Hi guys,
I've gotten the bug lately to try to experience some of how my ancestors may have lived.
My wife has been willing to humor me and has been making the occasional dinner from a cookbook dating to the 1700's in Philadelphia. It's been a very interring and learning experience. I expected a fatty, heavy , bland diet....not the case. They ate pretty well !
Now, since I'm half Norwegian... I was wondering how mead tastes. Tried to find it locally to no avail. I can find it on the internet but it's a little pricey.
Does anyone have any drinking experience with mead ( honey based) ?? How does it taste ? Any suggestions ?? THANKS ! mike

I have made it and if you let it go completely dry it has no sweet taste at all. I made it once with a clover honey and it was kind of bland tasting. I made it once with a dark honey and liked the flavor better.

It is similar to other white wines.

I've made it and drunk my share. As far as taste, I have a very hard time trying to describe it. If I had to try, I would say it's a white wine mixed with a light tawny port wine or sherry. I do like it a lot. Bad mead tastes thin and astringent. It should have a mellow flavor, not sharp.

If you make it, the yeast makes a big difference. Ale yeast which stops making alcohol at a low alcohol level will be much sweeter than if you try and use a champagne yeast. I am also a fan of metheglin (spiced or herbed mead), melomel (fruit infused mead) and cyser (cider made with a healthy dose of honey prior to fermentation).

Regardless, if you make it yourself, like homebrew, it will have a lot of B vitamins from the residual yeast. Most of the commercial ones I've tried are pretty good, but some taste for lack of a better word, overprocessed.

I like it dry as possible, can’t stand downing the sweet stuff.

Mead should be readily available anywhere with a decent wine selection. Might be called honey wine.

Its great in the winter warmed slightly with mulling spices.

Camelot is the only brand I remember.

My wife and I are members of a home brew club with one of the largest mead compositions in the country.
Yes we have experience with meads. My wife is a HUGE fan, me.... I like it when it is sweeter, but boy can it mess you up quick due to the high alcohol. (ask my wife she can tell you).

My wife likes all kinds, sweet (sack), fruity (melomel), dry meads with minimal honey taste. My wife has even judged meads for a home brew competition.

The drier meads can be similar to a wine and the sweetest ones can almost be like drinking juice. We have started seeing them at our local ABC liquor stores (FL) and they are located with the craft beers. Not a lot, but they do have options. And yes they are expensive, but think of buying a bottle of mead like buying a bottle of wine. A serving size of mead will usually be a smaller pour compared to a beer so you will be more servings. Also, meads are made with honey (pounds of it) and that also adds to the additional cost.

With all that said, they are not that difficult to make (easier than making beer) it just requires some equipment and patience while it ages/finishes. And if you are going to try, I highly recommend you seeking out a local bee keeper to buy fresh honey.

Our homebrew club held a class one time on making mead and everyone who attended got a bottle after the instructor took it home and let it finish which took 5 months (best guess); it was a berry mead and it was delicious and we still have one bottle left and that was 8 years ago.

Depending on your tastes (sweet, dry in the middle)

It’s honey little brother, it’s made from honey.

Oh, Bee Booze!

Mead is good stuff.

We have a couple meaderies near us. I've been to Starrlight in Pittsboro, and did a tasting set there to try a boatload of their different flavors. Came back with a couple of bottles.

I've had a couple that I really, really liked. I think of the flavor as something like a fizzy, slightly sour cross between a wheat beer and white wine.

Nectar Creek "Waggle" is the one I liked the most out of what I have tried (it's the one out of Nectar Creek's lineup that is straight mead with no added flavors - they also have a ginger one, a fruit one, and some others). I have bought it a few times. You can get it in either cans or big bottles. I don't know a lot about mead but my impression is that it is at the dry end of the mead spectrum and at the low-ABV end of the mead spectrum.

It's the stuff though it can get expensive. Too lazy to try making my own.

Tried it once a long time ago over Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I mostly remember it tasting like a very sweet white wine. I was not inspired to try it again, though I suspect the bottle we got wasn't the best example.

There is a rather commonly available bottle made in Ireland, maybe labeled Bunratty Castle or thereabouts, that is a mildly sweet liqueur-style sipper. I do recommend it and it's inexpensive. My spouse and I drank it to toast the sweetness that is marriage and love at our wedding ceremony some 25 years ago...

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:
Mead is good stuff.

We have a couple meaderies near us. I've been to Starrlight in Pittsboro, and did a tasting set there to try a boatload of their different flavors. Came back with a couple of bottles.

Thanks for posting that link. I'll have to drive down there one day. I've only tried mead one time a long time ago and don't even recall the name but enjoyed it. I did not know it was available around here.

Hey, Thanks guys for the info ! I appreciate your time ! mike

I have a gallon of mead fermenting as we speak, er, type!

2.71 lbs of honey
1 D-47 yeast packet
2 cinnamon sticks
1 clove

OG of 1.095. Looking for a SG of 1.02 at 10% ABV. It's been going for about a week now.
I'm going to let it go for another week before I start checking the SG. I'll stop the fermentation with potassium sorbate once I reach my goal.

Should be slightly sweet.

If you ever find yourself in Munich, if you go to the Viktualienmarkt there is a place there that sells mead called the Honighäusel. This is the stuff I wish I could make and am working towards.

LS1 - Caught the reference. Good flick.

Mike28 - If you haven’t seen it, it is one you should see as it relates to your current area of study.

LS1, Correct me if I’m wrong - “The 13th Warrior”

Mike, I don’t know where you are in Idaho, but there is a really good mead place in the Spokane area: https://www.hierophantmeadery.com/

Edited to add: Looks like the tasting room they had downtown has closed. They have a list of where you can find their mead.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Scoobaru,

quote:

Originally posted by Chris42:
LS1 - Caught the reference. Good flick.

Mike28 - If you haven’t seen it, it is one you should see as it relates to your current area of study.

LS1, Correct me if I’m wrong - “The 13th Warrior”

Yup.

Lo, there do I see my father. 'Lo, there do I see...
My mother, and my sisters, and my brothers.

Lo, there do I see...
The line of my people...
Back to the beginning.

Lo, they do call to me.
They bid me take my place among them.
In the halls of Valhalla...
Where the brave...

May live...
...Forever

quote:

Originally posted by Scoobaru:
Mike, I don’t know where you are in Idaho, but there is a really good mead place in the Spokane area. They also have a tasting room downtown: https://www.hierophantmeadery.com/

Thanks ! I may be going to Spokane in the next month or so ! mike