Mead
Mead is an ancient drink similar to wine, but made from fermented
honey rather than grape juice. It has a unique flavour that is sweet (almost
cloying), but can also be brewed to be dry, like champagne. Sometimes other
flavouring agents like spices are added to give the mead an interesting
character.
Despite it's ancient origins mead is not often found in modern liqour stores.
Such drinks as beer and wine probably have a more mass-market appeal, since
not everyone cares for mead's taste. Even so, mead has a large following
with modern day home brewers and is still brewed in small batches by some
professional wineries. If you're interested in mead, it can be brewed at
home rather easily.
Here's a
recipe I've used over the years, modifying as I saw fit.
I've also collected some others from the mead-lovers list.
This collection has many recipes, including good ones for small
batches that ferment quicky (good for beginners).
Two more are here and here.
I've got an old copy of the Mead FAQ on line (here's another
link), as well as
the Yeast FAQ. There are many
websites with mead info on them as well. Check your favorite search engine for more sites.
If you brew mead (or anything else, for that matter), you should keep a notebook of
recipes, dates, etc so you can keep track of what works. It's hard to remember
things like how many teaspoons of yeast nutrient you put in batch 'B' six months
ago.
My first batch of mead was one disaster after another. The must (unfermented
mead), based on a
recipe I got from a friend, boiled over on the stove and made a burnt-on,
sticky mess. I brewed it in an old apple cider jug, fitted with a
rubber stopper and airlock. The recipe didn't include
yeast nutrient. This lead to a very slow fermentation. I didn't rack the
mead (transfer it from one fermentation vessle to another), which would have
helped it ferment more quickly. I bottled the mead
before it was ready, and had several corks blow out due to CO2 buildup. I
didn't know you were supposed to store the bottles upright for a week to let
the corks get damp and expand, and some mead also leaked out and made another
sticky mess. Even with all these mishaps, a couple bottles survived
and aged a couple years before I shared them with friends. The results were
worth it, but it would have been nice to have more information before I
started on the project. Since this was in the days before the web existed,
that info wasn't all that easy to come by.
Links: