NationStates Jolt Archive

Does anyone else here like mead?
Anyone want to start a campaign to make mead the most popular drink in the world?

Mmmm... Mead!!!

i like the idea of quaffing Mead, but never have :(


edit: i'm bored... sure i'll join your cause :)

Ahh...in the cold of winter, around a roaring fire, dragons slayed and wenches all comely in their silken frocks...

...MEAD makes the world go 'round!

i like the idea of quaffing Mead, but never have :(


edit: i'm bored... sure i'll join your cause :)

If you live in the UK, they sell it at Morrisons!!!

Ahh...in the cold of winter, around a roaring fire, dragons slayed and wenches all comely in their silken frocks...

...MEAD makes the world go 'round!

I like it in the summer, round a roaring fire, under the stars, tents dangerously close to the sparks, swigging mead from the Bottle!!!

If you live in the UK, they sell it at Morrisons!!!
*runs to nearest Morrisons*

*puts down broadsword with a thud on the grand oaken banquet table*


*quaffs some mead*


*tries a cheap line on a sly, toothsome young wench*

*Enters longhouse, Armour bright and red with fresh dragon blood*

Hand me the Jug'o'mead, I have slain many a Dragon today!

*Quaffs my fill o' mead, and takes a joint of meat from the hog-roast*

This wench used to brew her own mead, methlegins (spiced mead), and pyments (mead w/ grapes).

When it came out well, it was sublime.

When it was awful, ugggh. really, really bad....

This wench used to brew her own mead, methlegins (spiced mead), and pyments (mead w/ grapes).

When it came out well, it was sublime.

When it was awful, ugggh. really, really bad....

Did it taste of eggs when it was bad?

Haven't ever drank it. Unless you count guzzling some with an EQ toon.

i had a feeling that this would be you.

*Quaffs my fill o' mead, and takes a joint of meat from the hog-roast*
Quaffing mead is like eating jam with a spoon. It's fine in small sips, but as a thirst-quencher I think it would gag me with sweetness.

haven't had mead yet, but I drink plenty of this:

http://www.brasserielefebvre.be/produits.php?pro=barbar&lang=en

when i gets me bees....

Did it taste of eggs when it was bad?

That would have been an improvement over what it tasted like! I'd call it more 'skunky' than 'sulfurous'. Fortunately, you can usually smell a bad fermentation before you have to bother drinking it. It was usually the result of contamination of some sort. You have to wash and sterilize everything, but periodically, something could go amiss.

There were a number of batches that got emptied in the woods. :( But the good ones were quite yummy!

Quaffing mead is like eating jam with a spoon. It's fine in small sips, but as a thirst-quencher I think it would gag me with sweetness.
It doesn't *have* to be sicky sweet. If you make it with champagne yeast, you can make it more on the dry side. And ones brewed with spices or herbs can cut some of the sweet aftertaste, too.

Maybe you should post a recipe for mead, and let people ferment their own at home.

Quaffing mead is like eating jam with a spoon. It's fine in small sips, but as a thirst-quencher I think it would gag me with sweetness.

It's surprisingly easy to drink in large quantities!!!

Maybe you should post a recipe for mead, and let people ferment their own at home.

Ohh Yeah, Er make sure it's a good one though. I really dont fancy the Bad taste described

That would have been an improvement over what it tasted like! I'd call it more 'skunky' than 'sulfurous'. Fortunately, you can usually smell a bad fermentation before you have to bother drinking it. It was usually the result of contamination of some sort. You have to wash and sterilize everything, but periodically, something could go amiss.

There were a number of batches that got emptied in the woods. :( But the good ones were quite yummy!


what sort of percentage of home made mead was good?

during my stay in norway, there lived a brew master in the same township. i think i have never enjoyed alcohol more........

haven't had mead yet, but I drink plenty of this:

http://www.brasserielefebvre.be/produits.php?pro=barbar&lang=en

That looks extremely nice. I'm gonna try and find some!!

ahh.. let me see... anyone can google mead, but there was an excellent document of recipes i pulled off a bbs about 10 years ago...lemme see if i can find it online, otherwise i'll have to go spelunking in my basement for it. that could be a project in and of itself.

you might need to take a trip to a homebrew store for the equipment you'd need, too.

like i said before, the bad taste was not necessarily the result of a bad recipe, but usually a contamination of your batch, or crummy ingredients.

what sort of percentage of home made mead was good?

i venture about 1 in 5 or 6 batches came out undrinkable, but ymmv.

grrr. i can't find it online just now.

for those interested in brewing mead, your first reading assignment is charlie papazian's book "the complete joy of homebrewing." it's about homebrewing beer, but it will give you the lowdown on the equipment you need, how to sterilize your stuff, and more in depth explanations about calculating residual sugars than i could hope to remember myself after being out of it for a while.

i'll keep looking for the bbs book.

I only like it warmed up with some spices. Alone it doesn't taste good to me. Too sweet, not enough flavor.

