Guaging interest... I am working on a new mead recipe idea. I have two, the first I call "Black Sack", it's a blackcurrant mead with added tannins and acidity, somewhere in the 18% ABV range, or... "Bourbon Bochet" which is a carmelized honey with oak and vanilla notes. Leave your vote in the comments!
This is the most married I've seen people in a while. He's so excited and upbeat and completely nerding out about this mead and she's sitting there, patiently supportive. I love it!
My dad used to make all sorts of wines. He made Orange Wine once and opened a bottle after the usual waiting time. It was vile. Like nasty, bitter vinegar. So, the other bottles got shoved to the back of the cupboard. About 18 months later he rediscovered them and opened a bottle. OMG... it was amazing. One of the best dry, white wines I'd ever tasted. Time's your friend.
That's the thing about citrus and why you'll hear so much negativity about using it for wines, meads, etc. It doesn't work the way other fruits work, and is not drinkable after fermentation. It has to age. It probably would have started tasting pretty good after about 3 months, but 18... I can imagine. Wines and meads are usually pretty decent right after fermentation, so people who try citrus are disappointed their brew tastes terrible when they're expecting to drink it... and so they think it's no good and just throw it out. It has to age, and then it's divine.
same here made some dry orange wine last September was ok-ish but not something I thought I would do again. came back to it this last April, 6-7 months later and it's totally addictive.
I am very new to brewing. I just made my first apple cider so consider my experience with my comment. I purchased a K cup and pour my cider through it so it catches the sediment. Just a thought to consider. What do you think?
Best mead I made was 3lbs strawberries 3lbs cherries 6lbs clover honey made 5 gallon batch ec-1118 yeast I dont know how potent it was but it was my first mead and it's a year old age right now and I love it. Now I learned a lot more so I will do it again just wanted to say the strawberries made it.
My dad makes alcohol too. His is mostly wine or moonshine based. He's got pear and apple trees. He's making me some blackberry wine right now. I can't wait to try it.
Now you should let the rest of the batch age at least until Christmas. Mead often needs quite some time to age. The mead I made from mostly spruce honey last year was almost unpalatable until about two months ago, but is now rapidly turning into something great. Also the tartness from the cherry is going to be much more subtle and rounded. You chose the right kind of cherry for fermenting, tart cherry is superior to sweet cherry when it comes to wine making. I just racked a tart cherry wine, it strongly resembles a dry red, quite amazing. Cheers to you!
I want to try this recipe. I made strawberry mead and it was really sweet and it came out really sweet. It was 2 lbs strawberries and 5 lbs honey to a 2 gal batch.
A few times I made a blueberry mead I fermented only honey and water for two weeks. Racked into another container with a few pounds of crushed berries and sat again for two more weeks. I remember hearing that putting the fruit in after the main alcohol production will give more fruit characteristics and sweetness rather than a tannic fermented fruit flavor. Something to try in the future, great vid!
Blood Orange or Blue Berry Mead would be nice. Enjoyed the video. I made a mead, a 5 gallon batch, with 10 lbs of clover honey and a 48 oz Riesling wine concentrate with Champagne yeast. Very nice semi sweet/dry, Very high in alcohol, tasted better than any champagne that I have ever purchased. The ladies loved it also I bottled it in beer bottles and added a cup of honey mixed with a pint of water to get a sparkling mead. Wished I had some right now. Figured it was at least 18% alcohol. hope you have a great day.
Brian and Dericka, thankyou both for your great channel, I have learned quite a few new things since watching "how to make Viking blood" from your channel its good to know the rest of the world can learn something just through watching youtube, thank you to the pair of you.
Not sure how or why it showed up in my "recommended" list, but I thoroughly enjoyed the handful of vids I've watched. I'd thumb this one up again, but alas, only one per viewer allowed! :-)
This was a great informative and responsive video I always find you guys to be very witty and intuitive. I would like to see a spicy cinnamon peach mango banana mead sounds crazy I know but it seems like the taste would be outstanding. Great job and great shows. Thank you.
Just wanted to say thank you for this video. This the first video I watched of you two and it's the video that got me into making my own brew. After 10 weeks I had my first rendition of viking blood thanks to you two. My wife, who was very skeptical of the mess I made in the kitchen is now a big fan of the blood. And, I would like to add, she impounded my reserve of the finished product for "safe keeping". My operation is now running 10 gallons in various batches. You two made this mystical puzzle turn into a fun hobby. Thank you so much for your work.
