4 pounds Honey Water to one gallon
1 Orange 1/2 teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
1 lemon Mead Yeast Starter

Use a stainless steel or unchipped enamelware cooking pot. Combine the
honey and the water in the pot and bring just to a boil then remove from the
heat and allow to cool. Skim off any impurities which may have come to the
top. When cooled to about 70 degrees, pout into the primary fermentor,
adding the juice from the orange and the lemon. Add the activated Mead
yeast and the pectic enzyme. Ferment, covered, for 5 to 7 days, stirring
well every day. Then pour into the secondary jug and attach the air lock.
Finish as in Method.

I a sweeter Mead is desired, you may add either sugar or honey, following
the suggestions given in Method. If honey is used, pasteurize it in a
container set in boiling water for 30 minutes and allow it to cool before
adding .

To attain its full flavor and bouquet, Mead should be left to age for at
least a year or longer...........brew on dlt

"Donny Tyler" > wrote in message
...
>4 pounds Honey Water to one gallon
> 1 Orange 1/2 teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
> 1 lemon Mead Yeast Starter
>
> Use a stainless steel or unchipped enamelware cooking pot. Combine the
> honey and the water in the pot and bring just to a boil then remove from
> the heat and allow to cool. Skim off any impurities which may have come
> to the top. When cooled to about 70 degrees, pout into the primary
> fermentor, adding the juice from the orange and the lemon. Add the
> activated Mead yeast and the pectic enzyme. Ferment, covered, for 5 to 7
> days, stirring well every day. Then pour into the secondary jug and
> attach the air lock. Finish as in Method.
>
> I a sweeter Mead is desired, you may add either sugar or honey, following
> the suggestions given in Method. If honey is used, pasteurize it in a
> container set in boiling water for 30 minutes and allow it to cool before
> adding .
>
> To attain its full flavor and bouquet, Mead should be left to age for at
> least a year or longer...........brew on dlt
>
I am sure the above recipe works for Joe, but I will make a few comments on
it. First, due to the addition of citrus, I would call this a Melomel
rather than a mead. Melomel is a mead with fruit added. 4 lbs of honey
would make a stronger mead that I like to make but that is a mater of taste.
Also, I would add some nutrient, even with the fruit. But the maybe Joe has
found a balance where the yeast sticks at about the sweetness he likes.
That may depend on the honey used. I prefer to ferment to dryness and then
stabilize and use honey to sweeten to taste.

Ray,
I'm reasonably sure I'm not the Joe you meant but I don't use near that
amount of honey, I use 12 to 14 pounds per 5.5 gallon and end up with a
slightly sweet ~12% ABV mead. I do use lemons and lemon zest, I like
that as an acid base. I've never used mead yeast, I use EC1118 or K1V.

Joe

Joe, You are exactly the one I meant but I was totally wrong and apologize.
Your post about sanitizer was immediately above the one by Donny Tyler and
evidently my eye skipped a line as I read who posted.

Ray

"Joe Sallustio" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Ray,
> I'm reasonably sure I'm not the Joe you meant but I don't use near that
> amount of honey, I use 12 to 14 pounds per 5.5 gallon and end up with a
> slightly sweet ~12% ABV mead. I do use lemons and lemon zest, I like
> that as an acid base. I've never used mead yeast, I use EC1118 or K1V.
>
> Joe
>
>

On 4/13/2006 11:02 AM, Ray Calvert wrote:
> "Donny Tyler" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>4 pounds Honey Water to one gallon
>>1 Orange 1/2 teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
>>1 lemon Mead Yeast Starter
>>
>>Use a stainless steel or unchipped enamelware cooking pot. Combine the
>>honey and the water in the pot and bring just to a boil then remove from
>>the heat and allow to cool. Skim off any impurities which may have come
>>to the top. When cooled to about 70 degrees, pout into the primary
>>fermentor, adding the juice from the orange and the lemon. Add the
>>activated Mead yeast and the pectic enzyme. Ferment, covered, for 5 to 7
>>days, stirring well every day. Then pour into the secondary jug and
>>attach the air lock. Finish as in Method.
>>
>>I a sweeter Mead is desired, you may add either sugar or honey, following
>>the suggestions given in Method. If honey is used, pasteurize it in a
>>container set in boiling water for 30 minutes and allow it to cool before
>>adding .
>>
>>To attain its full flavor and bouquet, Mead should be left to age for at
>>least a year or longer...........brew on dlt
>>
>
> I am sure the above recipe works for Joe, but I will make a few comments on
> it. First, due to the addition of citrus, I would call this a Melomel
> rather than a mead. Melomel is a mead with fruit added. 4 lbs of honey
> would make a stronger mead that I like to make but that is a mater of taste.
> Also, I would add some nutrient, even with the fruit. But the maybe Joe has
> found a balance where the yeast sticks at about the sweetness he likes.
> That may depend on the honey used. I prefer to ferment to dryness and then
> stabilize and use honey to sweeten to taste.

