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Would it be OK if some Mead recipes where posted here?
I have a recipe page where I post, I'll give credit...
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arent there different kinds of mead ??
Zeke
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Here's my 'Blackberry Mead' recipe that's pretty tasty:
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Yeast: Gervin Wine Yeast - Varietal E
Ingredients:
2 tsp Yeast Energizer (tot. for 7 gal)
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient per gallon
4 tsp Citric Acid (tot. for 7 gal)
Technique:
Made up a yeast starter by rehydrating yeast in 50 ml water with sugar sprinkled on and a pinch of yeast energizer. It started in about 15 minutes and then mixed this with almost a quart of weak must.
Used 22 lbs of fresh honey for a 7 gal must (3.14 lbs per gal).
Initial O.G.: 1.122
Racked onto 7 lbs of blackberries (thawed, smushed blackberries)
Racked off blackberries two months later.
Final O.G.: 1.008 or 15% alcohol by volume.
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A couple of side notes.
The Gervin Varietal E yeast is hard to find in the U.S. - it's an English yeast and could possibly be ordered over the internet. (If anyone finds out how to do this, would you please be so kind as to inform me?). I received my yeast directly from an English friend. Champagne yeast could possibly be substituted but your specific gravity readings would undoubtedly be different than what is sited above.
Also, don't be in a hurry to rack AND bottle. It will produce lees for months - multiple demijohn (carboy) rackings will be required.
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General mead making notes:
Yes, there are an endless ways to make mead. The mead I've described is technically called a Melomel (that is, a mead made with fruits). Mead making takes a long time - actually, it's the ageing to maturity that takes so long. That's probably one reason home brewing mead is not so popular today as home brewing beer or wine making. This particular recipe is "drinkable" after about six months but taste great after about two years. I'm now down to just four 1.5 liter bottles from '97.
Mead goes through three fermentation steps:
1) the initial, very fast fermentation which usually completes within one to three days (again, depending on what recipe you use). This is the stage that ferments out the 'low level' sugars.
2) the second fermentation (for mead) takes several weeks to months to complete. Depending on the recipe (i.e., how much honey was used, what yeast was used, etc.), this second fermentation can take six months to complete. In it, the mid-level sugars are fermented out and lees will be produced but not on the same scale as the initial fermentation.
3) the third fermentation is a very long and slow process in which the high level sugars are {finally} fermented. This is why it's advisable to let your must stay in the demijohn until this last fermentation has completed. (Otherwise the punt of your wine bottles will be cover with the smallest, "dust-like" lees, over time). Those very fine lees are the result of the high level sugars being fermented in the bottle. Of course, it would be best to let your mead spend five years in an oak barrel...but who can afford those? <g>
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That seems like a lot of work for just wine.
Has anyone out there run mead through a still? How are the results 
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Thanks Tex,
How'd you know my favorite wine was blackberry?
Tehe,
True. Right On Bro.
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BEEn Stung,
Not that much work; mostly "waiting" (and waiting and then waiting some more...). What little work there is, is right up front when you first mix up the must and that's only two or three hours worth.
Since distilling is against federal law all across the country, I rather doubt you'll get *anyone* to admit to that! 
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>by sultry wenchs who reply to untoward advances with a sharp backhand.
You have a frustrated imagination...
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Sounds like a description of the "great meadhalls" of Beowulf fame (AD 600s).
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You are right no beekeeper would make home brew. 
However you may have met someone, who you forgot the name of, that knows all about it.
Just one generation back "everybody" made home brew. At least out in the country they did. I think that is why the fruit jar was invented.
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I have never tried mead. Is it served hot. Like hot brandy or "GLUKWEIN"?
The perfect setting would be when ariving a the cabin after a cold day of deer hunting or ice fishing.
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>What is the appropriate setting for drinking mead? Are we supposed to wear a particular costume? I envision large rough-hewn wooden tables, torches lighting the great hall, wild game piled high, and mead served up in copper tankards by sultry wenchs who reply to untoward advances with a sharp backhand.
Been there, done that, It's called THE SOCIETY FOR CREATIVE ANACHRONISM, a non-profit educational group that recreates the midevil time period.
A good secondary setting is around the campfire where bards entertain with song and story.
Duke William V'tavia
KSCA, OL, etc.
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BEEn Stung,
In some cases, you don't even have to go one generation back! (...so I've been told).
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I've always kinda thought that mead should be served chilled (like a white wine). However I think in reality, in the epic poem of Danish warriors (Beowulf), I suspect it was just served "room temperature". The poem does describe some really mean drunks - even to the point of murders in meadhall brawls being quite common.
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I thought mead was served to newlyweds, which they would consume for one month to insure a male child. By this I would reason that the setting for drinking mead would be away from the big hall in a private chamber, lighted by pure beeswax candles, served in a goblet, ........
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You're refering to how the term, "honeymoon" was coined....hummm...a different kind of fight to the death...(and in some ways, much more costly!). :::grin:::
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>I thought mead was served to newlyweds, which they would consume for one month to insure a male child.
Correct, the drinking of honey wine/mead for a complete moon cycle = honeymoon
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>I've always kinda thought that mead should be served chilled (like a white wine). >However I think in reality, in the epic poem of Danish warriors (Beowulf), I suspect it was just served "room temperature".
Room temperature in Denmark is roughly 45 degrees. :^). Lived one year in Oslo, Norway where a dorm sized refrigerator was standard. After a few months I realized the main refrigerator was what we in the US refer to as a 'balcony'. Drinks were served room temperature because anything else would resemble a frozen concoction.
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I've always thought that mead tastes better chilled, although refrigerator temperatures are a bit too cold, as with good beer. Is that what they call cellar temperature?
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Rob Koss
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The mental image I always conger up for these meadhalls was a bunch of Vikings returning to their favorite meadhall after a long, hard day of raping, pillaging and plundering. And there in this long "great hall" is a roaring fire blazing away in the fireplace at one end of the building (while the other end of the building was nearing subzero temperatures). And then some Viking picks his nose or makes a snide remark about some other VikingÂ’s "wench" and before you know it, thereÂ’s a knife fight going on that wouldÂ’ve put Jim Bowie to shame. As cheers are raised and the mead is splashing around in various tankards, other Vikings are taking bets as to who will end up dead that particular night.
(yeahÂ…yeahÂ…. IÂ’ve know IÂ’ve got a warped mind!)
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Best I can determin from thes posts. Mead works the opposite on newleweds then on other people.
I will have to see how it works on my bride of 50+ years.
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