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Yesterday we bottled our first batch of mead. My wife asked me to sniff the top of the carboy in fear that it might be vinegar. Ah, the thrill of victory. It is as good as any mead we purchased and it has a kick. Grinning ear to ear.
I am hopeful that we will harvest enough honey this fall to do it again.
Yield was just under 9 1.5 liter bottles.
Isn't it great hope you enjoy!
it sure is.
I am sure you will not be able to do this, but if you let it age for at least 1 year... you could have something really nice.
I only have a few months to go but it will be tough. I think the question of what am I going to do with all this honey has gone to, do we have enough for more mead? Just pulling the cap off the bottle brings a smile to my face. Such a wonderful aroma. I wasn't expecting to extract much this year but now I am hopeful.
Would you be willing to share your recipe? I've had Mead once and really wasn't impressed. I'd like to try making it myself.
If I remember right it was honey and water, the most basic mead. We used a champagne yeast with no added chemicals. No surfactants, no energizers or nutrients.
Basic Mead Recipe:
12 to 18 pounds of grade-A honey
4 1/2 gallons of tap or bottled water
8 grams (1/4 ounce) of freeze-dried wine, champagne, or dedicated mead yeast
We used 5 quarts of our fall honey and tap water (we have a carbon Aqua filter)
Yeast - Lalvin D-47 one packet but screw up and pitched the yeast into hot must and had to pitch again a couple of days later. Fermentation is very slow but could have been because of our goof.
I have to say if you can't make mead you should re-evaluate keeping bees. But I attribute our success to our chemical free hives. So good luck.
We got the instructions on line for basic mead if you can't find it I can try and look it up.
A rather brash statement...............Quote:
Originally Posted by Acebird
Ja, I don't know about that. I know some great barley or hop farmers who couldn't make a beer to save their lives. But I think that might have been Acebird's point: mead is beautifully simple as long as the basic tenets are followed (cleanliness, sanitation, good ingredients, healthy yeast).
What you have to learn to make mead is a spit in the ocean to what you have to learn to keep bees. It might be the same for a barley or hop farmer but I know hops grows like a weed.
You might prefer cyser. It is apple juice and honey.Quote:
Originally Posted by Belewsboy
I have some that is delicious.
:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Acebird
http://www.beesource.com/forums/show...essed-up-again
Our apple tree just dropped most of its apples because of the drought we are having. We have put in more apple trees and added plum, peach and cherry trees this year. It might be a start for some more mead experimentation.Quote:
Originally Posted by BeeCurious