My first taste of mead was also at a ren fair. I believe it was chaucers. I really liked it i only had a sip along with everything else i drank that day. And then i forgot all about it. Until about 2 years later. A friend of mine who travels around the country a lot had hooked up with 2 cases of mead. Actually it was various melomels, methlgins and traditional meads. After my first taste of the vanilla mead i was hooked and when i was told the guy made it himself i was very impressed. About 6 months after that another friend talked about starting homebrewing and with the aid of his computer i bought everything i needed to begin making mead. The 1st try was a failure but I tried again and willl never give it up. Its nearly 4 years later now and i am such a nut i decided i needed my own bees to cut out the middle man. Next year i should be making my very own mead with my own honey. I also make my own beer now because of the mead making experince. Kinda the reverse of most mead makers huh.
What got you started?
- Thread starter Derf
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For me it was a lightbulb... I'm not sure who turned it on. But My mother-in-law gave us a bottle of Wash. State Mead a year or so ago... we had some more at the Ren Faire this past year.... then I began researching mead.... (I've been researching mead since Sept 04) ... OH... that would only be about 3 weeks ago... ;D , and my first mead is only 8 days old... ;D , but I have a 5 year plan (buisness wise) ... and if this doesn't work.. it's not cuz I didn't try.
But still... I think I'll have fun with the making of the mead all the same. Perhaps only a gallon a month or more.... who knows. I have about a dozen hobbys and recently I retired a couple of them..... so I'll replace one with mead. 8)
:-* Suzy Q, Brewmistress
But still... I think I'll have fun with the making of the mead all the same. Perhaps only a gallon a month or more.... who knows. I have about a dozen hobbys and recently I retired a couple of them..... so I'll replace one with mead. 8)
:-* Suzy Q, Brewmistress
My first taste of mead was in Kaltenberg Germany at the summer medieval festival. I didn't find it again until I found a bottle of Chaucers locally.
That got me started surfing the web in search of my first mead. I've never found it, but did find this web page. I spent over a year doing my research and finally got started on my first batch of traditional sweet mead this Summer.
In the mean time, I've gotten several friends and my brother hooked as well, and he is gathering the equipment to start his own batch.
I think my second batch may be a rhodomel. I've got the rose petals harvested and waiting patiently in the freezer.
That got me started surfing the web in search of my first mead. I've never found it, but did find this web page. I spent over a year doing my research and finally got started on my first batch of traditional sweet mead this Summer.
In the mean time, I've gotten several friends and my brother hooked as well, and he is gathering the equipment to start his own batch.
I think my second batch may be a rhodomel. I've got the rose petals harvested and waiting patiently in the freezer.
I saw a couple Movies in the past refer to Mead, (Robin Hood Prince of thieves comes to Mind) and never knew what it was. Then just a fe months ago, saw the Movie Master & Commander, and hear them talk about drinking Grog. i looked that up on the web, and found a definition somewhere that said it was Mead mixed with Water.
Of course then I Just had to find out what mead was. When I found out it was Wine made from honey iWanted to see how it tasted. I looked around for a place to Buy a bottle, and could not find any. then I looked online only to find that i could not get any shipped to My state
I mentioned it to a couple guys I work with and found out that one of them made a batch a couple years ago.
Then i started to researching making my own. Kept looking for places to Buy carboys and such, then finally happened on www.homebrewit.com and found out it was less than 2 miles from my work!
Since i started the batchh, i found one bottle of Oliver Mead, but was unimpressed.
So now i am Impatiently waiting for My first batch to finish!!
Of course then I Just had to find out what mead was. When I found out it was Wine made from honey iWanted to see how it tasted. I looked around for a place to Buy a bottle, and could not find any. then I looked online only to find that i could not get any shipped to My state
I mentioned it to a couple guys I work with and found out that one of them made a batch a couple years ago. Then i started to researching making my own. Kept looking for places to Buy carboys and such, then finally happened on www.homebrewit.com and found out it was less than 2 miles from my work!
