Pages: 1 2
Looking for a Quick and Dirty Mead Recipe
A family friend who is a bee keeper has given me a 2 gallon bucket of dark honey (I'm assuming it's wild flower honey) with the suggestion I might want to try to brew a batch of mead. I weighed it on my bathroom scale -- 17.4 pounds, so I'm guessing it's about 15-16 pounds of honey. I don't really want to spend a lot of time or money on this, so if anyone has an easy receipe I can try that would use up all -- or at least most of the honey -- that would be great. I have read elsewhere that at a very basic level you can just mix the honey with water, pitch yeast, and then wait to see what happens. I am willing to put forth a little more effort than that. I have a six gallon plastic fermeting bucket and a six gallon carboy I can use, and a local home brew store is nearby.
Thanks in advance for any input.
Actually, it really is as easy as adding water and honey and pitching.....
Personally, I like to use a 3:1 ratio in my mead making (3 pounds of honey per gallon of mead). In that case you could use 15 pounds to make a 5 gallon batch. That should give you an abv around 14.5-15%
If you wanted to make a straight up, standard mead all you would need is some yeast (I use Lalvin 1118 champagne yeast), some nutrient and some energizer. All together you're looking at about a $5 investment.
If you're looking for something more complex I would look here: http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option … Itemid=459
Also, check out Ancient Orange Cinnamon & Clove Mead recipe. This recipe makes great mead. I still have a few bottles from when I made this recipe 2 years ago and they only get better with time. Cheers
I did the Ancient recipe, the lady loves it. Although I used Lavin 47 yeast. I think it was $1.80 at the LHBS, recently. Easy on the cloves, like 2 or 3 for the whole batch.
The thing about mead is, if you shoot for just the honey, you're completely dependent on it for all your taste. Mediocre honey, ditto flavor. Adding a little something will give you some complexity. See if you can check out a book from the library.
Maybe The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm. No, I didn't mispell it.
I am definitely gonna try the Ancient Orange Mead in a couple of weeks, once I rack off my peach raspberry mead. I only have 2 carboys and 1 bucket. It sounds so yummy and I think if I get going now by fall it shoud be ready to enjoy.
The Ancient Orange is really nice. We still have a few six packs of 12oz bottle left. It only comes out for special occasions. It seems to be better every time, either that, or it's just damn good & we don't drink it very often.
Use a lot of patience on this one.
Brewski saidL: use a lot of patience with this one.
Meaning it is so good we will want to drink it all at once? 
Brewski wrote:
I did the Ancient recipe, the lady loves it. Although I used Lavin 47 yeast. I think it was $1.80 at the LHBS, recently. Easy on the cloves, like 2 or 3 for the whole batch.
The thing about mead is, if you shoot for just the honey, you're completely dependent on it for all your taste. Mediocre honey, ditto flavor. Adding a little something will give you some complexity. See if you can check out a book from the library.
Maybe The Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schramm. No, I didn't mispell it.
If others are interested in this book I just bought the book on ebay for 10.69 plus shipping. total was 14.68 they had 6 available and it was "buy it now" so no waiting for auction to end.
DC
Bottled my Ancient Orange a few months back. Added a 1/4 cup of honey before bottling with champayne corks and baskets. I couldn't be happier with the finished product. It dances on the tongue and the taste is full of flavor with a nice mellow honey taste that lingers on the taste buds. After popping that first cork and seeing those tiny bubbles rising to the top, I just had to do my happy dance. I have shared it with several friends, one who is a maiser also and they have all loved it. I will definitely make this one again and again.
Right on! Glad everything worked out for you. I have 3.5 gal of this mead finishing up from back in March. I split the batch into 3 containers. One contains 1.5# fresh raspberries, one with 2 cans of sour cherries, and the other is just the mead. I'll probably bottle after another month or two. This is a great recipe and fun to experiment with. Cheers!
Pages: 1 2