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Do the JAO first, as it'll be ready to drink in a few months, or less, or more, depending on who you talk to!

A traditional mead can be easy, but requires patience. You need to make it, then wait, and wait and wait. At 6 months it'll seem like it's great, you'll want to drink it all, tastes just like white wine... no touching! It stays out of bottles until it's at least 1 year old. If you want to drink some sooner to learn how it ages and to satisfy your non-patience (which we all have when we start) then make 2 gallons, bottle one after 4-6 months, the other wait at least a year. The problem is that once it hits bottles, it tends to dissapear fast, especially if you only made a gallon!

Let me do some thinking and I'll try to come up with a basic recipe for you. One part that IS tricky, is that other than JAO, sweet meads should be stabilized with sulphite and sorbate before bottling, to prevent them from ever "waking up" again, fermenting more and creating grenades. I personally do almost only dry meads (which after a year stop seeming so dry, they actually have a lot of "implied sweetness"), which do not require stabilizing, so I never really learned the proper dosages, I'll have to look them up for you.
 
Ok, I've been doing some thinking about a really basic starter recipe for traditional mead. You say you like European mead, but that's like saying you like European food - which kind?! ;)

Were you in Eastern Europe by chance? Most of the Eastern European meads are extremely sweet and aged for very long times. Actually I think most of the meads I've seen out of Europe have been pretty sweet, but I'm sure there's as much variety over there as there is over here, which is nearly endless!

The best way for us to figure out what sweetness level is going to work for you would be if you could buy some mead you like, pour some into a test tube with a hydrometer and measure it's specific gravity at room temp.

Failing that, we could always just start "barely sweet" and then after some aging you can taste it and add more honey if necessary.

We'll also need to pick an alcohol % to help us chose which yeast to use.

Then's the fun part - what kinds of honey do you have access to locally?
 
You have some great honey that's not far away. Walker farms in Fort myers has some wonderful honey and there are several other good sources here in Florida. The biggest challenge you will find is temperature control. Fermenting in the 70s and 80s can be rough, so an old fridge with a temperature controller so you can ferment in the 60s is worth every penny.

Joe's ancient orange recipe which you found works well at room temp and will give you a sweet orange mead that will be consistently good if you like it sweet. If you actually let age after bottling for another 6-9 months you'll find it gets even better.

If you want to make a traditional mead, I'd suggest something along the following lines:

Orange Blossom Honey 3 pounds
Spring water to 1 gallons (gravity target 1.100)
Cream of Tartar 1 tsp
Yeast nutrient (DAP) 1/2 tsp
Yeast energizer (Fermaid K) 1 tsp
Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast 1 packet

Mix the honey and water. No heating required. Rehydrate the yeast in 100F water for 15 minutes then pitch it in. When the bubbling starts to be visible, add 1/2 of the nutrient/energizer. Open the fermenter and stir/aerate daily for the first 2 days. When the gravity gets to 1.070, add the remaining nutrient/energizer and seal up the fermenter. Swirl it daily until it is done - that will be when the gravity stops dropping (and it should be below 0.999).

Then you can rack it to a another gallon container and fill up the air space with water and keep it sitting until clear (you can put it in a fridge and that will speed the clearing). When it is clear, you can bottle it and let age for at least 1 year. That will give you a nice, dry orange blossom traditional mead that will be a good place to start.

You can decide it you want to make future batches with other additives, like acid blend or tannin, or oak, or whether you want to try it sweeter. However, you'll have a good basis to judge from and you'll be able to compare new batches to this one to see if you like the tweaks you make in the future. If you scale this recipe up the 3 or 5 gallons, you'll have enough bottles to really let it age, and to have it for comparison for many years.

I hope that helps.

Medsen
 
kudapucat said:
Definitely the JAO.
It will be ready quicker, so you'll learn faster.

If you can, get a hold of a book or two, and read the newbee guide from front to back. Ken Schramm's 'The Compleat Meadmaker' was very helpul for me, (and plugged gotmead I think, so was instrumental in me being here )
Click to expand...

Hello Kudapucat,

Thank you for the tip…JOA it is! Also, thank you for the book recommendation, I ordered a new copy, and I will read it, I purchased one a long time ago, but it was pretty much a useless book, at least to me, small paperback, that was not easy to read! LOL!

Thanks and Regards,

John
 
AToE said:
Do the JAO first, as it'll be ready to drink in a few months, or less, or more, depending on who you talk to!

