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Maxwell Honey Mead

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Grimm312

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 13, 2013
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Armidale, New South Wales, Australia
Pleas tell me mead is nicer than this ...

I bought a drinking horn, which came in today. I figured I had better christen it, but none of my batches are ready. So off I went to my local Dan Murphy's to pick some up.

It smells like a white wine, and tastes like ... well, nothing in particular. Can't taste any honey at all, and it kinda burns like a white wine does.

I had to add some honey just to make it drinkable.
 
Well..... do a bit of testing/checking....

4 or 5 years ago I bought 4 different half bottles of UK produced meads, yes they differed in flavour but all had the over riding characteristic of seeming like slightly watered down honey. Cloyingly sweet.

When I checked the gravity, they were all in the 1.035 to 1.040 area so would be considered as "dessert" meads.

Now also having tried a few of my own efforts, at that stage mine were all too dry.

Some experiments later and I find my preference is for medium level in the 1.010 to 1.015 area.

Too sweet can be balanced some, using acid and tannin, too dry and you can back sweeten.

Hence I experimented a bit as well as reading reams of stuff, concluding that I'd probably be better placed with FG of about the 1.010 to 1.01
 
Thanks fatbloke. I was hoping for some insight from someone who's actually tasted this mead though.

Still good points you've made, though. The lack of any honey taste at all would make me think that this particular mead is rather dry? I haven't got a hydrometer yet, so I can't do any testing.
 
You didn't say what brand of mead you got. I tend to despise Chaucer's unless it's mulled, there's one called Fat Friar that turns my stomach, Pyrtle is alright but stay away from the blackberry, there's a wildflower traditional that sources the same honey I do that just got started up called Wildflower (I think, or something similar) that's the best trad I've had in a commercial mead but it's still flabby...

And yes, since mead is not technically recognized as a real drink all by it's lonesome yet you could have gotten a white wine with honey added. (I forget which brand it was that did that to me, it wasn't bad once I figured out what it was, but that first taste made my eyeballs jump out of my head) There's no standard's for it yet in the commercial market.

SO! All of that out of the way, mead is not like that. Or, more likely, unless you find a meadery, someone who loves mead, makes mead, knows what they're doing instead of just popping one out of their winery because it seems to be popular right, mead doesn't HAVE to be like that. Make it better, find better, and don't worry. Mead is delicious!;D
 
Ah well hell I don't READ titles. :p I just go through every morning clicking and reading threads till I'm out of unread posts from the night. Anyway, I haven't had that one, but the rest of the comments still stand.
 
No, it just says "Pure Australian Honey".

I've been doing some reading and it seems that with commercial meads you're just as likely to get honeyed white wine. Even though the label would have you believe it's "proper" mead, I reckon it could just as easily be honeyed white wine.
 
This is also just me asking questions now, is your horn sealed or unsealed? I know a lot of people who say that sealing is better because it keeps the flavour of the drink cleaner...but if I wanted that I'd just use a gorram cup. I love a well seasoned, unsealed horn that has been carried on a hip for a few years, washed with a few hundred meads and liquors. There's a depth and roundness to a well loved, well used horn that just isn't there in a glass. It's like horn keeps a memory record of all those good days and lets you relive them again later.

However, if you're trying to get a bead on the actual flavour of a mead, use a wine a glass. ;D I can wax poetic about my favorite drinking horns all I want, and I actually look forward to ritual with different friends because I know their horns so well by know, but horn isn't the greatest medium for 'tasting'.
 
The only issue with blended Aussie honey is that sometimes they use eucalyptus honey which is fine as honey but can leave a bit of a weird flavour when fermented.

Drinking horns ? Sounds like some of you daft buggers have been watching too many films/movies........

You'll be dressing as Robin Hood with the authentic fibre glass compound bows and wearing genuine mediaeval nylon tights/pantihose next........:rolleyes:;):D
 
The horn is a bit of a novelty, to take with to to parties and stuff. But just because you asked, it's sealed.

fatbloke, the issue isn't a "weird" flavor, it's more like a lack of flavor altogether. Even my old man said "It's not un-nice, it just doesn't taste like anything", and I tend to agree with him.

I'm not a particular fan of white wine, but to me it had the same "feel" as a white wine, as in the kind of ... I dunno, it's to put into words. Burn or sting in the throat perhaps, but not nearly as horrible as the words burn and sting make it sound. It just had no real flavor before it.
 
Grimm312 said:
-----snip-----

fatbloke, the issue isn't a "weird" flavor, it's more like a lack of flavor altogether. Even my old man said "It's not un-nice, it just doesn't taste like anything", and I tend to agree with him.

I'm not a particular fan of white wine, but to me it had the same "feel" as a white wine, as in the kind of ... I dunno, it's to put into words. Burn or sting in the throat perhaps, but not nearly as horrible as the words burn and sting make it sound. It just had no real flavor before it.
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Yes, I think that makes sense/sounds familiar......

Problem is that I cant recall what I did last time I made one that was quite like a blandish white wine or what the recipe was.

I'd suspect that the makers have had a similar result and just bottled it "as is".

There's plenty of finishing processes to give it what you may be looking for, so it's less of a worry......
 
celticgladiator said:
I love my horn, novelty or not. I'd rather drink mead from a horn any day! :)
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If that's your horn in your avatar, mines a shot-glass by comparison.

And fatbloke, like I said, I added some honey to it and it's quite drinkable now. I was just disappointed by it, and wanted to know if that's as good as it gets.

Luckily my JOAM is starting to really clear up, so it won't be too long til I have my own to drink.
 
 
Grimm312 said:
-----snip-----

And fatbloke, like I said, I added some honey to it and it's quite drinkable now. I was just disappointed by it, and wanted to know if that's as good as it gets.

Luckily my JOAM is starting to really clear up, so it won't be too long til I have my own to drink.
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Sorry I probably missed that bit......

What I tend to do is to buy enough of the honey I'm using, so that it doesn't matter if the actual ferment comes out disappointing I can back sweeten with the original honey (I aim at a max of a half pound per gallon).

One of the problems with commercial meads is that often there's no way of knowing what it's actually going to be like once it's opened. The 4 I tried a couple of years back where all slightly different tasting but they were all cloyingly sweet dessert meads. A little disappointing.

Hence its hard to judge a bottle and im glad I make my own :cool:
 
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To actually answer the question at hand. I have had it. I actually have a bottle in my fridge right now. I find a lot of these types of conversations funny. Personal preference varies so much.
My wife loves a sweeter mead. I am not a fan of a spiced mead. I can appreciate a sweet. Maxwells is definitely a sweet mead. I find that it is also a fairly mello mead. They make a couple different types as well. Maxwell had a spiced and a sweet ( now that I think about it they may have another one...)
I will try to test with a hydrometer next time I have a glass.
 
ytutequ2.jpg

Wow. I did not expect a reading of 1.034 no wonder my wife likes it so much. I wonder what reading their spiced mead would be???
Anyways. Hope this was interesting to someone.
 
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