Mead Making Book Review

gordsellar

For those interested in the subject, I recently acquired a copy of Ken Schramm's book on making mead, and read through it. There's a review here.

http://www.gordsellar.com/2010/04/19/the-compleat-meadmaker-by-ken-schramm/

I hope it's not considered gauche to link a review on my site, it just seems better than copying and pasting the content here.

My verdict is that it's a great starter book. Not quite as encouraging as the Papazian, whose unflagging optimism and encouragement might well be why I started on this hobby, and I wish the book had more recipes, but for someone with a little brewing experience, it's an excellent introduction.

I'll be trying my hand at the JAO recipe mentioned in the post, this one:

http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_rapidrecipe&page=viewrecipe&recipe_id=118&Itemid=459

... this weekend, though of course I'll have to set it aside for a good long time before I can actually try it out and see what the results are like. I'll start a new thread for that, as it seems like a good newbie mead for people to try.

Kunkemonster

That recipe looks good. I got a big ass wine jug to use as a fermenter. I just gotta get another air lock.

gordsellar

I'll race you!

(I just have to make a trip out to get some cinnamon (cassia) sticks and raisins and I'll be ready to go.)

I'll be using that Russian bread yeast widely available in the big grocery stores, by the way, because I figure it's better that than the clumpy Korean bread yeast. Oh, and I'm thinking of adding a couple of cardamom pods, because I like 'em.

And I too will be using a big wine jug -- one of those almost-4L jugs for that meh Carlo Rossi wine that gets bought for parties.

Kunkemonster

I just made this a few hours ago and have very a active fermentaion. I guess I didn't leave enough headspace (around 2 inches) and it's coming out the top. Give yourself more headspace than I did. I am also using the Carlos Rossi wine jug.

gordsellar

Thanks for the tip! I'll probably be making it tomorrow, unless I feel up to it tonight. More headspace! Maybe I'll put a blowoff tube for the first few days?

(I missed the "brewery tour" because a friend was in town from abroad yesterday, but between the makkeoli and beer and I think there was soju, too, my throat is hurting and I'm worn out. What was Danny Glover's line? "I'm too old for this sh8t!")

Kunkemonster

This thing is crazy! It's sitting in my sink with the lid on loosely as it was making too much of a mess. It's fermenting out of the jug and I've lost probably 8oz of liquid.

wgensel

Use a blowoff tube :D

Kunkemonster

Any update on yours? Mine is still bubbling away. I'm gonna leave it for a month or more and then move to some swing top bottles that are on order. I've never had a mead so I'm interested in the taste. I've heard it takes up to a year to not be green any more.

gordsellar

I only got around to making mine about a week or so after you started yours, I think... maybe it was two weeks? (EDIT: According to my blog, I started mine on May 5th.)

Anyway, it's definitely bubbling away happily. I should probably exchange the blowoff tube for an airlock now. I am going to leave it till it clears, and then rack it to swingtop bottles or maybe a couple of wine bottles, since it will be clear and still.

If it works out -- and I have every reason to think it will -- I'll likely try a bigger batch with a different sort. I haven't figured out yet whether the bokbunja juice I picked up has any preservatives, but if not, I'll likely try to make a bokbunja juice/acacia honey melomel. I'll also most definitely be using a different yeast -- perhaps, if I can order some, some sweet mead yeast, but more likely some kind of wine yeast.

One thing: the smell is very hard-alcoholish... which is unsurprising, since that's why it has to sit conditioning for so long... to get rid of those harder alcohol edges and so on. But while it smells good from afar, what gasses out from the blowoff tube is a bit harsh. I'm guessing this is not unusual, though it may be I used an inappropriate bread yeast.

How is the scent of what your JAO's outgassing?

Kunkemonster

The smell from far - opening apartment door is very yeasty or bready. The smell from the airlock is very orange. FYI, I used Flechmans yeast.

gordsellar

Huh, where'd you find Fleischman's? The big shops in my area only have the brown pillule-looking Korean yeast, or the very grainy Russian stuff, so I went with the latter. Hmmmmmmm. Ah well, if it flops, it's, what, ten or fifteen bucks down the tube? (And it may age nicely, too.)

