mead-request-at-talisman.com (subscribe, admin requests) mead@talisman.com (submissions to the digest ONLY) To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Mon, 28 Sep 92 10:06:51 MDT From: Robert Emery Subject: Quick Mead Recipe I don't know if this is the recipe you wanted Steve, but it looks so good that I decided to use it for my next batch. The _Cats Meow_ also has a couple of other Feinstein recipes, but they are for Framboise (a fruit flavored beer). I will probably modify the technique a bit and I'm not certain if the 1/4 cup of vodka would actually knock-out the little yeasty beasties, potassium sorbate looks like a better choice. Although, given the short fermentation schedule, a bit of added alchohol might be necessary. Basic Small Mead Author: Cher Feinstein (crf@pine.circa.ufl.edu) Digest: September 30, 1989, Issue #267 Ingredients: 2-3 cloves 2 sticks cinnamon 2 thin slices ginger 2-4 teaspoons orange peel 2 pounds honey yeast 1/4 cup vodka or grain alcohol Procedure: In a 1-gallon pot, simmer cloves (lightly cracked), cinnamon (broken), and ginger. Add orange peel. The amount of orange peel will vary depending on type of honey used. Use less orange peel with orange blossom honey, for example. Simmer. Add water to bring volume to 3 quarts. Return to simmer. Add honey, stirring constantly. Do not boil! Skim off any white scum. If scum is yellow, reduce heat. When no more scum forms, remove from heat, cover pot, and leave overnight. The next day, strain to remove as much spice particles as possible. Pitch yeast. Replace pot cover. Twelve hours later, rack mead to 1-gallon jug, leaving dregs of yeast. Top off jug, bringing to base of neck. Take a piece of clean paper towel, fold into quarters, and put over mouth of jug. Seal with rub- ber band. Ferment for 36 hours, replacing paper towel whenever it becomes fouled. Refrigerate 8-12 hours. Rack to new jug and put back in refrigerator for 12 hours. Add 1/4 cup vodka to kill yeast. Rack to fresh jug. Refrigerate 3-4 days. Bottle. Comments: This is a quickie mead, drinkable in 2 weeks, however, it does improve with age. Aging at least a couple months is recommended. This mead is excellent chilled. Method: N/A Original Gravity: N/A Final Gravity: N/A Primary Ferment: 2 days Secondary Ferment: 2 weeks Bob -- Robert Emery (bob@baervan.nmt.edu) ----------- Petroleum Recovery Research Center New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Socorro, NM 87801 ----------- ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Wed, 30 Sep 92 07:45:55 CDT From: cpu-spp@ct.med.ge.com (CPU-SPP generic account) Subject: Meads & mead-making from Cher Feinstein (with a recipe) In order to get things rolling, I am submitting a reprint of an article by the late Cher Feinstein. I always found it interesting, and while I can not say it is the best way to make mead, it certainly is a way to get started. Enjoy. -Date: 29 Sep 89 17:36:00 EDT -From: "FEINSTEIN" -Subject: Meads & mead-making Hello, all! I noted 's recent request for mead-making info, but haven't had time to respond until now. Below you will find my basic recipe for making mead. First, however, some basic tips and information. Meads come in several basic types: meads, metheglins (spiced meads), and melomels (meads made with fruit and/or fruit juices added). Many of these, especially the melomels, are "species specific" (as it were). For example, a cyser is by definition a mead made with apples or apple juice. Use unblended honey when making mead, and raw honey if at all possible. Thus, unless there is someone with an apiary in your neighborhood, the best place to get honey is at a health food store or roadside stand. If the honey has bits of wax, or other particulate matter in it, that can be strained out before cooking. Do NOT, under *any* circumstances, use "blended to death" honeys, like "SueBee". Remember: the taste and character of the honey you use will be the principal determinants of the taste and character of your mead. Please note that meads don't need any malt added, for *any* reason. Apart from altering the flavor and character, there are quite enough fermentables present already, thank you! :-) Use a white wine yeast in brewing mead; "Montrechet" is recommended. *Don't* use ale or lager yeast; the end result will most likely be exploding bottles! Most mead recipes call for the addition of some citrus juice or tea (tannin). This is important, as it balances the sweetness, preventing it from becoming cloying. This is the