A traditional mead can be easy, but requires patience. You need to make it, then wait, and wait and wait. At 6 months it'll seem like it's great, you'll want to drink it all, tastes just like white wine... no touching! It stays out of bottles until it's at least 1 year old. If you want to drink some sooner to learn how it ages and to satisfy your non-patience (which we all have when we start) then make 2 gallons, bottle one after 4-6 months, the other wait at least a year. The problem is that once it hits bottles, it tends to dissapear fast, especially if you only made a gallon!

Let me do some thinking and I'll try to come up with a basic recipe for you. One part that IS tricky, is that other than JAO, sweet meads should be stabilized with sulphite and sorbate before bottling, to prevent them from ever "waking up" again, fermenting more and creating grenades. I personally do almost only dry meads (which after a year stop seeming so dry, they actually have a lot of "implied sweetness"), which do not require stabilizing, so I never really learned the proper dosages, I'll have to look them up for you.
Click to expand...

LOL! I am getting one heck of a learning lesson, this is a lot to take in for someone who tried to make wine once, and that was a disaster! LOL!

Wow, a whole year of waiting, that can drive someone to drink! LOL! Luckily, from being a former Paratrooper, I am used to “hurry up and wait”, and I have a lot of patience!

All the while, I was thinking this was going to be a simple task, I am sure it is, was you are a Brewmaster!

I like heavy mead, thick, not like wine, that is mildly sweet, however, no too sweet…

I guess I need to start buying all the meads I can find, and then I can decide as to which is my favorite and attempt to go from there.

Thanks for you assistance, it is much appreciated!
 
AToE said:
Ok, I've been doing some thinking about a really basic starter recipe for traditional mead. You say you like European mead, but that's like saying you like European food - which kind?! ;)

Were you in Eastern Europe by chance? Most of the Eastern European meads are extremely sweet and aged for very long times. Actually I think most of the meads I've seen out of Europe have been pretty sweet, but I'm sure there's as much variety over there as there is over here, which is nearly endless!

The best way for us to figure out what sweetness level is going to work for you would be if you could buy some mead you like, pour some into a test tube with a hydrometer and measure it's specific gravity at room temp.

Failing that, we could always just start "barely sweet" and then after some aging you can taste it and add more honey if necessary.

We'll also need to pick an alcohol % to help us chose which yeast to use.

Then's the fun part - what kinds of honey do you have access to locally?
Click to expand...

Well, like I stated earlier, I like thicker mead, unlike honey wine, and I like it a tad sweeter than drier…

I have had Polish mead, the one that comes in the fancy bottle, that was good, but I had that here in the U.S., was very heavy on the honey.

I guess, I like European mead, just not sweet like a desert wine.

I have had some good homemade mead, in Europe, the best was in Denmark, I have a friend who lives there, and I am going to call him and ask if he can get some mead for me, and sent it to me.

But you are correct, most are pretty sweet, but I don’t want it too sweet, but at this point, I am willing to take what I can get juts to have some! LOL!

I never knew there was so much to mead, and so many variations. I don’t want to get too complicated, I just want to sit back and drink it out of a glass and just enjoy it.

Most of the med I have seen is I believe between 12% to 19%, but I am not wanting to get drunk off it, I just want to enjoy it!

Mostly my area, it is all Orange Blossom Honey. I remember there was a really nice honey farm, in lower Daytona, back when I was in flight school, they even had blueberry flower honey, don’t know where that came from, but it was nice!

Next on list to purchase is a hydrometer!
 
Medsen Fey said:
You have some great honey that's not far away. Walker farms in Fort myers has some wonderful honey and there are several other good sources here in Florida. The biggest challenge you will find is temperature control. Fermenting in the 70s and 80s can be rough, so an old fridge with a temperature controller so you can ferment in the 60s is worth every penny.

Joe's ancient orange recipe which you found works well at room temp and will give you a sweet orange mead that will be consistently good if you like it sweet. If you actually let age after bottling for another 6-9 months you'll find it gets even better.

If you want to make a traditional mead, I'd suggest something along the following lines:

Orange Blossom Honey 3 pounds
Spring water to 1 gallons (gravity target 1.100)
Cream of Tartar 1 tsp
Yeast nutrient (DAP) 1/2 tsp
Yeast energizer (Fermaid K) 1 tsp
Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast 1 packet

Mix the honey and water. No heating required. Rehydrate the yeast in 100F water for 15 minutes then pitch it in. When the bubbling starts to be visible, add 1/2 of the nutrient/energizer. Open the fermenter and stir/aerate daily for the first 2 days. When the gravity gets to 1.070, add the remaining nutrient/energizer and seal up the fermenter. Swirl it daily until it is done - that will be when the gravity stops dropping (and it should be below 0.999).