Never drunk it, but i'd like to. I'd brew my own if i had the materials. Morrison's you say?

I like mead, but I did my share of vintning back in the 80's. Now my dad is into it and he keeps me supplied with all the beer and wine I want. Maybe I will ask him to make some mead next.

It's surprisingly easy to drink in large quantities!!!
Yeah. But not easy to get up the next morning. Mead gave me the worst hangover ever. But i keep up with the quaffing, maybe it will work out someday.

Material: kitchen utensils, kitchen pots (one with a steam whistle sort of thingy) I estimate 5 liters max, tubing and some stuff like yiest and nutrients from amateur brewer store.


I made my own bastard mead using no less than 2 strains of yiest. 1 strong fast one for a good alcohol content. Then I killed it off (sulfite) and added more honey (and some sugar) and used a German Rheinwine yiest strain, to get more subtle flavours and stabler development. I chucked just about anything in there:

Honey, water, ginger, unrefined sugar, black tea (for a tannin content), citrus fruit zest, cloves, grapefruit juice, lemon juice
I found that I couldn't get enough flavour out of the ginger, so I poured in some canada dry and similar soft drinks.

The result: Comparable to wine and white port wine in taste and sweetness, comparable to port wine in alcohol content. I estimate around 15°.

That would have been an improvement over what it tasted like! I'd call it more 'skunky' than 'sulfurous'. Fortunately, you can usually smell a bad fermentation before you have to bother drinking it. It was usually the result of contamination of some sort. You have to wash and sterilize everything, but periodically, something could go amiss.

There were a number of batches that got emptied in the woods. :( But the good ones were quite yummy!


Sulphurous... your yiest didn't get enough air. If you air it too much though, you will get acetyl -> vinegar. Like you said, sterilisation is one of the most important things. Second comes airing just enough. Get a waterlock, or improvise one.
Other important things are acidity levels and racking, but these two are mostly for flavour and presentability. If it's turbid you may need to use CaCo powder, let it sit and sink, then rack off. Repeat if neccesary. This way, you also remove potential yiest remnants and (headache- and hangover-inducing) sulfite.

And use corks. You may still get Co2 build-up...

Yeah. But not easy to get up the next morning. Mead gave me the worst hangover ever. But i keep up with the quaffing, maybe it will work out someday.

Lotta people say they got problems with mead hangovers! Personally I find wine hangovers worse!!!

Quaffing mead is like eating jam with a spoon. It's fine in small sips, but as a thirst-quencher I think it would gag me with sweetness.

There's a Neil Gaiman novel where Odin describes it as "it tastes like a drunken diabetic's piss."

Personally I love mead, but I've never thought to do that particular taste test.

There's a Neil Gaiman novel where Odin describes it as "it tastes like a drunken diabetic's piss."

Personally I love mead, but I've never thought to do that particular taste test.

You should give it a go! But mead is better!!!

It's surprisingly easy to drink in large quantities!!!

I've found that the best thing to make any strong drink easier to drink in large quantities is starting off with several small quantities.

So... What's it taste like?

A friedn of mine made a batch of mead years ago. It was really powerful it seems. Anyhoo he drank a bit too much of it, got all stupid and pugilistic then threw up all over himself.

So... What's it taste like?

Bee's!!!

Okay...

The best mead ever is Apis Jadwiga from Poland. Aged 25 years in oak barrels and dangerously drinkable at 17%. MMMMMM MMMMM good stuff.

So... What's it taste like?

it's basically a honey wine, so it has the essence of the honey with a bit of sweetness (which can be tempered with flavors of other herbs, spices, or fruits, etc. that it's brewed with, or left plain) with a bit of kick.

it's not a good drink to get wasted on, as the above posters have noted.

Sounds like it tastes... Decent, but I wouldn't want a whole glass.

Sulphurous... your yiest didn't get enough air. If you air it too much though, you will get acetyl -> vinegar. Like you said, sterilisation is one of the most important things. Second comes airing just enough. Get a waterlock, or improvise one.


Very true.

The other thing I noticed is that I had trouble with the ones where I was randomly tossing in herbs. You need to time that just right in the process, or you get funky plant rot aromas.

If you live in the UK, they sell it at Morrisons!!!
They do? I couldn't find any :( Trekked up and down the alcohol aisles for frikking ages.

They do? I couldn't find any :( Trekked up and down the alcohol aisles for frikking ages.

Er... sorry! they sell it in the morrisons near me! (hillsborough in Sheffield!)

The best mead ever is Apis Jadwiga from Poland. Aged 25 years in oak barrels and dangerously drinkable at 17%. MMMMMM MMMMM good stuff.

Is it available in the US?

Yeah, I kinda liked Margaret, but she's been dead since '78.

I've never tried it or seen it for sale...

where's the 'way too fucking sweet for human consumption' option?

Er... sorry! they sell it in the morrisons near me! (hillsborough in Sheffield!)We're rather close, that's my second nearest Morrisons, IIRC (by distance, though not convenience to get to by road).

