How about a Robin Hood mead recipe?

[Zem]

?!?!?

I ran across this Welsh Oak Leaf Mead Recipe called Gwîn Dail Derw
on celtnet.org.uk. This recipe used dried leaves so it is a bit different but could be used in the fall.

Medsen-- taking a look at the recipe it looks like it uses nearly a kilogram of honey to a litre?

If I have this right this uses almost 9 lbs of honey to make a batch just over a gallon in size.

Please correct me if I'm wrong (after all I am a product of the public school system where such frivolous things as the metric system are not taught)

thanks in advance

/z

 

[Medsen Fey]

Yeah, you're right. That must be typo or something because you couldn't ferment that much honey in 5 liters. I hadn't noticed that discrepancy.

 

[Chevette Girl]

taking a look at the recipe it looks like it uses nearly a kilogram of honey to a litre?

...http://www.onlineconversion.com/ is a great place...


So considering that a kilogram of honey IS about a litre so you're looking at a total volume of 4 kg honey in 9 litres, definitely a bit much but not THAT outrageous when you consider that I use about 1.5 kg honey with about 2.5 litres water for 4 litres of JAO (I make it by the Imperial gallon!)... when I looked at the recipe I wondered too, but didn't care enough to crunch the numbers at the time. Wasn't sure if I'd want to decrease the honey to something sensible or dilute the whole amount to maybe 3 gal IMP (13.63 litres) afterwards... because for me, 1.333 kg honey per imp gallon total works just fine. I think even diluting it to 3 gal US would be acceptable, it's only about 2 litres different at that point.

I have a Welsh friend, I should ask her if she's ever had anything like this...

 

[wayneb]

Honey is pretty dense compared with water, so the one liter per kilogram rule of thumb won't apply. One liter of honey (0.2642 gallons) weighs close to 1.4 Kg. (The mass of one liter of water is 1.0 Kg. The mass of one liter of an arbitrary liquid is 1.0 * the specific gravity of that liquid. The specific gravity of honey averages around 1.410) So, water is only 70% as heavy as honey. That 30% differential may not sound like much, but it means a lot when you consider the difference in specific gravity of a mead must. So, one kilogram of honey is only about 0.714 liters.


If one liter of honey weighed a kilogram (same as water), then the SG of 4 Kg of honey topped off with water to a total volume of 9 liters would be 1.000. In fact, 4 Kg of honey mixed with water to a total volume of 9 liters is actually closer to 1.130 in net specific gravity.

 

[Chevette Girl]

<grin> I sit corrected, and I should know better than to eyeball volumes of anything but I was too lazy to go measure one of my 1 kg honey jars or go look up the density of honey to back-calculate, and couldn't measure the SG because none of my hydrometers go that high even if all my honey wasn't crystallized. Ya got me. Bad engineer. I am ashamed.

1 kg of the clover honey I get is about 700 +/- ml so my thumbnail calculation is off by 1.2 litres for 4 kg of honey. Bah.

Even still, with your calculations 1.130 isn't THAT outrageous, I've started a few things that high back when I had a hydrometer that went that high. I do know better now though!

 

[Dragonslayer]

**edit: on a side note: Dragons Lair, that sounds amazing, I'd love to see you really draw that recipe up pound for pound and ounce for ounce.

Wolfie,

I actually have a rhodomel cookin' right now that is buckwheat honey and rosehip juice. First sip liked to rip my tongue right out of my mouth. Been in bulk age for a few months now and has become quite palatable. You can discern both the buckwheat and the rosehip. Just made a deal with my supplier for more buckwheat to make a big batch. I may conspire with one of my beer buds on doing a small test with some hops. I'll let you know.

 

[Dragonslayer]

So, I just spent the last couple of hours actually creating a table to determine SG and potential ABV of a mead based on the water:honey ratio. I took one gallon of water at room temp and began adding honey one cup at a time. After each add (of course I mixed it well) I took a hydro reading. To reach the 1.130 Wayneb referred to a bit ago takes 7 cups or 5# 4oz to a gallon. Fermented to SG .99 would yield a 17%ABV.

The max you might want to go is probably a 4:2 ratio (4 quarts water:2 quarts honey). That's 6# to a gallon of water, which could get you a dry 19.5% ABV or more likely a nice Sack Mead.

Most of you already know this so I am not likely telling you anything new.

 

[Chevette Girl]

So, I just spent the last couple of hours actually creating a table to determine SG and potential ABV of a mead based on the water:honey ratio.

That's a cool way to approach it, the only caution I have is that you'll have to account for the volume of the honey, it's not a honey:total ratio so you can't just add honey and top up with water to your desired finished volume. One more conversion!;D

 

[Zem]

still a great way to go about it. I use a similar technique with cane sugar and water to give people a clue about what "sweet" means on the hydrometer when they are debating how to make a mead (people fret so over the first one don't they?)

on another note aside from the brewing calculator on this site there is a pretty cool mead calculator program at which I use often to reverse engineer recipes to abv or gravity.

 

[Dragonslayer]

Medsen-- taking a look at the recipe it looks like it uses nearly a kilogram of honey to a litre?

If I have this right this uses almost 9 lbs of honey to make a batch just over a gallon in size.

Please correct me if I'm wrong (after all I am a product of the public school system where such frivolous things as the metric system are not taught)

thanks in advance

/z

One kilogram is 2.204 pounds (US) and there are 3.785 liters in a US gallon so that means the recipe is calling for 8.342 pounds of honey for a one gallon batch. Is that one gallon including the honey or one gallon plus the honey? Six pounds to a gallon (that's a gallon plus 6#) gives you an SG around 1.15 (19.5%ABV). If you could even get your yeast to work at 8.3#/gal that would be a serious sack mead.

 

[Chevette Girl]

Is that one gallon including the honey or one gallon plus the honey?

For the oak leaf one (it intrigued me so I still have it open on another browser tab) it's 5 litres plus the honey, not including the honey.

Wayneb calculated it out to correct my ballparking, works out to 5 litres water (boiled with the oak leaves) plus 4 kg x .71 L/kg (=2.84 L) to give a total volume of 7.84 litres. Or thereabouts. I think your 19.5% ABV is probably about right.

 

[Medsen Fey]

I never did make it to the theaters to see the Russell Crowe version of Robin Hood, but I rented it over the weekend and watched it. Frankly the movie wasn't all that great, but they get a big Huzzah for showing Friar Tuck as a beekeeper who offers mead to Robin's companions!

Good mead makes up for a lot of bad cinema.

 

[AToE]

Yeah, I wasn't a huge fan of the movie, but the mead was a great touch. It might have actually been an OK movie if it weren't for me (and I assume everyone else) expecting a Robin Hood movie. If it had a different name, or had some kind of warning that is was a prequil to the usual story then I wouldn't have spent the whole thing waiting for the real story to start.

 

[Smarrikåka]

I just watched it, and kind of liked it. It brought something new, and not the same old story retold. Maybe a bit heavy on the gore (not unusual for a Russel Crowe film), and yeah maybe Robin Hood was the wrong title.

Concerning mead references, I think this might be the only movie to at least have attempted to get mead right. I don't really like that they used the word liquor to describe it though. I think they should have gone for something more verbose, like potent/wonderous honey concoction/beverage/elixir.