This viking blood series is how I found you guys, and I'm a fan. You guys are super genuine in what you do. I personally love videos where things don't go according to planned. Its way more realistic, and even informative. Ha! Anywho... I too have a beekeeper friend, now I just need to invest in literally rest of the equipment because now I really want to make mead. Thanks for that. A friend of mine made an orange blossom mead a while back and I'd love to see a take on that. Or maybe a rose water mead? I can't tell if that's a terrible idea or not....
Hmm... you'd have to make some super strong rose water or use a very mild flavored honey. I can see it working but the flavors would be very subtle. Maybe I'll do some research on Rose water and toss together a gallon batch to see how it goes. Wait... what? Avocado? What the hell? No.... just eww... That really is a terrible idea... Melon I would try if I wasn't allergic to it but avocado... I'll keep my avocados for guacamole.
Great vid. Thanks for sharing. I will have to give cherries a try sometime. Soon. The best mead that I ever made was made in the following manner: 1. Sanitize (obviously) 2. Boil 4 gallons of store bought drinking water. 3. Take it off the heat and add 1 gallon of honey. Mix well. 4. When it cools off sufficiently, transfer to primary. I used a 6 gallon bucket. I poured it "splashingly" to oxygenate the must. This is a very important step IMHO. You cannot overdo that part. It's good to add O2 with an aquarium pump and a bubbler while you are waiting for it to cool. I have heard of some guys using "medical" oxygen with good results, but I have not tried it. 5. Let it cool to room temperature then add the yeast. I usually use some kind of campaign yeast. 6. The yeast should work like mad for 5 to 10 days. When it appears to slow down quite a bit, then rack to a glass carboy. When you do this rack, it's important to do the transfer slowly and not introduce any more O2 into the must. Don't rack any sediment. 7. Let it sit in the secondary until it clarifies. Then it's ready to bottle. How long depends on the honey. I have seen it take from 4 or 5 weeks to that many months. It's important to try and keep the sediment out of the bottle as much as possible. Again. No oxygen in the product. I like to let it sit meditatively for at least a month. If you don't bottle sediment, (and keep the O2 out) then there should be no problems with it becoming fizzy. Medium to strong honey works best for this. I never use pasteurized honey. (think grocery store) Mild honey still comes out tasting of honey, but there is less sugar in it so it clarifies quickly and has less alcohol content. Really dark honey can give it the product an astringent quality, but not really a lot. A little more than strong tea. This realistically yields between 3 and 4 gallons of (great) mead. The product will be completely still and not sweet or astringent at all. I think it's best served chilled. When I give it to people who have never tried it before, they tend to drink it like it's iced tea. Then they wonder how they got so drunk. LOL. (mead hangovers are legendary) I am not saying this is "the proper" way to do it. It's just how I do it. I like the result very much. I think this is about as close to a Viking mead as you can get.
I'm glad to see you dont use chemicals, I have never used chemicals and neither did the old timers I learned from. Like you said, alchohol has been made for centuries without chemicals
Yanick Goossens I bow to the internet Oracle of all knowledge and his magic fine tooth comb that must prove every statement wrong.....I simply choose to not add things that I dont feel are necessary but thanks for the chemistry lesson and vibrant conversation with rapid replies
Yanick Goossens well I respectfully disagree, I may have been mistaken in calling them man made/not naturally occurring(I'm not a chemist and quite frankly couldn't care less about them), however I've never used them and never had a bottle bomb. If people feel it necessary then by all means use them. In the context of the video most people would have understood that my original comment referred to these additional additives as that's how they were referred to in the video. I'm not aware of ancient cultures including these various addictive to their fermentations, if you know of any I'd be interested to read it.
The longer it sits, the better it's going to taste. It's been awhile since I made mead, but on the second transfer (transferred to fresh bottles 3 times to get rid of the sediment, it's been so long I don't remember the proper term) anyway....i simmered some mulling spices (cinnamon, clove, anise and something else I'm forgetting) I topped of my bottle with that and let it sit for 6 months. OMG all I can say is that it was the best mead I'd ever had, I could have made a fortune all my friends wanted more, 3 gallons gone in one weekend. I remember the yeast I used was pink champagne.
