by chuck
(64.35.128.143) on October 26, 2002 at 16:21:34:
In Reply to: How to Make Mead posted by Tony on October 26, 2002 at 12:17:19:
: My friend and I have tried to brew mead twice now and both times the out come has been less than great. The first time we did a regular batch. However, when it came to bottling we did it to soon. The mead had not compleatly cleared yet. It later cleared in the bottles leaving a 1/2 inch thick layer on the bottom of each bottle and a nasty taste! From this we tried to experament with a new batch (choosing to skip over the fact that we can't even get a regular batch made correctly) we the tried to make a strawberry mead with real hand picked strawberries! We then cut, cleaned, pealed, chopped some 13 pounds of strawberries and used 18 pounds of honey... and 2&1/2 years later we hade a finnished product. This time it cleared before we bottled it. But once again the end result was not even close to what we wanted. Mead should be a sweet wine. When we make it, it becomes rocket fuel. Even after we sweeten with sugar. Can you or someone go through a step by step on how to make mead so we can see where we went wrong. Thank you
A very basic recipe in a great book I found, called "First Steps In Winemaking", goes like this:
4# English Honey (its a british book)
1 Orange
1 Lemon
1 Gallon H2O
All purpose wine yeast
Pectic enzyme yeast nutrient
1. Put honey into water and bring to boiling.
2. Pour water/honey mixture into crock and allow to cool.
3. Add juice from orange and lemon.
4. Add yeast, then nutrient (nutrient very important)
5. Pour into fermentor and fit airlock.
6. Allow to ferment completely. (this takes much longer than your average "redneck" wine)
7. Rack when no further bubbles are passing.
8. Mature for a year after this.
My copy of this book is old, from the 50's. I see that it is still available at www.cellar-homebrew.com
I have never done this, and I hope this info is not too elementary, as you have obviously put great effort into your attempts.