# Honey Mead. Some may call it Ambrosia



## Thefatdoghead (11/6/13)

[SIZE=14pt]So made this Mead about 1 and a half years ago. Used liquid yeast and a variety of honey from markets around the Sunshine coast. I was aiming for a sweet mead but I got a desert mead. It's still so good and when ever I go to a nice restaurant ill bust a few out under the table. Still waiting for the next couple of batches to finish but it's a patient mans game, I'm quiet patient after tasting my first mead. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]For all those out there that want to make mead....Dont start with JAO. It's really nice but it's no where near as nice as just using straight up good varital honey. [/SIZE]


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## GalBrew (11/6/13)

Looks great. Recipe details?


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## Thefatdoghead (11/6/13)

[SIZE=14pt]Honey 100%[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]Yeast Wyeast 4184 Sweet mead[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14pt]Always make sure the honey is from a good variety and tastes floral or how you want it to. Don’t let the PH drop to low during fermentation and follow all the guidelines of good yeast health and pitching rates same as beer etc etc. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]I made a 5L starter with 1 pack of yeast. No where near enough. Next time i'll buy 5 packs of yeast and make a 5L starter and pitch the lot. Iv'e used dry yeast and god forbid me bread yeast (JAO) and the clear winner is the liquid yeast, even though I pitched not enough cell's, it still cleared up and has turned out great. I filtered water from the tap through a carbon filter but my mate has some well supply that is apparently really soft water so im going to try my next batch with that. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]Keys to brewing a great Mead: [/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]1. The best ingredients[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]2. Yeast health and fermentation[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]3. Keep it in glass after primary and keep an eye on the PH that it doesn't drop below 3.2[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14pt]4. Patiense[/SIZE]


By no means am I an expert at brewing mead. I have read a book on mead and im very interested in brewing more but thats just what ive learned over the last couple of years. I do love the flavours the JAO mead brings but for starting out I just want to see what Honey brings and in a way there is so much more complexity in just Honey than adding herbs spices and fruit blah blah. That for me is the next fronteer and im looking forward to it.


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## mash head (11/6/13)

Good work. It must have been a fairly big batch to need a 5lt starter. Nothing other than fermented honey aye, sounds interesting.


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## tanukibrewer (12/6/13)

Your mead looks awesome. But for me it is a case of never again.i can brew beers of a fairly decent standard but in the couple of times I have tried to make mead all I ended up with was a petrol like substance that cost me about $12-$15 a litre.


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## WarmBeer (12/6/13)

Gav80 said:


> [SIZE=14pt]Honey 100%[/SIZE]
> [SIZE=14pt]Yeast Wyeast 4184 Sweet mead[/SIZE]
> ...
> [SIZE=14pt]I filtered water from the tap through a carbon filter [/SIZE]


So, if it's 100% honey, what's the water for?


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## Airgead (12/6/13)

The amount of honey is important. Even the sweet mead yeast will result in a dry mead if the OG is too low.

The sweet mead yeast is just a yeast with a low alcohol tolerance (I think its 12-14% or so). Any mead with a potential alcohol < 14% will end up dry. Any with a potential > 14% will end up progressively sweeter.

But yes, a straight mead. Just honey, water and yeast, with proper aging, is a wonderful thing. I find at least a year is needed. Like you say, its a patient man's game.

If as someone said, it comes out like petrol, there are a few things to try. It sounds like fusils are being produced. that could be due to a ferment temp too high, so try keeping it down around 16c or so. The other thing could be yeast stress. Honey is very low in nutrients and this can stress the yeast and cause long, slow fermentations with lots of weird stuff being produced. Add some yeast nutrient and that may well help. And again, proper aging. they do taste pretty ordinary for a while.

My recipe for a straight mead-

For a dry, I use honey for a potential alcohol of 12%-14% (OG around 1.090..to 1.100). 71B yeast is by goto yeast for mead. It has a tolerance of 14% or so. Yeast nutrient. At least 1 year in the bottle.

For a semi sweet, I'll push the potential alcohol to 15-16% (OG 1.120-1.125), Otherwise same as before.

For a fully sweet, I'll push the potential alcohol to 17-18% (OG 1.130-1.140).

If I want a dry mead with a higher alcohol, I'll use a yeast like DV10 or D47 which will go up to 16%. For a really strong one you can go something like EC1118 which will go up to 18%.

