Brewing TV does Mead

[manwithbeers]

Todays episode (21) of Brewing TV has an interview with mead maker Curt Stock. A nice discussion about how home brewing beer and mead seem more compatible than home wine making and mead. Use the coupon code for you next honey purchase at their sponsors shop?

http://www.brewingtv.com/

Curt likes Cassis mead which was odd because I have one fermenting away right now!

Enjoy.

 

[AToE]

Curious, what made them say that mead making is more like beer making? I would have said the opposite, it's usually the beer makers who have a hard time with all the fermentation management (not necessarily a hard time doing it, just accepting that it should be done at all) whereas wine makers use essentially the same process as mead makers from start to finish.

Not very much in common with beer at all, unless they're still using the outdated boil your must method.

 

[Zem]

actually they say it's very much like wine making. The guy goes into most of the basics of current methods, staggered nutrients and so on. Looks like he might warm his honey a little to facilitate pouring but he certainly didn't boil a thing.

Also, Oosik is a term used in Native Alaska cultures to describe the baculum of walruses, seals, sea lions, and polar bears...

 

[fatbloke]

I wasn't entirely convinced with the time frames he suggested i.e. made in the april/may and ready in the june/july.

He seemed to have a good grasp of current method (as already mentioned above) but his conclusions weren't correct i.e. various fruit based meads might be ready quicker, which is something to do with how the fruit juices mix/sweeten finished meads/melomels, but I've certainly never found that any traditional is ready in less than 6 months.

I'm presuming that he uses chemical finings etc to clear the mels etc all the quicker though.

Plus, it did seem that some of his other conclusions were a little out i.e. that historically meads were a PITA to make because of poor fermentations etc..... More to do with historically, meads being made with any available materials and there not being any real way of controlling the ferments and manufacturing management.

Besides, it was basically an advertisement for Northern Brewer, so I'd have expected any person taking part, telling the viewer what they wanted to hear......

Irrespective of that, the chap, Curt Stock, certainly does have a wonderful set up for making his brews, whether they're beer, mead or whatever......

It was quite interesting viewing.....

regards

fatbloke

 

[DaleP]

I see nothing wrong with his time tables. A good melomel in those time frames is very possible. I watched it with great interest, as I have lost in cometitions many times to him. While my method is different, I have placed meads (melomels) in competitions that were lass than 6 months old. As far as an advertisement for Northern Brewer, I did not see that at all. I did like the use of cornies to hold the mead, but wonder how he de-carbonizes them?

 

[manwithbeers]

I see nothing wrong with his time tables. A good melomel in those time frames is very possible. I watched it with great interest, as I have lost in cometitions many times to him. While my method is different, I have placed meads (melomels) in competitions that were lass than 6 months old. As far as an advertisement for Northern Brewer, I did not see that at all. I did like the use of cornies to hold the mead, but wonder how he de-carbonizes them?

I suspect that he is dispensing his mead with straight nitrogen. I can buy a regulator for under $75 and rent a tank of nitrogen for less than $75/year. I've considered it myself for my own kegerator. I believe this is how wines are served on tap in bars.

 

[DaleP]

Makes sense. Never thought of that myself.

 

[Tannin Boy]

I see nothing wrong with his time tables. A good melomel in those time frames is very possible. I watched it with great interest, as I have lost in cometitions many times to him. While my method is different, I have placed meads (melomels) in competitions that were lass than 6 months old. As far as an advertisement for Northern Brewer, I did not see that at all. I did like the use of cornies to hold the mead, but wonder how he de-carbonizes them?

Dale,

Agreed...The times are possible as I do them with mine. A bit edgy at 3 months yet drinkable if your primary ferment goes well. I find that 4-5 months have done wonders to smoothing these out. I have no experience with over a year of aging as they don't last? ;D

I to am looking at Korney's and have not convinced my self yet to venture in this direction until the beer making kicks in! I do find 1/2 gallon bottles work well from a handling standpoint in the frig....They ( Korney Kegs ) do make the carbonating process a walk in the park...

