Mmmmm..... mead

[Barry Digman]

So I'm walking down the street in Key West with my son and he spots a wine shop pedalling stuff from their vineyard. I'm telling him we can't go in cuz it's an offically sanctioned Boy Scout trip, and he's telling me we have to because it's part of his culinary arts education. Scholarship won out, he went in and did some tasting. Then the owner plunks a bottle of mead on the counter and I had to try it. I'd never had mead, and it was really tasty. And pricey, but that's just Key West. I had two bottles shipped home where I can really check it out.
Now my question is whether there are "vintages" and vineyards that stand out above others in the same way as fine wines.

[The Honey House]

Interesting!
Wonder if mead should be bottled like wine -with the year that the grapes were picked, but only with the year that the honey was robbed. smile.gif

[Ben Brewcat]

Some meaderies have a great and well-earned reputation for sure. The trouble is that mead just isn't to some people's taste, and some poeple want it to taste sweet like honey. So you get varying reports. It's like the microbrew vs. McBeer argument: neither one's intrinsically superior, just a matter or preference (I might have communicated my bias there nonetheless :D ).

The trouble with the labeling issue is that the "terroir" is different with mead than with wine. Honey's more variable seasonally than the grapes next to them, unless you're doing varietal honeys (and varietal meads with them). I think the year's more valuable for the age of the mead than for that year's harvest's characteristics, though they're certainly important to the mead. And for vineyards (meaderies), most of them buy honey on the open market so it could've come from anywhere. One of my local meaderies is his own beekeeper, so I naturally have a preference (plus he's just a good guy, and helped get me into beekeeping too).

Welcome to mead Coyote! You've got a sharp-eyed Scout there... the meadmaking Scout will of course have to make mead regularly. With the depradations of friends and relatives on the supply, and mead's long lead time, it really pays to... bee prepared ;) !

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I have never had a store bought mead that could hold a candle to the home brewed. Then again, I have had home brew that was completely undrinkable too.

So, how do you get a merit badge in mead brewing?

[Barry Digman]

Hmmm. Sounds like I may have to try a batch after I sample the store bought stuff.

Bullseye, there's no merit badge for mead brewing, and even sadder is that they eliminated the badge for beekeeping years ago.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I guess marksmanship is out too?

[nursebee]

Send me enough good mead and I will get my wife to make a merit badge.

CLosest thing is likely a ribbon from winning a mead comp.

[ScottS]

I think vintages are totally appropriate for mead. Assuming of course that you either produce your own honey or get it from the same place every year. The feds don't agree though, you aren't allowed to put a vintage on mead bottles. That's reserved for grapes. There has been a little bit of agitation in the industry to get that rule changed, but thus far nothing has happened.

Commerical mead varies HUGELY in quality. I try every single mead I can get my hands on everywhere I go. I'd say 50% are terrible, 30% are just bad, 10% are ok, and 10% are good. If you found a good one, you got lucky. I get annoyed at how many people are turned off to mead because most widely available commerical offerings suck.

[Barry Digman]

I guess marksmanship is out too?We still have rifle shooting, shotgun shooting, and archery merit badges. And they're always looking for people willing to teach. ;)

[Barry Digman]

If you found a good one, you got lucky.Well, I won't know whether it's a good one until I have more experience, but it was good enough to interest me. If the homemade meads are as much better as claimed then I'm looking forward to trying those. FWIW, the little place I was in gets $20 a bottle for theirs, in case anyone has something they're thinking about marketing.

[MichaelW]

The only mead I've had seemed really good. Its inspired me to make some this year.
It was from Volcano Winery. I bought a bottle in Kona, Hawaii. made with Macadamia Nut Honey.
http://www.volcanowinery.com/cgi-bin/SoftCart.100.exe/scstore/p-10002.html?E+scstore
I thought it was kind of dry and potent. I couldn't drink alot of it though because it settled heavy on my stomach. Very nice for an after dinner drink.
If your in one of the lucky states you can order some.
http://www.volcanowinery.com/arcdir/shipping_wine.php3

[ScottS]

Please don't consider this a slam on your tastes, that is not my intent.

I got a very different impression from Volcano Winery mead. It was sweet, thin, and boring. I put it firmly in the 30% of meads that are mediocre. I didn't buy a second bottle.