same reason caffeine is added to many sodas. The molecular structures of the sugars involved in meads are different from those found in brews. Thus, meads can take anywhere from a few weeks or months to several years to age properly. And, they won't taste very good if one isn't patient; the time is necessary. When adding honey to hot or boiling water, STIR CONSTANTLY!! Otherwise, the honey will go straight to the bottom of the pot, where it will caramelize, scorch, and otherwise ruin the whole thing. KEEP STIRRING, until the honey is *completely* dissolved. You will notice, in mead recipes, instructions to skim off any scum that forms as the mead heats up. This is very important, as that scum is the equivalent of the krausen in beer. Apart from the nasties in it that can contribute to hangovers, there are nasties in the scum that can adversely affect the flavor and appearance of the finished mead. The length of time mead is allowed to ferment is the other principal factor in determining not only the final alcoholic content, but how dry _vs._ how sweet your mead will be. Remember: mead is not necessarily a sweet drink! Also, meads can be sparkling, or still. It's all a matter of individual preference. A word of warning about mead hangovers: they are the stuff of legend-- and rightly so! The combination of high alcohol content (relatively speaking) and high sugar content are perfect for the induction of the Ultimate Hangover. One author I've read on meads, in an attempt to convey to the reader the potential severity of a mead hangover, referred to the Biblical story of Judith and the Holofernes. The author pointed out that Judith saw to it that the Holofernes got thoroughly drunk on mead, waited until they had slept awhile, and then had the Hebrew army attack-- beating on their shields! As the author put it: "What else could the Holofernes do but throw down their arms and accept slaughter with gratitude?" Personally, I consider this description of mead hangovers to be both apt and astute. :-) Anyone with questions about mead-making can contact me at the addresses below. The recipe for basic mead follows. Yours in Carbonation, Cher Feinstein Univ. of Fla. Gainesville, FL INTERNET: CRF@PINE.CIRCA.UFL.EDU BITNET: CRF@UFPINE BASIC SMALL MEAD NOTE: All equipment mentioned below is assumed to be either well-cleaned or sterilized, as needed. In a 1 gallon enamel pot, simmer the following until the infusion is done to taste: 2-3 whole cloves, lightly cracked; 2 sticks of cinnamon, broken up; 2 thin slices peeled fresh ginger root. Add 2-4 tsp. orange peel (how much depends on the honey-- with orange blossom honey use less, for example) and simmer a little longer. Add enough water to bring the volume up to 3 quarts. Bring back up to a simmer. Add 2 lbs honey, stirring constantly. Some of the warm water can be ladled back into the honey container to rinse it. DO NOT BOIL! Continue to simmer at a moderate rate, skimming off any white scum that forms on the top. If the scum is yellow, the heat is too high. Once no more scum forms, turn off the heat, place the lid on the pot, and leave overnight. The next day, strain out as many of the spice particles as practicable. Pitch the yeast. Replace the pot lid; the condensation on it will form a seal. Twelve hours later, rack the mead into a gallon jug, leaving the dregs of the yeast. After racking, top off the jug if needed, filling it to the base of the neck. Take a piece of clean paper towel, fold it into quarters, and put it over the mouth of the jug. Secure with a rubber band. Allow to ferment 36 hours. If the paper towel becomes fouled during this period, replace it with another. After 36 hours, taste the mead. If it is still too sweet for your taste, ferment longer. Repeat this as necessary, until a desirable level of sweetness/dryness is achieved. Place mead in refrigerator for 8-12 hours, then rack into a fresh gallon jug. Seal new jug tightly, and place in refrigerator to carbonate for 12 hours. Once the mead is nicely carbonated, add 1/4 cup of vodka or grain alcohol to the jug to kill off the yeast. Rack into a fresh jug again, seal tightly, and place in refrigerator for 3-4 days. The mead may then be bottled; Grolsch bottles work extremely well for this purpose. This is a "quickie" mead, drinkable in 2 weeks. However, it does improve considerably with age, and letting it age for at least a couple of months before drinking is recommended. This mead is excellent chilled. ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 1:02:57 EDT From: chuck@synchro.com (Chuck Cox) Subject: Simple Cyser Hey, it's great to see a mead list starting up. Just to get things started, here's a very simple recipe that produces an excellent medium-sweet cyser. Fall is the perfect time of year to start a cyser. If you saw a lot of senior beer/mead judges staggering around the last national homebrew conference late at night, a keg of this was to blame. The honey and cider were all from New England. This was quite drinkable after 3 months, and is truly dangerous after a year. It is just sweet enough to deceive the unwary as to its true alcoholic strength. I just bought enough honey and cider to make a 1/2 bbl batch. name: Dangerous Cyser style: medium-sweet cyser gallons: 7 Honey: 10 lb clover 10 lb wildflower Cider: 5 gal Misc: 6 tabs Camden/Metabisulphate Yeast: ale yeast My standard procedure: Mix everything except the yeast. Let sit in loosely covered fermenter for 24 hours. Add yeast. Rack to secondary when fermentation slows. Rack to keg when still. Force carbonate if desired. Condition for as long as you can stand it. Drink liberally. Fall over. -- Chuck Cox In de hemel is geen mead, daarom drinken wij het hier. ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 08:30 MDT From: drski!mlhb@druhi.att.com Subject: Submission Years ago, I requested a mead-recipe off the Net. This proved to be such a good recipe, I'd like to share it with you. For 1 gallon metheglyn: 1 quart premium light honey (I used a mixed version of clover and alfalfa honey -- I got this directly from an apiary) 3 quarts water 2 whole nutmeg (sliced) 2 cinnamon sticks 1 sliced ginger root (small) 10 + cloves 1 lemon sliced (peel and all) Mix all ingredients together in an enamel pot and boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly with a non-metal spool. Let cool to about 104F and add one package of champagne yeast (this should do up to five gallons) Stir well and put into sterilized secondary fermentation jugs and fit with air lock. At first racking, I added a campden tablet. You can fill with leftover mead or cold boiled water (I used the latter, but it made for a table wine strength mead). I also chose to use sparkaloid. I racked this mead about two or three times during the year before bottling it. Yes, I waited a year. Each time I would sample the mead and it truly got better with age. Increase the above ingredients by five (with the exception of the yeast) for five gallons. The person who gave me the recipe recommended that I try different combinations of spices. She drank this mead within a month or two after making it (first racking), but I really think waiting a whole year is worth it. I lost the person's name who gave me this recipe, otherwise I would credit them. Happy Mead-Making! Sky Warrior ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Fri, 25 Sep 92 15:32:32 MDT From: Robert Emery Subject: Beginner's questions Hello fellow mead lovers, I am a tyro mead brewer, only a single batch brewed to date, and I have a few questions for more experienced practitioners; along with a few observations. To begin with, a bit of background: My first batch was based on the Quick Mead recipe from the _Cat's Meow_. 5 gallons water 11 pounds honey 3/4 cup jasmine tea (twinnings) 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (TOO much for my taste) 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg acid blend Pris Mousse yeast I boiled about 3 gals of water in my largest available pot, added the tea, spices and honey and allowed it to simmer for 20-30mins. I then cooled to pitching temperature(about 75degF) using a wort chiller and poured the ____ a. wort b. must c. concoction d. other into my primary fermentation vessel, a 7 gallon covered pail w/airlock. At this point I took a specific gravity reading, SG 1.088, added the acid blend (per instructions on the package), aerated the mixture and pitched the yeast starter. The primary fermentation was very weak, at least compared to my beer batches, and the proto mead looked ready to put into the glass secondary after a few days. After racking to the secondary the yeast really took off and I switched from an airlock to a blow-off tube, the second time it pushed foam through the airlock my pantry floor looked like the floor of a movie theater after a matinee. The secondary fermentation took about a month to drop below a bubble per minute and I bottled at around six weeks (SG 1.003). I decided to bottle half of the batch as sparkling mead, so I added a bit over 1/4 cup of corn sugar before bottling. I used 12oz beer bottles for most of the batch. The finished mead is a clear honey color with a nice honey aroma. The taste is very very dry, tart, and fairly complex. It starts with a strong clove flavor, tapers to a hint of cinnamon, and finishes with jasmine. At no time is there any honey flavor or sweetness. It also packs quite an alcohol punch. I have new respect for anybody who judges mead at competitions, that stuff is PO-tent. Now for my questions. 1. What should mead taste like? I've never had any before and while I realize that my batch is a metheglin, I always assumed that the product would be somewhat sweet. 2. How can I get a sweeter product next time? 3. Are there commercially bottled versions of mead? 4. What is the best type of bottle to use? Beer bottles seem inappropriate and wine bottles are too large. I'd like to be able to walk after imbibing. 5. What is a good serving temperature? 6. How can I improve my brewing technique? I apologize for the wordy nature of this post. Bob Emery -- Robert Emery (bob@baervan.nmt.edu) ----------- Petroleum Recovery Research Center New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Socorro, NM 87801 ----------- ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Fri, 25 Sep 92 18:39:51 CDT From: Robert Crawford Subject: melomels? Over the summer I made a nice strawberry melomel with the following recipe: (for one gallon) 2.5 lbs Clover Honey 1 lb frozen strawberries acid blend (dosage as per the package's instructions) grape tannin 1 Campden tablet pectic enzyme Montrachet yeast I boiled and skimmed the honey with nine pints of water, put the strawberries in a must bag, then poured the hot honey water over the strawberries, Campden, tannin, and acid blend. A day later I added the pectic enzyme, and a day later the yeast. After a week in the primary, I removed the horribly changed strawberries and siphoned into a secondary. Three weeks later the fermentation had stopped, and it had cleared. (Honestly -- I've never had the year-long ferments that others have mentioned.) I stabilized it with potassium sorbate, sweetened it with table sugar, and bottled it. It's only been two months, but it's already very nice. In fact, it's half gone :-) I'm planning another batch, this one with three pounds of honey and two pounds of strawberries. Needless to say, this one will have more strawberry flavor and more alcohol... I have a few questions: Has anyone used horehound or mint for flavoring? Has anyone had luck making a very lightly alcoholic honey drink? -- Robert Crawford betel@camelot.bradley.edu ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Tue, 29 Sep 92 09:31:00 -0500 From: roy.rudebusch@travel.com (Roy Rudebusch) Subject: mead-related stuff From: roy.rudebusch@travel.com Dear Fellow Traditional Beverage (mead) Fans; I liked what Ted Manahan said about using an ale yeast to ferment with. Steve Lamont wanted to quick mead recipe: (BTW 1 gal of honey should weigh 12#) First brew an ale with a clean culture of W-yeast. Rec. W-1007, W-1056, (highly rec. W-1028). Boil .5 oz saaz hops in 2 qts water then: Dilute 6# of honey to 4 gallons water and add: hop water, top up to 5 gal. add: .5 tsp SO2 1 tsp pectic enzyme no yeast nutrient neccesary! Let this solution rest for three days. After three days bottle the ale-beer, SAVE THE SEDIMENT! Pour the above solution onto the sediment, add .5 oz saaz hops, (no need to sterilize the hops), pour the must back and forth several times, being sure all the yeast is dislodged from the original fermenter. The ale yeast that fermented the beer is full of nutrients (fat and happy), this mead should ferment out in less than 2 days. Bottle the mead as you would a beer. In order to have a successful mead-ferment the original ale-beer should first have been a healthy, quick ferment. Bob Emery wrote that his mead was too dry. Join the club! This problem is the common complaint of mead-makers. To produce a sweeter mead use the above ale yeast technique. Use about 15# honey and hope the yeast conks out at about 1.015. Also Bob asked, "any good meadmaking books", NO! Save your money. I called up one of the authors once to ask him a question about adding herbs and spices to mead, and he said he has never made mead before and has never heard of anybody using those ingedients in mead! All the books contain so many old-fashioned wine-making techniques that it makes the recipes and techniques