Made my first two batches of Mead!

[wfuavenger]

Okay, it is official... I am insane.

For christmas I got a Mr. Beer home brew kit and have made some really good beers.... A West Coast Pale Ale that is light and citrusy and a High Country Canadian Draft which is mellow and nice.

This got me thinking about mead.... I have always been a little curious about it and I do make my own strawberry vodka, peach vodka and blueberry vodka....

Yesterday I got the urge to make mead bad enough I went to the local brewery supply store and bought 2- 6 gallon carbouys, and all of the equipment to make, rack, ferment and store mead....

I ended up making these two recipes:

Joes Ancient Orange Cinnamon Clove Mead and Chocolate Mead

The chocolate mead is my own variation of the Lady Bridget version here: http://www.ladybridget.com/m/chocmead.html and a few other recipes....
 
The biggest issue with the chocolate meads is that they take 1-2 years to be mellow and good and not bitter from the cocoa.... So just like a wine, I will have no clue if it is good for a LONG, LONG time.... They also call for back sweetning where you add honey or sugar after fermentation, I used a yeast that stops fermenting at around 14% ABV, so there should be plenty of honey left....

If you want to read my recipes, check out my blog in my signature and feel free to leave comments...

[Natalie]

Sounds like fun. The orange/cinnamon sounds good.  Where is the link to your blog?

[wfuavenger]

sorry about that,

Jareds Bees

[Natalie]

Thank you. That looks really good. I am interested in making mead, I just had a class on it. I would love to get started on that.

[wfuavenger]

If I had to do it over, I would say start off with 1 to 3 gallon carbouys until you get the hang of it... I tend to go overboard, with 32 lbs of honey 2 6 gallon carbouys and water along with things being mixed, blended, chopped and combined, I ended up with a royal mess. And 6 gallons is kinda heavy to be sloshing around unless you are strong.

I think I might get 2- 1 gallon carbouys and equipment and play around with some smaller amounts... I am having a hard time finding recipes though.... But, if these two work out, I will definatly have christmas presents covered for this year!

Both meads are bubbling about 1.5 bubbles a second and the ancient orange is frothy on top. The whole uopstairs office (in the closet where I have them smells of chocolate oranges, mmmmmmm).