Kunkemonster

I have my ways :)

gordsellar

:)

Rob

How is this going? Any updates?

Kunkemonster

It's very clear. It fermented for about 6 weeks. The yeast doesn't stay put so any bump or movement hazes up the mead and it takes a while for it to clear. I will take a pic tonight, I have to figure out how to rack and bottle it without getting a ton of yeast in the bottle as I don't have a racking cane.

Kunkemonster

Here it is.

Kunkemonster

So I transferred it to a secondary jug last night. I'll let it sit for a few more weeks and then transfer to my swing tops. I tasted a few drops from the transfer tube and the taste... is, I don't know...chalky? I don't know if I left it on the yeast too long or I just got a bunch of yeast in the sample. I hope it ends up tasting better, I could diffidently taste the oranges in there.

Kunkemonster

I tried some last night and WOW, it has a very strong alcohol smell. As far as taste, I don't think I like it. Very strong and not smooth, some spice and orange flavor. I'm glad I only did a 1 gallon batch. I will have to bottle the rest and let it sit a year or so before I want to try any more. I added an ice cube and some Korean cider, that made it drinkable. Sadly, I wouldn't recommend this.

I have 5 pounds of honey that I was planning on making another mead with. Now I will have to figure out what to do with that. Maybe a cyser or a honey ale?

gordsellar

My experience is that some meads have stronger. (EDIT: I meant to write, "My experience is that some meads can be much stronger than others." What I mean is: the first mead I had killed my throat, it was killer dry, but the one I had recently, a blackberry melomel, was wonderful -- slightly sweet, rich in flavour, and with some alcohol warmth.)

My JAO is still sitting the jug, btw: been too busy to deal with, but also, it hasn't cleared as much as yours -- though I'm starting to think it's as clear as it'll get without gelatin finings or filtration. Probably the problem is I used Russian bread yeast, Fleischman's being unavailable to me. The orange pieces and most of the raisins have dropped, though, and I think I'll try bottle it this weekend or next.

I haven't tasted mine, but it has a strong orange scent. Also, and it's hard to tell from your photo since it's so clear, but mine looks quite light in color, more like a blond/straw color than what I see in your pics, though I'm, guessing the tabletop is coloring your JAO and so on.

Yeah, long aging is probably the solution for this mead, like others. Some take up to a year, which, well... makes me leery, since I may or may not be moving in that timeframe, or even -- who knows? -- leaving the country.

If you still haven't found a use for that honey, and are leaning toward the beery side, "braggot" is another (older) term for something between mead and beer -- honey and barley together. Lots of recipes and some of them look really tasty.

Kunkemonster

So, I opened a bottle last night, 6 months after making it, it tasted pretty good! It was sweet with pronounced orange flavors, it would be better with a few more months of conditioning. Now I'm thinking about making a few gallons of this and setting aside in a keg for a year. I'll be bringing a bottle to the Brew your best on November 20th.

gordsellar

Cool! I'll be honest, I put some gelatin into it and put it in a shared fridge downstairs, and then left it and forgot about it. The gelatin seems not to have cleared it at all, though. (And I should have racked it off the yeast and oranges: I bet autolysis has done some nasty stuff to it, but I'll try bottle it anyway and see.) Was it any clearer out of the bottle, or still cloudy?

Anyway, I'm glad yours turned out. Are you interested in trying other meads? I'm likely to do up a batch of dry mead next week, and could save you some of the yeast cake if you're interested in trying out a mead with a yeast selected for the job. (I also have a sweet mead, not sure I'll even get around to making that though if so, I suspect it'll turn out drinkable sooner and more like a dessert mead.)

Kunkemonster

I had racked off the primary to a secondary about 3 months after I started and then racked into the bottles a few weeks later, it was very clear although some yeasties still floating around.

