Jao The Ultimate Beginners Mead Recipe

[damoninja]

I have one of these as per the recipe (but scaled up to 5L) going at nuts 20 degrees now, loved the no nonsense explanation of why things are done the way they are.

Fantastic thread.

 

[Milk-lizard84]

Hi there,
Just about to have a crack at making my first mead. Just curious is this fine to bottle in a long neck amd just capped or is it better suited in say a wine bottle?
Cheers

 

[Danwood]

Personally, I re-use Pedro Ximenez sherry bottles. They have cork stoppers with plastic tops.

Works for me as I only occasionally have a glass and seal it back up.

Put it in whatever suits your mead drinking habits, I suppose.

 

[Milk-lizard84]

Cheers Danwood. I might look at getting some long neck swing tops for ease of resealing. Cheers mate.

 

[superstock]

Swingtops

 

[Danwood]

Yep, I have swingtops for my bottled beer, but I like the look of the corked bottles more for my mead.

It seems 'fancier' !

 

[Milk-lizard84]

If your using cork stoppers im assuming that mead doesn't buildup with co2 when bottled? My thought was after fermenting for more than 2 months surely it cant habe co2 left

 

[mr_wibble]

Mine has now been ageing for just under a year.

I basically made it, forgot about it (not true at all, I kept admiring its clarity / orange floaties)
When it was water-clear I bottled it... but this was some months (3?) after making it.

 

[damoninja]

Hi there,
Just about to have a crack at making my first mead. Just curious is this fine to bottle in a long neck amd just capped or is it better suited in say a wine bottle?
Cheers

I was thinking of using screw cap wine bottles for easy resealing, since it's not going to be under any pressure it doesn't to need to be explosion proof.

 

[Milk-lizard84]

Cheers for the advice guys. I guess I still have ages until I can bottle it. Might go down the wine bottle track even seal it in wax to be super fancy.
Thanks again

 

[damoninja]

Cheers for the advice guys. I guess I still have ages until I can bottle it. Might go down the wine bottle track even seal it in wax to be super fancy.
Thanks again

Mine's been there for 20 days - I put it under the stairs and forgot about it. Occasionally I've taken a peep to see what's happening, surely enough still bubbling away.

 

[mr_wibble]

SWMBO and I tried some of this mead last night. It has now aged more than a year.

It was beautifully clear, just a tickle darker than a wheat-straw yellow.

Flavour was good, but I could not detect much of anything distinctly ... Guess that is correct to style.

It was a bit fumey, in the manner of a port wine. Will this diminish with further aging?

 

[DannyboyDS]

I just put one of these down, couldnt find any decent oranges so I peeled them and only added a fraction of the peel. My only concern is honey is very expensive and does not make allot of mead. This is my first mead experience and frankly almost my first brewing epxerience, almost.

Oh how the waiting game begins....

 

[Milk-lizard84]

My mead has been fermenting for about 6 weeks. It has cleared up a treat. Just waiting for the fruit to drop

 

[Chookers]

I made this once, and for my taste it is too sweet. That is the style I know. and I am not criticizing the recipe, it worked exactly as it said it would and I followed the instructions to the letter..

I am curious though, if I was to use Lalvin D-47 or SN9 yeast would I get something less sweet.. I don't like dry either.. I want something inbetween dry and sweet.. and if its a little fizzy that wouldn't hurt either.

I really liked the orange and spice flavours that came through and would like to preserve those.

Any one tried this recipe with these yeasts?

 

[DannyboyDS]

Man I read all 37 pages and people have used various yeasts, they have posted the results too. Have a flick through its actually an entertaining read, I cant wait for my batch to look like yours Milk-Lizard84, oh I want it NOW!

 

[Milk-lizard84]

Haha yeah I'm really looking forward to try this mead. It's my first batch but im willing to wait for awhile

 

[DannyboyDS]

I have a coopers home brew kit that has been sitting around for about a year now, I might crack it out and brew that in the mean time while I wait for this sweet sweet nectar to finish working, The hardest part will be letting it age for a month or so (short age cycle anyway) as once its in the bottles I will want to start tasting it.

 

[damoninja]

I made this once, and for my taste it is too sweet. That is the style I know. and I am not criticizing the recipe, it worked exactly as it said it would and I followed the instructions to the letter..

I am curious though, if I was to use Lalvin D-47 or SN9 yeast would I get something less sweet.. I don't like dry either.. I want something inbetween dry and sweet.. and if its a little fizzy that wouldn't hurt either.

I really liked the orange and spice flavours that came through and would like to preserve those.

Any one tried this recipe with these yeasts?

I have the same issue, way too sweet. I'm just going to throw in some SN9 and see how that goes, I'd much prefer it to be dry than as sweet as it is.

 

[TimT]

I think even when you get a dry mead sweet flavours will come through. Partly residual sugars from the honey, partly remaining aromas from the plants that the bees collect nectar from, partly something magical that the bees impart to it. The spices help too, and of course anything that you add post-primary fermentation.