Toggle sidebar

Chaucer's

  • PATRONS: Did you know we've a chat function for you now? Look to the bottom of the screen, you can chat, set up rooms, talk to each other individually or in groups! Click 'Chat' at the right side of the chat window to open the chat up.
  • Love Gotmead and want to see it grow? Then consider supporting the site and becoming a Patron! If you're logged in, click on your username to the right of the menu to see how as little as $30/year can get you access to the patron areas and the patron Facebook group and to support Gotmead!
  • We now have a Patron-exclusive Facebook group! Patrons my join at The Gotmead Patron Group. You MUST answer the questions, providing your Patron membership, when you request to join so I can verify your Patron membership. If the questions aren't answered, the request will be turned down.
Barrel Char Wood Products
J

jaysbrew

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 20, 2004
120
0
0
www.jaysbrewing.com
To be fair, I wasn't expecting much from this one. I have heard for years that it's not very good. I finally bit the bullet and decided to find out for myself.

My notebook has one word for this mead: disgusting.

My apologies to those who like Chaucer's, but it was far too sweet for my taste. This is the only mead I have ever dumped down the drain. I had 3 sips, took a hydrometer reading to see just how much suger was left in this thing, and dumped it.

The hydrometer reading showed a whopping 1.043. I've made beers that started lower than that! Combined with the fact that this is an 11% mead it's no wonder I found it undrinkable. If it was a much bigger mead I could see making it very sweet - although still not this sweet!!! It's just totally unbalanced.


Cheers,
Jay
 
Much of the sweetness comes from honey added to the end product after stabilizing. You will find alot of talk about this mead on this forum.
 
Yes, it is clearly re-sweetened after fermentation. It would be quite an oddball yeast that would poop out at 11%.

One would have to re-sweeten with about 5-6 lbs of honey (on a 5 gal level) to equal the gravity of Chaucer's.


Cheers,
Jay
 
OK... so remember last year I said I tried mead at a Ren Faire here in Wash. State and liked it.. Well this year... at the same Ren Faire.. we again got the mead. I still like it... it was smooth and yes sweet. So I asked the alewench who the mead was made by and guess who. Yup.. Chaucers.
I'm sorry... I don't like a dry wine.. I don't like a Red wine.. I prefer the light Johanesburg wines the most. Although the Chaucer's is on the sweet side.. it is smooth going down.
It's my goal in my own wine to be smooth and on the touch sweet side. Not sickly sweet.. but definately not dry.. like some of my mead at the moment.
:) Suzy Q
 
After some problems with a recent batch, I made a batch with the same style as Chaucers; fermented dry and then backsweetened. With the exception of some oaking.

It doesn't taste like Chaucers though, I think it tastes more like Rabbit's Foot Sweet Mead, which tastes alot better IMHO. I guess it was the oaking and the type of honey, which was a wildflower that leaned towards clover.
 
Chaucers. I've never tried this. You get this at Rennaisaince faires? Nu, perhaps I should try this. A sweet mead? I think I might like my own meads better.
 
Chaucers was the first mead I found after leaving Germany. Now I'd not had any mead in over 10 years when I found that I could buy it locally. We liked it well enough to hit the web and ultimately I found this forum.

At first blush, we liked it - a lot in fact. Most of the people (first time mead drinkers) I've served it to liked it as well.

Now that I've had some other commercial meads, and have made (and consumed) ;D many gallons of my own, I find that I've been ruined! I tried a bottle recently for old time sake and to try it out on my better educated palate. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed. It wasn't something I'd pour down the drain, but I probably won't buy another bottle.


David
 
hmm... my first experience with Chaucer's was much the same -- it was what i was able to find here in PA, after having tried mead first in Poland.

different results, though -- my brother, his wife, and I all thought that it wasn't that hot. diff'rent strokes, I guess...

p.s. to David: don't you mean "Carpe mulsam"...?
 
Meriadoc,

Carpe Mulsum - Sieze the Mead. Spelling may be varient, but I got the translation from a friend of mine - a referance librarian at Butler University. I think I got the spelling correct but... ???




