I like mead. It's sweet, but still refreshing and sometimes strong. If the weather is cold you can drink it hot and when the weather is hot you can drink it cold. Or just drink it at whatever temperature you like. And because mead is made from honey there are lots of different flavors you can achieve just by choosing the right honey.
I've been thinking about making my own mead for quite a while and today I want to start a series of posts about my journey to home-brewed mead.
Why Make Mead?
First of all, I like honey. Another big factor for me was that it seems to be much easier than making your own beer. It's still quite a challenge, but there are a lot less steps involved. Therefore this seems like the kind of project that's interesting, easy and very rewarding. If done right.
About This Series
My mead making series serves two purposes. The first being, that if I come up with a tasty recipe, then I have it written down and can make it again. The second function is that I want to help people like me. There are so many mead recipes out there and so many different views, that I find it hard to decide where to start.
I will write down everything I do and use. Even if the end result is horrible or I mess everything up completely, this should help other readers decide whether to give making mead a go or what to do different.
Quest For A Recipe
Before I can start with gathering equipment or making anything at all, I have to decide on a recipe. As always I like to keep it simple, but close to the original way to make mead. And while I did find a recipe based on a cookbook from 1350 (German), I also found several sources that do things a bit differently and use a more modern approach.
After lots of research I have decided to try the recipe on this site (also German), because it seems to hit a good middle ground between fussing about and keeping it easy. Incidentally it also uses a 10l fermentation jar, which is the amount I had in mind too.
Recipe from bee-info.de
As I said the ingredients are rather basic and easy to come by, so I will order them next week. When everything is ready, I will document all the ingredients and tools I acquired and explain what everything does and how much it costs.
I don't believe I will have problems getting all the things I need, which is good because I want to start as soon as possible with making mead. Fermentation is always hard to predict, but I'd like to try my mead in the summer. Let's see if this works out.
Wrapping Up
Well, no new recipe this week, but I hope I could make you curious about what's next. I'm really looking forward to see how everything turns out. Buying quality mead is always difficult and expensive, and even then you don't know what went in it. So why not make it yourself?
Next week, I will be participating in Mixology Monday again, as the challenge this time is something I also featured in a series: Proper Aperitifs. Staying away from sugar will be interesting, but I have some ideas floating around inside of my head. So stay tuned by following me on Twitter or subscribing. As always, leave a comment if you have something to say.