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Wasabi

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Guys,

On the Cats Meow, and Gambrius Mug the Mead comes under a variety of categories, but I'm having a hard time finding out a clear definition of what they are.

Here's the list so far

CYSER

MELOMEL

PYMENT

METHEGLIN

BRAGGOT

Does anyone know what the difference is between them? I think a lot of it has to do with how sweet they are, and I think Braggot is a half beer/half mead concoction.

Anyone?/
 
The OKB (OzKitBeers) yahoo group would be a good place to find out.

Few mead brewers in there.
 
I Hope This helps! :)

Traditional Mead
A mead made primarily from honey, water and yeast. Meads which feature the character of a blended honey or a blend of honeys.

Metheglin
A mead made with the addition of spices or herbs.

Cyser (Apple Melomel)
A mead made with the addition of apples or apple juice. Traditionally, cysers are made by the addition of honey to apple juice without additional water.

Pyment (Grape Melomel)
A mead made with the addition of grapes or grape juice. Alternatively, the pyment may be a grape wine sweetened with honey, a mixture of grape juice and honey that is fermented or a mixture of grape wine and mead mixed after fermentation.

Other Fruit Melomel

A mead made with the addition of other fruit or fruit juices. There should be an appealing blend of the fruit and honey character but not necessarily an even balance.

Braggot
Meads made with both honey and malt providing flavor and fermentable extract. Originally, and alternatively, a mixture of mead and ale.
 
Armstrong said:
I Hope This helps! :)

Traditional Mead
A mead made primarily from honey, water and yeast. Meads which feature the character of a blended honey or a blend of honeys.

Metheglin
A mead made with the addition of spices or herbs.

Cyser (Apple Melomel)
A mead made with the addition of apples or apple juice. Traditionally, cysers are made by the addition of honey to apple juice without additional water.

Pyment (Grape Melomel)
A mead made with the addition of grapes or grape juice. Alternatively, the pyment may be a grape wine sweetened with honey, a mixture of grape juice and honey that is fermented or a mixture of grape wine and mead mixed after fermentation.

Other Fruit Melomel

A mead made with the addition of other fruit or fruit juices. There should be an appealing blend of the fruit and honey character but not necessarily an even balance.

Braggot
Meads made with both honey and malt providing flavor and fermentable extract. Originally, and alternatively, a mixture of mead and ale.
Here's a few more for your list.

Morat - a melomel made from mulberries

Hippocras (Traditionally) - A pyment infused with medicinal herbs and spices (named after Hippocrates - the father of medicine)

Omphacomel - a pyment made from virjuice (the juice from unripe grapes)


I'ts just a hobby ... honest!

Cheers,
Pete

:chug:
 
OMG. I think I'm going to brew a mead one day... maybe this year too.
 
Guys,

Thanks for that. That more than fills in the holes in my Mead Vocab.

PostModern, the one key ingredient in all Meads is patience. I have a lovely one called "Dark and Wicked Mead" that will be ready to drink in 4 more weeks.

It's been waiting there reasing me for the past 48!

It's funny, as it was my first mead I didn't want to make too much as I wanted to be able to leave it in a glass carboy for 6 months and I just don't have a big carboy. I ended up putting it into two seperate 2 Gallon ones.

Even though they sat next to each other in the same temp for 6 months, one has turned out drier than the other. But they were both very nice when I bottled them.

The Morat sounds partcularly interesting.....
 
I'm inspired because in "the old country", mead was/is more popular than beer. Check out The Lithuanian Mead site.

Who could ever think that the bees, the moon and the magic drink created by person could enrich happiness and memoirs of the wedding. The mead is the drink of love, you know. Colloquialism honey-moon arose from noisy wedding feasts, which in the Northern countries lasted until mead and beer came to the end.
 
Making Mead

Will have 2 buckets of honey caps to make mead with this weekend.
Have liquid sweet mead yeast.
Getting winemakers acid blend.
Will be able to make 20-30ltrs.

5 ltrs will become a liquour spiced metheglin...

Anyone got any hints, tips etc for making mead...

this is my first Mead foray...
 
I tasted my first mead on the weekend. A metheglin from Bartholomews Meadery (Denmark, WA). Was damn tasty. Initial taste reminded me of the crisp bite of a white wine, then followed after that was lovely smooth honey sweetness with a nice hint of spice (cinnamon? clove? lovely). Definately a drink to be savoured in moderation.

I think I'll have to give a mead a go sometime soon.
 
GSRman said:
what prey-tell is a honey cap?

Honey caps is what the Bee keeper removes to get access to the honey underneath.

it is mostly bees wax with some honey on it.
You wash the caps in cold water and the honey gets disolved into the water..

You then boil to get rid of any excess wax/protiens etc...
 
GMK,

Here's my last one that worked out a treat

2.27KG Honey
140gms Molasses
1 Tbsp Vanilla Essence
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 Tsp Ground Ginger
1/8 Tsp Grape Tannin
1/8 Tsp Acid Mix
GERVIN WINE YEAST

Put
3/4 Gallon Water
Honey
Molasses
In brew vessel and bring to just off the boil. Hold for 30 mins.

At 25 Mins add Grape Tannin and Acid Mix

Remove from heat and add other ingredients

Top up to 2 Gallons

Rack to Glass Carboys (2)

OG: 1.084

NOTES
Started: 07/07/2002
Nice initial start slowed at about 15 days

Racked 5/10/2002 - tasting good already
Bottled: 02/01/2003
Mead from different Carboys tasted different. Have marked them 1 and 2.

1 is slightly sweeter than the drier number 2

Ready to Drink June 2003 and onwards!
 
Thanks for the recipee Wasabi.

I am not sure about the molasis...

I usually find that it overwhelms things....not as much as black treacle though...

everything else looks good.

I will post my recipee/method after i have made it.
Currently looking at using a herbal tea - lemon/camomile for the tanin.
Also thinking of using 1/2 handfull of cascade....
 
The only thing wrong with using tea to add astringency to a wine or mead is the lack of control. You don't know exactly how much tannin is contained within "one strong cup of tea". Better that you use 1.5 to 2 grams of tannic acid per gallon, in my belief any way, as this is a much more accurate method. Of course measuring this small amount may be equally as difficult without a very accurate scale, but the old method of using strong tea or the juice of one lemon just seems to beg innacuracy.

Or maybe I'm just too damn uptight :p

Cheers,
Pete

:chug:
 

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