I have to send a correction. My earlier post should have read:
www.libation.com not libations. woops.
This site sells from Mountain Meadows, and Heidrun Meadery. I will be
sending them an e-mail about shipment and maybe they can clarify their
policy for me.

Angie

Hi there!

I am new to this list and new-ish to beer making (but not mead making). Now
I've been reading about braggots, herbal beers and historical brews. I've
got a yen to make a nettle/honey beer but need some recipe ideas. I also
haven't tackled all-grain brewing yet, but that's on my list.

Any recommendations for hops/yeast/malt that will go with fresh nettles and
fireweed honey, and still let the herbal flavor come through?

Thanks! & looking forward to inspiration from everyone,
Joanna of Seven Trees
http://www.seventrees.blogspot.com

On Wed, 05 Apr 2006, in MLD 1258 Spencer Thomas wrote:

>Mead folklore has it that mead goes to your legs. I remember
>reading this early in my meadmaking career. Might have been
>in the Gayre/Papazian book.

It was. On page 53 of "Wassail! In Mazers of Mead":

(refering to the old Anglo-Saxon riddle for mead:)
The riddle draws attention to the excess of mead
going especially to the legs. This traditional effect
of mead is commonly accepted among old country
mead-makers, and it receives confirmation from
Poland, where it is said that the abuse of liquor
"makes you drunk only from the waist downwards,
and with surprising effects upon strangers who
discover they are drunk only when they attempt
to rise."

In this section, according to the footnote, Gayre was
quoting from Paul Super, 'The Polish Tradition,' London
1942, p. 120.

<><><><><><><><><><>
<><><><><><><><>

Dan McFeeley

"Meon an phobail a thogail trid an chultur"
(The people's spirit is raised through culture)

Aaron Martin Linder <lindera@umich.edugt; wrote:

> …
>

> i have an off-dry mead in secondary in my basement. it has
> been there for around 5 months. I was hoping to get some
> fruit flavor into it. has anyone tried adding fruit flavorings
> (the ones with no sugars, to be added at bottling), such as
> the ones from www.morebeer.com? i don't mind if it is not as
> complex as real fruit, just enjoyable.

I buy extracts from AdamsExtract.com (no relationship) and have
been very satisified. My experience is that an extract must be
cleared if you want a clean appearance to your mead.

> second, i have a second dry mead that is in bottles and is
> around 5-6 months old. it is an orange-blossom, off-dry mead.
> i think i added too much yeast nutrient and energizer to get
> the primary fermentation going when i smelled some serious H2S
> gas! Anyway, it has a bit of a harsh aftertaste. Will this
> bite resolve itself if I let it age for a year or more a) if
> it is due to the nutrient and/or b) if it is due to something
> else?

This a problem for a real Mazer. For what it's worth, I brew
primarily traditional meads using two packets of Lalvin EC-1118
and 2-1/2 teaspoons of Fermax nutrient. The nutrient gets added
in stages: 50% now; 25% three hours after fermentation has become
obvious; and 25% after the SG has dropped by 1/3. That was a tip
from an old geezer Mazer (LoL) and it has served me very well.

Dick

CORRECTION
All judges must be BJCP certified (any ranking) OR have relevant experience.
Sorry for the omission.

Good luck and cheers!

Christopher Clair
buzzclub <at> verizon.net
http://hbd.org/buzz

Hi. I embarking upon making my second-ever batch of mead. The first one,

to my surprise, turned out to be pretty much exactly what I was

looking for: bubbly and the dry side of the scale. (Most of my
mead-drinking friends go for still, sweeter meads, so this was a bit of
an experiment.)

Getting what I wanted was more a matter of luck than skill, though, and
this time I would like to be a bit more systematic with the process.

Here's what I did last time. Started with 40 oz (5 lbs) of honey and 1
gallon of water. Did the heating/skimming thing and then steeped 3
lemons, 12 cloves, 1 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg in the
honey water for 25 minutes. Strained and added 8 oz tea. Let cool and
then put into my fermenter (a 1 1/2 gallon glass bottle with airlock)
along with a package of Red Star Champagne yeast. After about two weeks
of fermentation, the airlock stopped bubbling and I tasted the mead,
which was too dry even for my tastes.

Consequently — and because I figured all the sugars were fermented and
I wanted bubbly mead — I added another 8 oz of honey (cooked with 12 oz
of water and skimmed). After about three days, it tasted right, so I
decanted it into wine bottles, figuring the corks would serve as a
pressure release if carbonation worked too well. (I ended up with the
cork popping out of one of the bottles). After about a week, when the
cork popped, I poured the mead into Grolsch bottles and refrigerated.

As I said, I got something pretty close to what I was looking for, but
more by accident. My two main questions:

1) How do I go about making mead that is dry but not too dry? Was

waiting for the bubbles to stop the wrong thing to do? Is there a
general rule of thumb for how long quick meads take to ferment,
realizing that tastes differ as to how dry you're looking for.

2) How do I know when I'm at the point where there's enough yeast and

sugar left to carbonate it, but not so much as to cause explosion? Is
there something similar to beer making I should do, where I put in a
certain amount of honey per certain amount of mead before bottling it?

One thing to note is that I didn't do any measurements while making the
first, but I do now have a hydrometer, since I would assume that would
help in being more precise.

Thanks for your help.

• -tjg

The BJCP Guidelines for braggot say that it is a standard mead made
with both honey and malt providing flavor and fermentable extract. it
goes on to say that the fermentable sugars should come from a balance
of malt or malt extract and honey, although the specific balance is
open to creative interpretation by brewers, and it may or may not be
hopped.

As for percentages, I would say that neither component should be less
than about 30% of the mix. But of course, that is open to
interpretation.

Steve