[Zookeep]

Yet another product of the hive :drinks: 3lbs of honey per gallon of water and yeast, wife and I plan on adding lemons to the next then oranges then wild blackberrys to yet another, sooo much can be done once you have hives of bees, man this rocks :yahoo:

 

[Skyhigh]

:beg: Pick me! Pick me! :beg: (You're asking for taste testers, right?)



This is what my eldest is waiting for. LOL So awesome! Is this from that dark, wild bee honey you collected?

 

[Zookeep]

yep it looks like motor oil, tastes so great ancing:

 

[Zookeep]

next batch :drinks: green apples and golden raisins



this is a vid after just 1 day

 

[crackerbee]

Zkeep you may want to go easy on the citrus,I don't know you've ever have orange or grapefruit wine,but it's not a flavorful experience,maybe in small amounts it will be ok.

 

[efmesch]

I have found that adding a cup of strong tea to the mixture while it ferments, adds the needed tannin to balance the flavor of the finished mead.

 

[efmesch]

Too much citrus makes for an unpleasant acidity.

 

[Zookeep]

I joined a group called HAMs here in sarasota , Homebrewers Association of Manatee and Sarasota 2 of the members are state beer judges and the help Im getting on the brewing is real top knotch ancing:

 

[tecumseh]

#8 above is a real travesty... an unfinished bottle of mead should be a crime.

a finished bottle of 'good' mead on the other hand make you want to go jump in your long boat and go and plunder and pillage England.

efmesch writes:
I have found that adding a cup of strong tea

tecumseh ask:
what kind of tea EF?

I have heard a couple of the local home brew folks tag mead as tasteless. this suggest to me that a number of home brewers have primarily use tasteless store bought honey to make mead and therefore sometime add more stuff that necessary if you started out with 'good honey'.

 

[efmesch]

Tec,
Just "plain old tea". Nothing with added flavors of any sort.
Just like sugar-water needs some flavoring to give it "zing", as delicious as the honey may be, for it to really taste good, mead needs two additional ingredients--
1: Acidity (supplied by a little bit of citric acid (crystals). citrus juice or tartaric acid [that's the best, available from wine supply shops]
2: Tannin, supplied by the strong tea.
Both of these ingredients help the mead mimic the flavor of a good wine.
Specific recipes should be available over the internet, giving quantities and ideas.

Anyone who can get hold of the pamphlet: "Honey Wines and Beers" by Clara Furness, (published by Northern Bee Books, West Yorkshire, England) will have an excellent reference to work with. :thumbsup:
On more than one occasion, when I forgot to label my mead properly, I had trouble being sure it wasn't a home brewed wine.
I don't want to brag (too much), but there are members of my extended family who have standing orders for mead and are all too often disappointed when they visit and I don't have a "spare" bottle for them to take home. :drinks:

 

[Zookeep]

dont worry tec there was no crime, #8 was the pic of opening the bottle, the bottle was long empty 20 min later :drinks:

 

[Zookeep]

"lets get this party started" starts dancing to the music :drinks:

 

[Hobie]

There really ought to be some forum rule about posting photos of mead without offering free samples!

Some awesome looking mead, Zookeep!