This was awesome to watch between the original brewing and your notes post production. My viking fiance and I have been brewing a lot of mead to prepare for our wedding in June and I really want to prep a batch of viking blood now!! Well done guys! :)
Well one good thing is that you'll be able to let it age longer. My problem is that I don't like waiting, but you have a reason to let it age and get real good. Gonna be a nice drink when you finally crack that bottle open. Congrats on the kid!
Hey Mazrim, had to chuckle and thought you'd be interested that in Hebrew you're name translates perfectly for a brewer. TAIM is tasty, and MAZRIM is flow/pour, so it's like "Tasty Pourer". Cheers.
I know this is an older video, but I just discovered your channel and I ended up binging most of your mead-making videos in one day. Thanks for all the helpful tips and keep being yourselves!
Just found your channel. I love how honest you were with your description and informative in the video leading to this one. I have been planning on becoming a bee keeper, and making my own mead, thank you for your help.
Thanks! If you thought we were honest there, wait til you see the followup to Cider 3 ways. I haven't filmed it yet, but I know something, something well... probably bad. Spoilers! We thought about beekeeping. For us, we decided now is not the time. Between our main business, the chickens, the cats, the garden, the TH-cam business.... yeah, no time right now.
I brew my mead dry with yarrow honey. I have had friends over for a Yule party and at first, they were kinda freaked out because they were expecting sweet mead like the kind you get at the wine shop. But then it grew on them. By the time 2 hours had passed, I was out 2 gallons of mead (and a half bottle of vodka, 2 bottles of wine, and a jar of homemade liqueur[legally made]) and had to get my friends' parents to come and pick them up. One friend had to be carried to her mom's car. Now every time I talk to her, she asks me for some of that yarrow mead. Unfortunately, I have a limited amount of yarrow honey left and the beekeeper I got it from died last year.
Thanks. ^_^ If you know where I can get Yarrow Honey, I'm all ears. Bronze age Norse people carved yarrow sprigs on their weapons for irresistability in battle. And the Greeks say that yarrow grew from the wounds of Achilles, or from where his blood fell on the battlefield. Soldiers from Roman times to WWII used dried yarrow leaves to stop bloodloss from wounds. It is aromatic when dead, but not when fresh. It was used to bitter beer before hopps. I am considering trying it on my last batch of yarrow honey mead.
Just found your channel and watched a bunch of your videos. I'm gonna go and buy some basic kit to try it, never even thought about it before! Greetings from England.
I never thought of my mead in terms of feet before, but this is one of those things that now having heard it, you can't unhear it and it will become an important tool in my mead-making tool kit. Another fun, entertaining, and yes, informative video!
I watched the first video and immediately wanted to know how it turned out. Glad you did the follow up because it helped my confidence to start up. Thank you and great job!
I thought you could make good Mead in like a week to 10 days . This quick brew is or was the appeal to me . Am I way off or does it depend on the recipe ?
Well. There are ways to make a "good mead" in a few weeks. Never heard of a week to 10 days. More like 3 weeks minimum. The ways are the "modern meadmaking" techniques that use more complicated nutrient additions, more chemicals and even more chemicals to stabilize. They do make a great tasting mead in a shorter time than I can but, I don't like adding all that extra stuff, our food has enough of that already, so if I can leave it out, I do. Most meads take months to mature and mellow. I've made some that were good in 6 weeks, many that were good in 3 months.
www.experimentalbrew.com/blogs/drew/time-short This article has a recipe for what's called a short mead that goes from start to finish in a week. It'll likely be very sweet, but is very customisable. Look up short meads for more recipes.
@@CitySteadingBrews absolutely! Youre not going to like it much because it involves commercial type yeast, nutrient, finnings ect but as soon as i get home ill get ye olde mead book out and share... worth warning its not as amazing as most meads but me and my friends have made a batch and drunk it the next weekend!
Yes I like those glasses. And that bottle. And the colour of that mead. And the idea of cherry mead- though I've never had any; couldn't comment on if the taste would remotely match expectations.
Nice job! I loved that you listened to your fan base and made this. Would you ever consider making a Bing cherry or some sort of sweet version of this?
City Steading you might have a niche channel here with making different and unique meads. Either way, your content is awesome and I look forward to whatever direction you take. Can meads be make with things like peaches, pineapples and possibly tropical fruits that weren't available during the time periods mead was a staple?
Well.... I plan on doing more than just meads, but... there will be mead! And yes, you can use pretty much any fruit to make mead. I'm going to be making a mulberry mead soon too.
