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Mead?

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Brokennock

Cannon
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It is funny to me how some people seem reluctant to start a topic on their own.
Things often come up in topics that are related to the o.p. but not quite on topic, and definitely of interest, so it gets suggested the person posting it start a topic about it.....
Rarely happens.

Mead was brought up in the brewing topic. It is an excellent subject for its own thread/topic.

So? Methods? Techniques?

We know it has an incredibly long history, so we don't really need to go back to Roman Empire, Vikings, or earlier. But, does anyone have Colonial American references to it? It's history here would be of value.

Have at it.....
 
I used to make around 18 gallons a year using glass carboys using champagne yeast then bottled into glass bottles the pressure tops. Found it takes a couple years in them to taste best. Drinkable at 4 months if you need it then.

I gave away my equipment to a friend of my son as he was getting into brewing. I am the only one in my family that drinks home brews so no big loss I get plenty of gifts.

LD was making some meads but never heard how they came out.
 
LD was making some meads but never heard how they came out.

Holy Moly I must've forgot to mention!

FACE PALM EMOJI.JPG


So I found that the honey from COSTCO does work.

Do Not Boil the honey. You raise the temp up to about 160 degrees, for at least 30 minutes. Otherwise the honey will form sour compounds when it ferments.

Using an online brewing or mead making calculator helps you figure the potential sugar and thus the alcohol potential.

IF you go for something like a "Norse mead", (which just means you use an ale yeast) then IF you have sugar that will take you above 8% ABV..., you will not get above 8% ABV but you will have a sweet mead. IF you want a dry, higher alcohol content, go higher sugar than will give you 8% ABV and then use a wine yeast. IF you want a high ABV and you want sweet, use enough honey to give you sugar to the 12% - 14% ABV range, but bottle the mead when it hits 10%, and immediately pasteurize the mead to halt the fermentation.

I've found a 6% mead made at home is quite adequate.

LD
 
We make mead out of the honey we rinse from the comb caps that we have to cut off the combs to get the honey. Since you have to add water to honey to perm fermentation anyway.

Drinkable after a year, two is better. We often add some fruit as we bottle to make what I think is called a malomel. I have also added hop tea to balance the sweetness.

We also use a wine or champagne yeast as these tolerate higher alcohol levels when fermenting.
 
I can't recall coming across any historical references to it in North American history. Rum seemed to be the most common drink.
 
I can't recall coming across any historical references to it in North American history. Rum seemed to be the most common drink.

Likely people who made it were less likely to write anything at all. A family out on a farm might find a wild hive, harvest the honey and do what we do and rinse the wax to make candles etc. would they throw out that sweet water? They would save it, perhaps drink it with other flavors, and some of it would naturally be fermented by the wild yeast that is always present. There is mead.
 
Likely people who made it were less likely to write anything at all. A family out on a farm might find a wild hive, harvest the honey and do what we do and rinse the wax to make candles etc. would they throw out that sweet water? They would save it, perhaps drink it with other flavors, and some of it would naturally be fermented by the wild yeast that is always present. There is mead.
Not being argumentative, just for discussion sake.
The colonies were much more of a consumer society than many of us in this hobby/lifestyle often like to acknowledge.
Consumers of vast amounts of foreign imports. Also, engaging in a lot of trading of products made or grown here. Barrels of oysters were sent pretty far west from the east coast, other eastern products or products that were mostly produced in established settlements were traded to frontier and farming communities (rifles, powder horns, etc.)
Why not mead? Maybe that farm family enjoyed mead brought by ship then disseminated through mercantile channels until it got to them?
Like beer, did local taverns make their own supply? Did they trade or purchase mead like they did rum, sherry, or Madeira wine?
 
Not being argumentative, just for discussion sake.
The colonies were much more of a consumer society than many of us in this hobby/lifestyle often like to acknowledge.
Consumers of vast amounts of foreign imports. Also, engaging in a lot of trading of products made or grown here. Barrels of oysters were sent pretty far west from the east coast, other eastern products or products that were mostly produced in established settlements were traded to frontier and farming communities (rifles, powder horns, etc.)
Why not mead? Maybe that farm family enjoyed mead brought by ship then disseminated through mercantile channels until it got to them?
Like beer, did local taverns make their own supply? Did they trade or purchase mead like they did rum, sherry, or Madeira wine?

