Mead at less than 40p a bottle.

[Anglezarke]

If anyone fancies making mead and lives within striking distance of a Lidl store, you're in luck. Not having made mead for a number of years, mainly because of the high price of honey I was pleasantly surprised to find honey at 75p for a 340g jar in our local Lidl. So 3 jars makes a gallon at a starting SG of 1070 - strong enough for me! Being bog standard honey it's obviously a bit bland, so I would recommend adding fruit or other flavouring. (I had some elderflowers and ginger in stock, worked fine). Next batch I'll add some fruit. If anyone tries some let me know how you get on.

 

[Baldylocks Brewery]

Never done mead before but I’ve been thinking about it, any tip on process, yeast etc

 

[Anglezarke]

Yes, just use your everyday yeast as this is a pretty basic honey. More expensive honey would benefit from say a champagne yeast. Stand jars in hot water before opening. Rinse jars with hot water to get all contents out. Boil honey to remove any preservative and skim off any scum. Top up to 1 gallon with cold water. Pitch yeast when cooled and leave to ferment. Enjoy.

 

[user 39926]

Never done mead before but I’ve been thinking about it, any tip on process, yeast etc

Generally the best honey you can get - cheaper probs isn't 100% pure ( a good guideline is to check for source on the label, if it states a blend of non-EU and EU honeys, that usually means China). Not to say cheaper isn't bad, as above mix it in with fruit for a melomel .

A general recipe is something like 4-5 340g jars - mix up with bottled water to 4.5l (inc cup of black tea), add nutrient - shake, take a breather - shake some more. Add yeast, you can use baker's, wine is probably better. Then just leave - when you do bottle, age helps a lot - I've got one bottle of Aldi's lemon blossom that's 14mths old left, I'm saving that one :)

Personally (just me), I wouldn't boil.

 

[Jan.]

I usually use cheap honey to make meads while I am working on a recipe (until I get the recipe right then I splash out for the good stuff). It won't be 100% honey if it's that cheap and it doesn't get the best result but if you are careful you can make a decent fruited (melomel) or spiced (metheglin) mead (or other meads with additional ingredients). I wouldn't go for a traditional mead where the whole character is based on the honey though, if you want to do that, go for a good one. I also wouldn't boil as the little aroma a cheap honey has will be evaporated by even a quick boil.

The key is the yeast and fermentation. Don't use normal beer yeast, I have never had any luck as those yeasts don't like the lack of nutrients (particularly US04 which throws so much sulphur that the whole house stinks!). The best I have found is Mangrove Jack's M05 which is pretty good for all types of mead. Use Yeast nutrient every other day and de-gas on alternate days following a good staggered nutrient program. The homebrewers association has a good article: Improve Your Mead with Staggered Nutrient Additions.

I have also used wine yeast to some success but try to get the mangrove jack if you can. Lalvin D47 was the best wine yeast I used and lalvin k1-v1116 and Lalvin EC-1118 Champagne Yeast if you can't find anything else. Of course, all yeast will process the sugar so "will work" but I have really struggled with anything else (but maybe that's just me). As a last resort US05 (NOT US04!) has worked on a lower alcohol mead, but it does struggle. I have tried Belgium yeasts as well but they seem to produce a lot of off aromas and heavier alcohols.

Making mead is great as it is so quick on brew day but it does need more attention during the fermentation.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[Baldylocks Brewery]

Yes, just use your everyday yeast as this is a pretty basic honey. More expensive honey would benefit from say a champagne yeast. Stand jars in hot water before opening. Rinse jars with hot water to get all contents out. Boil honey to remove any preservative and skim off any scum. Top up to 1 gallon with cold water. Pitch yeast when cooled and leave to ferment. Enjoy.

Thank you I’ll take a look at the honey options and maybe go mid-price or better

 

[Baldylocks Brewery]

Generally the best honey you can get - cheaper probs isn't 100% pure ( a good guideline is to check for source on the label, if it states a blend of non-EU and EU honeys, that usually means China). Not to say cheaper isn't bad, as above mix it in with fruit for a melomel .

A general recipe is something like 4-5 340g jars - mix up with bottled water to 4.5l (inc cup of black tea), add nutrient - shake, take a breather - shake some more. Add yeast, you can use baker's, wine is probably better. Then just leave - when you do bottle, age helps a lot - I've got one bottle of Aldi's lemon blossom that's 14mths old left, I'm saving that one :)

Personally (just me), I wouldn't boil.

Hmm lemon blossom sounds good, and thanks for the process description,what does the black tea offer?