City Steading oh, and as a caveat, I would never take anything away from your other content... But that mead video was exponentially more popular than your other content... Just saying there might just be a market or interest in it! Just my $. 02
I just bumped into you today, and was looking at making my second batch of alcohol ever. Definatly subscribing. It's nice watching you guys just enjoying making it and being relaxed about everything. Keep up the good work guys
I've had mead batches that didn't come out the way I wanted. I bottled it and left it for a few years and went back to it only to discover the stuff turned out awesome! Sometimes just let it age. I got to try this recipe. I like using Juicy Juice to make corgels and wines.
Made a 10 gal batch of wild grapes wine. Sour and tannic. Put the carboys to the back of the wine cave and forgot about it. Found it 5 yrs later and did a taste test. Mellowed out a lot, but not a really good wine. Back to the cave it went. I was looking for a red wine and decided to give the wild grape wine another try. It was 10yrs old at that point. I was thinking red wine vinegar was going to be what I had. I was blown away, the best red wine I had ever tasted. It even beat out some $ 400 a bottle reds. My wife heard me cursing and came down to see what was up. I handed her the glass and said you have got to try this. She was also amazed, but angry I broke my promise of not buying any more very expensive wines. When I shown her the carboys, she was shocked. Then she asked why would be swearing so much. I only made 10 gallons of it. Then she also swore. We learned a valuable lesson. Never give up on a brew/wine until it goes to vinegar. Let age at its own pace.
Why isn't it called 'bees keeper'? There's a whole bunch of em. Also, did you use any generic cherry juice? Some people say they don't like the preserves in it but adding it at the end that shouldn't matter (?)
A good question, one I don't have an answer for. As to the juice... yep, just one without preservatives, though you're right, wouldn't have mattered at that point.
If you're going to use juice instead of fruit, you should try to avoid lots of preservatives and artificial sweeteners. The added chemicals make it hard for the yeast to grow and can give you some nasty off flavors. That's why if you add preservatives, you do it at the back end of your batch.
I have to say, if you did a series on making mead, and perhaps other alcohols, i would definitely watch it. I've been wanting to make my own mead for a while now and seeing what all can be done with it would be great.
I have made mead once, only a half-gallon though. I added a handful each of fresh chopped peppermint and spearmint from my garden and let it stand 10 days before removing the herbs. At racking it was this gorgeous yellowy-green and very clear. It was bright and fresh, with a very sharp menthol kick that really cleared the palate.
To grow your channel, do what you love, and those people you would want to drink with will watch. (More then you guess) Many youtubers burn out because they stop loving it. They think of views and not fun. When you are having fun we will. The Mythbusters failed, and laughed for years and made it work. You can fail, just laugh and make a video about what you learned, and we will learn with you. :) (You have this in you)
Thanks for that! This is why we have a variety of topics on the channel. We like a lot if things and wanted to show people how easy it is to make things for yourself.
Loved these 3 vids. Thank you for showing me how to do something i have been thinking about for a while. I can't wait to get started. AND .. I love that whisky collection! Keep doing what you do.
I'm drinking down that whiskey collection... Used to have about 80 some odd bottles, now I think it's 30ish. All the "good stuff" is gone, now I'm down to daily drinkers.
I’m not sure 🤔 lol pretty much all I know about mead is from the last 3 videos I’ve watched of yours! Can you (or does it ever happen) where you put in some sort of flavoring? Whether natural or not? Cause I’m wondering if you could use the stuff they use to flavor other honeydew drinks (like boba tea)... Let me know whatcha think 🙃
If you use cherries again, you might want to try a batch with the pits included. It's an old canner's trick to put up sweet cherries with the pits intact because they impart a slight almond flavor which I have found, really enhances the flavor of the cherries. Thanks for the video!
I like this idea! I may even add almond slivers for just this! I have a few ideas for what I want to do and cannot decide. So I am planning on back sweetening a basic honey mead and racking with 1 with berries and 1 with herbs and 1 with a green tea note. I am planning on making a few gallon batches with the back- sweetening with different profiles.
