Lawrence Brewers Guild

Hey guys-

I'm ready to make some Mead and I know a few of you have experience.

Next week I'll get 12 pounds of honey form a local beekeeper. I plan on making a 5 gallon batch and need your recipe!

I was thinking of using the Norther Brewer recipe/instructions, but if you all have a better/simpler recipe, by all means!

And in 4 months when I'm ready to bottle I'll be begging and borrowing anything you might be willing to lend me to help cork!

Regards,
Devin

Devin,
Welcome again to the forum. Let me start by recommending you spend some time at http://www.gotmead.com, and reading "The Complete Mead Maker" By Ken Schramm which we have a copy of in the guild library and is the best modern printed material on the subject of mead making.

Let me also ask some questions:
What meads have you tried?
Do you know what kind of finished mead you would like to make? (sweet, semi, or dry? will you add fruit?)
I am not familiar with the NB recipe or instructions, but if there are other people out their that have been pleased with the results following said recipe, then by all means give it a try.

Some of the guidelines I follow when making mead:

Use dry (not liquid) yeasts - The multitude of wine yeasts out their are excellent and I have found most of the liquid yeasts to be disappointing.

Blend multiple honey varietals - This is not entirely necessary, and in cases where you are using a premium honey with specific characteristics you want to showcase using a single varietal can produce spectacular meads. fyi meads made from a single honey varietal, water, and yeast with no additional additives are referred to as "show" meads.

Do not heat your honey - You will find endless lists of forum material on the debate of whether to heat to pasteurization, boil, or not heat at all. I have never boiled and likely never will.

Add nutrients and DAP - Mead musts lack much of the nutrients that yeast thrive on.


Aaaaaaaanyhooo I can ramble on for waaaaaaay toooooo long on this subject.

Always happy to help anytime. Shoot me a PM or keep posting up here as you have questions.

Also, Mead Day is on August 2nd. I usually host a get together and we make and drink a lot of mead. This year I will be attending a wedding on Mead Day, but I will still be hosting something the week before or after.

Whoops. Meant to post the link to the NB mead instructions...

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documenta ... d-kits.pdf.

Please take a look and let me know if this seems reasonable, or if I should revise the instructions!

Those are fairly common, straight forward instructions, and will very likely produce a satisfactory mead. That said mead can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. As long as you practice good sanitation practices there is no need to heat anything beyond 90 degrees or so while making mead. Just warm enough to encourage the dissolving of the honey. I usually heat 2 gallons of filtered (never distilled) water to warmth (90 degrees or less). Then I pour that water into a bucket, add my honey and stir till it is dissolved. Top up with cold filtered water to volume, add nutrient and DAP, and stir again. Take a temp reading and pitch yeast.

I do not use liquid yeast when making mead. There are plenty of people who have found the liquid yeast strains to be satisfactory, so there is no reason not to give them a try if that is what you have.

I choose to stagger my nutrient additions rather than add them all up front. I have found no drawbacks to this method, and have seen greatly improved results. Faster, cleaner fermentations with fewer off flavors produced by the yeasts. Nutrient additions can become a complicated discussion all by themselves, but I generally recommend taking whatever your planned nutrient addition is, and breaking it up into 4 equal additions adding one on brewday, and one each of the 3 following days. I also recommend sanitizing a spoon and gently stirring the must with each nutrient addition.

I'd encourage you to check out the Mead FAQ on the brewboard here:
http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showforum=36
There are threads there that will elaborate on the benefits of staggering nutrient additions, as well as making mead with no or little heat.

Why not distilled water?

Distilled water is devoid of all minerals, many of which contribute desirable characters to mead. Your will also benefit from the trace amounts of minerals in natural water. Filter your water through a charcoal filter to remove chlorine or purchase "purified" or "spring" water. Avoid distilled and RO water in any brewing unless you intend to add minerals to it in order to imitate the water profile of a certain region.

So my mead has been in the primary for 7 days now. I'll be doing the third (of four) nutrient additions tonight. The smell coming from the airlock is wonderful. Can't wait to try the final product---too bad it's still 4 months out (or longer) from being done.

C'est la vie. In the mean time I've got three 5 gallon batches of beer coming to completion. And 50 bottles of bourbon laying in wait. Should keep me busy until then!

Thanks for the input guys.

BourbonDrinker wrote:So my mead has been in the primary for 7 days now. I'll be doing the third (of four) nutrient additions tonight. The smell coming from the airlock is wonderful. Can't wait to try the final product---too bad it's still 4 months out (or longer) from being done.

C'est la vie. In the mean time I've got three 5 gallon batches of beer coming to completion. And 50 bottles of bourbon laying in wait. Should keep me busy until then!

Thanks for the input guys.

Congrats on the mead and beer! I got into brewing solely to provide me with libation between meads. Then I realized that I love beer! I still make mead, but not nearly as often as I did. Hope to see you at the next meeting and look forward to sampling your brews when they reach maturity!