[MichaelW]

well like I said its the only one I've tried.
Maybe my taste in mead is like my taste in sex
even when its bad its good.
It didn't seem sweet, maybe it was an old bottle I tried. anyway don't order any on my suggestions.

[kenpkr]

I'd like to try to make a small batch (~1 gal) of mead with my honey this year. I've never tried mead but would like to. I used to homebrew beer so I have most of the equip. needed. Can someone post a small, relatively easy recipe so that I can start planning? Send me a private msg with the recipe if you want to. Thanks!

[Ben Brewcat]

Not much planning to do... sanitation is the same, yeast management, etc. The ferment'll take longer.

Here's a nuclear all-purpose bedtime story one gallon mead.
Three lbs honey
1 packet Lalvin D-47 dry wine yeast
yeast nutrient (as directed on package, usu. @ 1/2 tsp per gal)

Rehydrate yeast in warm water 10 mins. Dissolve honey in warm water; add to sanitized fermenter. Affix airlock. Wait one year. Enjoy! Actually you'll probably want to rack it after the primary ferment slows... have you read the Intro (http://www.bee-l.com/bulletinboard/meadintro.htm)?
Many of the basics are covered there.

[BWrangler]

Hi Guys,

I've just racked my first batch after the primary fermentation. It was composed of about the same stuff as brewcat mentioned above. And it tasted good, even after only three weeks. I'm impressed with homebrewed mead so far.

And I wanted to just test a 1 gallon batch. But from what I now know, I'm glad I did 5 gallons instead as it takes lots of time.

Regards
Dennis

[Ben Brewcat]

Amen to that, brother. By the time most first-meads are hitting their stride they're half gone it seems. For a one-gallon batch that means you only have a couple bottles left and don't want to share ;)

[BWrangler]

Hi Guys,

Recently, I've been quite interesting in bottling so I could free up my single carboy and try a few different ideas. But today I've decided those bottles are too small. I think that instead of putting the money in bottles, I will put it in some additional carboys instead. I'm using the better bottles.

Regards
Dennis

[Branman]

Man, I'm so tempted to try my hand at this. The only mead I've tasted is BillyBob's and my god it was delicious. I tried some malomel from a guy in young harris and that was amazing too...

I just have so little room as it is, and I think my gf would kill me if I brought home another hobby smile.gif

[Ray Keller]

<I just have so little room as it is, and I think my gf would kill me if I brought home another hobby>
This hobby is just to good to pass up,My advice Make room(I am). After they try your mead they will see the light, if not, drink fast,feel no pain,and die with a big happy smile on your face. good luck.

[Ben Brewcat]

Yeah, a good mead wins over SWMBO like nothing else. Well generally, mine is an abberation in that regard, but since she gets cranky if the homebrewed beer supply runs out she's a keeper anyway. For one of our big parties early on I was working on beers to have on tap and I usually throw a sop to the McBeer crowd with a cream ale, British mild or maybe light honey lager. Her feedback? "I think it should be your dry stout for the sesion beer". That's my girl!

Pyments and bramble melomels (rasp. especially) are great intros for the skeptical. ScottS and I share a brewer's preference for corny kegs for bulk-aging mead; less horizontal space and can be banged around safely. Anyone else have the delightful experience of tapping a full carboy against a toilet/other carboy/whatever and having 5 gals of glass-strewn beverage explode across your floor and legs? Fortunately that was in the dim, single past... would've been very taxing on the hobby's relationship with SWMBO smile.gif

[BWrangler]

Hi Guys,

>having 5 gals of glass-strewn beverage explode across your floor ....

That's why I'm using the better bottles. Are there some better options?

Regards
Dennis

[Ben Brewcat]

I didn't realize you meant the Better Bottles plastic carboys. How do you like them? I've read all the claims, but I've been glassed out for years. If their claims of oxygen impermeability are accurate, they should be superior to glass (for weight and for safety). The only other concern with plastic is that it can get scratches over time with carboy brush cleaning; these scratches will protect bugs from your sanitizing regimen which can then infect your batches. Be sure to cleanse with PBW or bleach or something similar rather then anything that'll scratch the plastic. Oh, one more thing: if it has the racking port dealie, REMOVE and dissasemble it to sanitize. The crevice where the gasket seals the fitting thru the hole in the plastic can hide bad guys too.