Since i started the batchh, i found one bottle of Oliver Mead, but was unimpressed.
So now i am Impatiently waiting for My first batch to finish!!
randy said:I looked around for a place to Buy a bottle, and could not find any. then I looked online only to find that i could not get any shipped to My state
I'll be able to Legally Direct-Ship to Indiana with no problems in 1-2 Months... ;D
As for what got me into Mead...
I've been semi-active in the SCA for a number of years, and a Town Crier in the Guild of St. Blaise at Northern California Faire (RPFN) for the past 4 years. So I knew what Mead was, but only knew of Chaucers.
Then two years ago, I met my girlfriend, Connie. I ran up to Oregon with her to visit her Family, and was totally shocked to find Honeywood Winery's Mead in a store at the Mall. We took a bottle home and came to the conclusion that it blew the socks off of Chaucers. The next trip we made to Salem resulted in us visiting the winery and bringing a case of Mead back with us to share with our friends.
On a side note, I talked with the owner of Honeywood and their Mead was actually formulated with the help of a number of Ethiopian Restaurants. I’m not quite sure if it tastes like Tej, but it’s got it at its roots. I'll report back next time I get a chance to do a blind taste test with a few bottles of Tej.
Flash forward to earlier this year... Connie and I were on the way home from an SCA event. Talking to keep awake after a long weekend. And the idea for Knowne World Meads was born.
I've spent most of the past 7 months taking business classes, wading through government red tape, and doing the planning necessary to make things work. (While trying to go back to school to get an AA degree and taking AIX System Admin Classes to keep my computer skills up.)
Since then, the idea has morphed several times... At one time, I was actually seriously considering opening a retail store in a sub-leased portion of a local paint store. (Hopefully we would've made it onto CNN's Offbeat News Section.) And we almost bought a wine tasting room in Downtown Napa. (I figured the owner wanted too much for it once I looked at his assets, and I could see licensing issues since it was a shared space with the Indian Restaurant next door but didn't have a separate street address.) We're still looking into the possibility of opening a Mead/wine tasting bar in downtown Fairfield, but with the Local Moratorium on New Beer/Wine Licenses that's on the backburner till we come up with more starting capital and resolve the tied-house issues that will come up with our being a distributor.
We're now planning on opening our online retail store in about a month, and hope to start selling as wholesalers/distributors/importers to licensed retailers in California by the middle of January. We'll be able to legally direct-ship to consumers in 18 states to start, and we'll expand into another 7 states and Washington D.C. as soon as the supply chain has been shaken down. As soon as we can get our Federal Import Permit, we will also be importing Mead from Canada and overseas. All we need now is for the last few pieces of federal paperwork to fall into place...
And yes, once all of the dust settles, I’ll be looking into making my own homebrew Mead… ;D
Michael Ng
Owner - Knowne World Meads
I'm a newby here at GM, but not to mead-making. I started out many years ago by making dandelion wine (I'm a big Bradbury fan). I did this for a few years, when the flowers were in season, but one day I spent several hours gathering dandelions, and planned to start the wine that night. When I got home, I realized that I didn't have enough sugar to begin the job, but I did have a couple of pounds of honey on hand...
So I made a mead without even knowing it (BTW, is rhodamel SOLEY a rose petal mead, or can it also apply to other flowers? I seem to recall reading both points of view from different sources). In fact, though I had heard of mead before, I had no idea at that time what it was.
After sampling my dandelion "wine" about six months later, I saw immediately that using honey instead of sugar gave it far more character and complexity than any of my previous batches. That was fifteen years ago, and I've never made anything but meads since that time -- I guess I had found what I liked.
Not to get all mushy or anything, but this hobby has, at various points in my life, been the only pleasurable thing in it. Certainly, the drinking of mead is ultimately why we make it, but the actual act of crafting it has its own rewards. Nothing is as golden, nothing is as peaceful, and nothing is more wrapped in mystery than an aging vessel of mead. My time on this Earth has been vastly improved by my "discovery" of this drink -- its lore, its history, and its science -- and it would be diminished by an order of magnitude were it to magically disappear right now.
