Mead!

[Queen of the Ryche]

http://www.meadfest.com/

[wolf]

Queen! Missed yah. And such a wonderful thing to come back with, too.

[Trilby]

I missed ya, too, Queen! I hope you're back to stay for a bit!

[Sundae]

Mead makes me shudder....

[barefoot serpent]

Tej is an Ethiopian honey beverage -- the ones I've had had a more beer-like taste than mead but I think it runs a continuum.

[footfootfoot]

twenty years ago, I repaired some guy's wooden cross country skis. he snapped one in two. it was a phenomenal rebuild job, you couldn't see the join, took hours, cost more than the skis, they had sentimantal value.

He was a bee keeper, among other things, and paid me partly in honey. Buckets of honey. Along the way I also ended up with a gallon of buckwheat honey, really black and strong tasting.

I brewed a batch of mead, flavored with fresh ginger, (fermetation accelerant) and it was pretty good as memory serves.

A couple of friends of mine still talk about it, and friends of theirs who never even tasted it will stop me on the street and ask me if I'll make it again.

twenty years later.

a) like I remember what I did
b) it couldn't possibly have been that good
c) like I have the time.

Though I am making sake from scratch right now. this is # 3. First time out it was like a wonderful unsweet syrup, that left you with a brain crushing headache the next day. I'm hoping to resolve that aspect this time.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Mead does run a continuum: still to sparkling, and from Merrydown Mead's syrupy sweetness to something more dry. The Society for Creative Anachronism has a lot of amateur meadmaking, with about the range of results you'd expect, everything from very good, savored up with various suitable herbs, down to stuff you might as well use to kill garden slugs.

[wolf]

The stuff is more available than water at most pagan festivals. Forks tends to be well-stocked with mead as a consequence of this.

[Elspode]

I am blessed to live in a community which has several *very* talented mead-makers, all of whom I am even more blessed to call friends (meaning that they share freely and sell at reasonable prices - don't tell anyone, though, 'cause that's illegal). The variety and palatability of meads is as wide as any other fermented beverage, and much depends on the individual's tastes, likes and dislikes as anything else.

My wife, for example, prefers the sweeter meads, favoring a lower alcohol content and a higher sugar content. She is in particular rather fond of straight honey mead without any gussying-up with fruits or other components. I, however, am a huge fan of the drier, harder meads. Fortunately, my good friend, the legendary Shaggyman, makes a Garnet mead that rivals any of the driest red varietal grape wines around. Delightful, and I look forward to each new batch with great anticipation.

I don't know about your part of the country, but around here, mead making has declined as honey prices have soared. Damn it.

[footfootfoot]

the bees are having a very tough time of it. there are only 1/4 as many hives in the US as there were 10 years ago.
varoa and tracheal mites have wiped out all the wild hives. hobbiest beekepers have declined as it is much harder to keep the hives healthy.

sad bees

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

the bees are having a very tough time of it. there are only 1/4 as many hives in the US as there were 10 years ago.
varoa and tracheal mites have wiped out all the wild hives. hobbiest beekepers have declined as it is much harder to keep the hives healthy.

sad bees

So what's happening with the killer bees? I heard that the reason they were bred was that they produced more honey. Are they mixed into this?

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Elspode

I don't know about your part of the country, but around here, mead making has declined as honey prices have soared. Damn it.

Around here, they just charge more for it.

In a pinch, Camelot Mead is quite drinkable, and unlike Bunratty, is an actual mead rather than honeyed wine.

[footfootfoot]

the "killer" bees wre initiallt bred w/ so. am. honey bees who were too hot to feel like working. The bees are actually african bees who don't mind the heat so much, but aren't particularly interested in business either.(no racist jokes here) the thinking was that you'd end up with a bee that liked to work (euro honey bee) and who didn't mind the heat(african bee).

We ended up with a bee that doesn't like to work, and doesn't work and play well with the other children.

The good news is that they don't seem to like the cold all that much and their inexorable migration north has slowed somewhat.

the mites, tracheal and varroa, are really the problem.

sizewise, it would be comparable to you having three or four leeches the size of dinner plates attached to your body while you tried to go about your daily work.

so, hug a bee today.

[FallenFairy]

For any and all who live in the VA/DC/MD area - you can make your own mead (and a variety of wines) at the following shop - it is an on-premises wine facility... I made 2 cases of a wonderful Shiraz this past summer for X-mas giving...

www.dementedgrape.com

The owner Dave is fantastic, very learned and has won numerous awards for his mead. Definitely worth the time!!

[Sundae]

Just found a very simple mead recipe (from PD, but was sourced from elswhere on the internet).

I'm tempted, tempted...
Any suggestions from mead drinkers/ makers here?

Gyrth's Quick or "Short" Mead
Ingredients
2 quarts honey
5 gal water
2 cups strong tea
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3-5 lemons
Mead yeast

A plastic sieve
wooden spoon
big pot
5 gallon jug or carboy
thermometer
all yours and everyone else's used coke or beer bottles

What follows is a step by step explanation from Duke Sir Gyrth Oldcastle of Ravenspur on exactly how he makes mead:

First, boil water. I make two batches at a time with a three gallon pot. Add honey on a one part honey to nine parts water basis. (Honey weighs 12 lb. to the gallon.) I use a quart per 2 1/2 gallon batch. Stir it about to dissolve the honey in the water. 7he honey will sink to the bottom of the pot and burn unless stirred at first. When the mixture is bubbling happily, a whitish scum will riser to the surface. Spoon it away.

Scum removal is a topic of controversy among brewers. Some maintain that complete removal is the only way to go,- others like myself skim until there's only a very little left. Suit yourself.

Remove from heat and add one cup of very strong tea (2 cups per 5 gallons) (From herein on I assume that the measurements are for 5 gallons of mead)), 1 teaspoon of ginger, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg, and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Then take 3-5 lemons, Slice them thin, and throw them in. Let the lemons steep in the must (must is what you call incipient mead) for 30 minutes; then remove the slices. The tea and lemon move the pH of the must towards one comfortable for the yeast.

Let the whole caboodle cool to about 80-85 degrees F. Then introduce your yeast to it, cap it with an airlock, and stand back. Afier 5 days taste it. If too sweet, let it continue; if too alcoholic (unlikely) add more boiled honey and water. Keep tasting daily until sweetness and alcohol balance each other out. Syphon it off into bottles and refrigerate. If not refrigerated, it will get progressively less sweet and slide irrevocably into undrinkability. Let stand 2-5 weeks. Drink and enjoy. it ties up refrigerator space, but tends to be worth it.

NOTE - When refrigerated the mead tends to settle, and at this point I find it advantageous to siphon again into clean bottles, seal tightly, and re-refrigcrate. It makes for a sweeter, more sparkling mead.