 

[Anglezarke]

Tannin probably.

 

[klaus]

Re. Preservatives
Honey for sale should not have any preservatives added, if it has it's not honey. And there are also of course all sorts of tricks to persuade us to pay a lot more than it's worth.
Honey got it's own preserving properties - very rarely have I seen honey with mould on.
My father was a beekeeper and we always had honey on the table - it would just be filtered and stored cool and dry.

 

[user 39926]

Hmm lemon blossom sounds good, and thanks for the process description,what does the black tea offer?

Yep as said tannin - mead isn't too hard to make, the difficult bit is the wait for conditioning

 

[Baldylocks Brewery]

I usually use cheap honey to make meads while I am working on a recipe (until I get the recipe right then I splash out for the good stuff). It won't be 100% honey if it's that cheap and it doesn't get the best result but if you are careful you can make a decent fruited (melomel) or spiced (metheglin) mead (or other meads with additional ingredients). I wouldn't go for a traditional mead where the whole character is based on the honey though, if you want to do that, go for a good one. I also wouldn't boil as the little aroma a cheap honey has will be evaporated by even a quick boil.

The key is the yeast and fermentation. Don't use normal beer yeast, I have never had any luck as those yeasts don't like the lack of nutrients (particularly US04 which throws so much sulphur that the whole house stinks!). The best I have found is Mangrove Jack's M05 which is pretty good for all types of mead. Use Yeast nutrient every other day and de-gas on alternate days following a good staggered nutrient program. The homebrewers association has a good article: Improve Your Mead with Staggered Nutrient Additions.

I have also used wine yeast to some success but try to get the mangrove jack if you can. Lalvin D47 was the best wine yeast I used and lalvin k1-v1116 and Lalvin EC-1118 Champagne Yeast if you can't find anything else. Of course, all yeast will process the sugar so "will work" but I have really struggled with anything else (but maybe that's just me). As a last resort US05 (NOT US04!) has worked on a lower alcohol mead, but it does struggle. I have tried Belgium yeasts as well but they seem to produce a lot of off aromas and heavier alcohols.

Making mead is great as it is so quick on brew day but it does need more attention during the fermentation.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Thank you Jan, I think the MJ M05 sounds like the way to go and US05 defo one to avoid. I’ll be sure to research the fermentation stage care further via the link as it sounds like the opposite of the usual beer routine and is the key to a good result.
I hadn’t considered additional flavour additions but will have to give that some thought.

 

[Baldylocks Brewery]

Yep as said tannin - mead isn't too hard to make, the difficult bit is the wait for conditioning

Ok so I’m not the most patient brewer with experimental brews and will need to have an early try to see how it’s going. I can leave 5 bottles to condition but how long should I leave it before cracking the first bottle?

 

[user 39926]

It's drinkable on the off - you'll get some improvement probably 3-6 mths in.

If you can put a couple of bottles away and forget them - it'll be worth it. The stuff that I was on about earlier - up a to year, there was a very slight bitter aftertaste and some alcohol kick, had a bottle (leaving just the last one) recently at over 12mths and that had gone - a lot smoother and more blended.

 

[Jan.]

Thank you Jan, I think the MJ M05 sounds like the way to go and US05 defo one to avoid. I’ll be sure to research the fermentation stage care further via the link as it sounds like the opposite of the usual beer routine and is the key to a good result.
I hadn’t considered additional flavour additions but will have to give that some thought.

Yeah, it took all of my mental strength the first time. With beer, once you pitch the yeast you stay away and don't fiddle with it. With mead after pitching, every other day you have to go in and stir it like a mad man. I'm always so scared of oxygenation and wild yeast but it seems a very sturdy drink.

 

[TheBigWoo]

I recently found a five year old bottle of mead in my garage and was pleasantly surprised when I opened it. I don't remember it being that good when I made it, so I hadn't made any since.
Since then I've made two batches, both 2 gallon, one an Orange Mead and the other a Blackberry spiced Melomel.
The Blackberry one has fermented out (OG 1105 FG 995) giving a roughly 14-14.5% ABV. The Orange Mead seemed to be going great guns in the fermenter and bubbled away for 3 - 4 weeks but it seems to have stopped at 1050 (from OG 1100). Making it very sweet and only about 6.5% ABV. I've racked it now and it's crystal clear.
I used D47 for the orange one and MA33 for the blackberry. Should I try and restart the orange with some EC-1118?

 

[Jan.]

