I'm trying my first 6 and 9 month meads. They're fabulous! Amazing clarity, color, aroma, taste...and I've used no clarifying agents, for the most part no sulfates or sorbate simply because I'd forgotten to add them. This I have you to thank for, and I mean it in the most positive way possible! I had been brewing wines before, I started brewing mead specifically because of you and I immediately loved your natural, relaxed approach to brewing, as opposed to what I had been used to before. It is so easy to produce wonderful, delicious brew without all the additives. So easy.
Brian my father in law kept bees for over 20 years. A bee hive smells differently as the seasons are; so it's depends on what time of year you go near one and the smells differently each time.
Your channel is such a wonderful gift , thank you !. You two have shown me so much . What started as curiosity has bloomed to a hobby . I have made a few brews from meads to cysers . I currently have a fruit kilju clearing up nicely and a cider fermenting . You guys take a lot of the guess work or trial and error out of the process . And most importantly all the times I think I messed up a brew I took your advice took gravity reading n waited n low and behold brew was just fine. I love sharing my brews with friends n family. Thank you again for not only entertaining but teaching a wonderful Hobbie that's been around since the vikings sailed the seas .
The other day I said I had noble grapes made into wine .The man with the grapes called them noble. They are like Muscadine grapes but they grow in clusters,purple and very robust flavor. I will inquire with the owner.
Just want to thank you for teaching me to make Meadowsweet Mead, which I started two years ago, bottled a few days ago and have been so pleasantly shocked at how much I love every aspect of the brew that I have already sunk the first bottle. Mine has finished darker in colour than yours but the literally meadow sweet notes are just as memorable as you describe in your review. My Ginger Mead, started around the same time, is just as good but I wouldn't have made either had I not seen your truly inspiring and highly educational videos. Much appreciated. I'll let you know how I get on with my first attempts to brew cider, red wine and Porter.
Having only been watching your channel for the last 10 months or so.. binging on past videos, impatiently waiting for new. I made a judgement error. I assumed waiting an entire year would feel like an eternity to age a mead. Well here I am , 8ish months later with 10 quarts remaining from 4 gallons, quickly rounding that 1 year mark. Loving the new hobby and the great info y'all provide. 🍷
I recently made a Cranberry Orange mead. I was basing the idea on a Cranberry Orange muffin I had that morning. Taste wise muffin is orange with burst of cranberry flavor, mead is a full blend of both flavors, no burst. I have been mixing it with any soda I have wild cherry 7 up, ginger ale, etc..
Dear erica and Brian Question would you make a batch of mead and Cointreau. Because I have seen and test meads where they add rum, whiskey or even with jenever. Or do you prefer replicate the flavors of the alcohol. As always great content you channel made me start brewing mead.
I enjoy your shows and try to drop everything when you post a new vid if I can. I know you don't use brown sugar much lol. But I was thinking of trying a brew with it. If I make 1gal how many pounds will I need? Please & thank you. For a finish near 1.020 gravity with just the sugar on its own.
Cointreau spiked mead… yum! For an orange mead I’d go with the zest, the flesh, no pith, a good helping of chopped raisins for body. Add something for tannic value but not too much as the orange even without pith will probably have some bitterness of its own. Other flavourings to your own liking. I wouldn’t juice the oranges, just give the flesh a rough squeeze before adding chunky bits of flesh and the juice to the fermenter because those tiny floaty bits are no fun when it’s time to rack. Probably best a little on the sweeter side, like your spiced metheglin. Perhaps orange blossom honey and maybe a few citrus blossoms in secondary to go all-out orange themed, even if the blossoms come from your lime tree (no leaves though: we know from your earlier videos that it isn’t a good idea). It’ll probably need a little longer to age, as most citrus brews tend to. I hope you make your own soon, with a video for us on its making!
For me it's wine only from this point on as the UK price of quality honey is insane, one can buy a kilo of white sugar for 55pence (ALDI) but the equivalent amount of good honey will be £10 or more, the alternative is cheap nasty golden syrup type stuff labelled as honey by the Chinese, I'm heartbroken. Thanks guys for another brilliant video.
Interesting, this review causes me to wonder how much tannin is in the meadowsweet tea since it delivered such a strong tea flavor. I agree with Derica, Cointreau can boost many cocktails
When I made a maple wine, I hated it. The thing smells like Worcestershire sauce for some reason. I gave it to my coworker, a hobby mixologist, to craft a cocktail for me. Thus was born one of my favorite cocktails, the Twinkle Toews. I tried it without the maple wine, and it was terrible. So I did the only sensible thing and started two more gallons of maple wine (but with some tweaks). Twinkle Toews 1.5 oz rye whiskey 0.75 oz maple wine (mine is SG=1.008 at 14.5%. would've done more back sweetening, but i ran out of syrup during bottling) 0.33 oz Pimm's 0.33 oz allspice dram 0.25 oz maple syrup 3 dashes grapefruit bitters grapefruit twist and garnish You definitely want some dilution with this one, so use ice or water it down if you're using stones.
Meadowsweet mead is basically all I’ve been making lately. Wildflower honey, raisins, black tea, and ground up meadowsweet leaves and stems. 11-11.5% batches. The first batch I racked and tested at 2 months, and was absolutely in love. Was even better when bottled at the start of the 3rd month. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. Now I keep up with a 2 batch cycle. It’s a real shame this stuff isn’t more commercialized (at least in my area). Although i doubt it’d taste better than homemade anyway.