It's also at the Ecclesfield branch (still not my nearest, but handier to pop into on various journeys I make). Good, but not as nice as the stuff I got from the Tower Of London a couple of years back (now finished, I must wander back down there, though I've still got some of their Bramble Liqueur, saving some until I decide to get some ice-cream).

Firtst mead I had was many years ago when a friend of mine wandered off to a seaside holiday cottage to get away from college worries and the like and we found a bottle in the local Offie (the only time I found it save fo the ToL and, recently, Morrisons). We finished off the bottle (standard wine-size, 750cl is that? whatever) that night.

Found out later that (apparently, and I haven't checked this in on any online resources, so I could be misinformed) that the word "honeymoon" comes from "honeymead" and it's considered an aphrodisiac... No, we didn't, before you make any undue assumptions..!


Lovely stuff, that first taste (probably because it was novel). The other two batches were nice, but I don't think I could drink a whole/half bottle these days. (I don't drink much in general.) Varies though. I liked the ToL stuff better than the Morrisons, but the latter is nice.

Despite the obvious sugary-parallel, it doesn't mix well with fruit-based drinks (I've found, to my cost) like sweet grape wine, the bramble liquer or this African cream-stuff I quite like at the moment, but emminently drinkable. I haven't tried it with grain-based booze, mainly because I have too much respect for my Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie and Drambuie/etc, but I suspect it's really supposed to be taken on its own (or perhaps drizzled over something to spice up desert?). I'm just wondering about rum (I've got some, somewhere). That's sugarcane-based, isn't it? Would that mix? I'll give it a (cautious) go tonight, maybe... :) However, I suspect that mixing isn't in the spirit of the thing...

I personally find that I get less of a hangover after drinking it than I do with other drinks, but YMMV. And I don't drink the quantities of anything that I used to.

I've never tasted it. And they don't have it here. Or if they do, it'll be very rare to find one.
'
Heck, they don't even have Midori here! :(

We're rather close, that's my second nearest Morrisons, IIRC (by distance, though not convenience to get to by road).

It's also at the Ecclesfield branch (still not my nearest, but handier to pop into on various journeys I make). Good, but not as nice as the stuff I got from the Tower Of London a couple of years back (now finished, I must wander back down there, though I've still got some of their Bramble Liqueur, saving some until I decide to get some ice-cream).

Firtst mead I had was many years ago when a friend of mine wandered off to a seaside holiday cottage to get away from college worries and the like and we found a bottle in the local Offie (the only time I found it save fo the ToL and, recently, Morrisons). We finished off the bottle (standard wine-size, 750cl is that? whatever) that night.

Found out later that (apparently, and I haven't checked this in on any online resources, so I could be misinformed) that the word "honeymoon" comes from "honeymead" and it's considered an aphrodisiac... No, we didn't, before you make any undue assumptions..!


Lovely stuff, that first taste (probably because it was novel). The other two batches were nice, but I don't think I could drink a whole/half bottle these days. (I don't drink much in general.) Varies though. I liked the ToL stuff better than the Morrisons, but the latter is nice.

Despite the obvious sugary-parallel, it doesn't mix well with fruit-based drinks (I've found, to my cost) like sweet grape wine, the bramble liquer or this African cream-stuff I quite like at the moment, but emminently drinkable. I haven't tried it with grain-based booze, mainly because I have too much respect for my Glenfiddich, Glenmorangie and Drambuie/etc, but I suspect it's really supposed to be taken on its own (or perhaps drizzled over something to spice up desert?). I'm just wondering about rum (I've got some, somewhere). That's sugarcane-based, isn't it? Would that mix? I'll give it a (cautious) go tonight, maybe... :) However, I suspect that mixing isn't in the spirit of the thing...

I personally find that I get less of a hangover after drinking it than I do with other drinks, but YMMV. And I don't drink the quantities of anything that I used to.


Not far off, Honey was from mead as that is its base ingredient, and Moon was from the newly-weds drinking it for a month after they got married. :)

Im guessing the African cream-stuff is Amarula? That stuff is a bit sweet for my tastes, but in South Africa a few people mix it with cola / milk, almost a Black Russian :p

Bah, forget the Scotch, good bottle of Irish whiskey is far superior any day :p

Not far off, Honey was from mead as that is its base ingredient, and Moon was from the newly-weds drinking it for a month after they got married. :)Sounds about right. The years have been kinder to my internal filofax than I thought..!

Im guessing the African cream-stuff is Amarula? That stuff is a bit sweet for my tastes, but in South Africa a few people mix it with cola / milk, almost a Black Russian :p
Dats der bunny... Amarula, yep. Might try that mix as well.

/wonders if it works with Dr Pepper, as that's the nearest to Coke I have in the house until I go shopping...

Bah, forget the Scotch, good bottle of Irish whiskey is far superior any day :pI prefer Whisky to Whiskey, TBH, though I do have a cherished bottle of Irish Mist in my cupboard as well... :cool: