I used a kveik yeast in the braggot I bottled a couple of weeks ago. Like Doc said, yeast can’t read and this was exceptionally illiterate yeast that made a 19% mead!
Still, good to know that’s a solid option. Thank you.
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my starfruit cider came out quite tart, very “dry” and crisp! i also like cider that way and i am sorry @DukeTrout , i didn’t mean to hijack your mead thread! 
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I made a passionfruit mead a few years ago that came out tasting like alcoholic, fermented grapefruit juice. It was really enjoyable.
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No apologies needed! This is what I started it for!
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A local Viking-themed meadery makes a few varieties of mead that are not carbonated and incredibly complex in flavor. The texture is more like wine than beer; leggy, even. Most other mead I’ve experienced is bubbly.
Are any of you making that style? I don’t even know what it might be called. I’ve been curious about brewing some kind of alcohol for a while, mead seems like a good entry.
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I make wine un-carbonated wine strength mead’s at work.
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Would you care to point me to a recipe you might recommend for a beginner?
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I mentioned that I tend to do mead the wine way… the plain mead in the pic above tasted basically like a lightly-honey-flavored white wine, maybe with a slightly thicker mouthfeel, and absolutely delicious. Never tried doing carbonation, but the uncarbonated way is absolutely a legit method.
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Most of my brews are still. Occasionally, I get one with a little bottle carbonation. I have a small pressurized growler that I very rarely use to force carbonate a brew.
Since I let the yeast run their course, that pretty much forces my hand to have finished mead that is still. It also means I usually have higher ABV brews, typically in the 14-20% ABV range.
The results can be very simple, like some of the fruit meads that taste like you’re drinking jam, or very complex, like aged apple meads that gradually taste like high-end bourbon.
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Two references that come to my mind offhand:
- I haven’t used any of their recipes yet, but they seem to be very informational and a good place for beginners, would be CitySteadingBrews on youtube
- One of the places I started looking at for ratios and recipes ages ago, homebrewtalk, basically a message board for
meadbrewers (brewing in general, but I did get a lot of good mead info from there when I started out. Though I haven’t been active there for ages so (unfortunately) ymmv)
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Here’s a recipe for a simple mead:
I’ve used this subreddit as a resource:
https://www.reddit.com/r/mead/
as well as these clone recipes, I look at the carbonated ones, but they do have some non-carbonated recipes too:
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I make low ABV meads because honey is expensive and the lower the ABV, the less honey I use per batch. This allows me to experiment more. Secondly, I prefer drinking something that’s between 5-8%. I plan on making a wine strength mead based on my blueberry coffee recipe, only I want to caramelize the honey.
I mostly bottle carbonate, but for that blueberry one I added metabisulfite and sorbate before making secondary additions. I then borrowed the equipment I needed to carbonate it from work. I have my own keg now, but still need to buy a CO2 tank and regulator.
I’ve had a couple batches that never made it into bottles because I sampled too much 
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Have done some recipes from Citysteading brews, but picked up a lot of technique and knowledge from them. Excellent resource.
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On a related note: My wife has made tej and if she does it again, I’ll share the details… I’m told it’s honey, water, and gesho; “the fermentation comes from the gesho” which I presume means the yeast is built-in…
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I must have missed that, my apologies. I look forward to giving this a go.
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Nono, I apologize, I didn’t mean it like that! I was just referring back, no implications intended.
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All good f’real. The lack of nuance in text, eh?
Thanks for the mead info. This is fun reading!
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Not mead, but just finished bottling 54 bottles of scotch ale.
BTW I choose to read the topic title as “Mead, Brewing and Drinking”
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IMO*, all brews are welcome. Looks like a tasty scotch ale!
*I am here to spectate, salivate, and point my spouse at interesting recipes.
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This is a clone of a beer called “Skull Splitter”. I substitute Irish ale yeast, and double up the peated malt. Fairly tasty.
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