nearly worthless. Forgive me if I sound callous. These books were fine 10 years ago, but mead and wine-making has progressed and it is up to us to promote good technique. For basic mead-making info. see TNCJoHB by Charle Papazion. Wassail! * OLX 2.2 * A Family that Brews MEAD Together Stays Together ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 11:00:00 -0500 From: roy.rudebusch@travel.com (Roy Rudebusch) Subject: Re: professional mead ski From: roy.rudebusch@travel.com (Roy Rudebusch) JD:>Subject: Re: professional mead skills JD:>Roy, JD:>Would you be willing to repost your article to the mead forum? You bet! I wanted to, but didn't want to re-write it, it is fortunate you sent it back to me! Dear Fellow Mead Fans; I've brewed about 30 - 5 gal batches of mead over the past three years and this is my next project: Tradtional Mead 5 gal OG 1140 7# Mesquite honey dissolved up to 2.5 gal water. Add: .5 tsp Sodium Bisulfite 1 tsp regular strength pectic enzyme 2 tsp yeast nutrient 1 tsp acid blend Stir well. Let sit in warm place, (60-75F) for 2-5 days. On the 2nd day start building the yeast starter, boil 1 cup of dry malt extract in 1 pint water. Re-hydrate a pack of wine yeast, (rec. Prise De Mouse), by adding it to 1 cup of 100F water, stir for 15 minutes. Add to cooled extract water. Shake well __for 1 hour__. When yeast starter begins to give off CO2 add 2 more cups of DME, (preboiled in 1 qt water), aerate again. When yeast starter looks active, add to must. Aerate by pouring the pitched must back and forth between two pails about 20 times. Do not remove sediment as it is necessary for fermentation. When the mead has fermented below 1.010 prepare the second addtion of honey: 13# Mesquite honey dissolved up to 2.5 gal water. Add: .125 tsp Sodium Bisulfite 2 tsp pectic enzyme 2.5 tsp yeast nutrient 2 tsp acid blend stir well, rest as before. After 2-5 days, add to fermenter along with the presently fermenting mead. Mix well. The Real OG of the wort = 1140. Shoot for a FG of 1.020 - 1.030. If it takes a long time for the original ferment to drop to 1.010 you may not want to add the second honey addition. Vinters produce strong wines by starting a regular-strength wine with a gravity no greater than 1.100. This is to ensure the yeast can ferment it. Undiluted honey does not ferment because the osmolarity of the solution is too high, If diluted to 1140 it will eventually stop around 1050, (trust me, I know this from experience). Most wine yeast has a tendency to floculate prematurely, to avoid racking off of the yeast, stir the mead and rack 6-18 hours later, as the trub will settle first. If the mead should ferment too dry, dilute .5# honey with an equal part of water and treat with SO2 and pectic enzyme and add to mead, for a honey addition. If you do everything as described this mead should ferment out in less than a month. Bottle when the mead does not throw any sediment for a three month period. Try to avoid fusel alcohols by fermenting below 60F. Wassail! * OLX 2.2 * A Family that Brews MEAD Together Stays Together ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Thu, 1 Oct 92 19:26 CST From: 87749194@ucs.uwplatt.edu Subject: Flavour enhancers Wassail! I have been looking for some items to enhance the flavour of my meads. Let's start with _my_ basic constituents: 15 # Honey ( whatever it is I get at the local grocery in bulk ) 1 Tbl. yeast nutrient 1 Tbl. ascorbic acid 2 gal. water Boil 10 to 15 minutes, skimming the scum. Pour into 5 gal. carboy that has 2 gal cold water, splashing to aerate. Top off to 4" below top. Pitch Pasteur when cool. Primary fermentation ~ 1 month. Rack to secondary, second fermentation is 3 to 4 months. I like it sparkling, so I add 3/4 C corn sugar at bottling (beer bottles usually). Age ~ 8 mo. I tell people that it is Champaigne (sp?) and 80 % give favourable reactions saying that it has more flavour than others champaignes. They still think it's good when I tell what it really is. I'll cut down on the honey to lower the flavour next time. What I want to know is what _YOU_ have added to enhance _YOUR_ mead. Anything that _REALLY WORKED_. I tried fresh ginger once, about 4 oz grated, but all this did was make the mead sort of sour. (No, it _wasn't_ infected, I _KNOW_ that flavour! So hurry! Post some hints! I need to get to work for December '93! I'm just a mead drink'n fool. Thomas Vodacek 87749194@ucs.uwplatt.edu - or - 87749194@ucs.uwplatt.bitnet ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 