Adding additional yeast to try and restart a stuck fermentation rarely works. Remember you are pitching the yeast into an environment with no oxygen, little nutrient content, a lower PH and alcohol. All of which isn't ideal for yeast health. If you want to add yeast get it started, start the yeast in a low gravity (1.030 ish) beer (or mead, but beer has more nutrients) and wait until high krausen. Once it is really fermenting, pitch it all into your mean. As it is highly active it will have the best chance.

3-4 weeks isn't very long for a high-gravity mead though. If you are only judging the fermentation by the bubbling of the airlock it might not be stuck at all and the air may be escaping. I am very vocally against airlocks and don't use them for this reason. Destroy the airlocks!! ;-)

It's not unusual to still be fermenting after a month (or longer) but really slowly. Measure the density once a week for the next few weeks to see if it is really stuck or just slow. Also adding nutrients may help it along.

 

[obscure]

Re. Preservatives
Honey for sale should not have any preservatives added, if it has it's not honey. And there are also of course all sorts of tricks to persuade us to pay a lot more than it's worth.
Honey got it's own preserving properties - very rarely have I seen honey with mould on.
My father was a beekeeper and we always had honey on the table - it would just be filtered and stored cool and dry.

The key thing is the water content, if its too high then infection can set in (my parents keep bees as well), and one of the first things to test after you have extracted honey is the sugar/water levels).

That being said for me it can be rather lucky if it does have too high a water content, as if it’s going to end up fermenting anyway well might as well add even more water a little yeast and let it ferment out. But any honey that is fit for sale should pretty much keep indefinitely and has no need for preservatives.

 

[TheBigWoo]

Adding additional yeast to try and restart a stuck fermentation rarely works. Remember you are pitching the yeast into an environment with no oxygen, little nutrient content, a lower PH and alcohol. All of which isn't ideal for yeast health. If you want to add yeast get it started, start the yeast in a low gravity (1.030 ish) beer (or mead, but beer has more nutrients) and wait until high krausen. Once it is really fermenting, pitch it all into your mean. As it is highly active it will have the best chance.

3-4 weeks isn't very long for a high-gravity mead though. If you are only judging the fermentation by the bubbling of the airlock it might not be stuck at all and the air may be escaping. I am very vocally against airlocks and don't use them for this reason. Destroy the airlocks!! ;-)

It's not unusual to still be fermenting after a month (or longer) but really slowly. Measure the density once a week for the next few weeks to see if it is really stuck or just slow. Also adding nutrients may help it along.

It's been at 1050 for about 4 weeks now and has totally cleared. I'd be really happy with it if it wasn't just as sweet. I'd like to try and get it down to 1020 or below, if possible. I'll try adding nutrients first, then I'll give low gravity beer a try. Never had a stuck fermentation before and I make about 25 gallons of country wines every year. Mead is turning out to be a bit more complicated, I'll use more nutrient initially next time.

 

[Anglezarke]

So after I visited Lidl today I find honey is now £1.35 a jar! The title of this thread is therefore somewhat misleading! Apologies if I mislead anyone by advising boiling honey to remove any preservatives. I must have had a senior moment and got my recipes confused! Still it remains far cheaper than the most basic supermarket plonk, and produces a light, dry, refreshing white wine which I shall be enjoying with my summer salads.

 

[Jan.]

It's been at 1050 for about 4 weeks now and has totally cleared. I'd be really happy with it if it wasn't just as sweet. I'd like to try and get it down to 1020 or below, if possible. I'll try adding nutrients first, then I'll give low gravity beer a try. Never had a stuck fermentation before and I make about 25 gallons of country wines every year. Mead is turning out to be a bit more complicated, I'll use more nutrient initially next time.

Ah, ok, if the gravity hasn't changed in 4 weeks it's definitely stuck. Nutrients and a bit of a stir might help a little. Stirring will get rid of some of the CO2 as well as re-raise the yeast that has settled (although stirring is only normally done when there is active fermentation). If it doesn't restart you will have to add yeast (as mentioned before, do a mini fermentation in a jar and when it is really fermenting, pitch it into your batch of mead).

If you were planning on adding fruit, you could add it now with extra nutrients and/or yeast. The additional sugar may wake the yeast up that has already flocculated and may get it going again.

Other than that i'm afraid I'm out of suggestions. If you decide to bottle it at 1.050, make sure it is stable (heat pasteurisation or sulphites) to make sure you don't get any bottle bombs as yeast can be unpredictable and may decide to start again on a sunny day. ...speaking of which, what temp are you storing the mead at? Any chance you can raise the temperature a little to encourage it?