-David
So I made a mead without even knowing it (BTW, is rhodamel SOLEY a rose petal mead, or can it also apply to other flowers? I seem to recall reading both points of view from different sources). In fact, though I had heard of mead before, I had no idea at that time what it was.
After sampling my dandelion "wine" about six months later, I saw immediately that using honey instead of sugar gave it far more character and complexity than any of my previous batches. That was fifteen years ago, and I've never made anything but meads since that time -- I guess I had found what I liked.
Not to get all mushy or anything, but this hobby has, at various points in my life, been the only pleasurable thing in it. Certainly, the drinking of mead is ultimately why we make it, but the actual act of crafting it has its own rewards. Nothing is as golden, nothing is as peaceful, and nothing is more wrapped in mystery than an aging vessel of mead. My time on this Earth has been vastly improved by my "discovery" of this drink -- its lore, its history, and its science -- and it would be diminished by an order of magnitude were it to magically disappear right now.
-David
*wipes tear from eye*
I'm right there with you, David. I find it to be one of the more relaxing of my variety of hobbies. I find that I really drink far less than I actually make and give more to my friends than anything else. There is only one experience more beautiful than watching a vessel of mead aging in it's golden color.
I would love to see your Dandelion recipe if you're willing to post it in the recipe section? I've always been interrested in the digestive properties of Dandelions and have yet to cultivate enough for me to make a good sized mead out of.
Talon.
It began with the idea of a "lightning mead" say oh four/ five years ago and then very shortly after learning that vodka, honey and spices should NEVER have been even suggested as a mead replacement a friend (who I had collected violets for her sweet violet wine) took pity and me and my pagan group and said if we had to have mead she would try to make up some. So she made it and it finished fermenting (mostly) and then gave it to us shortly before moving east to nova Scotia. Now the thing we neglected to pick up and were possibly not told about was racking.... That might have been good to know of then.
So two Yule's later were still drinking this stuff and it HAD improved ... but the first few glasses were always best.... so this fall I began researching... And discovered racking. And the general consensus was that this stuff was the ticket! You mean your supposed to see Through it! Wow, who knew. lol
So this fall I looked at the glass carboy I'd saved from my mother trying to liquidate family treasures at a garage sale.. all empty and lonely and set about making my first cycer... and then there were two batches of traditional mead and the cranberry Mel and most recently ancient orange. I 've gotten another hobby! Not saying I needed another, but heck. the more the merrier.
So two Yule's later were still drinking this stuff and it HAD improved ... but the first few glasses were always best.... so this fall I began researching... And discovered racking. And the general consensus was that this stuff was the ticket! You mean your supposed to see Through it! Wow, who knew. lol
So this fall I looked at the glass carboy I'd saved from my mother trying to liquidate family treasures at a garage sale.. all empty and lonely and set about making my first cycer... and then there were two batches of traditional mead and the cranberry Mel and most recently ancient orange. I 've gotten another hobby! Not saying I needed another, but heck. the more the merrier.
Bark Shack Ginger Mead from the Complete Joy of Homebrewing. Out of curiosity, I made a batch, drank it all except one bottle. A year later I opened the bottle and have been hooked ever since. The taste difference from a fresh (green) mead and an aged mead was like night and day, totally incredible. I wont touch any mead I make, unless it's a minumum of year old. Hence my tag, "I will drink no mead before it's time." 
Back in my AF days in Korea, a large portion of my squadron brewed their own beer. In fact, they had an annual home-brew tasting event which was a very, very big deal. At any rate, at one of these occasions, somebody brought a couple bottles of mead, which he had created in lieu of beer. That was my first introduction to mead, and I must say I enjoyed it.
After returning to the US, I kinda forgot about it, except for every fall when the family would head up to the MD Renn festival. Then, of course, I would have my fill of it!
