mead

[minx]

anyone know anything about making mead, or honey wines. great recipes, additional special ingredients or secret tricks?
i'd be keen to hear your experiences etc.
many thanks
minx

[Annie Cree]

Hi Minx

I was wondering if you might have some luck if you post this on the Bees forum as well?

Tiffany

[Derek & Julie Craig]

Mead making is pretty easy.
I would advise any intending brewers to buy a Hydrometer (tells you sugar concentration) as your most useful piece of equipment.
Essentially you only need honey, water & Yeast - a white wine yeast is most commonly used. After that it is all flavouring and tinkering i.e. nutrients to help the yeast along or what yeast culture to use.
Mead does take time! Months to brew (hydrometer is needed to tell if it has actually finished or 'stuck') and usually a year to age for a full strength Mead.
Good mead tastes devine and bad mead just needs to age longer!
Below is a good American website on mead with some unteresting recipes.
http://cunnan.sca.org.au/wiki/Mead_brewing

Derek

[Kali]

I once used a gingerbeer bug to make some mead, must have guessed lucky with how much honey because i didn't use a hydrometer and it turned out lovely.