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Author Topic: Mead Recipes  (Read 1947 times)

Offline njfl

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Mead Recipes
« on: December 29, 2013, 12:42:41 pm »
Does anyone have a good mead recipe they would like to share?  I'm going to give mead-making a shot for the first time this winter.

Offline tefer2

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Re: Mead Recipes
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2013, 02:13:12 pm »
A good easy recipe is Joe's ancient orange. Just google it up.
It finishes sweet!

Offline Vance G

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Re: Mead Recipes
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2013, 03:12:34 pm »
I wish I knew what your preference is for perceived sweetness.  At any rate, First thing get a hydrometer.  They cost seven bucks so be a big spender.   Additionally get a 7.9 gallon brew bucket with an air lock. and an autosyphon and five feet of tubing.  You are still under $40.  

4 gallons of apple juice containing no additives for preservation.  Vitamin C added is OK.
12 pounds honey, the best!  Yours.
2 PKG 71B-1122 yeast
a pound of raisins.  preferably not golden one
2oz pkg yeast nutrient
20z pkg yeast energizer

warm 3 1/2 gallons apple juice to 100 degrees. and pour in washed and cleaned brew bucket.
mix in honey until fully dissolved.  I pour boiling hot water in honey container until they are half full and shake vigorously to incorporate the honey in the water and add oxygen to the mix which now is called a MUST.

Add that water and honey to the brew bucket to five gallon level.  a little more is no problem if you have used too much water to clean the containers.   Your mixture should now be around 100 degrees.  If hotter let it cool to that.  Absolutely no need to boil the honey or the  applejuice.   Add the yeast to the luke warm mixture.  If you feel the need to be sporty, first rehydrate the yeast per package instruction, add a tablespoon of the yeast energizer and nutrient.

Take a clean and freshly washed whisk or egg beater and give the must what Paddy gave the drum to incorporate lots of oxygen.  A sanitized air stone tubing and aquarium air pump will do the same thing.

Take a reading with that new hydrometer using the scale that equates to alcohol potential.  My guess is your Must will read around 1.125.  I didn't look it up that is a guess.  ON line search for fermentation calculators, they are there.  Loosely cover your science project in a dark spot that has a stable temperature, hopefully not much over 70 or under 65.  

next day it should be showing signs of fermentation and bubbles rising.  Energetically areate it again and add another tsp each of your nutrient and energizer.  Take another hydrometer reading and record it.  Sorry to tell you but there is math!  Your hydrometer reading will be going down.  All this beating and feeding the must needs to take place before the yeast has consumed half the sugars in the cider and honey.  use the first figure you took and call it the Original Gravity.   As the sugars are consumed, the hydrometer reading will drop to 1 and below.  just figure out a third of .125  and you will get .42 and change.  So when you reach roughly 1.085, you will want to seal up your brew bucket with the air lock and lid tightly sealed so no more Oxygen gets in.  This will take about three days in my experience but faster if fermented warmer and slower if cooler.

After ten days pop the lid and take another hydrometer reading.  It will be around 1.020.  Now carefully siphon the liquid off the two inches of crusties in the bottom of the bucket.  Your receiving container can be any cleam non reactive container.  Siphon outlet should be at the bottom so you don't mix in any oxygen.  02 Is now the enemy and will spoil the brew.  If you got flush and bought a five gallon carboy, bung and airlock that should be where you siphon to.  Try not to suck up any of the gunk on the bottom, the LEE's.  You will lose so liquid and may not have enough to fill that carboy.  Fill it to the top with the reserved apple juice.  Keep it in the airlocked carboy or airlocked five gallon jugs for that matter, for at least a month.  When you want to call it done, carefully siphon the mead off the lees again and bottle air tight in cool dark storage.  It will be better in a year if it lasts.  

If you have 12 pounds of melter honey and want to use it, the carmelized sugars are not fermentable and you will end up with a sweeter mead.  With this recipe and the melter honey, use KIV-1116 yeast and let age longer for best taste.  If you want, use melter honey or any dark unmarketable honey, use water instead of apple juice and plan on aging for a year before drinking.  It will only get better between years one and five.  


If you have it, you can substitute blackened melter honey.  The burned taste goes away but this is already a fairly sweet mead and you need to use a different yeast that  will  convert more of the sugars to alcohol.  I would recommend KIV-1116.  It will go dry but still taste fairly sweet.

 

Offline njfl

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Re: Mead Recipes
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2013, 05:19:38 pm »
Thanks tefer2, I'll look that up.

Vance, that is a recipe and a half!  Thanks for the detail.  I never thought of using apple juice as a base.  I'm going to have to try this out.

Offline Hops Brewster

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Re: Mead Recipes
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2015, 11:16:56 pm »
Winter is coming.

I can't say I hate the government, but I am proudly distrustful of them.