The Mead Waiting Game

Hello Fellow Mead Makers!

I know it has been a little while since my last post. All of our buckets and carboys are filled so I have been playing the waiting game. Here is a picture of our second and third batch which should be done in the next month or so.

My husband and I are actually planning on stocking up on more equipment in a week or two. One of the two locations of our local brewing store is having a massive closing sale. So excited!

We are in the middle of working on another project...our first mead bottle cabinet. We are refinishing an old antique dresser and making it onto a mead cabinet. I will post pictures when it is finished. We home brewers have to be resourceful!

I have also requested to be added to a couple mead groups on Facebook. If you haven't already done this, I highly recommend it. These groups are unbelievably helpful. They are open to beginners and experienced mead makers alike. This is the best place I have found for advice on batches. I have also learned about through reading posts and comments. Learning from other peoples mistakes is the best and cheapest way sometimes to gain experience...right?

Until next time....

Mead, Fruit & Tea

My husband and I recently started experimenting with perry and melomel meads. This past weekend we made a mead with green tea and pears as well as a mead with oolong tea and apricots. I think these are our most exciting recipes yet! I have read that when using tea in mead making, it is best to boil it and let it steep for triple the usual time so this is what we did. We only boiled the leaves in a half gallon of water since we wanted to boil another batch after fermentation to really give the mead a good tea flavor.

We also decided to mash up the fruit and add it to the mead (once it cooled) before fermentation. For others starting their first mead with fruit, be sure to cut fruit up and do not use the core. All I have read about adding fruit recommends eliminating the core of the added fruit. Mashing up the fruit helps bring out the sweetness in it since it breaks down the cellular structure. From what I have read, this uses the same concept as freezing fruit to put in mead.

Some say adding fruit before fermentation hinders the flavor but we will taste it after fermentation and see if we need to add more. There is a lot of speculation about different processes of mead making and flavor since there are so many varying opinions. I don't think anyone can go wrong as long as they taste after fermentation and taste while racking each time. In my opinion, that is the only way you are going to get the end product you hoped for...everyone's taste buds are different just like everyone's way of making mead is different.

First Mead Recipes

My husband and I now have three gallons of mead sitting in our living room. Our first has complete it's fermentation and has been racked once. We are now waiting three more months before racking again. We randomly picked this recipe not realizing it took about 18 months to finish. This is not ideal when first starting out since most people want to try their first batch in a few months but it is a more traditional recipe so we should have a nice Christmas gift in 2017:)

The other two gallons are both flavored with vanilla bean. One uses strictly orange blossom honey and the other is a mixture of orange blossom honey and wildflower honey. We did this because we wanted to try some simple recipes so we could really taste the difference between the types of honey used. These recipes should be done in a couple of months so we should have something to taste by the holidays.

All of these gallons were made using the boiling method. I have read a lot about the boiling method verses the non-boiling method. My husband and I are interested in trying both but it just so happens that our first recipes called for boiling. Some believe that boiling hinders the ending flavor of the mead but I have also read that flavor also depends on when you add your honey, spices, fruits etc. I will post more about how the boiling method recipes turn out when they are finished.

Mead Equipment and Ingredients

Once you decide to start brewing mead, buying the equipment and ingredients needed can be an overwhelming task. Especially if you are like my husband and I, who aren't experienced in the brewing world prior to making mead. After researching the basics and picking a recipe you want to start, my recommendation is going to a local brewing supply store for assistance.

My husband and I are very fortunate in the area. We have a local brewing supply store less than an hour from home. This place has been wonderful to us. The owner instantly saw we were confused and overwhelmed during our first visit. He offered to collect the necessary items we needed including a starter kit. This made it so much easier to start. We decided to go with a gallon wine starter kit since we wanted to try our recipes in small batches first. See the picture below for a helpful list of items the starter kit included.

It is also good to grow a relationship with someone who is experienced in making mead or brewing so you have someone to answer any questions you have about your first batch. We were worried about our first gallon because we didn't see many bubbles during fermentation but the guys at the brewing store just told us to transfer it to a carboy and to patiently wait for it to clarify. As you probably know by now, the process of making mead is pretty lengthy so you want the end result to be well worth the wait.

Hello

Hello Fellow Mead Enthusiasts!

My purpose for starting this blog is to share the story about how my husband and I were introduced to mead and mead making. I plan to share our successes and failures as we embark on our journey towards opening our own meadery and hope to offer some helpful tips to fellow mead makers along the way.

My husband and I were first introduced to mead on a last minute road trip we decided to take to Maryland over the summer. I had read about a cidery I wanted to visit and while we were there the folks told us about a meadery about 10 minutes down the road called Orchid Cellar. Having no particular schedule, we decided to check it out and fell in love at first sip.

By the way, I highly recommend visiting the Orchid Cellar to anyone who finds themselves in the area and who enjoys a sweet or semi-sweet mead.

Anyway, while we were enjoying a tasting at the Orchid Cellar, one of the employees told us about how popular the mead industry was becoming and suggested some other places we could visit in the state. This set us off on a so called "mead trail" through Maryland. The next day we traveled to Baltimore to visit Charm City Meadworks which specializes in more dry meads and carbonated meads. After our second mead tasting we were hooked! By the time we returned home to Delaware (with our new collection of mead) we had decided to start brewing our own and looking into starting our own meadery.