Brian and Derica, I’m 8 days in on 1 gal of simple cider just using pure apple juice with no extra sugars, and I have a carbonation question. Yeast: Red Star Premier Classique Starting gravity: 1.052 Final gravity: 1.000 (could go lower, I’m giving it another week and will be testing again to be sure) My wife and I like ours sweet (1.025-1.030 range) so I calculated that I’ll need 10.5oz of sugar to backsweeten (roughly, it’s like 10.435) and then I’m going to add another ounce of sugar for priming so that we’ll be roughly back to that 1.030 mark after carbonation. I’ll be using one plastic bottle for testing carb level, and the others are the glass swing tops like you use. I’ll also be pasteurizing using a sous vide, and I’ll be filling one of the other glass bottles with just water and leaving the cap open so I can properly test the temperature level with a quick read thermometer during the pasteurization process. My question is, since I’ll essentially be backsweetening and priming at the same time to try and get roughly back to my 1.030 gravity, will that cause carbonation to happen quicker since with all that extra sugar in there, or should it just work out like normally priming if I were going from dry? I’ll most likely test squeeze my plastic bottle once daily since this is my first brew and I have a chance to babysit this one a little closer unless you advise me otherwise. Thanks, and keep the great videos coming! My wife and I love the channel and have learned a ton! PS: I hope you saw my last comment about the Fermtech Wine Thief. That thing is pure genius, zero mess, and even eliminates the need for a graduated cylinder!
The speed of bottle carbing depends on many factors IMHO. Temperature is a big one, but also the original ABV of your brew before carbing vs the yeast’s alcohol tolerance. Add in yeast health and the mead’s additional ingredients and you’ve got a lot of variables. ‘Seeding’ your finished brew with champagne yeast would add yet another variable (done that, too). I’ve had meads come up to pressure really fast and others took weeks. As a result I tend to do my squeeze test twice a day just to be sure. Once when I get up in the morning and once when I go to bed. It’s hardly any trouble to add in that extra squeeze, and makes me feel safer. And when my squeeze bottle starts getting there I make sure I do not put off pasteurising come hell or high water. I less, of course, the only fermentable sugars in my finished product come from the priming sugar. Some people will put off pasteurising by ‘burping’ their bottles, but I’m too much of a coward to dare risking that.
Meadowsweet gets its name not from meadows, but from its history as a traditional ingredient in early mead making, used to give the honey wine an added fresh and bright flavour ❤
Very cool, we were just admiring in on a recent walk and got interested in what could be used with :) Further dry v fresh I would lean for fresh.. But this in part due to my time trying elderflower where getting nectar and other parts is desirable and depending on time of day/weather can be drained.. What I fount that was interesting was leaving them on the stalk so that with contact with the liquid they actually last longer and keep generating and lifted things nicely.. so was thinking of trying this with the same :) Had read that meadowsweet has an almond-like scent so need to check what you made it with.. Also reminded me of another fatal issue ;) if you have it in something else for years is may adversely effect and remind of something else like tea..
Either this Meadow sweet mead or the mango Habanero mead could make a pretty good variation of a Hemingway Daiquiri. Which is 2 oz white rum, 1/2 oz maraschino liqueur, 3/4 oz lime juice, 1/2 oz grapefruit juice. Obviously switch out the grapefruit juice with mead and use desired liqueur/ rum of your choice. Shaking with ice or served over shaved ice.
Mixing Yeast?!! ..... Hi Brian and Derica, I simply love what you do!!! You guys literally got me into homebrew by your videos and 6months in I'm having great fun!! I know this comment isn't for this video but thought I'd get the quickest reply this way, what would happen if you mix 2 types of yeast? For example a wine yeast and a bread yeast? The reason for this would be running low on both and impatient to wait until cash flow allows more supply 🤣 Keep up the great work guys, Peace, Love and Positive vibes from the UK!!! 😁😜✌️
Mixing yeasts tends to not be a productive experiment. More often than not, the dominate yeast strain will take over and cannibalize the weaker strain. There are instances where a new strain is developed, but it isn't reliable.
I am only now healthy enough to start making wine and mead again. That's why I asked about if you two had bad stuff. Last week I went to basement for first time in a year and got a couple bottles I saved but was afraid to try them. Glad I got to ask because now I tried them and omg fantastic taste.
There's a middle eastern spice called Sumac. It has a citrusy taste (more lemony than orangey) but no acid. Might be worth experimenting with if you can find it
Yes some sort of sumac-ade mead could be very refreshing. Which is probably the most common use in the United States to make either sumac lemonade or sumac-ade. I've had hard apple cider with sumac and it was tasty.
Ive made 3 5gallon batches of a traditional hydromel (keg'd and carb'd) using orange blossom honey and it tastes like grape fanta. I see reviews with people saying it tastes like citrus. I get 100% grape soda. Loved it so much my 2nd nd 3rd batches I put in some butterfly pea tea blossoms and made it purple. Try it!
Question about specific gravity, this is a weird case. I've been making a strawberry lavender chamomile mead (lots of flavors, I know), and it seemed to stall. Original gravity was 1.112 on 7/7. I tested the gravity on 7/20 and it was 1.035 and on 8/3 and it was 1.020. I wondered if it stalled because there were no more bubbles so I added some water, about an inch on the carboy, wondering if dilution would kick it back up. I didn't want a sweet mead and didn't care about alcohol content at that point since it was well about the 10% to protect it from turning to vinegar. I should have taken a reading after diluting but I didn't 🤦 but I assumed that the 1+ cup of water would change it. I checked today and the gravity is still 1.020 and I'm baffled haha. I'm guessing it's done but wanted to get your opinion. I used 71B for this brew. It tastes lovely just a little too sweet for my taste. Will time mellow out the sweetness? Wondering if I should just rack at this point and leave it be for a while
Hi Brian and Derica, I am about to start my second mead (a melonel) and I wasn't sure on the ratios of fruit to honey. I haven't had time to go back and watch your other videos on it yet. Is the ratio approximately 1lb fruit to 2 lbs honey per gallon of water? I have a fresh berry (will be frozen first) that I am adding and I can't find the spgr or sugar content. Thanks for the guidance.