I still haven't decided which yeast I will use next, It probably won't be for a few more months as I want to have plenty of brew on hand before I tie up my fermeneter for 2 months.

gordsellar

Well, I'll save some of my slurry for you, then. I suspect the fermentation will take a few weeks anyway, and it'll probably keep a few months if I take a big enough sample for you, clean it, and refrigerate it. Anyone else looking to get into the mead game?

daxdefranco

"gordsellar" wrote: Anyone else looking to get into the mead game?

how labor/resource intensive is making mead? i'm going home for xmas and was thinking about making a mead while at my parents and leaving it in their cellar (so i'd be guaranteed to not touch it). Is it something I could do with what I find in their kitchen?

Kunkemonster

Heat some water, add honey, orange, raisins, clove, cinnamon stick, yeast and let it sit for a few months. That's basically all you need. I made a JOAM mead and used a 4L wine jug.

The ony thing you might have to worry about is the airlock drying out and autolysis, depending if you left it like a year or more, but the more I read about it the more it sounds like an old homebrewing boogieman that doesn't really happen these days with quality yeast.

Kunkemonster

"gordsellar" wrote: Well, I'll save some of my slurry for you, then. I suspect the fermentation will take a few weeks anyway, and it'll probably keep a few months if I take a big enough sample for you, clean it, and refrigerate it. Anyone else looking to get into the mead game?

What yeast slurries do you have?

gordsellar

What yeast slurries do you have?

I've got two:

Sweet Mead (WYeast 4184) and Dry Mead (WYeast 4362).

I hear that dry meads are sometimes perceived as sweet anyway, so sweet mead is more of a dessert thing. I am guessing Sweet Mead yeast just has a lower alcohol tolerance. (Haven't researched much yet on these yeasts.)

And... I just pitched Cry Havoc (Papazian's yeast) into a batch of stout...

gordsellar

... and Cry Havoc is doing bloody nothing, tho I pitched it 24 hours ago. I'm the one ready to Cry Havoc! (Though the delay is nice, as it allowed me to add some more sterilized water to the wort so I could hit my target bitterness and get a touch closer to my target OG.) Ah well, I am doing what ancient wisdom says: RDWHAHB.

(Though I'm not pleased with the homebrew I'm having--a malt-extract based strong Scottish ale with barely detectable chocolate added, and too much hopping--and I'm getting impatient for the all-grain batches I've brewed to be ready for sampling!)

Anyway, I bottled the JAO today and it's actually fine -- no boogeyman autolysis detectable as far as I could tell, and it was a fair bit clearer than it looked like it would be in the bottle. Not super-clear, but not horrible, and it tastes pretty good too. Lots of orange, and a touch of spice. I filled three wine bottles for still mead, and a couple of swing tops (one 1L, one 500ml) with a little sugar added to see if they would carb up or not. (I kind of think they won't, as the bread yeast probably hit its alcohol limit and died, but those two bottles can be dessert meads if they just end up slightly sweeter.

Figure I'll do something with bokbunja in the next batch, to turn it into a melomel! Now, I just need a place to stow these away and let a bottle age for a full year or two and see what happens. Ha... fat chance.

gordsellar

... and, whew, it took about 30 hours but the Cry Havoc is now going nicely. Just thought I'd update. It does smell somewhat sulfuric, but I think that will pass. But this is the wrong thread for discussing that, so I'll just mention that I'm working on a melomel recipe too. Since the JAO turned out quite drinkable after ~6 months (even just bulk aging, and even without racking off the oranges and yeast), I figure I can get some mead nice and close to ready by about March or so. I'm figuring on bokbunja and clover honey, and a dry mead yeast.

Kunkemonster

Congtrats on the yeast taking off, they know what they are doing :D

I'm looking making a melomel for my next mead, the JOAM is a unique tasting mead and I'm not sure I like it. Let me know about your recipe for the bokbunja mead. I'll probably do something similar.

gordsellar

Hey,

I'm carefully thinking about which honey to use. I've read blending honeys is the best way, but the clover honey I have needs to get used... yet, at the same time, I have about 4 kilos of acacia honey that also needs to get used, and is a lot milder. And there's something aesthetically pleasing about acacia honey and bokbunja, two very Korean ingredients. I'll let you know what I decide... I'll likely make this stuff Wednesday or Friday.