I made a 5 gallon batch of Concord grape wine, just like the one you guys did. Found some grape juice at my favorite store, 45 cents, for a 46 ounce container. I got 13 of them. I used Red Star baking yeast. After it had fermented out, I added about 1 quart of light agave nectar, $12.50, a gallon,at that same store. When it was finally fermented out, I put it in a 5 gallon "Cornie" and in the kegerator. Yes, it is carbonated, and tastes like a "wine cooler." I had some residual sweetness, and wanted it. It didn't clear out, but I'm not worried about that. steve
Came across your Viking blood Mead video. And I absolutely love it. U guys are great. I'm going to attempt to try this myself. Lol. Hopefully it turns out OK. Thank you for sharing This knowledge my friend. .
Also I love your website. We need more knowledge about living off the land and away from chemicals and processed foods. Thank you again for teaching these things.
Thanks @Tonnie, we are far from experts, but we know a little about a lot of things, read a lot of books, and have very varied interests so... we do what we can!
Making mead is a fun hobby. I tend to leave my mead sitting a lot longer than you were mentioning. My favorites so far have been a blueberry mead and a pomegranate mead. Try adding a bit of ginger or clove to get a spicy undertone. I'll have to look into that bucket for the initial fermentation... I've just been using my 6 gallon carboys... which works fine but hard to clean the fruit out of some times...
You didnt expect us to NEED to see YOU drink it? Wow, seems a 'meads' to an end! Lol! Thanx for the finale! Tart! The way your wife looks at you when you say 'de-gas' is priceless! ❤ love her!
I made a gallon batch based of your recipe and it came out to be 15%! Ill be cutting it in half tonight and one will get cherry juice and the other strawberry juice. So excited! Update: after adding cherry and strawberry juice to the 2 half gallons they came out to be 12.2% and 12.6% and taste fantastic! This is only my 3rd batch and i loce it! Thank you for sparking my interest and getting me started!
"make mead like a viking" by jereme zimmerman is a pretty good read. One thing i did notice in the first video was you didn't use any tannins? have you ever? Another thing he talks about how the taste can change if its bottled longer. He recommends if you don't like it at first come back to a bottle in another 6 months or so.
i wrote the comment before I got to that part of the video. lol my bad. Do you have any thoughts about adding tree bark or other forms of tannins to the must? was this your first batch of mead? Ive been debating making a batch of blackberry mead and leaving some of the stems on the berry.
Found you either yesterday or the day before so the wait for this wasn't very long, but I quite enjoyed this :) I'm not really a brewer myself but I'm planning to give it a go one I finally get a chance, I look forward to seeing more of your creations in the future :) And I won't lie, it does make me happy to see how happy you get when talking about the comments on your videos. Also "Mead is the OG Alcohol" needs to go on a shirt because I'd totally wear that
I've wanted to make mead for years. I gave away all my brewing equipment some years ago. I gave away my collection of Grolsch bottles to a brewer who was supposed to give me some of his beer and mead in exchange but none ever showed up. Your videos will inspire me to give it a try...
I just stumbled on your channel and I really like the content. I've been brewing for a few months now with mostly beer. I do have an Ale mead fermenting right now (I found the recipe in a mead book I had for a while) and for one gallon I used 1 pound honey, 1/2 oz hops, and 1/4 teaspoon cinammon. Boiled for 45 min with cinnamon added at the end of the boil.
Hey! I just cracked open my 3 month old viking’s blood!!! I’m in my happy place!! I used half tart cherries and the other half non tart. I will definitely use NO tart cherries the next time but, it’s still really good and I am happy with it. Thank you for all you do! Sharing with so many people is working 😊
Loving the mead videos! I started my own batch of basic mead back in September and it's turning out really well! Come the summer time i plan in doing more batches with fruits like peaches and blackberries and blueberries and strawberries. Didn't think to try cherry because i don't like cherries much...but after watching your mead videos I just might try cherry 😀
Hey, this was great! Theres a brewery (meadery?) in Michigan called B.Nektar that makes a cherry mead-cider thing called Zombie Killer. I *love* that stuff. Curious how it stacks up against your homemade viking blood. If you ever get to try it, post please!
Someday.... I might. Matter of fact, my Barbados Cherry is producing well enough that in a year or so I might have enough home grown cherries to do it. Also, I plan on making a clone of the Dansk Mjod Viking Blod too. It's nothing like mine, but I've been asked, and I know something about it that most people don't know!