Sorry to butt in here. I don’t really believe there is a ‘correct’ ratio. It all depends on how fruit-forward you want your mead to be, and on what fruit you use. The more fruit you add, the fruitier it will be. Some fruit will transfer a lot of flavour easily, add a lot of acidity and might carry a lot of tannic character from the seeds. Raspberries would be an example. Other fruits are quite mild, like pears, where I’d be tempted to add pears in primary and more pears in secondary, possibly adding dried pears as well. As stated by Brian and Derica in various videos, safest is to start with an existing recipe. A few good ways to find your way around fruit-to-honey ratios is: (1) Start with a tried-and-tested recipe from a trusted source that includes the fruit(s) you want to use. Make it, taste it. Decide if you like how much fruit flavour it carries and if you want more fruit flavour, rack it out of its primary vessel, transfer it to a new one, add more fruit, pop on an airlock and let it sit for two weeks, swirling daily to wet the fruit cap. Have another taste. Rinse and repeat until you’re happy and once clear, bottle. Or: make the recipe again but consider using juice of that choice of fruit instead of water or increase the amount of fruit from the beginning. Taste, add more fruit in secondary if you so desire, etc. (2) Simply try with what you have, hope for the best. Add fruit in secondary if needed. (3) experience. Brew, brew and brew some more. Remember that even if you want your mead to have a stronger fruit flavour YOU are the only person who knows that. If it’s a pleasant mead with just a hint of the fruit you’ve added, is that such a bad thing? You’ve got the fermenter and airlock anyway… and part of the fun is tweaking a recipe to YOUR liking. Depending on the fruit you’ve used, just a hint might be exactly what floats your boat… or having that fruit bowl you tail over end is. Or something anywhere on that spectrum. It’s YOUR mead. YOUR hobby. Have fun with it. I made a cassis berry mead once. That berry carries A LOT of flavour and can quickly overpower everything. I added only a bit and it was just perfect. My sister would probably have used double bit hey: I’m the home brewer. And she liked it anyway. For a rose petal mead I doubled the amount of rose petals the recipe called for. It needed it and I found out when fermentation had stopped so I simply added the new batch of rose petals in secondary. Happy brewing!
@@eddavanleemputten9232 Thanks for the comment. I did a quick search for a recipe through the browser and through TH-cam. The browser came up with one single recipe which I will not be making since it uses champagne yeast and I don't want a beverage that high in alcohol and TH-cam came up with nothing. It seems there a very few people using Saskatoon berries in a mead. Unfortunately, I only have a 5 gallon carboi for making my mead and was hoping to get a little insight into this. I think I will try putting most of the Saskatoons in primary and keep some out in case I need to add in secondary. I currently have around 10lbs. To make things a little harder, this is going to be my second brew. Thanks again Edda for your help.
@@canadianbench2554 - Champagne yeast is indeed a power beast and a lot of them will go up to 15-18% ABV. That being said, you don’t need to go that high with any yeast. The trick is your starting gravity. If you have a hydrometer you can try to shoot for your desired alcohol percentage by only adding enough honey (for mead) or sugar (for wine/cider) than your desired ABV. The brew will ferment to dryness. Then, you have the options of either stabilising chemically or stabilising by pasteurising, both after back sweetening IF you use fermentable sugars and you want a sweeter end result. If you do not want to stabilise you have the option of using non-fermentable sweeteners and then I’d go with erythritol. Your berries do contain fermentable sugars. That means adding them in secondary may cause your brew to start up again. Usually berries do not contain a whole lot of sugars so the alcohol percentage won’t go up a lot. Rack off the lees, add the remaining berries, wait for fermentation to stop and your brew to clear again. Rack, back sweeten, bottle, pasteurise. Or: wait for the brew to clear the first time. Rack. Add stabilisers. Back sweeten. Add remaining berries. Let them sit on the mead for 1-2 weeks. Rack. Bottle. Or back sweeten after steeping the berries. I am not all that fond of stabilisers so I tend to pasteurise. But to each their own. Calculating your potential ABV: either using the starting gravity and old-fashioned math, or by using an online calculator. Both work fine. But a hydrometer is key and is a piece of equipment I recommend to any starting home brewer (with a fitting graduated cylinder, usually a 100ml one works fine but a 250 ml one is great too). Doesn’t cost much, just don’t buy an alcoholmeter, that’s only for pure alcohol diluted in water. If you don’t have one, check out the link in the description box of this video. To get a sample of some of your must or your finished brew either a clean turkey baster or a big syringe and some tubing, like Brian and Derica use, work fine. Good luck with your second brew! Have fun with it, don’t overthink, and when time/finances/space permit, consider getting yourself a 2-gallon wide mouth fermenter and a 1-gallon carboy. Perfect for those experimental brews where no recipe you can find really fits what you have in mind. And… keep copious notes on a carrier you can easily refer to in the future. It really, REALLY pays off in the long run to keep track of what you did, when and why, and what you think of the result both short term and long term. Being ‘old school’ my records are in a binder. Others prefer a cloud-based file. Happy brewing!
