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Author Topic: Honey Mead  (Read 17218 times)

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Beleg813

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Honey Mead
« on: October 17, 2007, 08:59:28 pm »
There's something that really makes me want to make some old honey mead, traditional as possible, and drink it out of a polished / decorated horn...

I've read loads on some brewing of mead, wines, beers, just not the real old-school traditional form of it. Anyone ever experimented with anything like this?
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Offline cowboy

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2007, 09:44:59 pm »
Send me a gallon - I'll let ya know what I think ;D, how old ya say ya were? Sorry couldn't resist - I've never heard of it.
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Offline Knocker

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2007, 10:34:54 pm »
Beleg813,

I gave a couple of gallons of honey (I keep bees) to a friend that is a brewmaster.  A year or so later I got two types of mead in return.  One was "regular" and the other had some ginger in it.  Sounds wierd, but tastes great on a hot summer day.  He said he uses champagne yeast to get a bit more bubbly and more fermentation.  Somewhere I saw a reciepe for mead that was supposedly copied right off of an old viking's tombstone.

Be careful.  I have a theory that the vikings were so mean because the sugar in their honey mead gave them excruciating hang overs...

Keith
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Offline D. Tiller

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2007, 01:23:38 am »
Ya Sure! Ya Betcha! Dem der me ancestor ya talken bout. Nah wer my axe! (Burp!)  :o
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Offline DanaM

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2007, 08:45:17 am »
From what I've read mead can vary in flavor based upon what type of flowers the bees made their honey from.
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Beleg813

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2007, 06:56:45 pm »
Haha Cowboy you are the first person (and I've told loads of friends, coworkers about my honey mead brewing ideas) to want to try some. I'll hold you to it! I'll send you a batch of my first mix of honey mead. Whether that's a good thing or not will have to wait till you taste it! I'm 27 so, I'm of age to drink (barely I know :P), now to make good honey mead--I'm still probably too young.

Keith, that sounds really good on a hot summer day or a biting cold day. I think there are probably as many recipes for mead as there are for anything else that you could brew. I've always had notorious ground-breaking hangovers from Champagne perhaps it's the carbonation at that level coupled with alcohol...and thusly also why the Vikings had bad-hangovers. We'll just have to ask Cowboy after he tries my first batch :P

D. Tiller, it's funny but my first impression of Vikings (ok a bit of personal research so someone more knowledgeable please jump in!) were that they were all based, lived, fought, etc in the Scandinavian region...but they were pretty spread out (sea-faring as they were), and I do have some Viking heritage it seems...maybe it's my Viking heritage that is prompting me to think about brewing some old honey mead :D

DanaM--yeup from what I've read what type of honey you choose has a huge effect on the taste. Granted clover honey and raspberry honey are different, but what makes it awesome to me is that they gather the sweetness from whatever plants are nearby as well. So, you get this interesting sort of random flavor mix...perhaps even if you were to get two raspberry honey's from two different bee'ers. That's just way cool to me :)
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Offline david w.

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2007, 07:03:23 pm »
A brother at our Parish makes honey mead.  He recently gave us a bottle. A Brother making mead suprised me
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Beleg813

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #7 on: October 18, 2007, 07:18:02 pm »
Quote from: david w. on October 18, 2007, 07:03:23 pm
A brother at our Parish makes honey mead.  He recently gave us a bottle. A Brother making mead suprised me

Now, see, that's a profession I could do...lotta reading, lotta mead-making, lotta drinking, and a whole lotta prayin' for forgiveness about drinkin too much :D

Joking aside, a really good buddy of mine went to Christian Brothers University....he informed me that all of the brothers (monks) were not only ridiculously educated...but also heavy drinkers :)
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Offline Dane

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2007, 07:55:17 pm »
Dont you all think there is a reason why so many monesteries in Europe make various types of distilled stuff? :) I guess legend has it the guy who invented Champaigne was a monk. A very good brand is named after him, but I can't spell it. B&B was made by the Benedictines, and the Trapist monks make some good stuff. Some of the finest beers are made by religious orders in Germay. Hurrah.

You can get commerically brewed and bottled mead in a good liquor store, if you have to try it soon. I have a bottle downstairs, but haven't yet tried it.

Dane
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Offline Hillbilly

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #9 on: October 18, 2007, 10:01:03 pm »
The old-timers of my grandfather's generation here in the Smokies used to brew up a sort of high-test mead known as " methaglin". I guess the recipe came over from the Scottish highlands with their ancestors. I never got a chance to try any, but it sounds interesting. I doubt if anybody makes it around here these days.
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Beleg813

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #10 on: October 18, 2007, 10:43:45 pm »
Quote from: Dane on October 18, 2007, 07:55:17 pm
Dont you all think there is a reason why so many monesteries in Europe make various types of distilled stuff? :) I guess legend has it the guy who invented Champaigne was a monk. A very good brand is named after him, but I can't spell it. B&B was made by the Benedictines, and the Trapist monks make some good stuff. Some of the finest beers are made by religious orders in Germay. Hurrah.

You can get commerically brewed and bottled mead in a good liquor store, if you have to try it soon. I have a bottle downstairs, but haven't yet tried it.

Dane

Yeah, from what I've read the commercially bought Mead just isn't as good--or it's way expensive. I'm thinking I'll just have to curb my enthusiasm to taste mead into action of actually making it...too bad this whole "make a bow" business is so time consuming :P

Hey Hillbilly, that's interesting if that's the same thing that I'm thinking of "Metheglin" then it's a mead that uses spice and/or herbs as additives. I bet that'd be a really awesome recipe :) I was thinking of making a "Melomel" sort of mead--I've actually talked to an individual online about some honey, and I'm thinking I'm going to find me a good honey (this'll be a while) and go from there (well, after the next few paychecks--they just don't pay military enough :P) Hopefully, I'll be able to save up for a decent brewing kit--throw some bottles in the corner and let 'em sit for a bit while I'm making a bow....and can finish the mead and the bow many years down the road and have a nice drink and perhaps a nice shoot :P
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brokennock

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #11 on: October 20, 2007, 01:15:19 am »
I have a friend who brews it and I really like it. And I'm not a big drinker. It seems to take a long time though. He usually puts some together a bit before thanksgiving and it's ready for the foloowing thanksgiving or christmas.
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Beleg813

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #12 on: October 20, 2007, 12:30:34 pm »
Yeup, according to what I've read, it's a long process waiting for the Yeast to do their work and to die off leaving you with the tasty-sweet goodness...I think like other things it also depends on the type of mead you are making, level of alcohol content, taste, etc.

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DBernier

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #13 on: October 20, 2007, 02:13:03 pm »
Beleg813, where are you located?

Dick
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Beleg813

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Re: Honey Mead
« Reply #14 on: October 20, 2007, 03:37:21 pm »
I'm in Howard County, Maryland close to Baltimore and D.C.
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