food Adventures cooking with Mead

Nice tctenten! Did you do use honey only for your mead? I like doing 1 gallon batches of melomels and cysers. I have two 6.5 gallon batches of traditional sack mead fermenting ATM, which will take a while to finish, but I think my next big mead project will be a braggot.

These are the ingredients for the sack mead I was talking about. The second pic is right after the initial yeast pitch. I used 21lbs per, then the remainder I separated to add in increments. It's been going for about a month so far. I've had to step/bottom feed the hell out of it, since I'm using 60 lbs between two 6.5 gallon batches, and no nutrients. It's already hit 18% ABV, but I'm pretty sure the yeast can tolerate 20% or so. I plan on riding the yeast out til it dies from the alcohol content,then racking for months to clear it up.
 

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The ingredients were honey, oranges, raisins and water.  The recipe says to not bothering racking to secondary and just bottle when it clears.  Do you agree or should I rack to secondary.
 
It's up to you man. I usually rack when a lot of sediment starts building up. You will inevitably lose some liquid while you rack, then have more head space in your secondary 1 gallon jug if you rack it. If it is clear, and you plan on drinking it sometime soon, bottle it. 1 gallon get's consumed quickly around these parts. I bet you will find that the same happens with your mead.
 
I may hit you up for a recipe or two if I like it. I assume that I bottle this without any priming sugars? Will it benefit from bottle aging?
 
Is your mead still fermenting? If not, bottle it still. If it is fermenting, prime it, and bottle in beer bottles or champagne style bottles. Don't bottle fermenting mead in wine bottles. It is a recipe for disaster. It will definitely benefit from bottle aging.
 
Thegreenchilemonster said:
That oaked Mead cleared up very nicely. I bottled it up today, and drank a huge glass full of it while bottling. It's damn good for coming straight out of a carboy, of course a couple of months in wine bottles will do it some good as well. It has just the right amount of oak flavor and sweetness that I enjoy in a mead, with a 15% ABV.
Click to expand...
 
So how did the Oaked Mead come out, did the Oak shine through?
 
I'll be starting a Show Mead this week. I have 3 Lbs of Buckwheat Honey from Pex and the balance is going to be either Orange Blossom or Wild Flower. Going with 13 pounds total of honey into 5 gallon batch with Champagne yeast. 
 
Don't worry Pics will follow when I get it going :)
 
The oak shined through very well. I definitely couldn't consider it a show mead, due to the obvious oak flavor.

Your mead project sounds good! It should be nice and dry too, using champagne yeast.
 
Lol! A show mead is honey, water, and yeast only. If you are entering a mead for a competition as a show mead, you can't use oak or other flavorings. I used oak and on that one, and the flavor is obvious, so not a show mead. The batches of traditional sack mead I'm making right now are considered a show mead, because I have used only honey, water, and yeast.
 
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