Cheers
Dave


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## mash head (12/6/13)

Do you boil your honey? I know from brewer pete and others that the need to boil is debatable.
Presently I just add it to my beer but would like to experiment with mead (I have access to tonnes of honey). At least a year has me thinking though, I know good things come to those who wait but my patience would be tested. Before any one else jumps on me I know some meads mature for a lot longer.


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## Airgead (12/6/13)

Nope.. I'm strictly in the no boil camp.

I find that boiling kills a lot of flavour and aroma compounds. Honey is naturally hostile to microbes anyway so care and attention to sanitaion plus a big pitch of yeast mean that I have never had a batch go bad. You only need to work about honey once its diluted.

Cheers
Dave

Edit - if you want something that matures a bit quicker.. some fruit meads (melomels) are a good choice.. they can mature in a couple of months... but are better after a year or so)


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## Airgead (12/6/13)

Oh... and for the pedants out there (And I know this forum contains more than one)... its not "Honey Mead". its just Mead. Mead is by definition made with honey. So the honey part is redundant.

If you want to get technical.. a strong, sweet mead is called Sack.

Cheers
Dave


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## tricache (12/6/13)

Tried my first mead (honey and fruit based) start of the year and its been bottled for about 2 months so far, looking forward to trying it for Christmas, doubt it will be as amazing as that but fingers crossed it doesn't taste like drain cleaner :lol:

My next mead I will be trying liquid yeast for sure and dropping the fruit and just going straight honey and water.

One question, did you use finings or a clearing agent or is just just natural clearing?


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## Airgead (12/6/13)

Have to say something here about yeast. Specifically liquid yeast.

I use liquid yeast in all my beers. Reason - all the good strains come as liquid.

In my meads I use dry yeast. Reason - all the good strains come as dry strains from the winemaking industry.

Its not whether the yeast is liquid or dry that makes the difference. Its the strain. In the beer world, liquid yeast is king because the strains that survive drying (while getting better) are generally less good than the ones you can only get as a liquid. In the wine world its different. there dry yeast is king. For some reason, wine strains survive drying more than beer strains and all the good winemaking strains are available dry.

Dry yeast is cheaper, easier to handle, gives a huge number of viable cells and in the wine world has all the best strains.

Don't get hung up on liquid yeast for mead. Its not worth it.

Cheers
Dave


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## Mardoo (12/6/13)

Airgead, I was thinking of trying some Belgian yeast with a dark honey I've gotten. I'm guessing you've tried and it's not worth pursuing? I have little mead experience so maybe that idea is just a wind egg?


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## Airgead (12/6/13)

Actually, never tried the belgian mead myself. Could be a good match with a darker honey.

One thing to watch though - the yeast won't necessarily give the same flavours as it does in beer. Thee esters etc produced depend on the precursor chemicals and trace elements available to the yeast. Those are completely different in honey compared to malt.

Not saying it won't work but just be aware.

Mind you... a belgian braggot has been on my to do list for a while now. Might do it as a winter warmer for next year.

Cheers
Dave


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## Mardoo (12/6/13)

Also Airgead I've been meaning to ask you whether you start out adding all the honey before pitching or do progressive additions of honey after pitching? I've run across both as suggestions but am curious about results of each method.


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## Mardoo (12/6/13)

Airgead said:


> Mind you... a belgian braggot has been on my to do list for a while now. Might do it as a winter warmer for next year.
> 
> Cheers
> Dave


Thanks Dave! Definitely on my list too for a while. I got delayed by an unexpected move. But hopefully I'll get it in the fermentor in the next month or so. Thinking of adding some rye.


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## Airgead (12/6/13)

Mardoo said:


> Also Airgead I've been meaning to ask you whether you start out adding all the honey before pitching or do progressive additions of honey after pitching? I've run across both as suggestions but am curious about results of each method.


I keep it simple. Just add it all at once. I find its more predictable that way.

The only exception is if I am aiming for something sweet where I might add a little more at the end just to sweeten it up a bit once the yeast has konked out. Trouble with that is doing progressive additions can re-activate the yeast and take it way over its usual alcohol tolerance. I have ended up adding a little then a little more and more... and ending up with an 18% mead from a 14% yeast.