10:14 EST From: STROUD Subject: Three recipes from Dan Fink Dan Fink (formerly of the AHA), a real meadophile, posted these recipes on Compuserve about a year ago. He is a very strong advocate of pasteurizing, not boiling, your mead. ********************* The Meading of Life According to Dan Fink OR, "Why not take all of mead?" Here are three mead recipes that have served me well. Dry Mead (5 gallons) 10 pounds fresh, raw alfalfa or clover honey 2 pounds fresh, raw wildflower (or other dark) honey 2 teaspoons Great Fermentations of Santa Rosa mead yeast nutrient (made up to Roger Morse's formula in the book Making Mead) 2 packets Champagne Yeast (dry or liquid ) Add honey, nutrient and 2 gallons water to the brewpot. Bring slowly to 170 degrees F and hold for 30 minutes to pasteurize. Skim off any white scum from the surface as it forms. Pour into a carboy containing cold water, top off with water to 5 gallons. Pitch yeast when cooled to 80 degrees F. Ferment at 65-80 degrees F until some clearing is evident (usually 3 months). High tempratures (up to 80 or so) won't hurt mead (unlike beer). At this point, rack to another carboy. Bottle or keg when mead is CRYSTAL clear. Sweet Mead (5 gallons) 15 pounds fresh, raw alfalfa or clover honey 3 pounds fresh, raw wildflower (or other dark) honey 3 teaspoons Great Fermentations of Santa Rosa mead yeast nutrient (made up to Roger Morse's formula in the book Making Mead) 2 teaspoons acid blend (you might want more -- depends on the honey you use) 2 packets Montrachet, Steinberger or K-1 wine yeast (you might try Flor-sherry yeast if you like a nutty taste) Add honey, nutrient, acid and 2 gallons water to the brewpot. Bring slowly to 170 degrees F and hold for 30 minutes to pasteurize. Skim off any white scum from the surface as it forms. Pour into a carboy containing cold water, top off with water to 5 gallons. Pitch yeast when cooled to 80 degrees F. This will take awhile due to sugar content. Ferment at 65-80 degrees F until some clearing is evident (usually 6 months, sometimes as long as a year). High tempratures (up to 80 or so) won't hurt mead (unlike beer). At this point, rack to another carboy. Bottle or keg when mead is CRYSTAL clear. This could take awhile! Medium Apricot Mead (5 gal) 13 pounds fresh, raw alfalfa or clover honey 2 pounds fresh, raw wildflower (or other dark) honey 7 pounds fresh frozen or fresh apricots, crushed 2 pounds fresh frozen or fresh apricots, crushed (in secondary) 2 teaspoons Great Fermentations of Santa Rosa mead yeast nutrient (made up to Roger Morse's formula in the book Making Mead) 2 packets Champagne Yeast (dry or liquid ) Add honey, nutrient and 1.5 gallons water to the brewpot. Crush fruit, add to brewpot. Bring the whole mess slowly to 170 degrees F and hold for 30 minutes to pasteurize. Skim off any white scum from the surface as it forms. Pour into a fermenter containing cold water, top off with water to 5 gallons. Since you won't be able to shove the fruit thru a carboy neck, you'll need to use a plastic or stainless steel fermenter. it MUST be closed! Pitch yeast when cooled to 80 degrees F. This will take awhile due to sugar content. Ferment at 65-70 degrees F for 1-2 weeks. Don't leave your mead on the fruit for much longer than this to avoid spoilage! Carefully rack mead off of fruit parts into a carboy. Ferment until clearing is evident (usually 4-5 months). At this point, rack to another carboy. After mead is fairly clear, pasteurize the other 2 pounds of crushed fruit in a little water and add to must. . Bottle or keg when mead is CRYSTAL clear. If this takes a long time, rack off of fruit parts after no longer than a month. ********************** ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 18:26:22 EDT From: joseph@joebloe.maple-shade.nj.us (Joseph Nathan Hall) Subject: Honey-Maple Mead OK, well, I wasn't going to forward this recipe at first, but I've changed my mind. This stuff is really good ... but ... ..the caveat is that both batches I've made have been serious headache producers. I get a touch of headache after about 6 oz. I get more of a headache after that. I was going to try some different yeasts, maybe fermenting a little cooler, but rather than report back to you next year I thought I'd just let you folks you take your chances. I've never had headache problems with mead or homebrew before, so there must be something special about this mix. Let ME know if you produce a headache-free version! Honey-Maple Mead (recipe for 2 