Third attempt making mead

nimrod86

I tried making mead a few years ago with very little idea what I was doing. Just flug honey, water, and Bulldog Mead yeast in a carboy and hoped for the best. Also tried one with blackberries in the fermentor to try add some flavours. This was October 2016, and now having sampled a few of them, I can confirm they were vile!

So, I've decided to try again, and I've done a bit (very small bit) more research on the topic. My meads came out too much like a watery white wine for my liking. I envisaged drinking slightly alcoholic liquid honey, like I wanted a really sweet drink, not what I ended up with.

So this time I've gathered bits of information from all across the internet and come up with a frankenstein plan. I'm using Bulldog Universal Ale Yeast B1 (reasoning being it will hopefully stop fermenting sooner leaving more honey for sweetness in the mead), and I used 2kg of honey in a 5L carboy, giving me a starting gravity of 1.112.

Anyone have any experience making mead, and in particular something nice and sweet? Still unsure how long to age it though, as some people say drink it young, others say age it years, and in my own experience aging made my first attempts worse, though I think I didn't use enough honey and they came out to dry, or the mead yeast had a too high alcohol tolerance and just ate all the sugars leaving no sweetness. I'll post updates with how this turns out anyway, and if anyone has any questions about this experiment ask away!

Ponster

I've not tried but have watched a friend follow this guide to obtain fairly decent stuff.

Once fermented he had to add more honey to it in order to thicken it up though as they suggest on that site.

nimrod86

Just as a follow up to this post, this Mead turned out really well!

Final gravity finished out at 1.040, though it possibly could have been left a bit longer as it even carbonated nicely in the bottles with no priming. Alcohol content came out around 9.45% by calculations. After a few days sitting, the mead was still a bit cloudy as can be expected, but still tasted great. Had a small and nice bit of a fizz to it too. One bottle came out really clear, no idea why this one was clearer than the rest as they were all kept together.

Anyway, I was so impressed with this that I have another batch on now too! And I think next time I'm going to up production from 5L batches to 20L batches. Also found a lovely Polish raspberry syrup in tesco which gives a lovely flavour when a drop (literally a drop!) is added to a glass, so might add that come bottling.

DirtyBollox

Hi Nimrod, going to give a mead a go shortly myself. Just to check, you threw honey, water and yeast into a jug, let it settle down, bottled it and let it sit, and its all good? (few other steps may be involved like racking it etc. but thats basically it?)

Did you just buy honey from a supermarket or did you go and get it off some lad who has bees?

mordeith

I made mead before. Water, honey i got from a beekeeper, and yeast. Put in a demijohn and left it for about six months. Turned out delicious. Not overly sweet but still with mead character.
I used Joe's Ancient Mead recipe although I don;t think I used any cinnamon or many other of the flavourings to be honest.
https://www.greenprophet.com/2019/02/the-nets-most-infamous-mead-recipe/

nimrod86

DirtyBollox wrote: »

Hi Nimrod, going to give a mead a go shortly myself. Just to check, you threw honey, water and yeast into a jug, let it settle down, bottled it and let it sit, and its all good? (few other steps may be involved like racking it etc. but thats basically it?)

Did you just buy honey from a supermarket or did you go and get it off some lad who has bees?

Hey, that's pretty much it yeah. I heated up about 2-3L of spring water in a pot, and stirred in the honey. I got the spring water and clear honey from Tesco. Once the honey was all dissolved into the the hot water, I poured it into my demijohn with a funnel, and then topped it up to the shoulder, just heaving a bit of headroom. Once that had cooled to room temperature (which did take ages) I added the yeast, and put on the airlock.

I sit my demijohn on a seedling heat mat in the kitchen, and after two weeks I bottled straight from the demijohn, didn't rack that last batch. Finding now that the first glass from each bottle is beautifully clear, and the next is cloudy, so I am racking the batch I have brewing now. Other than being cloudy though it's still very nice and I'm actually down to my last bottle already! Think my next batch will be 20L in my newly made fermentation fridge!

DirtyBollox

nimrod86 wrote: »

Hey, that's pretty much it yeah. I heated up about 2-3L of spring water in a pot, and stirred in the honey. I got the spring water and clear honey from Tesco. Once the honey was all dissolved into the the hot water, I poured it into my demijohn with a funnel, and then topped it up to the shoulder, just heaving a bit of headroom. Once that had cooled to room temperature (which did take ages) I added the yeast, and put on the airlock.

I sit my demijohn on a seedling heat mat in the kitchen, and after two weeks I bottled straight from the demijohn, didn't rack that last batch. Finding now that the first glass from each bottle is beautifully clear, and the next is cloudy, so I am racking the batch I have brewing now. Other than being cloudy though it's still very nice and I'm actually down to my last bottle already! Think my next batch will be 20L in my newly made fermentation fridge!

Thats an issue i reckon i'll run into, if i try to have more than 2 demijohns on the go herself goes spare, which is fair, living in an apartment and all that...

Still, one day....

Thanks! I was going to talk to a lad who keeps bees but i reckon, just in case, i'll go with store bought honey to start with.

nimrod86

Using shop bought honey didn't seem to cause me any problems, in fact was possibly better as it was already processed and I didn't have to boil and separate out any scummy bits or wax. I used Tesco's own brand clear honey, and a friend tried their own brand Orange Blossom honey. When we were dissolving the orange blossom it produced loads of white froth which we had to skim off the top before we could put it in the demijohn.

I've had my second batch in the fermentation fridge doing a crash cool after racking to try speed things up a bit, I was planning on racking for a while to clear but I'm out of the first batch now and want more! Might be able to have a glass tonight if I'm lucky.

caff

I find the yeast used massively affect the flouvor of the mead. My preference is sauternes it keeps it nice and sweet. I also throw a pot of tea in too for tannins. I find that the mead is quite bland until after three months when the flouvors come out.

RasTa

1040 seems very high. It not too sweet?

nimrod86

RasTa wrote: »

1040 seems very high. It not too sweet?

It is very sweet, but having never tried commercial mead, and liking sweetness, I really enjoy it. I must try pick up a bottle of Bunratty Mead and see what that tastes like, though it seems very few shops or off licenses do mead.

nimrod86

caff wrote: »

I find the yeast used massively affect the flouvor of the mead. My preference is sauternes it keeps it nice and sweet. I also throw a pot of tea in too for tannins. I find that the mead is quite bland until after three months when the flouvors come out.

I've seen people talking about adding tea and/or lemon juice on other forums. What exactly do tannins do to the mead?

mordeith

nimrod86 wrote: »

It is very sweet, but having never tried commercial mead, and liking sweetness, I really enjoy it. I must try pick up a bottle of Bunratty Mead and see what that tastes like, though it seems very few shops or off licenses do mead.

I like Bunratty mead but it isn't mead in the truest sense. I was to the gut who makes Kinsale mead (which is delicious) and he said the Bunratty stuff has a base which honey is added to rather than fermented from honey in its entirety.

BeerNut

Bunratty is a pyment: wine flavoured with honey.

caff

nimrod86 wrote: »

I've seen people talking about adding tea and/or lemon juice on other forums. What exactly do tannins do to the mead?

Makes it a bit "dry" better explanation here
https://vinepair.com/articles/what-are-tannins-wine/

DirtyBollox

Gave it a shot myself at the weekend, just after stirring everything together and letting it sit before adding the yeast, i took a spoonful.

Turns out, honey and water, makes very sweet honey water! :pac:

fermenting nicely already this morning.