Making the Perfect Mead

S

steve

Audioholic
<font color='#000000'>As part of our new hobby corner, we are publishing a few articles on Home Brewing and Mead Making. &nbsp;This first article is specifics on how to make the perfect Mead, or Honey Wine. &nbsp;Let us know what you think.

Making the perfect Mead</font>
 
Rip Van Woofer

Rip Van Woofer

Audioholic General
<font color='#000000'>How positively Mead-ieval!

Sounds good, actually. I must try it. Will it improve the soundstaging? Make the midrange more liquid? Will I "see" a center channel without one being there...?

I never developed the taste for beer (like bourbon, though!) but while visiting the UK I got to like the draft ciders there. I buy the Green Mountain ciders here and have just been reading that orchards here in MI and elswhere are doing their own ciders. Gotta explore that. And try the mead!</font>
 
jeffsg4mac

jeffsg4mac

Republican Poster Boy
<font color='#000000'>Rip, I have made a batch of mead once, it was delicious and at about 25 to 30 proof, a few glasses and even booze start sounding good
&nbsp;I am partial to a strong and highly hopped IPA myself, I have an awesome all grain recipe for that. Very easy.</font>
 
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Rip Van Woofer

Rip Van Woofer

Audioholic General
<font color='#000000'>Never tried home brewing or winemaking so don't know if I want to get into that but it's tempting.

Geez, I'm supposed to be working now!
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S

steve

Audioholic
<font color='#000000'>Glad to hear the feedback. &nbsp;Actually, mead isn't anything like beer. &nbsp;It's probably more like wine or if carbonated, champagne.

As for home brew recipes, I posted on on Pumpkin Ales. &nbsp;I'd love to see what you have for an IPA recipe. &nbsp;Perhaps you can post it in the forum.</font>
 
jeffsg4mac

jeffsg4mac

Republican Poster Boy
<font color='#000000'>Sure you can have it, this is my recipe based on what I like and after experimenting around.

This is for a 5 gal batch, I feel fresh whole hops or the hop plugs work best. I do not like the hop pellets and never use pellets for finishing or dry hopping.

10 lbs two row pale ale malt
1 lb crystal malt
your favourite ale yeast.
Bittering hops to make the batch a 65 to 70 on the HBU scale any high acid hops works just fine.
1 ounce of your favourite low acid hops for finishing only if you can cool the wort very quickly other wise it is a waste in my opinion.
1/2 to 1 ounce of the same low acid hops for dry hopping. This is what makes the beer. &nbsp;Use less if your not hop head or use the full amount if you want the full impact.

Mash the malts using simple single stage mashing.
bring wort to about 5 1/2 to 6 gal. You will loose volume during the boil.
Boil wort with the bittering hops for 60 to 90 min or down to 5 gal which ever comes first.
Turn off fire, add finishing hops for 1 to 3 minutes and cool quick or flavour will be lost. Again this is optional, I have done it with and without and not much difference either way.
Cool down to pitching temp and ferment for about 5 to seven days.
Transfer to secondary fermenter add hops for dry hopping, and let beer finish out and clear for about a week. The use of nylon mesh bags works good for dry hopping.
After that it will be ready for kegging or bottling.

One option would be to add the dry hops at the same time as the yeast and let ferment for 7 to 10 days and bottle or keg. This also makes equally good beer and is one less step. Just allow it to clear longer in the bottle or keg.

Also, I never used corn sugar even for priming, save some wort or use some dry or liquid pale ale malt.

Cheers.</font>
 
Rip Van Woofer

Rip Van Woofer

Audioholic General
<font color='#000000'><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>
stevied4him : Actually, mead isn't anything like beer.  It's probably more like wine or if carbonated, champagne.
I was thinking it would be roughly comparable to the ciders (a bit of sweetness and wihout the bitter component of beer) I like, rather than beer. I like both sweet and dry ciders. If it's more like wine that works for me, too!

Just remembered something else: while walking thru the neighborhood during the summer I came upon a yard backing up to the street I was on that had hops growing on the fence. On another walk I met the owner as he was picking the hops and of course he's a home brewer. So I have a resource if I try this!

And Canada is just a 40 min. drive & a hop across the river. Home brewing & wine making is big there for some reason and I've seen shops dedicated to it...

Dang, this site might be even more trouble than I expected!  
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gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
<font color='#000000'>Maybe we should change our name to Alco-audioholics.com &nbsp;
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