gallons or maybe a little more) 2 quarts maple syrup (that hurt$, as Charlie Papazian says) 2 to 2-1/2 lbs light honey (I used clover) acid to taste--I think I used a little less than 1 tsp of acid blend for this batch. Bring honey and maple syrup to boil in enough water to liquefy. Add acid and a bit of nutrient if desired. (I don't think you *need* yeast nutrient--the maple syrup seems to have the necessary stuff in it.) Skim for a minute or two, enjoying the flavor of the yummy foamy stuff. :-) Cool. Then add water to make a 1.120 SG must. Pitch with working Pasteur Champagne yeast. Prepare for a moderately vigorous fermentation. Rack off after primary fermentation, and once again if it isn't clear in a few more weeks. I topped off the gallon jugs with boiled water after the first racking--that seemed to help settle the yeast. ??? Both batches I made this summer (the first with about half this much syrup) fermented out to almost exactly 1.000. They fermented and cleared at 70-72F in 6-8 weeks. The result (that's what you've been waiting for): a beautiful, crystal- clear brilliant straw-colored liquid, slightly sweet, with a monster alcohol palate and strong bourbon notes. Smoooooth. I rather like it over ice. Is this heresy? But those headaches. :-( I'll keep trying, though! I wonder what fermented plain maple syrup tastes like ... ? uunet!joebloe!joseph (609) 273-8200 day joseph%joebloe@uunet.uu.net 2102 Ryan's Run East Rt 38 & 41 Maple Shade NJ 80852 -----My employer isn't paying for this, and my opinions are my own----- ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Wed, 7 Oct 92 13:53:37 EDT From: loc@bostech.com Subject: plum melomel recipe (long) I've gotten a few requests to post this recipe. I've added some of my process also to give you an idea of my mead making. As you read this you'll see that I make a product which is alot like wine. Some general comments about the recipe. If you want the end product to be sweeter you can add more honey. But do not get the original gravity above 1.100 or you will have problems with stuck fermentation or sluggish fermentation. You can add an much as 50lbs of plums if you want this to be _really_ plummy. Relative to original gravity, the higher the gravity the longer the product will need to bottle age. I use acid blend to balance out the end product. This is strickly a personal preference. If you really want to get into it and check the SO2 levels there are test kits available for that, this will ensure that you have the right amount of sulfites for the end product you are making. Having made these statements here is my recipe for Plum Melomel. Enjoy! Plum Melomel To make: 5 gallons ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 7.5lbs Citrus Honey (Orange Blossom is the best or whatever ) (honey you like to use ) 25-30lbs Plums (halved and pitted is best, but at least halved) (if you can freeze them for a couple of weeks ) (before you use them you'll get a better juice ) (yield because freezing breaks down the cell ) (walls ) 3-4 tsp. Yeast Nutrient 1 pkg Pectic Enzyme 1 pkg Champagne Yeast Acid Blend (you'll need an Acid Testing Kit to ) (determine how much to add. amounts ) (depend greatly on the plums ) The Day Before: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Start the yeast by boiling 1.5cup of orange juice with 1.5 cup of water. Take it off the heat and add 1 tsp of yeast nutrient. Cool the mixture. When cool put into a sulfited bottle add the yeast and agitate occasionally over the next 24 hours. The Day of: ~~~~~~~~~~~ Make sure the plums are at room temp do not heat them to do this, just let them come up to room temp naturally. Dissolve the honey in 2 gallons of water, do not let it boil, just get the water hot enough to dissolve the honey. Combine the plums, honey water, yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme and 2 more gallons of water in a large open primary fermenter. Mix well and take a gravity reading add water until the gravity reading is between 1.080 and 1.090.