Ray,

I think you'd find that 4 lbs of honey in a 1 gallon batch will be
pretty close (by my guesstimate, at least) to wine strength after being
fermented dry, racked several times, and topped off each time with water.

The Vargas/Gulling book has many useful recipes, but all are single
gallon batches. This recipe, and the one for a hot pepper mead, posted
by Danny have the same flavor to them as the recipes in "Making Wild
Wines and Meads", although I haven't checked to see if they are
identical. Not that I'm making any inditement, just pointing out that
they seem similar/familiar to me.

Each recipe recommends several rackings, and you lose a large amount
(proportionally) of your mead with each racking. I have made single
gallon batches from time to time to test a more experimental recipes
(methyglyns, for the most part, as I like many herbs and spices but lack
the imagination to conceive of how they would taste in a mead), but I
gave them up for melomels/pyments, etc, as nearly any of those recipes
will be good, and the single gallon size is just too fussy for my tastes.

I also hate the thought of waiting another year to taste a nice mead,
once the mere 4 750ml bottles (and a split, maybe) from a gallon batch
have been drank or given away.


Cheers,
Ken Taborek

That's exactly why one should NEVER make less than 6 gallon batches.
Steve
"mail box" > wrote in message
...
> On 4/13/2006 11:02 AM, Ray Calvert wrote:
>> "Donny Tyler" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>
>>>4 pounds Honey Water to one gallon
>>>1 Orange 1/2 teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
>>>1 lemon Mead Yeast Starter
>>>
>>>Use a stainless steel or unchipped enamelware cooking pot. Combine the
>>>honey and the water in the pot and bring just to a boil then remove from
>>>the heat and allow to cool. Skim off any impurities which may have come
>>>to the top. When cooled to about 70 degrees, pout into the primary
>>>fermentor, adding the juice from the orange and the lemon. Add the
>>>activated Mead yeast and the pectic enzyme. Ferment, covered, for 5 to 7
>>>days, stirring well every day. Then pour into the secondary jug and
>>>attach the air lock. Finish as in Method.
>>>
>>>I a sweeter Mead is desired, you may add either sugar or honey, following
>>>the suggestions given in Method. If honey is used, pasteurize it in a
>>>container set in boiling water for 30 minutes and allow it to cool before
>>>adding .
>>>
>>>To attain its full flavor and bouquet, Mead should be left to age for at
>>>least a year or longer...........brew on dlt
>>>
>>
>> I am sure the above recipe works for Joe, but I will make a few comments
>> on it. First, due to the addition of citrus, I would call this a Melomel
>> rather than a mead. Melomel is a mead with fruit added. 4 lbs of honey
>> would make a stronger mead that I like to make but that is a mater of
>> taste. Also, I would add some nutrient, even with the fruit. But the
>> maybe Joe has found a balance where the yeast sticks at about the
>> sweetness he likes. That may depend on the honey used. I prefer to
>> ferment to dryness and then stabilize and use honey to sweeten to taste.
>
> Ray,
>
> I think you'd find that 4 lbs of honey in a 1 gallon batch will be pretty
> close (by my guesstimate, at least) to wine strength after being fermented
> dry, racked several times, and topped off each time with water.
>
> The Vargas/Gulling book has many useful recipes, but all are single gallon
> batches. This recipe, and the one for a hot pepper mead, posted by Danny
> have the same flavor to them as the recipes in "Making Wild Wines and
> Meads", although I haven't checked to see if they are identical. Not that
> I'm making any inditement, just pointing out that they seem
> similar/familiar to me.
>
> Each recipe recommends several rackings, and you lose a large amount
> (proportionally) of your mead with each racking. I have made single
> gallon batches from time to time to test a more experimental recipes
> (methyglyns, for the most part, as I like many herbs and spices but lack
> the imagination to conceive of how they would taste in a mead), but I gave
> them up for melomels/pyments, etc, as nearly any of those recipes will be
> good, and the single gallon size is just too fussy for my tastes.
>
> I also hate the thought of waiting another year to taste a nice mead, once
> the mere 4 750ml bottles (and a split, maybe) from a gallon batch have
> been drank or given away.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Ken Taborek

