My Experiences With Mead

[Bmoyer0301]

I love all kinds of fermented things, and I always seem to want to experiment with stuff besides beer so the last two years I have been on a mead kick. Every mead I try is really kinda lack luster and boring being only honey and water to achieve either a sweet or dry finish. Well I really think there is going to be a explosion of mead makers making really awesome creative stuff here soon and almost mimicking the craft beer industry. If you ever get the chance to try Red Stone or Moonlight Meadery they probably are the best examples of creative mead in the USA.

Some of my previous mead experiments were:

Raspberry Melomel – 2008 (kinda dry and boring, so I hung up mead for a while)
Cherry Melomel – 2010 (Friend brought me a "food grade" bucket to use and it previously held pickles, you can guess how that tasted)
Gooseberry Braggot – 2011 (8% abv Golden Ale mash and added 12lbs of honey at flame out, aged on 5lbs of gooseberries. I still have some… mehhh and overcarbed)
Peach Ginger Melomel – 2013 (tasting good but the ginger needs to tame down a bit, it was made on 6/13, best mead to date I made)
Sake-Tu-Mead Melomel / Methlagen – 2014 (most recent 18lbs of honey, 6 lbs pear puree fermented with sake yeast. Green tea and slight ginger in the secondary)

So what appears on the surface to be so easy is really not, mead is one complex beast and I have been trying it now for 6 years and only have like 1 that I feel is OK. Hopefully with more experimentation I’ll land on a winner some day.

Have any of you nailed a really good mead? I’d like to know….

[tjsopcak]

I’m working on a semi-sweet mesquite honey mead and just added some super-kleer as it’s been close to two months and still hazy. It had fermented out within 2-3 weeks max after using a SNA [staggered nutrient addition] but I cant seem to kick the yeast haze yet. I’m hoping to bottle some soon and bring to the club for sampling.

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