I could really use your advice! Watching the whole series of videos on your meadowsweet metheglin has inspired me to craft a metheglin that will help with my COPD. Like your mead, I will be using meadowsweet, but using just the flowers! To this, I would also like to include Mullein leaf and Thyme. Both are used in teas as an expectorant. I drink a cup or two of Mullein daily now as is, and it does help! Given your experience palates, what's your opinion of using 1.5 ounces of each of the herbs? I don't want any one of them to overpower the others, because I would like to add one more thing. Elderberries! Either juice or berries. But this is where I lack the experience to determine how much I should add. I would still like to end up with the same ending AVB of 10-12%. Elderberries also help as an expectorant. It's my intention to have the elderberry help tone down the hay flavor you had with the meadowsweet or like I have experienced with plain mullein tea. I often use a bag of either mint, ginger, or camomile to the mullein for flavor.
Hi, sorry Im not sure if you remember... But with the Viking Blood 2020 you back sweetened but didn't pasteurise? Or did I miss something? Or is the ABV protecting it from refermentation?
My suggestion for the "orange" mead would be to not use the pith. It has taken a year to age out to my liking. If I make it again I will use the flesh and the zest of each orange. Light on the spices also. Happy brewing
from experience mainly a beehive smells of beeswax, its described as having a cushy, comfy smell like when grandma was taking bread out of the oven, bees pollen smells of that too, sweet malty and lightly acidic yeast smell with some floral perfumy finish. royal jelly smell cheesy a bit sometimes. that gave me a stupid idea of trying to flavor the mead with bees pollen or royal jelly. back in the day, they would throw the entire hive in the mead mash with the larvaes, bees venom and all.
Hi there, you need to age your meadowsweet flowers a few months, 6 is a minimum, if you are looking for the typical almond flavour which makes this herb so interesting ...
During the aging process, molecules combine to form tannin polymers, which fall to the bottom of the bottle, creating more and more sediment for you to discover upon drinking.
Alright I was just curious. I just made a batch of your version of Vikings blood and two of the bottles have sediment in it. The other bottles didn't. Only the first two bottles I bottled.
I Bought 48hour yeast and then seen a comment that it only eats a certain kind of the sugar.... was wondering if I can add the 48hour yeast with a different kind of yeast after its Been fermenting for 3 days..??? can I add 48hour yeast 2-3 days Before I rack it..??? can I mix the 2 together.??? Im new 2 this But want to hurry it along and make sure its worth doing lol
So I have a relatively concerning question: I left my mead in secondary fermentation for about 6 months. I checked them spring break and there was still water in the airlocks. I’m only just now getting home and there is no more water in the airlocks! How in trouble is my mead?
You will have to check to see. If the ABV is above 15% then more than likely it didn’t turn to vinegar. Did any bugs get in your brew? Is there any signs of mold? Does it look or smell wrong?
@@CitySteadingBrews Tested ABV, 16%. There was a single bug in the airlock, but they didn't make it into the carboy. No signs of mold, although it appeared to have continued fermentation, so there was a krausen and some must. It was 14.5% when I left. Tasted it, tastes pretty stinking good. Very smooth, so I think all is well. I had a carboy that was maybe 30% full of excess mead I couldn't save and let it go as an experiment, since I knew it would oxidize badly from the terrible terrible headspace. It tasted pretty good before I got hit with a sour flavor, so I had something to compare it to haha. I think all is well, thankfully
I found meadowsweet that is only flowers from mountain rose herbs. I just ordered, some they were out for a very long time. So now I will be able to try this. What about a orange cream mead or wine?
I have a question. I hope someone has an answer. I made a batch of mead about 35 days ago and the first reading I had was about 17% abv, I took a reading yesterday and it was sitting at 3% abv. Not sure what I did wrong or if there is anything I can do to fix it.
Please help me! Finally got a hygrometer and the math gave me a headache. I’m making 5 gals. blackberry wine with Lalvin 71b. My og was 1.082 and fg 0.990= 0.092. Added sugar and got an og of 1.008 and fg of 0.099 =0.018. Now I add 0.092 + 0.018 =0.110 multiplied by 131.25 for an abv of 14.4375. Right? Or should I use 135 for an abv of 14.95? Lord my head hurts!!
@@CitySteadingBrews I will thank you! I just really don't wanna make vinegar xD I have everything except nutrient gonna buy some in a min then sanitize everything
Awesome. Damn, these years are flying by.
Thanks!
Cheers!! 👍🏻 Keep up the awesomely entertaining & informative video!!
Thanks for watching!
I'm trying my first 6 and 9 month meads. They're fabulous! Amazing clarity, color, aroma, taste...and I've used no clarifying agents, for the most part no sulfates or sorbate simply because I'd forgotten to add them. This I have you to thank for, and I mean it in the most positive way possible!
I had been brewing wines before, I started brewing mead specifically because of you and I immediately loved your natural, relaxed approach to brewing, as opposed to what I had been used to before.
It is so easy to produce wonderful, delicious brew without all the additives. So easy.
Thank you for the tasting videos after aging. These videos help me avoid things I would not like and encourage me on trying ones I will.
Brian my father in law kept bees for over 20 years. A bee hive smells differently as the seasons are; so it's depends on what time of year you go near one and the smells differently each time.
Your channel is such a wonderful gift , thank you !. You two have shown me so much . What started as curiosity has bloomed to a hobby . I have made a few brews from meads to cysers . I currently have a fruit kilju clearing up nicely and a cider fermenting . You guys take a lot of the guess work or trial and error out of the process . And most importantly all the times I think I messed up a brew I took your advice took gravity reading n waited n low and behold brew was just fine. I love sharing my brews with friends n family. Thank you again for not only entertaining but teaching a wonderful Hobbie that's been around since the vikings sailed the seas .
