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Intermediate mead

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ScotRob

NewBee
Registered Member
Aug 31, 2012
53
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Perth, Scotland
OK- so I have made JAOM a few times, and have also made a "traditional" mead too, which one year after fermentation started is only now starting to clear >:(

My question: are there any "intermediate" meads between JAOM and show/traditional meads which experienced mead makers on here can recommend? I am experienced (10years+) in wine making, but relatively new to mead....any suggestions/recommendations welcome!
 
This is my new go to pipeline mead. Easy to make, quick to drink, and highly replicable.

I use a bucket for fermentation.
I use roughly 13lbs of Honey (varies on honey, but aim for O.G. of 1.080)
Water to 5.25 gallons
71B-1122 Yeast, 10g hydrated per packet
Staggered Nutrients
Handful of raisins boiled in 1C water
5 black tea bags steeped in raisin water (for tannins)
Aerate 2 times daily for the first 1/3 sugar break
*I have a temp controlled ferm chamber. I keep it at 64F for most of the primary ferm, and slowly ramp it up to 70F for the last few gravity points. This is not a necessary step, but I found it produces a much better product much quicker.*

In my last few batches, fermentation finishes up in about 2 weeks. At this point I let it sit on the lees for another week or two to give the yeast time to clean up a bit and drop out. I then rack to a carboy on top of stabilizer chems. After a few days on the chems I sweeten to about 1.010 (personal preference). I degas it the best I can for a few days. Now for the next two months I let it drop and clear. It is usually pretty clear by then, but if not and I am in need I will hit it with clarifiers (I use superkleer KC). By this time it is usually good enough to enjoy thoroughly. Of course it gets better with age, but I like it and usually drink it too fast.

This makes a great quick mead to drink socially while your good stuff ages properly. The little sweetness and low 11% ABV make this delicious at such a young age. I have made 4 batches this way, and each one of them have been predictable down to a day or two difference in time frame.
 
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The Harvest Bounty recipe in Schramms Compleat Meadmaker finishes pretty quickly and works with apple juice from concentrates well if not perfectly.
 
My meads usually take about 6 months from the start of fermentation to the aging process, then age about 6 months to a year. The only long haul one is I made was a Chocolate Mead, which takes a LOONG time to age. I am going to check it again at 2 1/2 years.

Matrix
 
Carbonated hydromel would be my solution... if you aim for 8% or less, it seems to ferment really quickly and clear really quickly, I think my ginger hydromel was clear in a couple weeks, then you rack the clear stuff and add some priming honey, bottle into something that can handle carbonation, and wait three weeks.
 
By intermediate I am taking that as in skill levels not time right? One fun and easy way to combine your winemaking and meadmaking skills is to make a melomel. Fruits are out there ripening, blackberries and peaches everywhere, elderberries coming soon, now is a perfect time to gather some fruits and prepare for a melomel or three. You can play with them like wine adding oak and tannins, you can blend different fruits together, pretty much only limited by your imagination and what fruit you can get your hands on. Our personal preference is for as much fruit as we can ferment in the primary, add a little in the secondary and backsweeten with more honey before bottling but not so much it gives the mead a taste like raw honey. WVMJ

ScotRob said:
OK- so I have made JAOM a few times, and have also made a "traditional" mead too, which one year after fermentation started is only now starting to clear >:(

My question: are there any "intermediate" meads between JAOM and show/traditional meads which experienced mead makers on here can recommend? I am experienced (10years+) in wine making, but relatively new to mead....any suggestions/recommendations welcome!
Click to expand...
 
wolf moon

thanks for the advice here guys, I will certainly be checking out some of your recommendations....i am also tempted to make Wolf Moon Mead, a recipe for which I have seen several times on the world wide interweb....basically is a blackberry melomel, which is one of the things recommended by previous posts...and since we're soon entering blackberry season, it would seem to be a good time to try it
 
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