Anyway - it is absolutely stunning! I heartilly reccommend that you all try to make some! I for one shall be getting the recipie from my Antipodean Yorkshireman mate when I head down that way to visit in for Hogmanay
Mmmm Mead!
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Orkney_Rob
Mmmm Mead!
I was just through getting a whisky when I stumbled across a bottle of Mead that my good mate John made and presented me before moving to Australia about 18 months ago. He had told me to keep it to mature until January to let it mature (last January that was) - you know how it is though, handed a deeply suspect looking brew and told to keep it for a bit - winds up at the back of a cabinet forgotten....
Anyway - it is absolutely stunning! I heartilly reccommend that you all try to make some! I for one shall be getting the recipie from my Antipodean Yorkshireman mate when I head down that way to visit in for Hogmanay
Anyway - it is absolutely stunning! I heartilly reccommend that you all try to make some! I for one shall be getting the recipie from my Antipodean Yorkshireman mate when I head down that way to visit in for Hogmanay
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Orkney_Rob
I was on the blower to John a few days back and mentioned turbo cider - he thought it sounded a great concept, and then started pontificating on the concept of turbo mead..... If he as any success I shall let you know!
The mead I have is a wee bit cloudy, but absolutely stunning! I think it was 6 months old when I got it so it must be 2+ years old by now, just been sat in a wee sealed decanter for all that time!
The mead I have is a wee bit cloudy, but absolutely stunning! I think it was 6 months old when I got it so it must be 2+ years old by now, just been sat in a wee sealed decanter for all that time!
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wibble5
I've started up a gallon of Turbo Mead (the internet is a very dangerous thing 
). I kind of followed the recipe in the link but boiled the honey and water (with added spices including cloves and cinnamon stick) for about 45 mins and skimmed the scum off the top, and used wine yeast instead of bread yeast. It's bubbling away very nicely indeed, and OG was 1052, so it should be ace! I'll try to put it away and forget about it and hopefully it'll be good come Christmas... or the one after that if it takes that long to mature!
). I kind of followed the recipe in the link but boiled the honey and water (with added spices including cloves and cinnamon stick) for about 45 mins and skimmed the scum off the top, and used wine yeast instead of bread yeast. It's bubbling away very nicely indeed, and OG was 1052, so it should be ace! I'll try to put it away and forget about it and hopefully it'll be good come Christmas... or the one after that if it takes that long to mature!-
Chiltern Brewer
I had some attempts at mead back in the 90s - to cut down the maturation time I combined fruit juices (grape and orange) with a plain blended honey. Very easy to make - just dissolve the honey (~2-3lb) in some warm water and pour this with 2L of your chosen fruit juice into a demijohn, top up with water to 1 gallon and add your activated wine yeast. This gave some good results but as with most wines you still had to mature it for several months. Dangerously potable though as they didn't taste their strength!iowalad wrote:If you can develop a turbo mead we would probably give it a go!
I always intend to give a small batch of mead a try someday . . . .
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prodigal2
I've made this a few times and it is very good, although without sweetening dry as a fino(sherry), and unlike other meads is done and ready too drink in 3 monthsheeby wrote:here you go http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=27
from the winesathome forum
mark
And it does age in the bottle for a few months too. I used a fresh bread yeast.
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mashweasel
Mead doesn't take as near as long as people believe it does if its treated correctly. 2 months you can have a really good mead. Some are better with age (varietal honies) and others are better young (fresh fruit melomels). Ive had a ton of experience making meads and have won a bunch of awards for them. Let me know and I can help you guys out!
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mashweasel
Sure, its all about honey source and nutrients.
Expensive honey isn't necessarily good honey. Find a source and work with it.
As for nutrients, two products I swear by are Go-Ferm and Fermaid-K. Go-Ferm is used before fermentation to rehydrate yeast. Fermaid-K is a specially formulated yeast nutrient. I understand that most people don't have access to these as they are not widely available yet. Thats not a problem. The 'secret' is staggered nutrient additions...I call it the KOH+3+4+5 method. You make nutrient additions on +3 days, +4 days and +5 days from the start of fermentation. The KOH stands for potassium hydroxide. I use it for two reasons. Potassium (K) really makes the yeast healthy and the OH is basic so it raises the pH of the must. A lot of people have yeast problems b/c the pH drops so much during fermentation. This is especially helpful when doing fruit meads. Here is the procedure. For a mead starting at around 1.120 it will be ready to transfer to 2ndary in about 4 weeks. As soon as I transfer it, I let it sit 2 weeks and add some fining agents (your choice) then I rack it to a tertiary. Sit 2 weeks and then filter and keg/bottle.