"mail box" > wrote in message
...
> On 4/13/2006 11:02 AM, Ray Calvert wrote:
>> "Donny Tyler" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>
>>>4 pounds Honey Water to one gallon
>>>1 Orange 1/2 teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
>>>1 lemon Mead Yeast Starter
>>>
>>>Use a stainless steel or unchipped enamelware cooking pot. Combine the
>>>honey and the water in the pot and bring just to a boil then remove from
>>>the heat and allow to cool. Skim off any impurities which may have come
>>>to the top. When cooled to about 70 degrees, pout into the primary
>>>fermentor, adding the juice from the orange and the lemon. Add the
>>>activated Mead yeast and the pectic enzyme. Ferment, covered, for 5 to 7
>>>days, stirring well every day. Then pour into the secondary jug and
>>>attach the air lock. Finish as in Method.
>>>
>>>I a sweeter Mead is desired, you may add either sugar or honey, following
>>>the suggestions given in Method. If honey is used, pasteurize it in a
>>>container set in boiling water for 30 minutes and allow it to cool before
>>>adding .
>>>
>>>To attain its full flavor and bouquet, Mead should be left to age for at
>>>least a year or longer...........brew on dlt
>>>
>>
>> I am sure the above recipe works for Joe, but I will make a few comments
>> on it. First, due to the addition of citrus, I would call this a Melomel
>> rather than a mead. Melomel is a mead with fruit added. 4 lbs of honey
>> would make a stronger mead that I like to make but that is a mater of
>> taste. Also, I would add some nutrient, even with the fruit. But the
>> maybe Joe has found a balance where the yeast sticks at about the
>> sweetness he likes. That may depend on the honey used. I prefer to
>> ferment to dryness and then stabilize and use honey to sweeten to taste.
>
> Ray,
>
> I think you'd find that 4 lbs of honey in a 1 gallon batch will be pretty
> close (by my guesstimate, at least) to wine strength after being fermented
> dry, racked several times, and topped off each time with water.
>
> The Vargas/Gulling book has many useful recipes, but all are single gallon
> batches. This recipe, and the one for a hot pepper mead, posted by Danny
> have the same flavor to them as the recipes in "Making Wild Wines and
> Meads", although I haven't checked to see if they are identical. Not that
> I'm making any inditement, just pointing out that they seem
> similar/familiar to me.
>
> Each recipe recommends several rackings, and you lose a large amount
> (proportionally) of your mead with each racking. I have made single
> gallon batches from time to time to test a more experimental recipes
> (methyglyns, for the most part, as I like many herbs and spices but lack
> the imagination to conceive of how they would taste in a mead), but I gave
> them up for melomels/pyments, etc, as nearly any of those recipes will be
> good, and the single gallon size is just too fussy for my tastes.
>
> I also hate the thought of waiting another year to taste a nice mead, once
> the mere 4 750ml bottles (and a split, maybe) from a gallon batch have
> been drank or given away.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Ken Taborek
Yes, If you water the batch down by topping up with water, 4 lbs may be the
right amount and that is why I said the recipe might work for the person who
wrote and used it. But if that is what he did, he left those instructions
out of his recipe. That is why I said that it may well work for him.

A recipe is more than the ingredients and the mixing technique. you must
tell how it is cooked and stored. If you assume topping with water the
recipe will not work the same for someone who tops with wine or avoids
topping altogether by using different size carboys.

Not really criticizing as all the above are valid procedures. You just need
to know which to use.

Ray