Ok Dopers, I’ve got a wine that’s getting bottled this weekend. That means I’ll have a lonely looking carboy down stairs. That always gives me ideas. 
So, anyone have any good ideas for a mead I could maybe get ready by Christmas time? The honey will have to be 1/2 store bought 1/2 farmer’s market stuff. Should there be any problems with that?
Honey, Water, Yeast. Very simple.
2-5 pounds per gallon, depending on what you want.
No, it won’t be ready by Christmas. Mead is like Wine. Would you make home-made wine and expect it to be ready by then? Heck, I’ve got 10 year old stuff I still haven’t bottled…
Store bought honey? Depends. Some use other ingredients to make it flow better and not crystalize as easy.
There are quick meads that cold be ready in three months. Drop "Quick Mead’ into google and you’ll get lots of recipes.
Problems depend on your point of view. Store bought honey will probably have been pasteurized, so it will have slightly less aromas. On the upside it will have been filtered and not contain any unwanted yeast strains. Farmer’s Market honey may have bee parts in it, as well as unwanted microorganisms. On the upside it may be more flavorful, especially if you have bought a single blossom honey.
Actually Chimera I’ve done a bunch of really nice 4/6 wk kit wines that would be ok by Christmas time. Peasant wine I call it.
I have done mead once before but was hoping for some personal favourites from Dopers. Heck I’ve got blueberries I can throw in too if anyone has a melomel recipe.
Did you just go the basic honey/water/Champaign yeast route? How much honey?
Honey, Water, Berries, Yeast
For the last batch I brewed we used strawberries and raspberries, clarified (pectin and bentonite) and switched carboys weekly. Within 4 to 6 weeks we bottled a perfect pink mead (quite strong). Let it sit in bottles for 2 weeks and it was perfect.
It was an odd site, 2 men sitting around drinking nothing but pink alcohol, but it came out beautifully. Unfortunately I don’t have a recipe, but it’s either a forgiving thing or we had amazing beginner’s luck (this mead came out quite sweet, but I’m not a fan of dry meads/wines anyway).
If I had to guess we had 8-12 pounds of berries and 20-25 pounds of honey at the end. We started with 5 gallons, including all the berries and half of the honey, but it didn’t ferment in the first week (probably too acidic) so we diluted it to 10 gallons and added the remainder of the honey at that time.
I love mead. Every time I drink it, I think “this is what my ancestors drank when they raped and pillaged England.” THe recipes I have are for 5 gallon batches, but take about 6 months. This won’t be ready by Christmas of this year.
My dad was a beekeeper, so I’ve tried plenty of recipes. After his passing, I bought honey from the farmer’s market and roadside stands. Can’t conceive of going with “storebought” honey. You get rid of much of the sediment by racking anyway.
For straight up mead, I went with 18 lbs of honey for a 5 gallon batch. I used champagne yeast. During the boil, I put in 1 tsp of both malic and tartaric acid, which reduces the sweetness of the taste. I used sourwood honey most often, which is light and pleasant tasting. I like a good mellow mead which sneaks up on you.
For melomel, I’ve done raspberry. I got a gallon of raspberry wine base and used 10 gallons of honey. Also add 2 1/2 tubes of red grape concentrate. The recipe says to add this when you rack, but I’ve done it during the boil. I think it works better that way. Put the wine base in a muslin bag and put it in the boil. Transfer it to the primary fermenter as well. Since I usually wait until the burps in the airlock occur 3-4 minutes apart, primary fermenting can last about a month. When I rack, I throw the muslin bag away, which now contains play dough.
I also recommend cyser, my personal favorite. Use 10 lbs of honey, 1 gallon of apple cider, and 2 1/2 tubes of white grape concentrate. I’ve got some that have been in a giant Grolsch bottle for 6 or so years. Reckon I’ll drink it when I retire.
If you want something in time for Christmas, you might want to try a braggot. This is halfway between mead and ale. For 5 gallon batch, use 5 lbs of both malt extract and honey. Boil for 15 minutes. After the boil, add a tsp of citric acid. You can use hops if you want to as well. Ferment with ale yeast. It’s a good frothy, hearty drink.
Our usual base recipe is 12 to 15 pounds of a good natural honey (depending on the container size I can get it), 4 tsp. acid blend (we like our wine with a bit of acidity), 2 tsp. yeast nutrient, and 15 grams Lalvin 1118 champagne yeast. Bring the honey and a couple gallons of water to 170 degrees and remove from heat. Add enough water to fill the carboy and pitch the yeast at 80 degrees.
After primary fermentation, Rack to secondary over fruit, let it go to completion, and bottle. I’ve pasteurized my own fruit, used juices, wine kits, but the best flavor seems to come from store bought, frozen fruit. Four 12 oz. bags per batch is our standard amount. Our favorite so far is a toss up between cherry, blueberry, and a half and half mix of strawberry and peach. Like most mead, it’s pretty decent right away but gets better the longer it sits.
You can use any honey you find in the store, but I agree that you get a better wine with natural honey. The more bee legs you see in the honey, the better. I used to be picky and use “specialty” honeys like orange, raspberry, clover, etc, but it takes a much more sophisticated tongue than mine to taste the difference in the finished wine, especially if you add fruit and/or spices. But I can tell the difference between plastic bear honey and what comes straight from the beekeepers.
I’ve also found that when secondary fermenting is done, refrigerating it for a couple weeks before bottling clears the wine extremely well and all but eliminates sediment in the bottles. I don’t do it often, as I kind of like the character of a little bit in the bottle, but for xmas gifts, I like to give a clear wine.