I also add any fruit after primary fermentation as it retains more fruit character.

Plain meads though.. all at once.

Cheers
dave


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## Mardoo (12/6/13)

Wonderful. Thank you so much!


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## spryzie (12/6/13)

What's the SG of pure honey?

How much water to add to get 1.140 for a sweet mead?


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## Airgead (12/6/13)

Depends on the honey. Somewhere in the region of 1.5kg for a 4l batch will get you into the ballpark.

Its hard to measure SH undiluted honey. Its so thick that you need special refractometers or hydrometers.

Fortunately its easy to adjust. Aim a little low, test and add more honey till its right.

Cheers
Dave


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## spryzie (12/6/13)

And you would not carb it, yes? Because the yeast are dead?

And it takes a year?

I might make 2 wine bottles of it as I've got some empties.

Add yeast, ferment, decant off yeast after 1 month, wait a year, yes?

I'll do it in the bottles - don't own a demijohn.


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## Airgead (12/6/13)

Whoa there.. easy boy...

For a start you are going to want way more than two wine bottles of this. I mean you are waiting a year. That's a long time for 2 bottles.

Second thing is that you do need to get it off the yeast once its finished and dropped clear. That means decanting it somehow. At the very least you will need a third wine bottle to decant into. The big problem you will have is that decanting into another bottle will leave a lot of head space. Headspace and wine/mead are not good friends. You want the minimum headspace possible while aging. Ina bottle, your volume is very low so the surface area exposed will be high. In a demijohn the volume is higher so the exposed surface area is proportionally lower.

I ferment in 5l demijons. I rack (transfer) once when it drops clear them age in a second demijohn for another few weeks to get it really clear (maybe a third time if its a fruit mead and has lots of sediment) then I bottle and let it age in the bottle. You really want to minimise contact with oxygen once its finished.

I would invest in a small demijohn or two. They are < $20 at your local brew shop. That will make about 6 bottles which is a better number to wait for. And you will have less headspace issues.

You could also use 2-3l glass juice bottles. They work well and ere even cheaper than demijohns.

Cheers
Dave


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## spryzie (12/6/13)

Ah, OK, head space bad. Got it!

My problem is every purchase I make is an excuse for the wife to add to her handbag collection.

Consumables don't count.

I can buy more wine I suppose....


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## Airgead (12/6/13)

Just buy flagons of sherry and port. Use them as small fermenters once you have emptied them.

That way you can claim to the wife that you are reducing costs by re-using stuff.

Cheers
Dave


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## Thefatdoghead (12/6/13)

mash head said:


> Good work. It must have been a fairly big batch to need a 5lt starter. Nothing other than fermented honey aye, sounds interesting.


Sorry I just wrote the ingredients like that because I wasn't writing the whole recipe down. It was 6kg of honey and water to make about 19 litters.


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## Thefatdoghead (12/6/13)

WarmBeer said:


> So, if it's 100% honey, what's the water for?


I don't write water as a percentage of my ingredients when I'm making recipes. Do you?


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## Airgead (12/6/13)

Gav80 said:


> Sorry I just wrote the ingredients like that because I wasn't writing the whole recipe down. It was 6kg of honey and water to make about 19 litters.


The gotmead calculator (http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=745&Itemid=16) puts that at around 1.094. That gives 12.5% potential.

The wyeast sweet mead yeast has a tolerance of 11% so it would have fermented down and left the residual sugars. There would be about 0.7kg of unfermented honey left in the brew which would leave it nicely sweet.

Cheers
Dave


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## WarmBeer (12/6/13)

Gav80 said:


> I don't write water as a percentage of my ingredients when I'm making recipes. Do you?


No. But you also didn't indicate OG, volumes, or ratios, of ingredients .

Any of these methods would allow an _experienced_ brewer to figure it out. A noob _might_ take your post as gospel and pour yeast into 100% honey.


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## Thefatdoghead (12/6/13)

WarmBeer said:


> No. But you also didn't indicate OG, volumes, or ratios, of ingredients .
> 
> Any of these methods would allow an _experienced_ brewer to figure it out. A noob _might_ take your post as gospel and pour yeast into 100% honey.


