Topic: Meadmaking
Honey-Based Wines
FREEThe earliest known alcoholic beverage uncovered on Earth was a mead from northern China. Get familiarized with the great and storied world of honey-based wines.
A Harmony of Fruit and Honey
MEMBERS ONLYMeads containing fruit are a perpetually hot topic amongst home meadmakers as well as being a huge part of the commercial mead conversation. Taking what we know about making mead from just honey and then adding fruit doesn’t seem to be all that complex of a leap, but I assure you that the adventure of
Traditional Meadmaking: Tips from the Pros
FREEWant to try something new between grape harvest seasons? How about trying your hand at making mead, a wine made from honey. Meads come in many different forms — from dry to
Making Mead: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYLooking to try something new? How about making mead, also known as honey wine. Meads come in many different forms, from dry to sweet, with added fruit (melomel), malt (braggot), spices (metheglin) and so on. But to get a good foundation for your meadmaking, start at the beginning with traditional mead. Heed the advice from
Meadmaking: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYMeadmaking — like winemaking — has been around for thousands of years. And if you make wine you can also make mead using much of the same equipment. In this issue, two master meadmakers share some insight for making your own mead at home. Michael Fairbrother, Founder and Meadmaker of Moonlight Meadery in Londonderry, New
Your First Mead
FREETips for brewing your firs batch of mead.
Perfecting Pyment
MEMBERS ONLYCongrats for breaking out of the mold and taking it upon yourself to adapt a recipe to your own preferences! I always love it when readers, and my own winemaking buddies, take what they know or have done, and give it a good tweak. Pyment, or a fermented beverage made with both grape sugars and
Making Varietal Honey Mead
MEMBERS ONLYHoney is a complex mixture of sugars, flavors from the pollen as well as trace enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and amino acids. The majority of the honey found in grocery stores is Wildflower honey, which is a blend of different honeys made with the goal of producing honey that is consistent in flavor and color. This
Mead: From Nectar to Nirvana
FREEMead is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey. In fact, it’s sometimes called honey wine. Mead tastes like honey and can be made to be sweet or dry, sparkling or still
I made a mead that has a sour taste. Will this mellow out with age?
MEMBERS ONLYCongratulations for tackling one of the most interesting and esoteric of brews, the braggot (also spelled braggott or bragawd). A beverage that combines what some would say the best of what mead and ale have to offer, braggott is a traditional Welsh drink made from malt, hops, honey and spices like ginger and rosemary. As
Mead Made Easy
FREEMead is a classic fermented beverage with a long history. Ancient text and drawings, some dating back as far as 4000 BC, mention both wine and mead. Several Biblical writings describe this
What can I do to improve the aroma of my mead?
MEMBERS ONLYDear Wine Wizard, I have been making mead for a few years. I love the clover and honey accents in it. Most people who have tried it like the taste, but they all say the same thing — they don’t like the smell. I have heard everything from “it smells a little like a field
Is yeast extract the same as yeast hulls and yeast nutrient? And what is the best way to use it?
MEMBERS ONLYHave no fear of the Champagne yeast failing to take off in your honey. As long as you dilute the honey accordingly, you’ll have a sugar solution that the yeast should happily ferment to dryness (in other words, minimum residual sugar) — or to whatever point at which you want to arrest fermentation with cold
Mead: Nectar of the Gods
MEMBERS ONLYIs there a beverage that conjures up more images than mead? Whether you associate it with Druids, pre-Roman civilizations of central Europe, Vikings and Teutonic raiders, Celts ancient or modern, it is impossible to deny the hold that mead has always had on the imagination of Western civilization. It probably was mead that Homer and