The other day I said I had noble grapes made into wine .The man with the grapes called them noble. They are like Muscadine grapes but they grow in clusters,purple and very robust flavor. I will inquire with the owner.
I'm currently working in a mead with the wild sweet orange tea as a base.
Just want to thank you for teaching me to make Meadowsweet Mead, which I started two years ago, bottled a few days ago and have been so pleasantly shocked at how much I love every aspect of the brew that I have already sunk the first bottle. Mine has finished darker in colour than yours but the literally meadow sweet notes are just as memorable as you describe in your review. My Ginger Mead, started around the same time, is just as good but I wouldn't have made either had I not seen your truly inspiring and highly educational videos. Much appreciated. I'll let you know how I get on with my first attempts to brew cider, red wine and Porter.
Thank you for watching. Happy to know we helped!
Having only been watching your channel for the last 10 months or so.. binging on past videos, impatiently waiting for new.
I made a judgement error. I assumed waiting an entire year would feel like an eternity to age a mead. Well here I am , 8ish months later with 10 quarts remaining from 4 gallons, quickly rounding that 1 year mark. Loving the new hobby and the great info y'all provide. 🍷
Brian!!! Zim Shirt!!! Mead and Zim. We are kindred spirits. Best regards
I recently made a Cranberry Orange mead. I was basing the idea on a Cranberry Orange muffin I had that morning. Taste wise muffin is orange with burst of cranberry flavor, mead is a full blend of both flavors, no burst. I have been mixing it with any soda I have wild cherry 7 up, ginger ale, etc..
Dear erica and Brian
Question would you make a batch of mead and Cointreau. Because I have seen and test meads where they add rum, whiskey or even with jenever. Or do you prefer replicate the flavors of the alcohol.
As always great content you channel made me start brewing mead.
I enjoy your shows and try to drop everything when you post a new vid if I can. I know you don't use brown sugar much lol. But I was thinking of trying a brew with it. If I make 1gal how many pounds will I need? Please & thank you. For a finish near 1.020 gravity with just the sugar on its own.
Cointreau spiked mead… yum!
For an orange mead I’d go with the zest, the flesh, no pith, a good helping of chopped raisins for body. Add something for tannic value but not too much as the orange even without pith will probably have some bitterness of its own. Other flavourings to your own liking. I wouldn’t juice the oranges, just give the flesh a rough squeeze before adding chunky bits of flesh and the juice to the fermenter because those tiny floaty bits are no fun when it’s time to rack. Probably best a little on the sweeter side, like your spiced metheglin. Perhaps orange blossom honey and maybe a few citrus blossoms in secondary to go all-out orange themed, even if the blossoms come from your lime tree (no leaves though: we know from your earlier videos that it isn’t a good idea). It’ll probably need a little longer to age, as most citrus brews tend to.
I hope you make your own soon, with a video for us on its making!
For me it's wine only from this point on as the UK price of quality honey is insane, one can buy a kilo of white sugar for 55pence (ALDI) but the equivalent amount of good honey will be £10 or more, the alternative is cheap nasty golden syrup type stuff labelled as honey by the Chinese, I'm heartbroken. Thanks guys for another brilliant video.
Interesting, this review causes me to wonder how much tannin is in the meadowsweet tea since it delivered such a strong tea flavor. I agree with Derica, Cointreau can boost many cocktails
You guys ROCK! I enjoy the videos. You all have inspired me to make mead of my own and what a wonderful experience... Thanks again!!!
Thanks for watching!
When I made a maple wine, I hated it. The thing smells like Worcestershire sauce for some reason. I gave it to my coworker, a hobby mixologist, to craft a cocktail for me. Thus was born one of my favorite cocktails, the Twinkle Toews. I tried it without the maple wine, and it was terrible. So I did the only sensible thing and started two more gallons of maple wine (but with some tweaks).
Twinkle Toews
1.5 oz rye whiskey
0.75 oz maple wine (mine is SG=1.008 at 14.5%. would've done more back sweetening, but i ran out of syrup during bottling)
0.33 oz Pimm's
0.33 oz allspice dram
0.25 oz maple syrup
3 dashes grapefruit bitters
grapefruit twist and garnish
You definitely want some dilution with this one, so use ice or water it down if you're using stones.
Meadowsweet mead is basically all I’ve been making lately. Wildflower honey, raisins, black tea, and ground up meadowsweet leaves and stems. 11-11.5% batches. The first batch I racked and tested at 2 months, and was absolutely in love. Was even better when bottled at the start of the 3rd month. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. Now I keep up with a 2 batch cycle.
It’s a real shame this stuff isn’t more commercialized (at least in my area). Although i doubt it’d taste better than homemade anyway.
Brian and Derica, I’m 8 days in on 1 gal of simple cider just using pure apple juice with no extra sugars, and I have a carbonation question.
Yeast: Red Star Premier Classique
Starting gravity: 1.052
Final gravity: 1.000 (could go lower, I’m giving it another week and will be testing again to be sure)
My wife and I like ours sweet (1.025-1.030 range) so I calculated that I’ll need 10.5oz of sugar to backsweeten (roughly, it’s like 10.435) and then I’m going to add another ounce of sugar for priming so that we’ll be roughly back to that 1.030 mark after carbonation.
I’ll be using one plastic bottle for testing carb level, and the others are the glass swing tops like you use. I’ll also be pasteurizing using a sous vide, and I’ll be filling one of the other glass bottles with just water and leaving the cap open so I can properly test the temperature level with a quick read thermometer during the pasteurization process.
