Vikings Mead
- Thread starter Brun Bjørn
- Start date
Phelice
HAPPIEST GIRL ON EARTH!!!
this thread made me buy a bottle of mead last week..
i was so curious about what it tastes like.. and... i don't like it at all...
send me some! PLEASSSSSSSSSSSSE!
Runesinger
Member
To answer your questions:
NEVER put sugar in mead! That will totally ruin it.
Also make sure that everything you use to make it is clean, and make sure the area you work in is wiped down and very clean. If you are not careful, you can get contamination from unwanted bacteria or other microorganisms that will make your mead taste like dreck.
A sweet mead tastes a little like white wine, but it will retain that bouquet of whatever kind of honey you use. Since white clover is the honey most available for making mead in the USA, most American meads have a little essence of white clover.
It also can be flavored with herbs and spices, so keep the type of honey you're using in mind, so that you use other flavors that won't go counter to that.
A dry mead can taste a little like a pale beer, but with a whiskeylike note, sort of like a drink known as a depth charge (popular in the WWII era), where you drop a shot of whiskey in a glass of beer. Of course mead is much stronger than beer.
Oh, and that picture of the bottle of mead...well, it's says original Viking mead, so maybe it was made in the traditional Viking way as Tyra described previously. She said the original mead was pretty foul. We have a common acquaintance who makes "original Viking" mead, and he frequently afflicts us with it, as Tyra will confirm.
NEVER put sugar in mead! That will totally ruin it.
Also make sure that everything you use to make it is clean, and make sure the area you work in is wiped down and very clean. If you are not careful, you can get contamination from unwanted bacteria or other microorganisms that will make your mead taste like dreck.
A sweet mead tastes a little like white wine, but it will retain that bouquet of whatever kind of honey you use. Since white clover is the honey most available for making mead in the USA, most American meads have a little essence of white clover.
It also can be flavored with herbs and spices, so keep the type of honey you're using in mind, so that you use other flavors that won't go counter to that.
A dry mead can taste a little like a pale beer, but with a whiskeylike note, sort of like a drink known as a depth charge (popular in the WWII era), where you drop a shot of whiskey in a glass of beer. Of course mead is much stronger than beer.
Oh, and that picture of the bottle of mead...well, it's says original Viking mead, so maybe it was made in the traditional Viking way as Tyra described previously. She said the original mead was pretty foul. We have a common acquaintance who makes "original Viking" mead, and he frequently afflicts us with it, as Tyra will confirm.
Tyra
Member
Hello. I just registered to respond to this.
My roommates and I live in Statesville, NC. We started making our own mead around Christamas 07. So far, we've had three successful batches, but the first two were only barely drinkable.
Even as I type this, I'm buzzing a bit from polishing off the remaining half of a bottle of mead that I crafted myself. All we used was clover honey, water, and champagne yeast. Boiled the honey in the water (at about 1 lb for each quart . . . probably too much honey, in reality), skimmed off the dross, allowed to cool, placed in a glass carboy (though before we used thoroughly washed milk jugs), started the yeast in a glass of warm water and then added it, and allowed it to ferment under a stopper and gas trap for 3 weeks to a month.
When fermentation stopped, I used a clean siphon hose to pull it off in 2 littre incriments (a cleaned 2 litre mt dew bottle, actually), and used a funnel and some hi-grade coffee filters to get the gunk out of it. Filled up around 8 750ml bottles with it (and still some left to pull out of the carboy, too). After having been in the fridge for about a week, settling further after the filtering, I'd say this stuff is pretty darned good.
It might be just a tad too sweet, but I think that racking it, or filtering it further, might solve some of that.
Anyway, cheers!
My roommates and I live in Statesville, NC. We started making our own mead around Christamas 07. So far, we've had three successful batches, but the first two were only barely drinkable.
Even as I type this, I'm buzzing a bit from polishing off the remaining half of a bottle of mead that I crafted myself. All we used was clover honey, water, and champagne yeast. Boiled the honey in the water (at about 1 lb for each quart . . . probably too much honey, in reality), skimmed off the dross, allowed to cool, placed in a glass carboy (though before we used thoroughly washed milk jugs), started the yeast in a glass of warm water and then added it, and allowed it to ferment under a stopper and gas trap for 3 weeks to a month.
When fermentation stopped, I used a clean siphon hose to pull it off in 2 littre incriments (a cleaned 2 litre mt dew bottle, actually), and used a funnel and some hi-grade coffee filters to get the gunk out of it. Filled up around 8 750ml bottles with it (and still some left to pull out of the carboy, too). After having been in the fridge for about a week, settling further after the filtering, I'd say this stuff is pretty darned good.
It might be just a tad too sweet, but I think that racking it, or filtering it further, might solve some of that.
Anyway, cheers!
Has anyone tried any of the mead's for sell here http://www.northworld-international.com/index.php/en/Mead-Vikingblood-Mead-and-liquors/l-WG95
I am considering purchasing from them and I would like to know if anyone has a prior experience with them(if so, how was it).
I am considering purchasing from them and I would like to know if anyone has a prior experience with them(if so, how was it).
Sleipnir
Thorsmadr
Dont use champagne yeast, try using Lalvin D-47, Lalvin K1-V1116 or red Star Cotes de Blanc, champagne yeast makes it too dry.
no need to boil the honey, you actually change the chemical composition of it and it alters the taste. You say you used 1lb per quart, so what was your total honey use? I highly doubt you used too much as out here the minimum people use is 12-15 lbs per 5gal. batch, the most I have used is 22.
I have put a few recipes I used in one of the other mead threads here.
