Hello everyone,

I was wondering whether anybody here has much experience with Meade or Braggot and what they use to shape its flavour. I recently started fermenting my first Meade (just in a one gallon carboy.) I used about 3.3 pounds of Clover Honey, lemon juice for citrus acid (from one lemon), about half an ounce of bittering hops instead of tanic acid, white wine yeast and just normal yeast nutrients. Its fermenting away, not too quickly. I was wondering whether anybody had any tips to improve on my next recipe? Are campdon tablets really necessary, as I was hopeing to keep it as natural as possible?

Cheers,

Joseph

Hey Joe,

The single best bit of advice I can give to you is to wait AS LONG AS YOU CAN before you drink your mead! I heard this time and again when I first started making mead. I really didn't take it to heart, and drank my mead VERY young. I sacked a couple bottles away and forgot about them, but I didn't really expect much, if any, difference between the young and aged mead. I can say that I was very wrong. The difference is like night and day. If I were to make a mead today, I would bulk age it in a carboy for about two years before I bottled it, and let it go another two years in the bottle before drinking it. I know this seems like forever, but believe me, its very much worth the wait.
I've never used campden tablets in my mead. Honey is a natural antiseptic, and I've never had any problems with infection when making mead. Obviously, keep everthing sanitized, just as you would for beer, and you'll be fine.

Some of my best batches were those that I messed with the least. My very favorite went something like this:

16 or 17 pounds unpasteurized Wildflower honey
4.5 or 5 gallons filtered water
1 cup strong tea
yeast nutrient (a little more than what the bottle called for, but I can't remember how much)
1 package of Lalvin K1V Yeast

I added it all to a 6.5 gallon bucket (no boiling) and stirred it vigorously. I covered the bucket with a clean towel. Ever couple of hours, I'd give the bucket a good stir (sanitizing the stirrer, of course!) and replace the towel. I did this for about 36 hours or so, until I started to see vigorous fermentation. I gave it one more good stir, and put it in the carboy. I let it ferment out, and racked to secondary. I let it sit in secondary for about 6 weeks, and racked to tertiary. After that, I racked it off of the sediment after a couple months. I let it sit for about a year, and then bottled it. Another year in the bottle, and it was fantastic!

Good luck with your mead making, and keep us posted!

Cheers,
Dave

Thanx for the reply, I feel a bit more confident with what I'm doing now. I racked it to the secondary a few days ago and allready it has built up a fair bit of sediment at the bottom again. When I finally bottle it I think I'll put a little bit in a small bottle to try after 6 months, but most of it I'll put into wine bottles and leave for at least a year. I'm fairly well stocked with beer so it shouldn't be too much of a temptation to drink it too soon I hope

OK Joe, this post has put me back into Mead Mode.
I picked up 24 pounds of honey today, and I'll be recipe formulating soon!
Maybe this time I'll try a Braggot...

Cheers
Dave

I was thinking of doing a Braggot next, or a Barley Wine with a lot of honey. How long do you think they might take to mature comparative to actual Meade? I did a beer a while ago that was about 3.3 pounds of liquid malt extract, 2 pounds of dry wheat extract, a pound of honey and half an once of Pride of Ringwood Hops for about 5 Gallons (these are actually approximate guesses because I'm used to thinking in Kilograms and Litres.) It matured quite quickly but I think that was due to the wheat extract. I did a Barley Wine with a little bit of honey and about 9 months on it's tasting pretty good. Two friends of mine did a Duvel recipe but then added a lot of eucalyptus honey (which in Australia we're allways told not to do because of its overpowering flavour.) In two months that beer tasted quite good and very unique (unless you're familiar with eucalyptus its pretty hard flavour to imagine.) I'm excited enough now to definitely put a brew on this week, I also found a store that does a Kilogram of Clover Honey for $6.00 AU, which is pretty cheap for here.