My question is, since I’ll essentially be backsweetening and priming at the same time to try and get roughly back to my 1.030 gravity, will that cause carbonation to happen quicker since with all that extra sugar in there, or should it just work out like normally priming if I were going from dry?
I’ll most likely test squeeze my plastic bottle once daily since this is my first brew and I have a chance to babysit this one a little closer unless you advise me otherwise.
Thanks, and keep the great videos coming! My wife and I love the channel and have learned a ton!
PS: I hope you saw my last comment about the Fermtech Wine Thief. That thing is pure genius, zero mess, and even eliminates the need for a graduated cylinder!
The speed of bottle carbing depends on many factors IMHO. Temperature is a big one, but also the original ABV of your brew before carbing vs the yeast’s alcohol tolerance. Add in yeast health and the mead’s additional ingredients and you’ve got a lot of variables. ‘Seeding’ your finished brew with champagne yeast would add yet another variable (done that, too). I’ve had meads come up to pressure really fast and others took weeks. As a result I tend to do my squeeze test twice a day just to be sure. Once when I get up in the morning and once when I go to bed. It’s hardly any trouble to add in that extra squeeze, and makes me feel safer. And when my squeeze bottle starts getting there I make sure I do not put off pasteurising come hell or high water. I less, of course, the only fermentable sugars in my finished product come from the priming sugar.
Some people will put off pasteurising by ‘burping’ their bottles, but I’m too much of a coward to dare risking that.
Meadowsweet gets its name not from meadows, but from its history as a traditional ingredient in early mead making, used to give the honey wine an added fresh and bright flavour ❤
Very cool, we were just admiring in on a recent walk and got interested in what could be used with :) Further dry v fresh I would lean for fresh.. But this in part due to my time trying elderflower where getting nectar and other parts is desirable and depending on time of day/weather can be drained.. What I fount that was interesting was leaving them on the stalk so that with contact with the liquid they actually last longer and keep generating and lifted things nicely.. so was thinking of trying this with the same :) Had read that meadowsweet has an almond-like scent so need to check what you made it with.. Also reminded me of another fatal issue ;) if you have it in something else for years is may adversely effect and remind of something else like tea..
Either this Meadow sweet mead or the mango Habanero mead could make a pretty good variation of a Hemingway Daiquiri. Which is 2 oz white rum, 1/2 oz maraschino liqueur, 3/4 oz lime juice, 1/2 oz grapefruit juice. Obviously switch out the grapefruit juice with mead and use desired liqueur/ rum of your choice. Shaking with ice or served over shaved ice.
Sounds like an interesting mead to make. I'm not going to forage the meadowsweet myself because I might end up with water hemlock mead XD
Mixing Yeast?!! ..... Hi Brian and Derica, I simply love what you do!!! You guys literally got me into homebrew by your videos and 6months in I'm having great fun!!
I know this comment isn't for this video but thought I'd get the quickest reply this way, what would happen if you mix 2 types of yeast? For example a wine yeast and a bread yeast? The reason for this would be running low on both and impatient to wait until cash flow allows more supply 🤣
Keep up the great work guys, Peace, Love and Positive vibes from the UK!!! 😁😜✌️
Mixing yeasts tends to not be a productive experiment. More often than not, the dominate yeast strain will take over and cannibalize the weaker strain. There are instances where a new strain is developed, but it isn't reliable.
I am only now healthy enough to start making wine and mead again. That's why I asked about if you two had bad stuff. Last week I went to basement for first time in a year and got a couple bottles I saved but was afraid to try them. Glad I got to ask because now I tried them and omg fantastic taste.
There's a middle eastern spice called Sumac. It has a citrusy taste (more lemony than orangey) but no acid. Might be worth experimenting with if you can find it
Yes some sort of sumac-ade mead could be very refreshing. Which is probably the most common use in the United States to make either sumac lemonade or sumac-ade. I've had hard apple cider with sumac and it was tasty.
Is the tomato wine/mead on the list?
Wow, I didn't realize Cointreau was that high of a proof. pretty high for a liqueur.
If you decide to make an orange mead, I suggest making an orange blossom honey mead at the same time and taste side by side.
Ive made 3 5gallon batches of a traditional hydromel (keg'd and carb'd) using orange blossom honey and it tastes like grape fanta. I see reviews with people saying it tastes like citrus. I get 100% grape soda. Loved it so much my 2nd nd 3rd batches I put in some butterfly pea tea blossoms and made it purple. Try it!
@@piercedupdude I will. I use sweet squeeze orange blossom honey and it seems more orange to me. I will defiantly try the butterfly pea blossoms!
Question about specific gravity, this is a weird case. I've been making a strawberry lavender chamomile mead (lots of flavors, I know), and it seemed to stall. Original gravity was 1.112 on 7/7. I tested the gravity on 7/20 and it was 1.035 and on 8/3 and it was 1.020. I wondered if it stalled because there were no more bubbles so I added some water, about an inch on the carboy, wondering if dilution would kick it back up. I didn't want a sweet mead and didn't care about alcohol content at that point since it was well about the 10% to protect it from turning to vinegar. I should have taken a reading after diluting but I didn't 🤦 but I assumed that the 1+ cup of water would change it. I checked today and the gravity is still 1.020 and I'm baffled haha. I'm guessing it's done but wanted to get your opinion. I used 71B for this brew. It tastes lovely just a little too sweet for my taste. Will time mellow out the sweetness? Wondering if I should just rack at this point and leave it be for a while
how about a blood orange mead?
Hi Brian and Derica, I am about to start my second mead (a melonel) and I wasn't sure on the ratios of fruit to honey. I haven't had time to go back and watch your other videos on it yet.
