Ok how about mead?
 

Ever had mead? I used to make a lot of mead.

Making wine is a lot harder than making beer. Now maybe there is an easier way but my only attempt at making wine involved a kit and you have to add all kinds of tablets for ph and yeast nutrients and other stuff I have forgotten. it takes a long time in the fermenter too and then the aging. Beer is much easier.

Now you can make mead very easily. essentially you make it like beer. i have made many different varieties. The ones with acidic fruit added with the honey , such as cranberry and red Cherry come out good all the time. Citrus like grapefruit or orange can be tricky. Spiced mead , call metheglin is fairly easy. Stuff like ginger and cloves is added. Metheglin is the root word from which medicine comes from or at least that is what I have read since metheglins were considered to have medicinal value back in ancient Celtic Days.

Mead is one of the oldest of the fermented drinks. I guess the idea of adding a little honey to something that is mostly water is a natual thing to do to add a little sweetness. well if you water down some honey and just leave it hanging around , it will eventually ferment and then you have alchohol! Its a natural , unlike some processers that are complicated and make you wonder how people a thousand years ago developed them.

So , any mead makers or drinkers out there?

I made 6 gal from local honey back in Iowa some years ago. OG was large...came out to around 16-17% although that seems a bit high...

Pretty good. It was the only batch I ever did...

I have a good sole and cider soup recipe that I think would be nice with a dry mead instead.

-spence

Made a few batches at a BOP place awhile back.....stuff will kick your arse if you aren't careful.

for some reason me and the Bro-in-laws always drink it on X-mas

good stuff
 

that mead brew.....

the first beer

16 to 17 ABV not poissible unless you distill or concentrate. No yeast will get you above 13 at most. but anyway , yes mead can be very strong and if made well , it goes down so easy you can get caught by surprise by the buzz. :)

especially when you're drinking it w/ beers...and Capt & Cokes....makes for a rough morning the next day :smash:

Agree, that's what I remember the numbers coming out to but it seemed high so possible I screwed something up. Maybe I used champagne yeast? I was some time ago...

Regardless, it was pretty strong stuff. I'd love to taste some good homebrew mead, the commercial stuff I've had hasn't impressed.

-spence

Yep , some mistake in OG-FG measure or calc. Even Champagne yeast will have trouble at about 13 percent. Any wine or alc beverage above about 13 has either been fortified with distilled spirits , concentrated by removal of water in the form of ice , or distilled itself.

Take 2 quarts of honey , two gallons of Ocean spray cranberry juice, add pre boiled then cooled water to make 5 gallons , add a wine yeast and then just do like you would a homebrewed beer. it will take longer to ferment but when done , it will taste like white Zin wine and as long as you do everything clean like in beer making , the cranberry mead is almost fool proof. You can bottle it still or you can carbonate it if you like. i usually bottle it right from the secondary without adding the priming sugar because there is usually a little unfermented sugar still in it and that kicks off in the bottle. It doesn't get foamy like a beer head but it gets just a little carbonation.

One thing i have thought of since they are now pretty available would be to make a mead using some of that pomagranet juice. Sounds yum!

when I had made it before I had a Blackberry, a peach, and a Spiced for flavors...really good

Had a Norwegian friend in college who's dad used to make it for us. Good stuff imo.
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