mead

[mjdmjd]

does anyone know how to make mead?  i think it is a honey based drink?

[Wraith]

It is basically honey wine. Try this link.

 

Click here

 

[Wraith]

That link isn't working, try this.

 

http://www.gotmead.com/mead-recipes/

 

[b_soucek]

i have a recipe for mead: 1 quart strained honey 3 quarts water nutmeg pieces of ginger piece of dried orange peel 1 tsp. hops 1 tsp. juniper berries 3 Tbsp. fresh yeast cook honey with the water for 1 hour. place nutmeg ginger prange peel hops and juniper berries in a piece of cheesecloth, tie it closed, secure a weight on the end and place in the honey mixture. boil another hour. remove spice bouquet. cool honey mixture and place in a carboy, an airtight container that will allow the gasesto escape but will not allow the air to enter. (available from wine/beer making shop) dissolve yeast in a little of the honey mixture, then add to the mead. seal the carboy. mead will ferment at room temp for 6 months. when its fermented it will stop bubbling. place carboy in a cool dry place. after a year, the mead should be through fermenting. transfer it to bottles and seal the tops. watch for delayed fermentation and if observed, open the bottle to allow fermentation to finish, then close again. the longer the mead ages the better it gets. enjoy! this is taken from a traditional polish recipe!

[New Forester]

As made now, yes, it's honey wine.  I believe it used to be made more like ale, weaker and flavoured with hops, or presumably other aromatic herbs.

 

It's a good way of using the honey in the cappings.  When you extract honey from the comb, you slice off the cappings to let the honey spin out in the centrifuge, and you then end up with empty comb, lots of honey -- and a tub of mixed honey and wax cappings.  You can drain or centrifuge off this capping honey, or give the cappings back to the bees to clean, but if you make mead you can use water to wash them, and then ferment the washings.

 

b_soucek -- your recipe looks good, but I can't see the point of boiling the honey for so long (or indeed at all) before putting in the spices.  You could perhaps infuse the spices in some of the water, and keep from cooking the honey at all, so keeping more of the flavour.

[PeepTheSot]

Traditional mead is simply honey and water, fermented, with no additions before or after the ferment.
True mead in the ancient style would be a still, dry wine with little residual sweetness but retaining the character of the honey. Very strong meads would be made with a high honey to water ratio and would exhibit a somewhat sweeter character and with proper aging become almost sherry-like.
The addition of spiced, fruits, etc technically turn the stuff into something other than mead (depending on what the additions are, it would be called pyment, metheglin, cyser, or a number of other things)