Is the ratio approximately 1lb fruit to 2 lbs honey per gallon of water? I have a fresh berry (will be frozen first) that I am adding and I can't find the spgr or sugar content.
Thanks for the guidance.
Sorry to butt in here. I don’t really believe there is a ‘correct’ ratio. It all depends on how fruit-forward you want your mead to be, and on what fruit you use. The more fruit you add, the fruitier it will be. Some fruit will transfer a lot of flavour easily, add a lot of acidity and might carry a lot of tannic character from the seeds. Raspberries would be an example. Other fruits are quite mild, like pears, where I’d be tempted to add pears in primary and more pears in secondary, possibly adding dried pears as well.
As stated by Brian and Derica in various videos, safest is to start with an existing recipe.
A few good ways to find your way around fruit-to-honey ratios is:
(1) Start with a tried-and-tested recipe from a trusted source that includes the fruit(s) you want to use. Make it, taste it. Decide if you like how much fruit flavour it carries and if you want more fruit flavour, rack it out of its primary vessel, transfer it to a new one, add more fruit, pop on an airlock and let it sit for two weeks, swirling daily to wet the fruit cap. Have another taste. Rinse and repeat until you’re happy and once clear, bottle. Or: make the recipe again but consider using juice of that choice of fruit instead of water or increase the amount of fruit from the beginning. Taste, add more fruit in secondary if you so desire, etc.
(2) Simply try with what you have, hope for the best. Add fruit in secondary if needed.
(3) experience. Brew, brew and brew some more. Remember that even if you want your mead to have a stronger fruit flavour YOU are the only person who knows that. If it’s a pleasant mead with just a hint of the fruit you’ve added, is that such a bad thing? You’ve got the fermenter and airlock anyway… and part of the fun is tweaking a recipe to YOUR liking. Depending on the fruit you’ve used, just a hint might be exactly what floats your boat… or having that fruit bowl you tail over end is. Or something anywhere on that spectrum. It’s YOUR mead. YOUR hobby. Have fun with it.
I made a cassis berry mead once. That berry carries A LOT of flavour and can quickly overpower everything. I added only a bit and it was just perfect. My sister would probably have used double bit hey: I’m the home brewer. And she liked it anyway. For a rose petal mead I doubled the amount of rose petals the recipe called for. It needed it and I found out when fermentation had stopped so I simply added the new batch of rose petals in secondary.
Happy brewing!
@@eddavanleemputten9232 Thanks for the comment.
I did a quick search for a recipe through the browser and through TH-cam. The browser came up with one single recipe which I will not be making since it uses champagne yeast and I don't want a beverage that high in alcohol and TH-cam came up with nothing.
It seems there a very few people using Saskatoon berries in a mead.
Unfortunately, I only have a 5 gallon carboi for making my mead and was hoping to get a little insight into this.
I think I will try putting most of the Saskatoons in primary and keep some out in case I need to add in secondary. I currently have around 10lbs.
To make things a little harder, this is going to be my second brew.
Thanks again Edda for your help.
@@canadianbench2554 - Champagne yeast is indeed a power beast and a lot of them will go up to 15-18% ABV. That being said, you don’t need to go that high with any yeast. The trick is your starting gravity. If you have a hydrometer you can try to shoot for your desired alcohol percentage by only adding enough honey (for mead) or sugar (for wine/cider) than your desired ABV. The brew will ferment to dryness. Then, you have the options of either stabilising chemically or stabilising by pasteurising, both after back sweetening IF you use fermentable sugars and you want a sweeter end result. If you do not want to stabilise you have the option of using non-fermentable sweeteners and then I’d go with erythritol.
Your berries do contain fermentable sugars. That means adding them in secondary may cause your brew to start up again. Usually berries do not contain a whole lot of sugars so the alcohol percentage won’t go up a lot. Rack off the lees, add the remaining berries, wait for fermentation to stop and your brew to clear again. Rack, back sweeten, bottle, pasteurise.
Or: wait for the brew to clear the first time. Rack. Add stabilisers. Back sweeten. Add remaining berries. Let them sit on the mead for 1-2 weeks. Rack. Bottle. Or back sweeten after steeping the berries.
I am not all that fond of stabilisers so I tend to pasteurise. But to each their own.
Calculating your potential ABV: either using the starting gravity and old-fashioned math, or by using an online calculator. Both work fine. But a hydrometer is key and is a piece of equipment I recommend to any starting home brewer (with a fitting graduated cylinder, usually a 100ml one works fine but a 250 ml one is great too). Doesn’t cost much, just don’t buy an alcoholmeter, that’s only for pure alcohol diluted in water. If you don’t have one, check out the link in the description box of this video. To get a sample of some of your must or your finished brew either a clean turkey baster or a big syringe and some tubing, like Brian and Derica use, work fine.
Good luck with your second brew! Have fun with it, don’t overthink, and when time/finances/space permit, consider getting yourself a 2-gallon wide mouth fermenter and a 1-gallon carboy. Perfect for those experimental brews where no recipe you can find really fits what you have in mind. And… keep copious notes on a carrier you can easily refer to in the future. It really, REALLY pays off in the long run to keep track of what you did, when and why, and what you think of the result both short term and long term. Being ‘old school’ my records are in a binder. Others prefer a cloud-based file.
Happy brewing!