Gjallarhorn
Member
Joshnir
Member
I have had most of them. The Elfenzauber is incredible, it's a very sweet vanilla mead. I'm actually trying to duplicate the recipe right now so I won't have to pay the very high shipping cost to get more of it. I also really liked the Wikingerblut, very sweet cherry mead, it's only 6% though. You can also get the Odin Drink honey beer there which is pretty good.
Tyra
Member
Hey, Sleipnir, what do you think of this: I want to make a mead and a beer or ale that tastes as close to the other as possible. Some beers were/are flavoured with honey, and mead is made from honey, while some meads were flavoured with what is today considered ale/beer spices. I'm looking at beer that was produced before the Middle Ages, when hops were intoduced to Scandinavia by the Hanseatic League. Bog Myrtle was used instead of hops then, and it was also used to flavour mead. Meadowsweet - etymologically from mead sweet - was used as a mead flavouring, but it was also used extensively in beer and ale. Any suggestions as to what I should do to get a mead that tastes like beer and/or a beer that tastes like mead? The idea is to get them to taste pretty much the same, using pretty much the same ingredients.
gnoff
Member
The same yeast and fernentation temperature is a good start.
Also like you mentioned, to flavor them using the same thing.
The taste and smell of things usually varies when boiled, so I'd say also boil an equal amount of time.
I've found honey will ferment just about all the way given enough yeast that can handle it, meaning most of the flavors will get left behind.
While malt usually gives a caramelly note in the end. To get a less full bodied ale you can mash at perhaps 62 to 64 C, leaving less dextrins behind.
You being Swedish, see if you can find the book
Pors och andra humleersättningar och ölkryddor i äldre tider
by
Nils von Hofsten
My copy is printed 1960 in Uppsala by Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri AB
A part of a text I once wrote regarding hops and what was used before it:
Innan humlen tog över kryddningen av öl användes andra medel så som pors, nässlor, asklöv och olika kryddblandningar. Även fläder, skott från gran och tall, ljung samt frukt och bär finns dokumenterade inom den äldre smaksättningen av öl.
Exempel på kryddor som använts är pomerans, koriander, fänkål, muskot, kryddnejlika och kanel.
Sleipnir
Thorsmadr
Gimme some time on that, I have to call up the real experts and ask 'em. I think J. has made one before, the brewers out here are everywhere like ticks on a 'coon dog.
Bates
Swamp Yankee
So what would you folks recommend, spice wise, to use in a "beginner" batch? I'm finally getting off my ass and picking up the needed equipment tomorrow, using Sleipnir's "how-to" from the other thread. But I noticed it didn't mention anything about spicing.
But I keep getting this horrible idea about a maple mead. I'm going to have to try that, eventually, not like I lack for maple here.
But I keep getting this horrible idea about a maple mead. I'm going to have to try that, eventually, not like I lack for maple here.
Tyra
Member
I made a maple mead once, just to be an ass, cuz I had to make a Swedish Canadian sort of thing. Malpe syrup is Canadian. It turned out very, very nice actually, but it's not a good begnner's recipe, as it entails playing around with the amount of syrup vs honey (unless you want a really sweet mead that tastes more like a liqueur than a mead).
You don't have to use any spices at all to make mead. Try a plain batch for the first attempt, so you know how much flavour you get from your specific batch of honey. The type of honey makes a big difference, actually, so concentrate more on that than on any spice. A lot of people like to try adding fruit, like strawberries and such, but spices are easier as they tend to mess less with the fermentation/potency of the yeast. I do like meadowsweet-flavoured mead. Lavender sounds frou-frou, but because I happened to have a large amount of lavender one year, I made some of that, too, and it turned out awesome.
Gnoff, thanks for the book tip. I'll try that. I did a lot of research on flavourings etc for my under-grad thesis, but didn't find very good research for it in terms of the Swedish material. I am taking a course in archaeobotanicals at UmU atm, and we covered mead and beer quite well. I was actually very impressed with the papers and such we were assigned for that, and my teacher there is also very good at her stuff. I'm hoping she can help me out, too. I'd like to write a paper on it, so all the batches would have to be set at same temp and such.
You don't have to use any spices at all to make mead. Try a plain batch for the first attempt, so you know how much flavour you get from your specific batch of honey. The type of honey makes a big difference, actually, so concentrate more on that than on any spice. A lot of people like to try adding fruit, like strawberries and such, but spices are easier as they tend to mess less with the fermentation/potency of the yeast. I do like meadowsweet-flavoured mead. Lavender sounds frou-frou, but because I happened to have a large amount of lavender one year, I made some of that, too, and it turned out awesome.
Gnoff, thanks for the book tip. I'll try that. I did a lot of research on flavourings etc for my under-grad thesis, but didn't find very good research for it in terms of the Swedish material. I am taking a course in archaeobotanicals at UmU atm, and we covered mead and beer quite well. I was actually very impressed with the papers and such we were assigned for that, and my teacher there is also very good at her stuff. I'm hoping she can help me out, too. I'd like to write a paper on it, so all the batches would have to be set at same temp and such.
Bates
Swamp Yankee
Yeah, I'll probably stick with plain for my first go. I should have quite a bit of fruit to play with later in the year, if I feel like going that route. Spring's really just getting started here. Might try some cider come fall, tons of orchards around here.
Belgar
The Wallonian Redneck.
Best mead I ever had was the Dansk Mjod Viking Blod, from Denmark, purely amazing stuff. followed by Middle Mountain Appleglow from Canada.
If you want some nasty mead, I suggest you drink Purple Possum Habanero Mead out of Texas, that stuff is wretched.
If you want some nasty mead, I suggest you drink Purple Possum Habanero Mead out of Texas, that stuff is wretched.