Then you can rack it to a another gallon container and fill up the air space with water and keep it sitting until clear (you can put it in a fridge and that will speed the clearing). When it is clear, you can bottle it and let age for at least 1 year. That will give you a nice, dry orange blossom traditional mead that will be a good place to start.

You can decide it you want to make future batches with other additives, like acid blend or tannin, or oak, or whether you want to try it sweeter. However, you'll have a good basis to judge from and you'll be able to compare new batches to this one to see if you like the tweaks you make in the future. If you scale this recipe up the 3 or 5 gallons, you'll have enough bottles to really let it age, and to have it for comparison for many years.

I hope that helps.

Medsen
Click to expand...

Hello Medsen,

I will look into walker farms, I also have a friend, she has a bee farm, I have had some of her honey, and it is great!

No problem on the five of them in the main house, and one of them in the guesthouse (really a mother in law suite), I live alone, so anyone of them, more than likely my beer tap will be converted to mead making.

It is a good thing I am patient, it seems it will be a very long time, before, I even drink my first batch of mead!

Thank you for the recipe, it sounds like it will be good when I am done…so, I am looking at least 2013 before, I can realistically drink my first batch of mead (looks like I will be purchasing a lot of pre-made mead)!

It does help a lot!

Thanks and Regards,

John
 
You can drink mead sooner, and JAO should be pretty good within 9 months, but most traditional meads really don't shine without 18+ months aging. You can make recipes that will be ready faster, but you need to be able to ferment them cool, and it helps to leave them a little sweet. If you are fermenting in the heat you're pretty much stuck aging.

If you can keep the fermentation temp in the 60's, you can try some other yeast that may allow you to make something ready to drink much sooner.

Does your friend with a bee farm have a website?
 
Oh, and don't be afraid of specific gravities and your hydrometer (yes, you want to get at least one)... let us know after you read the newbee guide if you're still cofuzzed on the specifics and we'll get you straightened out... Basically it tells you how much sugar is in your sample, and by knowing how much sugar your yeast ate by taking a measurement at the beginning and another at the end of fermentation, you can calculate the alcohol percentage of your finished product. Also it's useful for telling you if your fermentation is over, which is an important thing to be sure of before you bottle it or else things could get messy if you're lucky, worse if you're not.

Sounds like you should get yourself 3.5 lb honey and get started on a JAO, the sooner you start it, the sooner you can drink it and find out if you like it! And it's actually drinkable after 2-3 months, just gets BETTER after 6-9 :) And if you don't have a 1-gallon jug to use, plastic 1-gal water or juice jugs will do while you're waiting to get better equipment.
 
Medsen Fey said:
You can drink mead sooner, and JAO should be pretty good within 9 months, but most traditional meads really don't shine without 18+ months aging. You can make recipes that will be ready faster, but you need to be able to ferment them cool, and it helps to leave them a little sweet. If you are fermenting in the heat you're pretty much stuck aging.

If you can keep the fermentation temp in the 60's, you can try some other yeast that may allow you to make something ready to drink much sooner.

Does your friend with a bee farm have a website?
Click to expand...

Hey Medsen,

Her name is Claire Robinson, I had to call my ex who is a closer friend to her, than I am, to get the info (Claire’s address and her number for you, she doesn’t have a website), as I never been to her place, my ex has, as she lives in St. Pete (I do not leave the house much, have not since the end of 2006, I am a 100% Service Connected Disabled Veteran, that recently became Housebound and Bedbound, everything finally caught up with me, I get around a little bit, not as much as I used to, which is why I do not go to the State Fair anymore, so leaving the house is something I only do when I go to the hosp, the rest of the time, I am here), I just had the honey (it was good), and she was going to teach my ex beekeeping (she wanted yet another hobby), and set up everything on the property, but I put a stop to that...Claire had a baby, apparently got divorced, and move back to Mass, to live with her parents, which shows you how far out the loop I am on certain things, she has her email, and she said she would email Claire, to get all the information on beekeepers and bee farms in this area, so when I get the info emailed to me, I will post it for you, I will call anther friend who knows everyone in the Brandon area, as he is the only person I know who is native to this area, and ask him as well.

