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Mead for a friend
As I have previously stated, I am new to the brewing process in general, so any guidance, advice, don't do that idiot, etc... is greatly appreciated.
A friend of mine is no longer able to drink beer but loves mead. Another buddy also does homebrew, and we have been talking about making up a batch of mead so our other friend (confused yet? 
) can share in the home brew fun. My question is this. What does a decent, easy recipe look like? What do I need to read before attempting a batch? Does anyone have some advice for those 'little things' that are never mentioned in books but are always important?
Thanks all for your help!
www.gotmead.com
There's a ton of free recipes on there as well as info, history and what not.
Simple mead recipe:
5 gallons h2o
15 pounds honey
a little yeast nutrient, some energizer and maybe a pinch of acid blend (all can be bought for less than a buck at you LHBS)
I use regular old Nottingham beer yeast in primary then when I rack to secondary I mix in a couple more pounds of honey (with some water to equal about 1 gallon) and champagne yeast. Let that work for a few weeks and there you go. Bottle, age and drink.
For a simple flavored mead try adding a box (20 packs) of Tazo chai tea to the honey and water while heating.
This recipe will make a sweet, full flavored mead.
here is my simple recipe, basicaly like skervy's:
5 gallons of water
15 pounds of honey
2 tsp gypsum
2 1/4 tsp acid blend
1 oz yeast nutrient
1 tsp yeast energizer
WYeast Dry Mead Yeast 4632
Any Mead yeast will do, some people like the champagne yeasts. i have used this one and i like its flavor profile and attentuation.
you do not need to boil the honey, just bring the water up to about 180 F, dissolve the honey, the gypsum, and the acid blend. cool the mead to around 75 F (70 - 80 F is your target range), add the yeast nutrient and yeast energizer, stir the mead, pitch the yeast.
wait 7 - 10 days, rack to secondary. wait about a month. bottle. wait about 4-5 months. drink.
if you a carbonated mead, prime it befor eyou bottle. otherwise just bottle and enjoy it still.
it is ready to drink as soon as it has cleared. however, mead matures with age it gets to be much, much better. if you can...wait!
I haven't been on for a couple of days, but I wanted to thank everyone for your responses. The web site is a great source of info, and those recipes look like great ones to start with.
Thanks again!
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