I thought the person asking the question had made Mead before. Your gravity as a rough guide will come down 1 point after fermentation. Generally you'll use 6kg of honey in a 19L batch, thats depending on whether your aiming for a dry mead, show mead, sweet mead or desert mead. 
For the new guys getting into it there is a good book on mead making called "The Complete Meadmaker" by Ken Schramm which is great and covers just about everything. Better off reading that than reading my half pissed ramblings on here I spose.


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## brettprevans (12/6/13)

All u need is kens book and airgheads jao thread. principle is the just the same. And if your half a brewer make 19L batches. If ur ageing the prick the last thing u want is to wait 2 yrs it be liquid gold and youve made 6 bottles (ie 5L). Im still spewing my 21 L of jao is now 3 yrs old and ive obly got 5 bottles left. My other mead of 19L and yrs old is gone. My pyment of 19L has about 2L left and is only 6 months. 

Dont go big batches if u cant brew. If u havent read a brew book read one ffs. Learn then brew. 

Amen. 

Hmmm maybe ill have the last bottle of 4yr old barleywine I have... nah ill save that for the next collaboration brew day. Ill leave the 2yr old plum braggot also. Nice choc wheat porter I think....


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## Airgead (12/6/13)

citymorgue2 said:


> All u need is kens book and airgheads jao thread.


I claim no credit for the JAO thread. That was Brewer Pete's doing. My particular contribution to that one was limited to shuddering at the thought of using bread yeast.

Ken's book is a good read though.

Cheers
Dave


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## mash head (12/6/13)

Gav80 said:


> Sorry I just wrote the ingredients like that because I wasn't writing the whole recipe down. It was 6kg of honey and water to make about 19 litters.


I knew there was water added, just havnt seen too many recipes that aren't complicated with fruit or other additives. If some fool added yeast to some undiluted honey they would deserve the resultant failure.


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## brettprevans (12/6/13)

Airgead said:


> I claim no credit for the JAO thread. That was Brewer Pete's doing. My particular contribution to that one was limited to shuddering at the thought of using bread yeast.
> 
> Ken's book is a good read though.
> 
> ...


shit it was too. My apols. Still u give good advice.


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## spryzie (14/6/13)

What are the thoughts on raisins?

Google tells me they might help the yeast with some nutrients?


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## brettprevans (14/6/13)

spryzie said:


> What are the thoughts on raisins?
> 
> Google tells me they might help the yeast with some nutrients?


meh sounds like hocus pocus. raisins are in JAO mead. raisens are dried grapes. its sugar. sugar ferments. leave a differant taste to grapes. they are good. but its still fructose. and yeast gets lazy if it eats too much sucrose and fructose first. its needs maltose first as maltose is harder to convert. its why belgian beers add most of their sugar throughout the fermentation and not just at the boil. the yeast gets fat an lazy on easy convertible sugaz and then wont ferment the maltose. 

there is no substitute for proper yeast nutrients except yeast. boil up shitty dried coopers yeast etc and they are a pure nutriant. so bread yeast. other its DAP or similar.


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## Airgead (14/6/13)

They used rasins back in the day for nutrients. Rasins are also covered in oils to stop them sticking together plus wild yeasts, bacteria and all sorts of stuff.

These days we have proper yeast nutrients. You can get them for a few bucks at the brew shop.

Cheers
Dave


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## spryzie (22/7/13)

I racked after 5 weeks. A whole lot of new sediment formed. Still cloudy. Going to take a while to clear I think.

Tastes like honey flavoured petrol.


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## Airgead (22/7/13)

Patience grasshopper... you must learn patience.


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## spryzie (30/8/13)

Still hasn't cleared.

Tastes less like rocket fuel than before though.


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## AshleyDoran (15/10/14)

Guys, also dont be afraid to spice your mead! You will be amazed how a few cinnamon sticks and some cloves add to the flavor!

Also, when bottling, put a vanilla pod in a few of them and save for special occasions... they are the best IMHO.


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## AshleyDoran (15/10/14)

Also 1 to 2 cloves per 5 litres... but no more. It will overpower the flavor too much.


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## NickyJ (17/10/14)

Just 1 cinnamon stick per 5L I assume?


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## Airgead (17/10/14)

Even that may be too much. Its really easy to overdo the spices. Taste daily and rack off the spice when its a little under where you think it should be. It may strengthen as it ages. If it doesn't its easy to add more. If it does and you haven;t allowed for it, its really hard to take some away...


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