Make mead.

I made ‘short mead’ (meaning a mead that’s meant to be consumed quickly rather than aged for months or years) for a medieval event I went to earlier this month. It was a very sweet, with cinnimon and cloves. There were 4 wine making/brewing competitions there, 3 of which I entered.

It took 1st of about 15 bottles including a 5 year old sherry in one competition, best mead of 7 and best overall of about 20 bottles in another competition, and 3rd of ??? bottles in another.

I was also able to prove through extensive research that mead, when drunk without any other beverages does NOT cause hangovers! Valuable information, indeed! :)

I made it w/ hibiscus and orange rind. It took forever to finish bubbling. Tonight, it was almost done, still just a little sign of life in there. I decided to bottle it anyway, I wanted to try it!!
So far the mead tastes like the weakest white wine ever. It is pretty and pink but doesn’t taste a bit like hibiscus or orange (boyfriend says that’s a good thing). I am drinking it tonight mixed w/ lemon-aid and it makes a refreshing beverage (damn it’s hot here!!).
I will let you know if the bottles explode because I bottled too soon! I am still learning here…

last night! I added some hibiscus and orange rind tea for flavor and color. The yeast is actively eating up the Mesquite Honey. I will post a picture of it soon.

I purchased the Mesquite honey because it was what was available at a good price. I just read this about it
“The honey produced from its flowers also has this distinctive smoky aroma.”
Hmm, lets see how this mead tastes.

Mesquite Flowers

• Black mead — A name sometimes given to the blend of honey and blackcurrants.

• Gverc or Medovina — Croatian mead prepared in Samobor and many other places. Word “gverc” or “gvirc” is from German “Gewürze” and it refers to different spices added to mead.

• Hydromel — Hydromel literally means “water-honey” in Greek. It is also the French name for mead. (Compare with the Spanish hidromiel and aquamiel, Italian idromele and Portuguese hidromel). It is also used as a name for a very light or low-alcohol mead.

• Medica — Slovenian variety of Mead.

• Melomel — Melomel is made from honey and any fruit. Depending on the fruit-base used, certain melomels may also be known by more specific names (see cyser, pyment, morat for examples)

• Metheglin — Metheglin starts with traditional mead but has herbs and spices added. Some of the most common metheglins are ginger, tea, orange peel, coriander, cinnamon, cloves or vanilla. Its name indicates that many metheglins were originally employed as folk medicines. The Welsh word for mead is medd, and the word “metheglin” derives from meddyglyn, a compound of meddyg, “healing” + llyn, “liquor”.

• Morat — Morat blends honey and mulberries.

• Pitarrilla — Mayan drink made from a fermented mixture of wild honey, balche tree bark and fresh water.

• Rhodomel — Rhodomel is made from honey, rose hips, petals or rose attar and water.

• Sack mead — This refers to mead that is made with more copious amounts of honey than usual. The finished product retains an extremely high specific gravity and elevated levels of sweetness.

• Tej — Tej is an Ethiopian mead, fermented with wild yeasts (and bacteria), and with the addition of gesho.

Here’s a link to a step by step guide:

http://www.mikemojc.byethost12.com/Mead.html

Once you have your ingredients, you can start a batch going in about an hour. Here’s another link with lots of recipes and other resources: http://www.gotmead.com . Have fun!

umm…worth doing if you know what your doing and you have all the stuff. for me it was great!

I swear I am going to get this done and it will be soon. I now have all the stuff I think I am going to need together. I’ve got about everything figured out. Barring the part where I decided all the recipes I’m finding are way to complex for something that has been produced since 8000 B.C. E. or roughly 10,000 years. So for this first batch I’m going to wing it. THEN regardless of how this turns out I’m going to see about finding a recipe and following it to the letter from the start. If I could find the way the Vikings originally did it I would be interested in trying that too. Seems simple enough to be along the lines of… Add water and let the wild yeasts do their thing. BUT I don’t know that for sure. Anywho this started out as a random “I want to try this” while watching 13th warrior. So in the random experimental nature I’m going to wing it on this first batch… and unless it kills me. There will be a second batch

Finally got the yeast, got 2 types both Redstar brand wine yeasts from a bar/brewing supply in Bloomington. I’ve got a pair of 1 gallon jugs for the final product… now I just have to do the hard part… technicalites.

got the honey couple weekends ago. Now where the hell do I find the sorts of yeast recommended in this area… probably can find something in Bloomington if I look hard enough.

Should be getting honey for this next weekend.