in stages at the end to produce a medium mead and has been palatable since bottling really and I am really looking forward to trying in about two months. The last one which is made from unrefined honeycomb, inc Wax,Pollen and Honey of course. Wouldn't surprise me if there was a bee or two in there as well.. is currently fermenting away and has been the most carefree and simple recipe I have done. Melt honeycomb and pasteurise with some spring water. Strain off and allow to cool. Scrape off cool wax and scum and add water till the OG is at 1.095. Add wine yeast and allow to ferment. I guess I will monitor and will kill off the yeast with Potassium Sulphate once the SG is down to my preferred sweetness value and rack off ready for bottling.

Seems I'm getting much more relaxed with my Mead making.

Good luck with yours

[b.all]

i beleive the original recipe that was published on the web a few years ago was by an american so it would be US gallons/

[mshergold]

I finally got around to making some mead on Thursday after months of threatening to and it started fermenting within a couple of hours. I used:

2 x jars Morrisons pure clear honey (which came to 908g)
1 x jar (340g) Morrisons Finest Orange Blossom clear honey plus another 92g to make up to 1500g in total
Large cup of tea made with 3 bags
Juice & rind of 1 lemon
Small handful of raisins
1 x cinammon stick
1 x clove
Wine yeast
Yeast nutrient.

I didn't put an orange in though. Should I have? If so, would it be a really stupid idea to add one now? I don't think I've ever had mead before, so hope I like it (although I'm sure I'll be able to find someone who does, even if I don't).

[timothio]

My mead is terrible. Simple as that.

I left it til the oranges dropped out (fermentation stopped a good few weeks ago), and today I racked off into a new DJ and added another jar of honey / water to top it up.

Couldnt resist having a taste from the syphon, and it was rank. All I could taste was overpoweringly nasty orange pith (you know, the white bit? but even worse...). Made me do an Esther Rantzen.

I sure as hell hope the honey flavour comes through a bit more with age, otherwise this one will go the same way as my failed cat piss elderflower champers.

At the moment I'm thinking bollox to all these wierd and wonderful brews, just stick with beer kits and TC!!

[mshergold]

I made some mead on 16/07 and all appeared fine. It bubbled away in the kitchen for a few days (possibly a week) before being put in the cellar so it could ferment out in peace without being knocked/affected by light etc. I took a look when I was passing yesterday and it appears to have stopped bubbling. Is this normal? I assumed that it would be bubbling - albeit very slowly - for months. Should I move it back to the kitchen where it's a little warmer? Any suggestions or information would be greatly appreciated.

[b.all]

the majority of the fermentation will be over in a very short period of time such that after about 10 days you are unlikely to see any fermentation actually happen. if the yeast too cold it will go dormant though but that shouldn't happen untill you go below 10-15 degrees though that is dependant on what yeats you used.

[mshergold]

Thanks for the reassurance B.All. The yeast I used for my mead was Youngs wine yeast. I was just a little concerned as I've had wines in the cellar that have bubbled for quite a while. But, some beer I've got fermenting down there also seems to have stopped after only around five days. So, either I've got nothing to worry about or I've dones something seriously wrong on two different brews on two different days!

[fatbloke]

Meads ferment really quickly because of all that sugar......

Yes they ferment fine, but often slowly unless the correct ratio of nutrient, acid (and aeration in the primary stage), etc is maintained. Honey is notoriously devoid of fermentation friendly nutrients, hence, with a recipe like Joes Orange Spiced, the addition of fruit etc.

If your must is well balanced then they can indeed, ferment quickly.

The main issue is that invariably they take a long time to age, and hence 6 to 12 months should be considered a basic minimum (of course - it may work out that it's fine to drink straight way - a rare result).

Medicinal tasting "alcohol hotness" makes it taste hideous - correct it does, but it's one of those things that mellows out during ageing.

When making Joes Orange Spiced, be very careful about the use of spices, only add 1 clove - they're potent little beggars and you can easily end up with and over spicey tasting mead.

Orange pithy bitterness....... can be a PITA, but also often ages out - at least partially. If you're particularly worried about that, then juice the oranges and then zest the skins and add that to get the orange flavouring (less fruit to drop as well.....).

The original recipe used bread yeast as it's obvious that Joe Mattiolli was aiming for a sweet/medium sweet result. using wine yeast will go the job perfectly well, but will often ferment it to dry and you have to end up having to back sweeten it as it's not as good dry......

You can mess about with the recipe "ad infinitum", but you'll be changing what was originally intended to be an easy, straight forward recipe that anyone can make.

If they're put in a cellar that's too cool then the ferment will slow, likewise if it's a bit warm then they can also ferment quicker but there's a possibility that you can also kill the yeast off.

Best suggestion would be to leave it alone and check the gravity once a fortnight or so, as long as it's still "heading south" then fine, let it do it's own thing until the fruit has dropped (or if you're of an impatient nature - when it's cleared and the fruit is still floating, rack it off then you might want to top it up, so use a honey/water mix - which will probably referment some). bottle when clear.

Just my tuppence worth.......

[mshergold]

I took a look at my mead last night and the cinnamon stick has dropped, but the raisins haven't. Do raisins ever drop or are the too light or too round?