Mead Lover's Digest #0273 Sun 6 March 1994

 

Forum for Discussion of Mead Making and Consuming
Dick Dunn, Digest Coordinator

 

Contents:

more pricing info (John Glaser)
Mead Lover's Digest (byro@genie.geis.com)

 

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Subject: more pricing info
 From: John Glaser <glaser@analog.ece.arizona.edu>
 Date: Sat, 5 Mar 94 14:34:22 -0700
 

Just another price data point. I get my honey for $0.70 to $0.80 a
pound, for twenty-thirty pounds at a time. This is for unprocessed
honey, either mesquite or citrus blossom, depending on what's
available. This great price is due to the fact that I know a baker at
a restaurant who can just tack my order onto the restaurants. The
beekeeper doesn't care, and will even put my order in a separate
bucket, as long as I promise to return the bucket (I usually include
a couple bottles of mead for good measure).

Commercially, one can buy a two-pack (6lbs.) of semi-local honey
(it's from Phoenix, I'm in Tucson) for just under $6 at the local
Price Costco warehouse club, formerly Price Club. Don't know how
processed it is, but it looks pretty clear. I've never used it for
mead.

John Glaser (glaser@analog.ece.arizona.edu)

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Subject: Mead Lover's Digest
 From: byro@genie.geis.com
 Date: Sat,  5 Mar 94 22:20:00 BST
 

I have brewed only 1 mead so far. It was made from raw honey, pure well water,
and a mix of European Ale yeast and Champagne yeast. I used 10 lbs honey
and added water to equal 5 gallons and the yeast. We didn't take specific
gravity. [ok, we're usually beer/ale brewers and usually more careful].
It took about 1 week for the mead to start fermenting enough to bubble the
airlock and it continued to ferment for several months, possibly 3 at
cool temperatures. We bottled it with 1/2 cup of honey and after aging
6 additional months it was tasted. It was clear, light straw color, semi-
dry, very carbonated with very tiny bubbles, and had a pronounced honey/
flowery bouquet. It has almost no honey taste, it's actually like a very
soft champagne with the honey all in the bouquet. [It's proved popular
enough that tasters of it have whined extra bottles out of us including
several friends in London] In any case, we're quite happy with it.

Our next project will need some help from more experienced mead brewers.
We would like to make a "wedding mead" in anticipation of that happy event
for two close friends. I understand that the Anglo-Saxons in pre-conquest
England made a wedding mead which was sweet and spiced. As this was also pre-
crusades…the spices used would not be those typically used now, right?

Anyone have any information or suggestions??

Barb Byro
BYRO@GENIE.GEIS.COM

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End of Mead Lover's Digest #273

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