Regards,

TB

 

[fatbloke]

I see nothing wrong with his time tables. A good melomel in those time frames is very possible. I watched it with great interest, as I have lost in cometitions many times to him. While my method is different, I have placed meads (melomels) in competitions that were lass than 6 months old.-----%<-----

Dale,

Agreed...The times are possible as I do them with mine. A bit edgy at 3 months yet drinkable if your primary ferment goes well. I find that 4-5 months have done wonders to smoothing these out. I have no experience with over a year of aging as they don't last? ;D

-----%<-----

Well I definitely bow to those with greater knowledge of fruit meads 8)

I've gotta be doing something wrong then, because thus far, my attempts at using fruit mead recipes (apart from a "benchmark" JAO) seem to have needed ageing for 6 months to a year plus (tasting rubbish when young). It's a bit annoying that there's no-one locally who makes meads as well, because the 4 or 5 commercially made ones I've tasted have all been sickly sweet desert/sack type meads. There's pretty much nothing I can find that has been made with fruit - so I've no yard stick to judge by.

Maybe it's because my own taste in "grape" wines is toward heavier reds (St Emillion, Chateau Neuf du Pape, Margaux, etc etc with a small number of more "meaty" Australian ones as well).

Plus the 3k miles of water mean that a "tasting road trip" is out of the question as well......

Ah well, maybe I should try and find a commercial source of bulk blackcurrants next year then....... Because those I do like.......

regards

fatbloke

 

[mmclean]

I have been looking into growing some black currants. It looks like I might try a black, white, and red.

 

[AToE]

Well, I can't say about Dale's meads placing at that age, obviously they're good, but he's likely an exception (probably due to some serious skills!).

I'd say most meads at 4-6 months are drinkable, maybe even good, but always, in my experience so far, pale imitations of what they'll be at 10-12 months. I haven't been making mead for very long (probably 15 or 16 months), but I have done about 40 batches and this has been true for all that have survived long enough to see the changes take place.

 

[Tannin Boy]

Well I definitely bow to those with greater knowledge of fruit meads 8)

I've gotta be doing something wrong then, because thus far, my attempts at using fruit mead recipes (apart from a "benchmark" JAO) seem to have needed ageing for 6 months to a year plus (tasting rubbish when young). It's a bit annoying that there's no-one locally who makes meads as well, because the 4 or 5 commercially made ones I've tasted have all been sickly sweet desert/sack type meads. There's pretty much nothing I can find that has been made with fruit - so I've no yard stick to judge by.

Maybe it's because my own taste in "grape" wines is toward heavier reds (St Emillion, Chateau Neuf du Pape, Margaux, etc etc with a small number of more "meaty" Australian ones as well).

Plus the 3k miles of water mean that a "tasting road trip" is out of the question as well......

Ah well, maybe I should try and find a commercial source of bulk blackcurrants next year then....... Because those I do like.......

regards

fatbloke

FB,

Well Old boy...I may need to apologize to you ?
I had not viewed the clip before posting...
Mine has been organic fruit juice mixtures, not fresh / frozen fruit.
Alas, stuck my foot in me mouth

I did enjoy the wine selections you mentioned and if I may be so bold.
I have a benchmark for what I like in wine and should you have the opportunity to try, this IMHO is the pinnacle of wine making ( Chateau Mouton Rothschild ) a Pauillac. Mine was a 1987 vintage...

Regards,

TB

 

[Medsen Fey]

I wasn't entirely convinced with the time frames he suggested i.e. made in the april/may and ready in the june/july.

I see nothing wrong with his time tables. A good melomel in those time frames is very possible.

While I'm sure some folks can make a great melomel that is ready in 2-3 months, the earliest I have ever had one that I made really taste great was 6 months, and most of the ones I've felt were really good enough (ones that I would choose to drink over a good commercial wine) have taken 15-18 months.

In the video, he points at that the mels that he has served at 2 months of age tasted good, but that they could very well taste even better after aging for 12-18 months, but that they never got to find.