(I believe 1 pint of water will drop 1 gallon of must 0.010, I can't remember exactly) Once the gravity is correct add the yeast stir it up cover lightly. Stir the fruit down twice a day, once in the AM and once in the PM. Some Days Later: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Check the gravity after about 5 days. When the gravity reaches 1.020, rack and press the must into a sulfited glass secondary fermenter and add 1/2 camdon(?sp) tablet per gallon of must to prevent oxidation. If the fermenter is not full to within 1/2" of the lip use sulfited marbles to make up the difference. Fit a fermentation lock on the bottle and let it rip. When the gravity reaches 1.000 rack again into a clean sulfited carboy again adding 1/2 camdon(?sp) tablet per gallon for the same reason. Again if the mead does not come within 1/2" of the lip use sulfited marbles to make up the difference. Test the acid level at this point using your handy dandy acid testing kit and adjust the acid to a level of .55. The kit will tell you given what your acid level is at how much to add. When the fermentation stops, let it sit for a few days to let the lees settle out. Rack into a clean sulfited carboy adding 1 camdon(?sp) tablet per gallon of product and fine with a Bentonite mixture. Let this sit for 10 days. Rack the final product (leaving the lees behind as usual) into a clean sulfited carboy and let bulk age for three months. If you have a spare frig you can put the carboy in, the last month of the bulk age put the mead in the frig to chill proof it. Bottling: ~~~~~~~~~ If you are lucky enough to have a wine filter. Filter the mead with fine filters and bottle. Let bottle age for at least 6 months (1 year is better). Enjoy. ----------------------------------------------------------- Roger Locniskar Boston Technology Inc. Wakefield, MA 01880 ----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 23:10:56 -0800 From: eurquhar@sfu.ca Subject: another use Wyeast belgian... mead Well, my first batch of fruit mead (melomel?) was brewed up last Sunday. Several contributing factors inspired me to try a mead. First, honeybee researchers at SFU sell exceptional raw honey every year at a reasonable price. Second, the very good bartlett pears were available at as decent price and ginger goes very well with them. Lastly, all this talk of the banana/fruit/caramel flavours created by Wyeast belgian and its ability to ferment to high alcohol therefore providing aging potential. The thought of these flavours coming together was more than I could stand. The basic composition followed the proportions published in the excellent article in the latest zymurgy issue. Pear/ginger mead/melomel/metheglin (take your choice) 5 lbs pears, seeds and flower end removed and frozen so they would breakup easier 5 lbs raw new honey (wildflower/raspberry/blackberrry blend) 3 oz. finely ground fresh young ginger (more lemony than mature ginger) 1 primed package Wyeast belgian #1214 1/2 tsp. pure ascorbic acid (to keep the pears from going brown and because it tastes like lemons) 1/2 tsp. Difco yeast nitrogen base (yeast nutrient) 16 cups water Everything but the yeast nitrogen base was put into a big pot and brought up slowly to 200 F and kept there for 20 minutes to pasteurize and extract the ginger flavour and allowed to cool down naturally (about 2 - 3 hours). Next time, I'll extract the ginger with boiling water a few times to get more ginger flavour out and add as part of the water used (the ginger flavour is only sparingly soluble in water). The final specific gravity was 1.100. Any comments/questions/suggestions would be gratefully appreciated. YIELD: about 2 gallons in the primary ...p.s. It was bubbling like crazy 24 hours later and the banana was evident when I opened the yeast envelope. This weekend ginger beer! Eric Urquhart (eurquhar@sfu.ca) Centre for Pest Management, Dept. of Biological Sciences Simon Fraser University, Burnaby , B.C. Canada ------------------------------ To: mead-lovers-digest Date: Fri Oct 9 11:35:43 1992 From: John Dilley Subject: Wassail! Here's a recipe from a friend of mine for wassail. I realize this is not exactly mead, and it is not even a brewed beverage. But she says it's a family tradition around Christmas time and so I thought I'd go ahead and include it. Combine and heat in a large pot: 4 bottles Madera wine 1 bottle brandy (2 cups or a small bottle; Christian Brothers is fine) 1/2 cup apple cider (or, more traditionally, 6 baked apples) 12 allspice, whole 12 cloves, whole 6 cinnamon sticks, broken (optional 8 egg whites, beaten until stiff) The traditional recipe calls for egg whites, but my friend finds they tend to cook in the warm beverage. They're probably in there to thicken the wassail, but she leaves them out. She also uses cider because the apples fall apart and she objects to the texture. Heat this all together for a while (30 minutes to two hours) and serve warm by the fire. Watch out, as it packs a wallop! Wassail!