National Mead Day 2010

[Tannin Boy]

I too will be toasting the day with a 14 month old bottle of dry, traditional, goldenrod mead. And then perhaps open up a smaller bottle of the sparkling version of the same!

Cheers 'n' 'nat! (<---- Pittsburghese for "Cheers and all the good stuff that goes with it as well!")

PB,

I would be interested in your opinion and comparison of both?
I to will someday try making a sparkling version of mead to see
how each stacks up against one another..

 

[d.j.patterson]

In honor of Mead Day, I racked over my traditional, an orange mel, and my cyser. I will post tasting notes of all.

I also mixed up my test recipe for the chocolate group brew. I am truly excited. My cyser is a bit young but I think I will end up polishing off a bottle anyway.

Happy Mazing!

 

[PitBull]

PB,

I would be interested in your opinion and comparison of both?
I to will someday try making a sparkling version of mead to see
how each stacks up against one another..

The CO2 adds crispness to the mead. The sparkling mead is especially good chilled and seems to be popular with the ladies who have tried it. The process is very simple.

When I’m ready to bottle my mead, I mix 1 to 1.5 fluid ounces of the same honey in 3 to 4 ounces of boiled water for each gallon I want to carbonate. After I let it cool, I rack one gallon of mead onto the mixture in a 4 liter sterilized carboy (wine jug). I swirl the mixture to mix it and then bottle it at the same time as the still mead. One gallon of mead plus 4 ounces of the mixture yields exactly eleven 12-ounce crown (beer) bottles of sparkling mead. Now you have exactly the same mead for a side-by-side comparison of sparkling vs. still mead. This also produced great results with a peach ginger melomel.

Of course you have to make sure that your yeast has some potential left to consume more fermentables. It may be my imagination, but it seems the sparkling is drinkable a bit sooner than the still mead.

 

[Chevette Girl]

A days accomplishment Indeed and then some.
The Ginger Hydromel sounds great..

The rackings were all 1-gal batches, so not so great an accomplishment. And I cheated with the 3-gal rebottling, it was screwtop bottles...

The ginger hydromel is very quick and easy, 1 lb of unpeeled ginger, chopped in a blender. (http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16243)

Today I experimented with an idea I got from a book (there's a thread on Sparkling Mead with more details http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthread.php?p=146684#post146684 ), I near-froze my fizzy hydromel and poured it into a chilled bottle, got rid of the sediment without losing the fizz and nowhere near as messy as one might anticipate... let the hydromel warm up in the refrigerator and drank it a couple hours later, still fizzy, no sediment, success!

 

[Chevette Girl]

Now you have exactly the same mead for a side-by-side comparison of sparkling vs. still mead. This also produced great results with a peach ginger melomel.

Of course you have to make sure that your yeast has some potential left to consume more fermentables. It may be my imagination, but it seems the sparkling is drinkable a bit sooner than the still mead.

I had an even better comparison once, with my accidentally sparkling mead, which I caught on to before it got out of hand so we kept it refrigerated. I guess the ferment had mostly stuck but wasn't quite done, or it didn't degas, or something. It was still a little sweet even so. We had a wine tasting at a friend's place and we each took two cups of the mead and agitated one to flatten it (I think we stirred with a knife?). But it was really interesting to see how it rated against itself, it tasted sweeter flat even with the exact same amount of residual sugar.

Some people liked it better sparkling, others preferred it flat. Everyone found it sweet compared to everything else, but the commercial wines everyone else brought were mostly medium or dry (I have so got to find other vintners in Ottawa!).

I've made perry and pear wine concurrently and the perry is so much faster... because of the lower alcohol content it clears within a couple weeks... but I don't like it dry so I generally add sweetener to it. This year I'll try it with honey and see if it tastes sweeter

 

[icedmetal]

We drank the peach mead... at 18% this stuff kicks yer butt. weeeeeee!

 

[Tannin Boy]

The CO2 adds crispness to the mead. The sparkling mead is especially good chilled and seems to be popular with the ladies who have tried it. The process is very simple.

When I’m ready to bottle my mead, I mix 1 to 1.5 fluid ounces of the same honey in 3 to 4 ounces of boiled water for each gallon I want to carbonate. After I let it cool, I rack one gallon of mead onto the mixture in a 4 liter sterilized carboy (wine jug). I swirl the mixture to mix it and then bottle it at the same time as the still mead. One gallon of mead plus 4 ounces of the mixture yields exactly eleven 12-ounce crown (beer) bottles of sparkling mead. Now you have exactly the same mead for a side-by-side comparison of sparkling vs. still mead. This also produced great results with a peach ginger melomel.

Of course you have to make sure that your yeast has some potential left to consume more fermentables. It may be my imagination, but it seems the sparkling is drinkable a bit sooner than the still mead.

Thanks for the reply and info PitBull!!!!
I look forward to trying this..

Carl

 

[PitBull]

Excellent comparison.

I had an even better comparison once, with my accidentally sparkling mead, which I caught on to before it got out of hand so we kept it refrigerated. I guess the ferment had mostly stuck but wasn't quite done, or it didn't degas, or something. It was still a little sweet even so. We had a wine tasting at a friend's place and we each took two cups of the mead and agitated one to flatten it (I think we stirred with a knife?). But it was really interesting to see how it rated against itself, it tasted sweeter flat even with the exact same amount of residual sugar.

Good test! I'm sure the flattened mead was very well aerated from the stirring. I'm not sure that a sparkling wine benefits much, if at all, from letting it breath. Otherwise there would be a tradeoff between "breathing" and "going flat".

I was given a Vinturi Wine Aerator as a Christmas gift. It seems to make a positive difference on a freshly opened bottle of still mead/wine. I received the red wine version, but I use it for white wines as well. I really don't see much of a need for two different aerators. After all, in the "old days" (a couple of years ago), wine was simply decanted and allowed to breath a couple of hours before serving.

 

[Yo momma]

Bnektars mead day was a super hit. We had honey vendors there as well as the Mead Mammas who did demos of Joe's Pyment as well as a Chocolate Rasberry. Live music from Chris Sowa as well as a group called Stone Flower who do Irish drinking music! Loose Pork sandwich and BBQ sauce made with the same ingredients as the meads served. We had a great time and I hope Brad or Paul will post the pics soon.

If yall have never tried the Margarita mead yet.......................WHAT ARE YA WAITING FOR! It is amazing what these guys have done.

What a great day there. I was thinking of yall every moment too as Mead Mammas told me they post here as well.

Happy belated Mead Day. May all your mazier adventures be great ones.