Hi all.
Since I've been helped out by quite a few people on this forum, I thought I'd share a Mead recipe with you. It was created after reading many different recipes and is a combination of all of the ingredients that I thought sounded nice in the various different recipes. I did 5L of this last year and it is probably the best brew I've come up with - it keeps very well, the taste & colour are amazing, its fairly strong at *around* 12% and it doesn't make you feel rotten in the morning like TC's do.
Most people think of Mead and assume that they should expect it to be ready in a few years time, but if you start this in the next couple of weeks, it will be more than drinkable for Christmas. According to some fairly vague notes, I started this early November last year and had the first glass on Christmas eve. I found 2 bottles of it hidden away in April and whilst it was ever so slightly better than it was in December / January, itâs really nothing to worry about.
The below instructions make 5L but if you're buying things like the spices and not using existing stock, it shouldn't cost that much more to bump it up to 10L - you'll regret not making more once you've tasted it.
Ingredients:
4 lemons
500ML strong tea (I can't remember exactly what tea was used, but it won't have been anything that fancy)
2 tsp cinnamon (Ground)
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp grated ginger
2.1KG honey (The consensus is that clover honey is the best for mead)
Champagne yeast
1 tsp Acid blend (I had this left over from another brew - itâs basically a mixture of citric, tartaric and malic acid in one pot)
2 tsp yeast nutrient
Instructions:
0: sterilize everything.
1: make a yeast starter.
Find a cup, put some warm water in it and add some of the honey, cover and cool to 37°C. Add the yeast, weight for 5/10 minutes and give it a stir. Leave in a warm place for a while until it starts working - I usually forget about it for an hour or so whilst I'm prepping the rest of the brew.
2: Boil 5L of water, weight for a bit and turn the heat off.
3: poor this into your FV, add the honey and start stirring it - it needs to dissolve otherwise it just sticks to the bottom.
4: slice the lemons and add them along with everything else except the yeast to the FV.
5: Leave it for a while - when you touch the FV it shouldn't feel warm or cold.
6: Stir the starter mixture, add it to the FV and put the lid on.
7: After an hour or so remove the lemons.
Fermentation starts very quickly and is very violent - I did this in a 5 gal bucket so those of you who are using 5L FVâs might want to be a bit careful.
Leave for 5 days and taste; if you find itâs too sweet then leave it for another 2 and taste again. I found that after a week it was just right; the taste difference between a 5 day ferment and a week is very noticeable.
When you're happy with the taste, strain this into bottles. There will be various bits and bobs floating around and straining it at this stage means you can drink it as soon as you open the bottles later on.
I left the bottles in a cold place for just over a month and opened the first one on Christmas eve. Seasoned brewers will probably know what I mean when I say that the kitchen needed a bit of a clean afterwards - in other words, this stuff goes every ware, so make sure you open it over a sink with a glass handy.
There you have it, an amazing brew that isn't that hard to make. Having never tasted mead before I can't honestly say that it tasted how mead should, but as I said above, itâs a great Christmas drink - the smell is just amazing and I highly suggest that everyone tries 5L of it at least.
NB: I used lots of different recipes for this Mead so if you think I've used one of yours let me know and I'll edit the post to include some credit.
Cheers,
Ben.
Since I've been helped out by quite a few people on this forum, I thought I'd share a Mead recipe with you. It was created after reading many different recipes and is a combination of all of the ingredients that I thought sounded nice in the various different recipes. I did 5L of this last year and it is probably the best brew I've come up with - it keeps very well, the taste & colour are amazing, its fairly strong at *around* 12% and it doesn't make you feel rotten in the morning like TC's do.
Most people think of Mead and assume that they should expect it to be ready in a few years time, but if you start this in the next couple of weeks, it will be more than drinkable for Christmas. According to some fairly vague notes, I started this early November last year and had the first glass on Christmas eve. I found 2 bottles of it hidden away in April and whilst it was ever so slightly better than it was in December / January, itâs really nothing to worry about.
The below instructions make 5L but if you're buying things like the spices and not using existing stock, it shouldn't cost that much more to bump it up to 10L - you'll regret not making more once you've tasted it.
Ingredients:
4 lemons
500ML strong tea (I can't remember exactly what tea was used, but it won't have been anything that fancy)
2 tsp cinnamon (Ground)
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp grated ginger
2.1KG honey (The consensus is that clover honey is the best for mead)
Champagne yeast
1 tsp Acid blend (I had this left over from another brew - itâs basically a mixture of citric, tartaric and malic acid in one pot)
2 tsp yeast nutrient
Instructions:
0: sterilize everything.
1: make a yeast starter.
Find a cup, put some warm water in it and add some of the honey, cover and cool to 37°C. Add the yeast, weight for 5/10 minutes and give it a stir. Leave in a warm place for a while until it starts working - I usually forget about it for an hour or so whilst I'm prepping the rest of the brew.
2: Boil 5L of water, weight for a bit and turn the heat off.
3: poor this into your FV, add the honey and start stirring it - it needs to dissolve otherwise it just sticks to the bottom.
4: slice the lemons and add them along with everything else except the yeast to the FV.
5: Leave it for a while - when you touch the FV it shouldn't feel warm or cold.
6: Stir the starter mixture, add it to the FV and put the lid on.
7: After an hour or so remove the lemons.
Fermentation starts very quickly and is very violent - I did this in a 5 gal bucket so those of you who are using 5L FVâs might want to be a bit careful.
Leave for 5 days and taste; if you find itâs too sweet then leave it for another 2 and taste again. I found that after a week it was just right; the taste difference between a 5 day ferment and a week is very noticeable.
When you're happy with the taste, strain this into bottles. There will be various bits and bobs floating around and straining it at this stage means you can drink it as soon as you open the bottles later on.
I left the bottles in a cold place for just over a month and opened the first one on Christmas eve. Seasoned brewers will probably know what I mean when I say that the kitchen needed a bit of a clean afterwards - in other words, this stuff goes every ware, so make sure you open it over a sink with a glass handy.
There you have it, an amazing brew that isn't that hard to make. Having never tasted mead before I can't honestly say that it tasted how mead should, but as I said above, itâs a great Christmas drink - the smell is just amazing and I highly suggest that everyone tries 5L of it at least.
NB: I used lots of different recipes for this Mead so if you think I've used one of yours let me know and I'll edit the post to include some credit.
Cheers,
Ben.