David
 
Mulsum seems to be the correct spelling, It's a honey sweetened wine though, not a mead since the honey never undergoes fermentation. The consensus of the info I've seen online is that the more common Roman Wines were pretty nasty stuff, bordering on vinegar, the Honey made it more pleasant. The Proper term for mead would be Mulsa. More here...

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Vinum.html

Wrathwilde
 
You'll want to check the declension of Mulsa. Remember nouns are declined and verbs are conjugated.

Seems like it should be the Accusative case since mead would be the direct object in this sentance and Carpe (seize) would be an imperative form of the verb Carpere in the Present Active form.

Mead in latin is Mulsus -a -um and is masculine so the Accusative form of a masculine noun would have the -um ending -um, ergo Mulsum.

qed,

Oskaar
 
The information I posted was taken direct from the following, I have no personal schooling in latin so Oskaar might be the better bet.

Mulsum (sc. vinum) or oi0no/meli is perfectly distinct from Mulsa (sc. aqua). The latter, or mead, being made of honey and water mixed and fermented, is the meli/kraton or u(dro/meli of the Greeks

The most generally popular of all these compound beverages, the mulsum of the Romans. This was of two kinds; in the one honey was mixed with wine, in the other with must. The former was said to have been invented by the legendary hero Aristaeus, the first cultivator of bees.

Either way Mulsum seems to be defined as a Pyment. Mulsa being the term for a straight Honey water fermentation. More than that I'm confused.

I WAS GOING TO SAY TOO EARLY TO START DRINKING... But hey it's already 2 pm... where's my MEAD!

Wrathwilde
 
I don't know which is which honestly, I was looking at David's tagline below his avatar and just verifying the correctness of the case of Mulsum from the noun Mulsus -a -um. But if it's Mulsa then the accusative form would have an -am as the ending and would be Mulsam as Merry mentioned below.

Hey, you gotta use that Latin you took in High School and College somewhere!

Cheers,

Oskaar
 
Wanted to take Latin... but it was never offered where I was, hell my last 2 years of HS was Seoul, Korea and I think the only foreign languages they offered were Korean & French. My college years I took only what I was interested in. Mostly English, Art & Photography Classes. Had this crazy Idea of being a Photojournalist, but then I realized I'd have to cover & write about subjects on their agenda. I don't mind working for others, but I prefer being creative for myself.

Wrathwilde
 
Right... I was getting at the Mulsus / Mulsa debate, not the declension wars ("What's this, then? 'Romanes eunt domus'? People called Romanes, they go, the house?").

Now, if you wanna seize all the honey-spiked wine, be my guest... it leaves more mead for me! ;)
 
What have the Romans ever done for us? Brought Peace?

Mulsam it is then... Thanks Oskaar, right as usual, or at least I can't prove otherwise.

Time for another trouble with Oskaar Post. ;)

Wrathwilde
 
Oskaar said:
You'll want to check the declension of Mulsa. Remember nouns are declined and verbs are conjugated.
[/quote

Oh Duh! Thwack! (Sound of my Russian language instructor hitting me over the head with a text book) Of course nouns are declined - what was I thinking?


So it's great advice on mead making and a grammer lesson thrown in at no extra charge! Only here on GotMead.com!

David
Click to expand...
 
The first mead I tried was homebrewed by a buddy I worked with a several years ago. Oh man was it good! It was the best thing I'd ever tasted! After that I had to try a commercial mead. A guy at a wine shop told me everyone seemed to like Chaucer's so I bought a bottle. It even had a neat little spice bag attached to the bottle. I was soo geeked, I couldn't wait for my wife and kids to try it! And what a disappointment it was. It was like drinking waste! I gave it away as soon as I could find a sucker that would take it. I guess once you have something truly tasteful you can't be happy with a low quality product.

Jon.
 
I have a bottle of Chaucer's I purchased going on two years ago that has been patiently aging in a cupboard. I plan on breaking it out the next time I have a tasting and see if it is any better after a couple years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Barrel Char Wood Products

Viking Brew Vessels - Authentic Drinking Horns

Top Bottom