One thing: I don't know how available bomkbunja is normally, but it was at homeplus a week ago, in a freezer set up especially for it and some other berry. However, you can also get some kind of concentrated bokbunja juice. I'm not sure if it has preservatives, but they aren't listed on the bottle. I have just dumped some into some wheat beer I had left over from bottling, but didn't have enough to fill a bottle. I'll let you know if it takes off, as adding concentrated, syrupy juice is likely much less of a pain in the ass than dealing with several kilos of (expensive) berries in the carboy. (I didn't mind paying W14,000 to make a bokbunja wheat -- though it turns out a kilo might be overkill for a gallon of beer -- but I don't know that I want to spend W45000 on the berries for three gallons of mead I may or may not like six months from now.)

Anyway, I'll let you know what my recipe ends up being!

gordsellar

I thought I'd update. I haven't yet got my recipe all worked out, but I'm likely to do a blend of the clover honey and acacia honey I have on hand, and add some defrosted bokbunja into the secondary, when it's all fermented out. (Though I'm a bit worried they're spraying preservatives on the frozen berries. While the persimmoned batch of Abbey Weiss bubbled happily way, the gallon of Abbey Weiss I racked onto bokbunja hasn't had any airlock activity, even with yeast added. Bubbling in the fermentation jar, yes, but no airlock action, and I don't think it's that leaky.

Anyway, a few useful things:

- GotMead.com is a site full of information and resources, including a handy Mead Calculator, which is essentially the meadmaker's equivalent of BeerCalculus or whatever.

- Just as for winemakers, FAN is a big problem for mead "must" (which is what a mead "wort" is called). There's a ton of nutrients in beer wort that yeast needs, but in honey, there's much less in the way of Free Amino Nitrogen and other nutrients. This leads one to imagine many of the earliest meads were in fact braggots/brackets, ie. beer/mead hybrids. You wanna get some DAP (ie. Yeast Nutrient), and Yeast Energizer, if you want a healthy (ie. faster, more vigorous) fermentation. If you have none of that stuff, then you will definitely want to throw some fruit into your fermenter... but also will likely want to pasteurize it, which means you'll also want to add pectic enzyme right off the bat.

- Fruit added in primary fermentation or at the end of boil contribute to a more complex character in the mead, but you will not necessarily taste the flavor of the original fruit. If you want that, add fruit in the secondary.

- Mead is a much, much slower game than beer. But mead is also somewhat more forgiving: A botch that would render a batch of beer apparently can be healed by time in a mead. Which is the positive side, but on the negative, long aging periods, especially bulk aging (ie. in secondary) is the norm.

I've got a mead yeast starter going, now, so that seals it: I'll be making a mead this week. Now if I could figure out my recipe, I'd be all set!

Kunkemonster

I found a great online calculator for mead ABV http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option ... &Itemid=16

gordsellar

Ha, that's the link I posted above! ;)

Kunkemonster

Haha, yeah.

reverendbeer

Just as an aside, the Brewing Network's Jamil Show did pretty much an entire 1hr 46min episode with Schramm about mead and the basics...he's a talkative fellow.

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The- ... w-12-01-08

gordsellar

Cool, thanks for the link! I'll check it soon!

In the meanwhile, my mead seems to have slowed down and I'm guessing the fermentation is close to done. I'm not sure how easy it will be to get some yeast out of the bottom, once I've racked it over to a carboy, but I'm going to attempt it.

Anyone interested in a sample of proper (18% max alcohol tolerance) dry mead yeast? I'll be racking it over this week or next, and will probably take a small sample or two for myself (as I can likely make mead anywhere) but won't take a lot unless someone wants it. (Kunkemonster?)

I also have a sweet mead yeast, not sure if I'll even use it. May try, as dessert meads seem to age into drinkability a LOT faster. I'm thinking some kind of sweet metheglin might work -- mead + spices = metheglin, btw. Maybe some kind of apple pie spiced mead or something.

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