Thanks for your help!

"Joe Sallustio" > wrote in message
...
> On Nov 19, 5:26 am, "Wayne" > wrote:
>> I have about 10 years of homebrewine experience. I've made both wine and
>> beer. I've used kits, concentrates, and I also enjoy doing full mash
>> brewing. I guess I mention this to avoid the "keep everything clean and
>> sanitized....." posts.
>>
>> I've only maid one mead. It was a straight mead, with just a little bit
>> of
>> apple juice and some nutrients added to aid the fermentation. The stuff
>> was
>> like rocket fuel. The alcohol content worked out to be just above 12%,
>> but
>> the phenols where sky high. The stuff cleaned all the mucous from my
>> mouth
>> and throat. Sometimes, the first taste was ok, but the second wasn't
>> pleasant at all. I would sample a bottle of this occasionally over the
>> course of several years and it never mellowed out.
>>
>> I'm not sure what was wrong with that first batch, it didn't taste
>> infected,
>> and was a very nice clear straw color. I used store bought honey that
>> came
>> in five pound containers.
>>
>> Anyway, now I'm a beekeeper and I happen to have several pounds of honey
>> that I can play with. It's a wonderful wildflower honey and I would love
>> to
>> make a mead that will show off the full flavor. I'd like a wine
>> strength,
>> still mead recipe that has a proven success record. I've browsed the net
>> and I'm tired of the recipes that give a list of ingredients and then
>> state
>> "this is going to be great!" at the end. Know what I mean?
>>
>> Anyone on this list have a proven recipe?
>>
>> I'm going to cross post this to the meadmaking group too.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Wayne
>
> I'm sure you will get better responses out of the meadmaking newsgroup
> but it really is all relative. I make meads and I really can't say
> any of mine are dynamite but we like them.
>
> My advice would be lean toward lower alcohols in the 10% range to
> avoid the heat if you like dry wines. Maybe consider around 10 pounds
> per 5 gallons but use the hydrometer as a guide. Ferment warm and
> use nutrient at close to maximum levels, my wildflower meads ferment
> much slower than wines. I would ferment no lower than 70 F
> personally. I used to add lemon juice to increase the acid but I'm
> probably going to either not do that or cut it back to 1 lemon per 2
> pounds of honey or less. If you measure the pH of honey water must it
> will look ridiculously high in pH but that changes during fermentation
> toward the low 3's so is not a reason for concern.
>
> If you like citrus consider using lemon peel but be very carelul not
> to get any pith in there; I made that mistake once and it's
> unrecoverable.
>
>
>
> Joe