Nine months isn’t too bad, I guess, 2012, will be my first batch of mead! LOL! I can ferment them cool, as I have a few refrigerators, that I can dedicate to making mead. I keep the house cold, so there would really be no heat her, my internal thermostat, doesn’t work and I overheat easy, so the cool house, and the fridge, will lessen the aging process.

Would it be better to age, or to keep cool in the fridge, as you can tell by now, I have nothing but time, and I am very patient!

John
 
Chevette Girl said:
Oh, and don't be afraid of specific gravities and your hydrometer (yes, you want to get at least one)... let us know after you read the newbee guide if you're still cofuzzed on the specifics and we'll get you straightened out... Basically it tells you how much sugar is in your sample, and by knowing how much sugar your yeast ate by taking a measurement at the beginning and another at the end of fermentation, you can calculate the alcohol percentage of your finished product. Also it's useful for telling you if your fermentation is over, which is an important thing to be sure of before you bottle it or else things could get messy if you're lucky, worse if you're not.

Sounds like you should get yourself 3.5 lb honey and get started on a JAO, the sooner you start it, the sooner you can drink it and find out if you like it! And it's actually drinkable after 2-3 months, just gets BETTER after 6-9 :) And if you don't have a 1-gallon jug to use, plastic 1-gal water or juice jugs will do while you're waiting to get better equipment.
Click to expand...

You caught me, little intimidated by specific gravity, as the hosp and my doctor always talk about that! LOL!

Thanks for the clarification, now I get it, the explanation make perfect sense!

I have a friend who used to own a winery back home in NC, and our course they made sparkling wine, I used to go help to try to learn, I have seen what bottle under pressure can do, they when they used to Riddle the wine to get it to ferment again to make sparkling wine, the explosions, mess and overall disaster it created, was not something you wanted to be around when it happened! LOL!

The gallon jug, make me smile, it brought back memories, of when I was in the Army, and we made hooch, OJ (big frozen concentrate),a little water, sugar, and yeast from the cooks, and we buried, and within a week (is we moved, guys would jump it into the next location and bury it), you had something to drink with alcohol, some guys loved it, of course they were the unit drunks, but it was fun times, when were deployed or in the field, I watches someone take a clean toilet on a deployment, and I still don’t know how he treaded to get it, and made beer in it…

Getting the 3.5LBS as soon as I can so I can start, I am very excited about this!
 
For those of you interested, a friend emailed me with contact information of a Honey Farm in North FLA, which sells Wild Flower Honey (Yopon and Gallberry Flower) for $11.99 for 3 lbs., of honey…plus shipping.

They are collecting 200 hives tomorrow morning (6/6/11), for next year’s honey supply.

They are a Health Depart Licensed, Bottler, and been in business for more than 35 years.

Here is their contact information:

C & C HONEY FARM
3030 CICALEE LN
PACE, FL 32571
Phone: 850- 995-1304
Cell #: 850-602-0385
Email: pcchoney@aol.com
Contact Person: Mr. Chester Kapers

I contact them and they stated they are willing to ship anywhere, and prices are negotiable, over 10lbs., of honey and possibly over 5lbs., of honey.

Give them a try!

I hope this help,

Regards,

John
 
Hello New Smokin' Gun,

Welcome to Got Mead?

Your posts are fine right here. If you have more questions on meadmaking I'd suggest that you post in the new meadmakers (newbees) area above in the forums.

Otherwise, you're just fine here. This is kind of the catchall forum for everything else so pretty much everything is fair game. For meadmaking questions, ingredients, etc check out the other topic threads in some of the other threads above as mentioned before.

Once again, Welcome to Got Mead? and we wish you the very best in mead, meadmaking and mead drinking!
 
Oskaar said:
Hello New Smokin' Gun,

Welcome to Got Mead?

Your posts are fine right here. If you have more questions on meadmaking I'd suggest that you post in the new meadmakers (newbees) area above in the forums.

Otherwise, you're just fine here. This is kind of the catchall forum for everything else so pretty much everything is fair game. For meadmaking questions, ingredients, etc check out the other topic threads in some of the other threads above as mentioned before.

Once again, Welcome to Got Mead? and we wish you the very best in mead, meadmaking and mead drinking!
Click to expand...

Hello Oskaar,

Thank you for the welcome, you are from what I hear the "big chief", I am sorry that I put this in the wrong section, I looked and I swear that I did not see the NEWBEE Section, please move the thread, to the appropriate place, should you want, as this is your forum.

I look forward to learning, and making some great mead, in a few years…LOL!

Thanks and Regards,

John
 
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