Re: Going to try to make Mead

I'm going to disagree with this view, but only slightly.
I've made several meads that were very tasty within a
2-3 months.  Tasty enough I'll never know how they
would have aged.
These weren't straight meads, but rather Cyser or
melomels.  There is also Meadmaker by the name of
chuck who blends 2lbs of buckwheat with other honeys
(approx 11 1/2 pounds total honey in a 5 gallon batch)
and uses k1-1116 who claims his meads finish soon and
benefit only slightly from aging.  Several other meadmakers
have testified to his success.  He visited britany (france)
where  they make mead with Buckwheat-Wildflower-Heather.
You can read some posts on this by him at www.gotmead.com
under the forum Mead Made Naturally.
http://www.gotmead.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Natural;action=display;num
=1066172959

Sanitation isn't that hard.  starting with CLEAN equipment
wash with a stong BiSulphite solution (sodium or my favorite
potasium) then rinse just before use.  By washing I mean let
the bisulfite mix sit on all the areas that will com in contact
with the mead for 15-30 seconds.  the Bisulfite will smell
strongly of sulfur (this is how you know it is still good)
and can be stored in an airtight container and be reused
several times.  I do this with the clean carboys and 1 gallon
of Bisulfite solution. (obviously only the inside and the
Nozel area need the Bisulfite on a carboy.

Another Helpful tip is a 1 gallon container like a
large pickle jar to pour your Bisulfite solution into
and immerse your other implements like Hydrometer
or stirers in.

In my Experience these easy steps will meet or exceed
your sanitization needs.  Generally speaking mead and
wines are heartier than beer when problems with infection
are concerned.

My personal recomendation is to make your first batch a
Cyser (use apple juice instead of water in your mead).
Get Cider/applejuice without preservatives in 1 gallon
and a couple 1/2 gallon glass jugs (mini Carboys).
I use these smaller bottles to hold excess must from
my primary to top off my secondary when i rack off
the lees (have to replace sampling loss).  My method
is to make 1 gallon more in primary than I plan to
bottle.  After 7-10 days of Bucket fermentaion for
my Primary (I transfer when the foam goes away),
I  remove and squeze any inngredient bags  Give a
quick final stir, and sipon off to my Carboys
everything the tube can transfer.  This gets my must
under an airlock instead of a showercap (good at
keeping things larger than air out).

So I have my batch Carboy, + 1 gallon.  I put airlocks
on both and let them ferment side by side.  Typically
I'll have the same batch size carboy + 1/2 gallon after
my secondary racking.  At this point I'll sometimes
take the 1/2 gallon away for a mid stage tasting with
some friends.  because typicaly my mead had dropped
the majority of the lees before i rack.  I have Honey
Jars of various sizes 12 oz - 32 oz if I miss the 1/2
gallon Target.  These get refrigerated.

I've never made homebrew(beer) and have had no
difficulties except getting enough mead in process
that I didn't have Waiting times that were mead free.
There are some meads (like Cocoa that definately
take a year)  All my fruit meads have cleared and been
quite tasty in 3-6 months.

John





"Phil" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On 25 Nov 2003 20:52:25 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Rich) wrote:
>
> >Hello all,
> >I have decided to try to make a mead.  I;m sure I will be tapping into
> >this group of experts!  Looking forward to learn alot from all of you.
>
> I strongly recommend that you try making a couple of batches of
> homebrew (if you haven't done so already).  The same rules for
> sanitation apply, with the same results if you don't follow them.
> With homebrew, you'll know in a few weeks if your santitation
> practices are up to par.  With mead, you won't know for a year.
>
>
> Phil
>