Abbreviation: YN = Yeast nutrient; YE = yeast energizer
Note: I use 28g GoFerm to rehydrate my yeast, Fermaid K as my YN and pure DAP (Diammonium phospate) as my YE.
Day 1 - Start mead
Nutrients
4.5g YN
2g YE
- dissolve both in must before yeast addition
Yeast
2x Lalvin 71B (Narbonne) = 10g yeast
5g YE
* dissolve in 110F water
* add yeast once at 104F
* incubate 15-30 min and pitch
Day 2 and 3
- stir mead carefully, do it slowly b/c it will ‘volcano’ on you
- no additions
Day 4
Nutrients stir in
4.5g YN
2g YE
- dissolve nutrients into 15ml water before adding
OPTIONAL: 50ppm KOH (10ml of 2M solution)
Day 5 - 7
- stir mead
- careful, do it slowly b/c it will ‘volcano’ on you
- no additions
Day 8
Nutrients - stir in
4.5g YN
2g YE
- dissolve nutrients into 15ml water before adding
OPTIONAL: 50ppm KOH (10ml of 2M solution)Nutrients
Day 9 - 12
- stir mead
- careful, do it slowly b/c it will ‘volcano’ on you
- no additions
Day 13
Nutrients - stir in
4.5g YN
2g YE
- dissolve nutrients into 15ml water before adding
OPTIONAL: 50ppm KOH (10ml of 2M solution)Nutrients
Expensive honey isn't necessarily good honey. Find a source and work with it.
As for nutrients, two products I swear by are Go-Ferm and Fermaid-K. Go-Ferm is used before fermentation to rehydrate yeast. Fermaid-K is a specially formulated yeast nutrient. I understand that most people don't have access to these as they are not widely available yet. Thats not a problem. The 'secret' is staggered nutrient additions...I call it the KOH+3+4+5 method. You make nutrient additions on +3 days, +4 days and +5 days from the start of fermentation. The KOH stands for potassium hydroxide. I use it for two reasons. Potassium (K) really makes the yeast healthy and the OH is basic so it raises the pH of the must. A lot of people have yeast problems b/c the pH drops so much during fermentation. This is especially helpful when doing fruit meads. Here is the procedure. For a mead starting at around 1.120 it will be ready to transfer to 2ndary in about 4 weeks. As soon as I transfer it, I let it sit 2 weeks and add some fining agents (your choice) then I rack it to a tertiary. Sit 2 weeks and then filter and keg/bottle.
Abbreviation: YN = Yeast nutrient; YE = yeast energizer
Note: I use 28g GoFerm to rehydrate my yeast, Fermaid K as my YN and pure DAP (Diammonium phospate) as my YE.
Day 1 - Start mead
Nutrients
4.5g YN
2g YE
- dissolve both in must before yeast addition
Yeast
2x Lalvin 71B (Narbonne) = 10g yeast
5g YE
* dissolve in 110F water
* add yeast once at 104F
* incubate 15-30 min and pitch
Day 2 and 3
- stir mead carefully, do it slowly b/c it will ‘volcano’ on you
- no additions
Day 4
Nutrients stir in
4.5g YN
2g YE
- dissolve nutrients into 15ml water before adding
OPTIONAL: 50ppm KOH (10ml of 2M solution)
Day 5 - 7
- stir mead
- careful, do it slowly b/c it will ‘volcano’ on you
- no additions
Day 8
Nutrients - stir in
4.5g YN
2g YE
- dissolve nutrients into 15ml water before adding
OPTIONAL: 50ppm KOH (10ml of 2M solution)Nutrients
Day 9 - 12
- stir mead
- careful, do it slowly b/c it will ‘volcano’ on you
- no additions
Day 13
Nutrients - stir in
4.5g YN
2g YE
- dissolve nutrients into 15ml water before adding
OPTIONAL: 50ppm KOH (10ml of 2M solution)Nutrients
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prodigal2
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prodigal2
Its not as sweet as some honeys, there is a slight woodyness/nut flavour with a very slight bitter aftertaste. A very tasty honey that never lasts in our house(even when I'm not making mead), it has quite complex flavour, and for some it may not be to their taste. Worth trying if your a honey fiendmashweasel wrote:Ive used Macadamia nut but never used chestnut honey before. Whats it like??