In the video he shows a batch with 8 pounds of fruit, 12 pounds of cherries with a gravity of 1.045. Heavy fruit with plenty of acidity and sugar probably will be drinkable early, but from my experience something like won't show all its glory in 2 months - not even close. I definitely think dry batches need more time. Drinking meads that early is infanticide, and I want no part of it. ;D

However, I do like the way Mr. Stock thinks

I like the fruit bombs. I often get dinged because people say "That's a fruit wine. That's not a mead. Where's the honey?"

If you're going to use a fruit, use a fruit.

 

[Braxton]

Haven't watched this video yet, but I've tried Curt's meads before, and they are quite good, even at that young. He only uses 71-b, which helps. They would undoubtabley improve with age. But he is a past AHA meadmaker of the year, after all, and has won top honors at the AHA nationals a few times, if memory serves. From what I've tried his meads tend to be BIG, like really alcoholic, young, and very full bodied. That's not really my thing, when it comes to mead, but I think a lot of people enjoy it. I tried a flight of his meads at the AHA rally this past summer, and there was a chipotle mead in there that rocked.

And to AToE, that amount of mead brewing is impressive! I aspire to such heights.

 

[AToE]

And to AToE, that amount of mead brewing is impressive! I aspire to such heights.

I've slowed down now, I did a lot of that to accelerate my learning, and sometimes multiple batches were part of a single experiment. For example I have 10 one gallon batches aging, each with the same must but different yeasts.

 

[Medsen Fey]

In the video he shows a batch with 8 pounds of fruit, 12 pounds of cherries with a gravity of 1.045.

Actually that was 8 pounds of currants and 12 pounds of cherries - small typo but that's a huge difference in acidity.

 

[wayneb]

I concur with Curt's opinion on the subject of fruit mels, too. Some folks' "fruit bombs" are my mainstream melomels. ;D

However I do like mine to be dry as well as fairly alcoholic. That combination almost always means they will take the better part of a year's aging to come into balance. Generally, the sweeter the result, the less aging is required to round off the sharp edges, because a little bit of sweetness can hide all but the sharpest of them.

 

[Fisher kel Tath]

Yea all the mels i did before my Pineapple Orange, had been minimal fruit and taken forever and a day to come mature enough to drink (except my Cysers, cysers are usually good enough to drink at 3-4 months, but amazing after a year)

 

[DaleP]

While I'm sure some folks can make a great melomel that is ready in 2-3 months, the earliest I have ever had one that I made really taste great was 6 months, and most of the ones I've felt were really good enough (ones that I would choose to drink over a good commercial wine) have taken 15-18 months.

In the video, he points at that the mels that he has served at 2 months of age tasted good, but that they could very well taste even better after aging for 12-18 months, but that they never got to find.

In the video he shows a batch with 8 pounds of fruit, 12 pounds of cherries with a gravity of 1.045. Heavy fruit with plenty of acidity and sugar probably will be drinkable early, but from my experience something like won't show all its glory in 2 months - not even close. I definitely think dry batches need more time. Drinking meads that early is infanticide, and I want no part of it. ;D

However, I do like the way Mr. Stock thinks

I'm wondering if I should be in jail for infanticide. It has only been the last year that I've had meads sit around long enough to age even one year let alone 18 months. I too, like fruit bombs and have been dinged many times in comps (the Mazer Cup was one) for not having enough honey prescence to show over the fruit!

 

[wayneb]

I too, like fruit bombs and have been dinged many times in comps (the Mazer Cup was one) for not having enough honey prescence to show over the fruit!

Yeah, the "traditionalists" in the mead community have until recently been hard pressed to accept the concept of "big fruit" melomels where the honey character is one nuance in the overall flavor profile. However, don't give up trying. Some of the judges at the Mazer Cup are sympathetic to the newer concepts, as is evidenced by the award that my Filleule de la Nuit took last year. I believe that the more those of us who like these fruit dominant recipes make and enter them, the sooner they will receive wider acceptance in the larger meadmaking community.