Homebrew Mead Wine

[Rhino0427]

I've been wanting to do this! The guys at Old West in the Springs are big proponents. They said you need to put your carbouy away and let it ferment for a year or more to get it right. Is that what you're doing?

[jdranchman]

There are methods to make a drinkable mead in a couple months. However, even with those they still get better with age. Two quick methods/recipes you can do at home are named JAOM and BOMM. The JAOM (Joe's Ancient Orange Mead) is a mix it and forget recipe and is ready in a couple of months (don't move it or stir it or nothing till its done). The BOMM (Bray's One Month Mead) is more a recipe and protocol that includes staggered nutrient additions (SNA) to help feed yeasties optimally during their short life. BOMM gives you a tasty drinkable mead in about 30 days. If you are interested, I recommend you surf to gotmead.com and read some of the forum articles - lots of good stuff. I wish I read some of that before I made my first batch last year. I did it the old school way and it might be drinkable in a year or two or three...

[Brian]

There are methods to make a drinkable mead in a couple months. However, even with those they still get better with age. Two quick methods/recipes you can do at home are named JAOM and BOMM. The JAOM (Joe's Ancient Orange Mead) is a mix it and forget recipe and is ready in a couple of months (don't move it or stir it or nothing till its done). The BOMM (Bray's One Month Mead) is more a recipe and protocol that includes staggered nutrient additions (SNA) to help feed yeasties optimally during their short life. BOMM gives you a tasty drinkable mead in about 30 days. If you are interested, I recommend you surf to gotmead.com and read some of the forum articles - lots of good stuff. I wish I read some of that before I made my first batch last year. I did it the old school way and it might be drinkable in a year or two or three...

Yep, that first picture I posted above is JAOM-based and was drinkable quite a while ago. It is honestly extremely simple, and you can do it without all the normal brewer's gear. Herman mentioned posting a recipe - I'll try to provide my recipe and a link to a few tips tonight when I have a few minutes.

[Brian]

Good lord the stuff I made in the first post is crazy good warmed up. Added some apple cider, cinnamon sticks, some sliced and peeled peaches and a bit 'o brown sugar and boiled it a bit. Had some friends over and we might have gone through a "few" bottles tonight.

[Hummer]

I have to bump this thread just to brag on Brian's Ancient Orange Mead. On his way to Moab recently, Brian stopped by with his family to say hello and to share some of his home brew wares. We really enjoyed meeting Brian and his wonderful family. What a fine fellow!

Brian brought a bottle of his spiced orange mead (pictured on page 1 in this thread), the Dragon Blood Mead (above) and a couple lemon wine coolers. We enjoyed one of the lemon wine coolers, very nice, and opened the spiced orange sweet mead. Wow, what flavor, it's awesome stuff! It's a sweet, honey rich sipper. Still have a little left which will be gone before I finish typing. Sorry, guys. We haven't opened the other cooler or the Dragon's Blood yet. That will wait to be shared with other wine & home brew friends when they visit.

Thanks again, Brian, for the fun of your visit and the delicious mead. I hope to source honey from a neighbor this summer and try making a mead for the first time.

[Brian]

Wow you can't beat a backyard view like that! We were all super jealous of your homestead there in Palisade. Don't be surprised if my daughter shows up there someday with a suitcase asking where she can sleep.

I'm glad the mead was a positive experience - and definitely appreciate your help and advice as I'm experimenting with this "hobby". I can't wait to try the bottles you sent back with me, but I did promise my buddy that I'd wait until our calendar's aligned so we could enjoy together.

Side note about sweet mead - we did stop by at Meadery of the Rockies on our way through, and I picked up a couple things. The only one I've tried so far that was a bit unique was the "Honey Shere" desert mead. As far as I can tell, it's honey wine that was finished, had a significant amount of additional honey to it, and then also had distilled grape spirits added - ends up almost 20% ABV. It's extremely thick (literally dripping in the glass), and potent - but if you're looking for a little after dinner dessert, it was very good.

On a related note, I've been trying to coordinate a small group to get together to experiment with some apple juice we recently acquired - around 50 gallons of it. I have not been able to get everyone together at the same time, but a few of us did get together on Saturday (apparently, which was also "national homebrew day") and managed to get started. There are now about 10 buckets fermenting underway in the basement, with more to come.

A bit of bubbles for hypnotic enjoyment. If I had room, I'd ferment in my office so I could hear the bubbles plop all day long...

[GilpinGuy]

Thread revival!

I just prepared my first 2 gallons of mead. One bluberry amd one strawberry. This recipe says it can be enjoyed in about 45 days. Hope it comes out ok. I'm tempted to get a bunch more going. Once I taste this stuff I'm not gonna want to run out.

[OtterbatHellcat]

Sounds cool, man, I hope to hear that it turned out as you expect.

[KevDen2005]

How did I not see this? I love Mead

[Double00]

I think I just found another hobby I can't afford!