We have been brewing beer on and off for several years, but after coming back from the renn festival this past year, it struck me that we should give mead a whirl. After some hemming and hawing, and a little research we tried our first batch, which is still going at it in the basement. Since that first 5 gal started, we have four 1 gallon carboy and another 5 gallon carboy going, in addition to the two gallons of bluebeery and blackberry wine.
Unfortunately, our homebrew stash is getting low...damn I need to get more carboys!
After returning to the US, I kinda forgot about it, except for every fall when the family would head up to the MD Renn festival. Then, of course, I would have my fill of it!
We have been brewing beer on and off for several years, but after coming back from the renn festival this past year, it struck me that we should give mead a whirl. After some hemming and hawing, and a little research we tried our first batch, which is still going at it in the basement. Since that first 5 gal started, we have four 1 gallon carboy and another 5 gallon carboy going, in addition to the two gallons of bluebeery and blackberry wine.
Unfortunately, our homebrew stash is getting low...damn I need to get more carboys!
Hey Geoffrey anywhere near New York? I can probably help with the carboys. Have about a 100 to spare. :
The very word "mead" has mystique and romance. I had been making wild beers and wine for three years already when on an herb list I saw a recipe for lavender/rosemary metheglin. I had to try it. Even in the primary, it smelled so heady and good that I thought I would give other meads a whirl. Mentioned this new interest to my Dad, who got excited and asked me to re-create a "med" that his grandmother used to make back in the Ukraine about 120 years ago.
Well, Dad passed away before the "med" was ready, but I named it for him upon bottling, and hope to make some every year (just a plain hopped mead). Once you've made a good batch or two, you're hooked, and I'm no different from anyone else in that respect. At this point I make a wine and a mead starring the wine's fruit or herb, side by side. Maybe someday I'll just stop making the wine and concentrate on the mead, but I do like looking at the carboys and saying, "This one is a strawberry wine, and this one is a strawberry melomel. This one is a raspberry wine, and this one is a raspberry melomel." Although I haven't made a wine to match the prune melomel, which by the way is turning out very well indeed.
Miriam
Well, Dad passed away before the "med" was ready, but I named it for him upon bottling, and hope to make some every year (just a plain hopped mead). Once you've made a good batch or two, you're hooked, and I'm no different from anyone else in that respect. At this point I make a wine and a mead starring the wine's fruit or herb, side by side. Maybe someday I'll just stop making the wine and concentrate on the mead, but I do like looking at the carboys and saying, "This one is a strawberry wine, and this one is a strawberry melomel. This one is a raspberry wine, and this one is a raspberry melomel." Although I haven't made a wine to match the prune melomel, which by the way is turning out very well indeed.
Miriam
Lagerman,
Unfortunately I am located just south of DC in Virginia. Otherwise I would have been to your place already, having read your other post! :-\
I am, however, going to take up Oskaar's suggestion of hitting up all the yard sales around the area. Who knows, maybe I can make a living selling things I find on ebay!! ;D
Thanks for the offer, even though I cannot take you up on it!
~Geoffrey
Unfortunately I am located just south of DC in Virginia. Otherwise I would have been to your place already, having read your other post! :-\
I am, however, going to take up Oskaar's suggestion of hitting up all the yard sales around the area. Who knows, maybe I can make a living selling things I find on ebay!! ;D
Thanks for the offer, even though I cannot take you up on it!
~Geoffrey
This is great. My story is more of a romance novel:Gods I wish.It all started when I signed up for a pagan weekend adventure, I was at my work and I was asking my boss for advice, I mentiond a Mead class and she said "PLEASE, I LOVE MEAD.. I'll give you extra pay if you make me mead. I go to renfest just for it .. please lex.." So she paid my extra $5 for the class and thus I went to the pagan weekend looking foward to Mead class. Then I meet my Mead instructor in the Body art class. He was cute, funny, and just so sweet. So then I REALY REALY wanted to go to the class.