Those caveats addressed, Better Bottles should be the bomb if they're all they're cracked up to be. It's all about the toys...

[BULLSEYE BILL]

>I just have so little room as it is, and I think my gf would kill me if I brought home another hobby

Thank god I don't have a gf! I live in a shoebox and my bedroom has six carboys and two fermenters in it as well as a stack of boxes with four one gallon jugs each.

One gallon jugs don't really go very far.

The recycled water bottles (12 oz) are real handy for parties, resealable, and fit in the fridg.

[Gregory_Naff]

The secret is to get your wife to start brewing the mead. She now brews the mead, I brew the beer, If the carboys sitting aournd the house are hers, she doesn't complain. ;)

Annette has won the Arizona mead competition for the last three years.

(http://www.brewarizona.org)

We started kegging the mead because we got tired of storing bottles and we were having problems with the corks. This means it's on tap (WOO HOO). The only problem is you must push with nitrogen or it carbonates relatively quickly.

[Anthony]

"Now my question is whether there are "vintages"...

No. A Wines "Vintage" is the harvest year of the grape, as honey is not a crop that is planted and harvested but once a year there is no vintage to speak of.

"and vineyards that stand out above others in the same way as fine wines."

Vineyards is a again a term that applies only to wine. Grapes come from the vine yard (vineyard) where they where grown. The reason different vineyards are better then others is because of the composition of the soil, the climate and any number of other factors.

Honey can be made anywhere there's a plant that blossoms and a few places with out flowers at all, black forest honey where the bee's feed on the sap of trees infected with boring insects and make honey from that.

I put the month and year mead was bottled on the lable. Mead like any other wine can get better with age, and like wine can spoil if not cared for.

Anthony

[JohnBeeMan]

>>>I put the month and year mead was bottled on the lable.

I have only done 3 batches so far but have been using the 'born on' month and year for when the batch was started. This was because I ended up bottling two different carboys on the same date. And surprisingly the youngest taste the best.

[Anthony]

I would believe the date it was started would be the conception date, the date the must was made, it isn't mead until it has fermented. Like with baby's, we don't think of the date of conception as the born on date, born on is the date it leaves the carboy... I mean woom.

Anthony

[MichaelW]

Any one around the Knoxville area of TN can try mead from Anderson County's first winery. Shady Grove Meadery is making sparkling meads in their basement and are working on expanding to a new facility, so some of their products may get out of east TN at some point. John Cosgrove gave a nice talk about mead at our bee meeting. They have it on tap at a few local bars too.

http://shadygrovemead.com/

[MichaelW]

Ah, now I see what mead is supposed to taste like. I went to the guys meadery posted above, had some samples and bought a bottle. It was really great. The only other mead I had the opportunity to try a while back in Hawaii was crap. I understand that now. The Volcano Winery stuff was very medicinal tasting, while Shady Grove's stuff was, just well, really good. It was neat to see his setup. Is anyone else doing this comercially, legally? Its looking like his best market will be in kegs putting it on tap at area bars. Theres a really strong "pub scene" in Knoxville.

[BULLSEYE BILL]

>Is anyone else doing this comercially, legally?

The cost of the BATF&E license makes it prohibitive for most people to produce and sell unless they have a very large opperation.

I give mine away to friends who are compelled to make a donation for the glassware. ;)

[ScottS]

I'm in the final stages of getting a commercial license. I've spent under $10k, and that includes a small building.

[MichaelW]

This guy is selling his for $20 a bottle in stores, $18 at his house. Its a bit steep for any more than a few bottles for me. But absolutely worth it if you are a $20 bottle of wine kind of person. I don't know what his tap prices are yet. He pointed out some of the BATF and state hoops. Percentage content labeling by weight of the original fruit ingridents are one obsurdity. A state deal requires him to use something like %70 local honey. I think that can be a good thing. He's still working on the business plan to expand, I think the basement operation is more of a trial run than significant profits, I don't know.

ScottS, $10k could be good or bad depending on your building size! I suspect its more on the bad side.

I like the donation idea.