Good points about the flow of trade goods. If mead was popular it would have been imported/traded.
 
Also, while I've heard accounts of colonial woodsman using a bee box to find honey, I'm not sure how early this started here.
I could be wrong but my memory is telling me that honey bees are not native to the America's. Not sure when they were brought over and thus how long to establish enough honey production to cover dietary desires and then have enough left to make mead.
 
Doesn't there have to be some kind of historical reference concerning colonialists drinking mead? Geo. Washington is on record as liking Madeira Wine and there was always a lot of fuss about rum from the Caribbean being smuggled into the colonies without paying the royal tax, etc. and then references to rum mixed with cherry juice, etc. to make cherry bounce.
 
Doesn't there have to be some kind of historical reference concerning colonialists drinking mead? Geo. Washington is on record as liking Madeira Wine and there was always a lot of fuss about rum from the Caribbean being smuggled into the colonies without paying the royal tax, etc. and then references to rum mixed with cherry juice, etc. to make cherry bounce.
You would think there would be. I gave yet to see one. But, there are many here who have perused far more period texts than I gave.
Wondering I'd the searchable archive of advertisements and such that @George has would turn up any coming into a port for sale?
 
Not being argumentative, just for discussion sake.
The colonies were much more of a consumer society than many of us in this hobby/lifestyle often like to acknowledge.
Consumers of vast amounts of foreign imports. Also, engaging in a lot of trading of products made or grown here. Barrels of oysters were sent pretty far west from the east coast, other eastern products or products that were mostly produced in established settlements were traded to frontier and farming communities (rifles, powder horns, etc.)
Why not mead? Maybe that farm family enjoyed mead brought by ship then disseminated through mercantile channels until it got to them?
Like beer, did local taverns make their own supply? Did they trade or purchase mead like they did rum, sherry, or Madeira wine?
is MADEIRA wine the same as ITALIAN RED WINE? if not what is the difference? As I would like to try it? just courious.
 
is MADEIRA wine the same as ITALIAN RED WINE? if not what is the difference? As I would like to try it? just courious.
I'm no wine expert, at all, hate the stuff.
I believe Madeira is from Spain. I do understand that different grapes produce different flavors,, and different soils produce different flavors in fruits.
So I would think them to be different right there.
Also how much sugar is added during fermentation would play a role.
 
is MADEIRA wine the same as ITALIAN RED WINE? if not what is the difference? As I would like to try it? just courious.
Madeira is more like port. It’s fortified with another liquor to increase the alcohol content, which also makes it more shelf stable and allows some sugar to remain in the liquid without the risk of restarting fermentation. I recall that it was a pleasant accident that they discovered that this kind of port improved by making the voyage overseas to tropical climates & back, allowing the wine to evaporate a little and even carmelize a bit in the heat. How they continued to make it after that happy discovery is something I’ve never read.

This makes me wonder if “port” was named such because it stayed in port rather than shipped or for some other reason. Just a wild guess there.
 
I'm no wine expert, at all, hate the stuff.
I believe Madeira is from Spain. I do understand that different grapes produce different flavors,, and different soils produce different flavors in fruits.
So I would think them to be different right there.
Also how much sugar is added during fermentation would play a role.
thank you for the reply. toot.
 
Madeira is more like port. It’s fortified with another liquor to increase the alcohol content, which also makes it more shelf stable and allows some sugar to remain in the liquid without the risk of restarting fermentation. I recall that it was a pleasant accident that they discovered that this kind of port improved by making the voyage overseas to tropical climates & back, allowing the wine to evaporate a little and even carmelize a bit in the heat. How they continued to make it after that happy discovery is something I’ve never read.

This makes me wonder if “port” was named such because it stayed in port rather than shipped or for some other reason. Just a wild guess there.
I also wonder now what you brought it up- UMMM, maybe you have hit onto something! a thank you for that helpfully info. toot. PS. I am going to try some, as the curiosity is killing me! you hear about if bring drunk by tha pirates, so it would have to be good!!!.
 
Jon Townsend has a video on his Youtube channel on Mead.
"Mead was a very popular drink during the 17th century and before, but fell out of favor by the 18th century due to the rise of Beer and Ale. Nevertheless, recipes for Mead can be found in books written in the 1700's and today Jon goes in depth on this fascinating drink."


 

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