I could really use your advice! Watching the whole series of videos on your meadowsweet metheglin has inspired me to craft a metheglin that will help with my COPD. Like your mead, I will be using meadowsweet, but using just the flowers! To this, I would also like to include Mullein leaf and Thyme. Both are used in teas as an expectorant. I drink a cup or two of Mullein daily now as is, and it does help! Given your experience palates, what's your opinion of using 1.5 ounces of each of the herbs? I don't want any one of them to overpower the others, because I would like to add one more thing. Elderberries! Either juice or berries. But this is where I lack the experience to determine how much I should add. I would still like to end up with the same ending AVB of 10-12%. Elderberries also help as an expectorant. It's my intention to have the elderberry help tone down the hay flavor you had with the meadowsweet or like I have experienced with plain mullein tea. I often use a bag of either mint, ginger, or camomile to the mullein for flavor.
That's a whole other recipe now. I haven't researched those herbs or used them before. Nothing sounds put of place though.
I was guessing y'all was going to rate it as 7.5 - 8. Just from how you both were describing the flavors.
Hi, sorry Im not sure if you remember... But with the Viking Blood 2020 you back sweetened but didn't pasteurise? Or did I miss something? Or is the ABV protecting it from refermentation?
My suggestion for the "orange" mead would be to not use the pith. It has taken a year to age out to my liking. If I make it again I will use the flesh and the zest of each orange. Light on the spices also. Happy brewing
from experience mainly a beehive smells of beeswax, its described as having a cushy, comfy smell like when grandma was taking bread out of the oven, bees pollen smells of that too, sweet malty and lightly acidic yeast smell with some floral perfumy finish. royal jelly smell cheesy a bit sometimes.
that gave me a stupid idea of trying to flavor the mead with bees pollen or royal jelly. back in the day, they would throw the entire hive in the mead mash with the larvaes, bees venom and all.
Hi there, you need to age your meadowsweet flowers a few months, 6 is a minimum, if you are looking for the typical almond flavour which makes this herb so interesting ...
Do you ever have a problem with the lees getting into your final product after it's been bottled an sitting for awhile?
During the aging process, molecules combine to form tannin polymers, which fall to the bottom of the bottle, creating more and more sediment for you to discover upon drinking.
Alright I was just curious. I just made a batch of your version of Vikings blood and two of the bottles have sediment in it. The other bottles didn't. Only the first two bottles I bottled.
Don't know if you guys have seen/can get hold of this but, there's a Mandarine Napoleon liquor that might be a better fit.
If you're gonna make an orange mead, how about a blood orange mead? I'm working on one of those right now.
Could always make a Malibu Mead 🤭 Coconut pieces and Oak stick
I Bought 48hour yeast and then seen a comment that it only eats a certain kind of the sugar.... was wondering if I can add the 48hour yeast with a different kind of yeast after its Been fermenting for 3 days..??? can I add 48hour yeast 2-3 days Before I rack it..??? can I mix the 2 together.??? Im new 2 this But want to hurry it along and make sure its worth doing lol
Cloud berry mead?
So I have a relatively concerning question: I left my mead in secondary fermentation for about 6 months. I checked them spring break and there was still water in the airlocks. I’m only just now getting home and there is no more water in the airlocks! How in trouble is my mead?
You will have to check to see. If the ABV is above 15% then more than likely it didn’t turn to vinegar. Did any bugs get in your brew? Is there any signs of mold? Does it look or smell wrong?
@@CitySteadingBrews Tested ABV, 16%. There was a single bug in the airlock, but they didn't make it into the carboy. No signs of mold, although it appeared to have continued fermentation, so there was a krausen and some must. It was 14.5% when I left. Tasted it, tastes pretty stinking good. Very smooth, so I think all is well. I had a carboy that was maybe 30% full of excess mead I couldn't save and let it go as an experiment, since I knew it would oxidize badly from the terrible terrible headspace. It tasted pretty good before I got hit with a sour flavor, so I had something to compare it to haha. I think all is well, thankfully
I found meadowsweet that is only flowers from mountain rose herbs. I just ordered, some they were out for a very long time. So now I will be able to try this.
What about a orange cream mead or wine?
I have a question. I hope someone has an answer. I made a batch of mead about 35 days ago and the first reading I had was about 17% abv, I took a reading yesterday and it was sitting at 3% abv. Not sure what I did wrong or if there is anything I can do to fix it.
You have to use the specific gravity scale. The side you looked at is only useful as a first reading for “potential” alcohol.
Orange Blossom
That is the original ingredient, not hops. :) But I only tried with fresh meadow sweet flowers.
Please help me! Finally got a hygrometer and the math gave me a headache. I’m making 5 gals. blackberry wine with Lalvin 71b. My og was 1.082 and fg 0.990= 0.092. Added sugar and got an og of 1.008 and fg of 0.099 =0.018. Now I add 0.092 + 0.018 =0.110 multiplied by 131.25 for an abv of 14.4375. Right? Or should I use 135 for an abv of 14.95? Lord my head hurts!!
Man I'm nervous gonna make my first
You will be fine. Just follow any of our videos.
@@CitySteadingBrews I will thank you! I just really don't wanna make vinegar xD I have everything except nutrient gonna buy some in a min then sanitize everything
Have you two ever tasted anything you made that had went bad.
?
Not in a very very long time.
Is anyone else pulling multiple 5 gal buckets of Blackberrys? Bumper crop! -NorCal
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WOULD ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT WORK FOR PASTEURIZATING has it ever been used does it work
🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🥤
Oh dude you cut your hair. Lol
Could you please try putting the You Tube play button somewhere else please. It's distracting to se the reflection change constantly.
Yes, that is the reflection of our ceiling fan and it has been addressed. Sorry for the distraction.
Maybe I’m special, but whatever is flashing in the reflection of the play button is distracting me SO MUCH 🤪