Turns out the Man's married. But anyway the next moring I showed up for the class in my PJ's (Short Shorts and a tank), and my mead teacher greeded me and gave me everything I needed. So I learned how to make mead, tried to get over my mead teacher.
Now I've made my Mead(Waiting for the first bach to be done) and my boss is paying well. And I still hear from my Mead teacher, who maybe is not so married after all.
And so I may JUST live happly ever after.... because I LOVE MEAD! ;D
I'm obsessively striving for the best, and once I've tasted something that is best of class, I have a hard time accepting anything less, and a compulsive need to prove I can top it, assuming it is something that doesn't require thousands of $ in equipment, although I've done that before too :.
SCA was a big factor, I've been going to Ren Faires since 1974 in Northern California, never tried mead until last year, mainly because I thought it was a type of Beer, I can't stand Beer, so I had steered very clear of it most of my life. Just after I tried it I went to a SCA fighters school in Wisconsin, ran into my Neighbor of 4 years ago, found out he's making mead, looked online to research it, found GotMead and have been hooked ever since... This forum has a lot to do with my obsession, If it didn't exist I'd probably have never started my first batch.
Wrathwilde
.SCA was a big factor, I've been going to Ren Faires since 1974 in Northern California, never tried mead until last year, mainly because I thought it was a type of Beer, I can't stand Beer, so I had steered very clear of it most of my life. Just after I tried it I went to a SCA fighters school in Wisconsin, ran into my Neighbor of 4 years ago, found out he's making mead, looked online to research it, found GotMead and have been hooked ever since... This forum has a lot to do with my obsession, If it didn't exist I'd probably have never started my first batch.
Wrathwilde
SCA was a factor in my start in meadmaking too. I went to the Clinton War last year, in Clinton BC, and tried some there. The friend I went with had made mead a couple years before, and mentioned the stuff I'd tried was probably not the best I Could get/make. Popped online when I got home, did a bunch of research and about 2 weeks later, my Orange-Ginger mead was burbling away. Soon followed by the Liquorice, and now some stout, and then another mead and then...and then...
I've become a bit obsessed, as I usually do with hobbies that strike my fancy.
I've become a bit obsessed, as I usually do with hobbies that strike my fancy.
~
I'm new to this forum, and unfamiliar with SCA, but do seem to recall that there's a local chapter of the Shakespearean socitey somewhere around here...
I colllect beer steins and mugs and happen to have about 20 Shakespearean festival mugs that are very beautiful.
I love beer, I love the beer that I make and cannot purchase anything even close to it in Utah. I like to be self sufficient and I like mead, it's GOOD!
I have probably made 200 batches of beer in everything from a Corona clone, to the heaviest stuff you can imagine. It's all good! I have a refrigerator in the garage for Lagers and my basement just happens to be the perfect temperature for brewing ales during the summer (the computer room upstairs during the winter).
I made my first batch of mead today. I'll let you know in about 2 months how it's going!! I'm stoked!!
This place it great....
Paul.
I'm new to this forum, and unfamiliar with SCA, but do seem to recall that there's a local chapter of the Shakespearean socitey somewhere around here...
I colllect beer steins and mugs and happen to have about 20 Shakespearean festival mugs that are very beautiful.
I love beer, I love the beer that I make and cannot purchase anything even close to it in Utah. I like to be self sufficient and I like mead, it's GOOD!
I have probably made 200 batches of beer in everything from a Corona clone, to the heaviest stuff you can imagine. It's all good! I have a refrigerator in the garage for Lagers and my basement just happens to be the perfect temperature for brewing ales during the summer (the computer room upstairs during the winter).
I made my first batch of mead today. I'll let you know in about 2 months how it's going!! I'm stoked!!
This place it great....
Paul.
Welcome paul84043, I know the feeling of waiting for your first batch to be done. Counting the days. June 22 should be the day mine's finished. Summer Solstice... ;D
