Here is a brief introduction into mead and meadmaking. Although I am not by any means a expert, I’ve made many different varieties over the years and most have turned out quite well. Lately I’ve kind of moved on to beermaking, but now that I finally have my own bees I expect that I will be making more mead in the future. Beer/wine/mead making is a fun hobby that can really get you hooked (just like beekeeping)!
What is mead? Mead is basically a wine that is made with honey instead of grapes. In fact, a basic mead can be made with only water, yeast, honey and time (perhaps the most important ingredient). A typical 5-gallon batch of mead takes about 12lb of honey (about a gallon).
It is very common to flavor meads by adding fruit, spices, etc. The following is a short list describing the names typically given to meads with additives (a detailed list of names is quite long):
● Metheglin - mead with spices added (ie. ginger, nutmeg, cloves, etc.)
● Melomel - mead with fruit added (ie. cherries, huckleberries, raspberries etc.)
● Braggot - mead made with malt and hops. Think of this as a mead/beer cross.
What does it taste like? As with wine, there is a very broad range of styles that you can make. A traditional mead made with just honey, can be sweet, semi-dry, and dry. It can also be sparkling like a champagne or still (flat) like most wines. As most beekeepers know, there is a huge variety of different types of honey ( Orange Blossom, Buckwheat, Clover, etc.). Each type of honey expresses its unique flavor in the mead. When you start adding fruit or spices you can pretty much end up with a endless variety of flavors. If you are curious about mead, you can find mead at some liquor stores and grocery stores. Montana has 1 commercial meadery that I know of
http://www.hiddenlegendwinery.comSo what major equipment is necessary?
● a fermenting vessel such as a carboy or fermenting bucket with airlock
● large stockpot for boiling the mead if desired.
● bottles (This time of the year I save the sparkling cider bottles which are often times cheaper when sold with cider than as empty bottles for homebrewing!)
● bottle capper (for beer bottles) or a corker (for wine bottles)
A homebrew supply shop can help you figure out what you need. Typically, a basic beer or winemaking kit gives you most of the items you need. In Bozeman, our nearest supply shops are Belgrade Liquor or
www.mountbaldybrewing.com (which I have not been to yet). There are many mail order supply shops out there such as
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/For that do-it-yourselfer Montanan who has aspirations of growing grapes and making wine, let me strongly suggest meadmaking instead. Why? Well for one Montana’s environment is perfect for producing most of the main ingredients for meadmaking. You don’t need a Mediterranean climate to make honey! Montana is consistently one of the top honey producing states. At our farmers markets and some grocery stores you can buy local honey in bulk ($20-$30/gallon) . Additionally, many of the best fruits for making melomels grow here (often times wild). Chokecherry melomel is one of my personal favorites! Huckleberry melomel is also amazing, if you can make it back from picking them with any left over to make a mead with. Prickly pear mead has been described as “one of the greatest gifts to this world” (
http://tinyurl.com/2d4fux9)
So how does someone get started making mead?
You can find plenty of mead recipes on the Internet, but I strongly suggest the book “The Complete Meadmaker” by Ken Schramm.
http://tinyurl.com/2wuxhjfThanks to Chip for the post and for the fine photo featuring a University of Montana logo!
It is a Big Sky Bee milestone, this is the 100th post. Please send ideas for topics or better yet become a guest blogger. Cheers!
