I thought I’d kick off a discussion of mead (honey wine). This has been a hobby of mine since January 2020. I’ve made about 80 gallon batches of it since. I’ve tasted a lot of commercial mead and find that few stack up to the home-brewed product.
Current brews in process:
Blueberry (I’ll add some basil extract in secondary)
Green Tea & Asian Pear
Cyser (apple mead - this one uses Honeycrisp cider)
Pyment (grape mead - I found some California champagne grapes at the grocery story, so I’m going for a lighter, crisper pyment for this one)
Some recent bottling:
Blackberry mead - from my neighborhood vines; 20% ABV!
Braggot - a beer-based mead; 19% ABV
I have 12lbs of honey and some yeast ready to make a few different low ABV batches. I can’t decide what I want to make though. I have some dried white mulberries I want to use in secondary of something. I’m thinking of using a tea with that one, but I"m not sure right now.
I admire anyone who confidently interrupts fermentation. My few attempts haven not gone well. I just let the yeast do their thing until they’re done. Lazy, but effective.
That sounds yummy! It looks lightly carbonated, too?
Absolutely. I am a firm believer in stepfeeding/back sweetening until the yeast says “couldn’t touch another drop!” Results in some high test stuff, but lets me adjust sweetness to my liking (generally 1.005 to 1.015, but i have had a few I’ve taken to 1.025 or higher to “taste right.”) This is one where picking your yeast becomes key if you are looking for lower alcohol brews, though.
I’ve considered brewing mead. I make beer so I should have all the equipment already. Additionally when I make beer it’s in batches of five gallons, which means I’m stuck with a lot of beer. I think this may be a better option.
One problem is I’m not especially fond of the taste of honey!
That would be an issue, but there are plenty of options for flavoring. Honey is pretty subtle. Berries and fruits overpower the honey flavor so that it’s mostly just a hint, especially if you brew with a particularly strong flavor choice like pomegranate, blackberry, or apple.
Wine’s another option, too (I learned with wine, so I make my mead pretty much the wine way… which apparently is slightly different than beer makers tend to make mead, so ymmv)
I make what I call a grape cider. I grow grapes and harvest about 15 gallons per year so I get about six gallons of juice from that. Because of backyard critters I boil it to prevent parasites. I also add hops for flavor and use a belgian yeast. It comes out grand.
It’s lightly carbonated and quite refreshing. I like to pour it over ice in the summer. The grape juice imparts enough sourness that I don’t have to add any bittering hops.
A lot of commercial ciders don’t have that sour bite that I like so much. Or the crispness. Maybe because a lot of people don’t like it?
Maybe I should try making some. I’m sure my spouse wouldn’t mind me using his mead stuff. He hasn’t much felt like using it lately he made this great lemon, ginger, apple cider thing once.
Most ale yeasts will top out before 10%, but you can never really count on that. Yeast can’t read, y’see. I’m more of a “put stuff together and see what comes out” brewer than a “plan it out in advance” brewer. IMHO that’s a lot more fun.
he made this great lemon, ginger, apple cider thing once.