A newbie mead story

[fathergoat]

I thought I'd share with you a story about my first adventure into making mead. I wanted to get into home brew a while back and the idea of a honey wine intrigued me. So I looked around on the internets for a simple recipe when I stumbled on one that was simply white grape juice concentrate, honey, water, and red star champagne yeast. I had no idea what I was doing but I bought the supplies anyway and went full steam ahead. I don't remember my OG but 1.095 rings a bell. When fermentation was done it was .99 and I took a sip, rocket fuel. I remember my throat dried out like I just drank whiskey. Now I remember back sweetening with more honey and I remember putting something in it to clarify it but I'm not sure which order. What I do remember is my next sip tasted like rocket fuel with honey in it. I figured I messed it all up but I had all these bottles so what the heck, I'll bottle it and maybe some age will make it better. So I did just that and shoved it under my basement steps. Then dabbled into making beer(extract stuff but that's beside the point)

Fast forward a bit to June this year. I went to a beer tasting charity event put on by a local brew club. The beer was good and I had fun so I eventually went to a meeting. At the end of the meeting someone broke out a bottle of cyser. That reminded me that I made mead once. When I got home I dug a box out from under the steps. After dusting it off I took it over to my parents, opened the bottle, poured a taste, and cautiously took a sip. IT WAS EPIC. It was nothing like the honey flavored rocket fuel I remember it was a beautiful dessert mead. Now If you've read this far I'm sure you're wondering "how long was it aged?". Well a few weeks after it's rediscovery I found an old bottle of bock beer that may dad had made while I made the mead. The bottle was labeled Nov. 2003

The moral of the story here? Patience is the best ingredient.

 

[fatbloke]

As a new mead maker, it's excellent to read this.

A lot of new makers go rushing in and then wonder why young meads can indeed taste horrendous..........

They see unwilling to admit that age might make all the difference or

They think that making it with a beer like technique will give them the drink like they'd get by making a beer in the same way.

Sure they get that meads are made with much higher gravities than beers, they also see numbers that come from yeast tolerances, like 18% ABV, then do a bit of reading and decide how many points of residual sugar they want, then wonder why it is that they struggle like hell to either get it to start fermenting or the fermentation is a fiddly PITA.

After all, what's the difference between a start gravity of 1.055 and 1.155 eh ?

Often, those with beer making experience, can be the hardest to convert to the more relaxed, less critical ways found with mead making......

But you've got the right approach already - by accident maybe, but none the less.

If you're making more and need to know anything I can help with, as per usual with the forums, just ask.......

 

[WVMJ]

The moral is to write down your recipes so you can make it again! The forgotten bottles are usually very good or very bad WVMJ

 

[neo71665]

Wow a first time brewer that actually didn't have to have it drunk in 2 weeks. That surprises me more than the first mead turned out so well.

 

[tuner240]

I can attest to a similar story. My first mead was Yomamma's Strawberry Pizazz and after fermentation, stabilizing, clarifying etc there was little strawberry flavor and much rocket fuel. I'm glad that I adopted a policy to set aside one gallon of every mead I make to age. Almost one year later I popped the airlock to add some ascorbic acid and curiosity. I was blown away by how good this mead smelled; very floral and like strawberry preserves/jam. Saving this for a special occasion.

 

[AlCophile]

fathergoat:
Was there any yeast on the bottom of the bottle? How much?

 

[fathergoat]

there was a little bit of sediment on the bottom of the bottles.

There was quiet a bit of beginners luck involved. The part I played was sterilizing everything well and storing it instead of tossing it. The recipe was very simple so replicating it will be pretty easy. In fact I have a 6 gallon batch going now. I used 2 cans of white grape concentrate per gallon and honey until I hit my gravity. Pitched some red star champagne yeast and it's bubbling away. I just bottled a one gallon test batch of an orange melomel where I substituted the orange juice for the white grape. It's really young but already very drinkable, I just wanted to see if it was worth making and aging a big batch. I think I'll go for it.