Love ur honesty in ur videos man, huge thumbs up, I remember when I tried making alcohol the first time when I was around 16, with some mango juice sugar and bakers yeast, and a condom as a "air lock" lol it was sooooooo bad. I'm glad people on TH-cam can teach it appropriately and even explain what they did wrong and did well instead of boasting on it no matter what the product is actually like in the end.
There's no point in me making it up... if you do what I did and it sucks, then.... I'd be found out pretty quick. I'd rather just be honest. In the end, with a little sweetening, the Viking Blood is pretty awesome though. :) Saving a bottle for next year and we'll do a 1 year tasting.
Love your videos man you get into detail and the whats what in 1 to 2 videos, where others don't and make 10 videos off of 1 to capitalize on the first video by making 10 lol
I recently started a 5 gallon fermentation from instructions from your Viking blood video (my first time doing this). I made the mistake of buying sweet cherries so I ended up doing 6lbs of cherries, 3lbs of raspberries, 9lbs of clover honey, and the yeast you suggested. I’m nearing day 4 of fermentation, I know it ended up being a little different from your recipe but if you have any advice moving forward I would greatly appreciate it. Love your videos, I’ve been thinking about home brewing for a while and this definitely got me started.
i had made some cherry mead a few months back after seeing your original vikings blood video and only used tart cherry juice and honey with bakers yeast . i have to say it was very expensive to make a 5 gallon (aprox. $65. usd ) batch but it came out absolutely fantastic.
$65 for 5 gallons, let's break that down.... That's about 25 bottles of good quality mead for about $2.60 each. Still think it's expensive? Mead goes for about $20-$30 a bottle normally.
@@CitySteadingBrews sorry if i came across as if i was complaining about the price . i wasn't trying to . i was just stating i had made something similar to you recipe and really enjoyed it although i feel like an alcoholic now since ive drank all but the last quart that im saving for xmas ....lol
Again, outstanding presentation! Thank you for the clarifications and defining what you mean. For those of us too stupid for the "technical" definitions, this is hugely (not "ugely"!) helpful. 😁
Making alcohol is easy. Actually, we don't make it at all, we just guide it. You can make it complicated if you want to, but... I prefer a more traditional method.
Been making meads for a few years now, raspberry is nice, orange zest, and ccocoa and orange zest with a dash of vanilla essence is great. A fun one was Carolina reaper ginger and lemon. Currently experimenting with freeze concentrating
All kinds of ingredients for meads. Erm... careful with freeze concentrating. In many states that is still considered distilling and therefore... illegal. That's why we don't talk about it at all. Also, it does not remove the fusels and instead concentrates them so... far more dangerous than you might think.
Yes mate. Had to pause the video. I actually cannot wait if you decide to grow hops. Last week I actually learnt a little bit about them. I have two Vitis Regent vines to make grape wine hopefully in the next year or few and last week I was talking to some people and a long story short I wanted to grow other plants that produce something edible but could be planted and left sort of thing. Well I learnt that hops is a vine and would suit me because I'm already growing another vine. I've been thinking that if I get into making alcohol I might grow hops to produce probably beer but I know there are other products I can make with them. So in short if you do grow hops I look forward to seeing you guys make alcohol with it.
We grow raspberries, mulberries, and have a huge grapevine. Keep a lookout for videos making alcohol with them. I have to plant the hops still... not sure where to put it!
So glad you put this up. Enjoying it, would have liked seeing the whole thing. My dad and I used to make dandelion wine, so very sweet but that’s how I like it. Have you ever tried it???
I've found that if the pH goes too high (alkaline) that things get bitter and medicinal tasting. Tart is one good way to fight that trend. If your input fruit and flavors don't bring the pH down and you don't want to add tartaric, malic or citric acid powders (that is grape, apple and citrus acid in scarry scientist form) then you will have to develop a taste for bitter medicinal. Lactic is another possible exit ramp.
My first attempt at mead was a cherry mead. Total fermentation batch was 5 gallons. Used 15 pounds of light clover honey and 5 pounds of fresh Rainier cherries (pitted then frozen to break up the cell walls. It turned out dark blood red and tasted great. Used a sweet mead yeast from Wyeast. Those Rainier cherries made all the difference. I even carbonated a gallon and let it age for 2 years refrigerated, got even smoother. ABV was 14%. Next try for me will be raspberries.
Been brewing beer for a number of years now, so it wasn't too big a step. Paid $90 for 30lbs of honey from a local bee keeper. I'd like to see you try a raspberry mead, I have too many projects left to complete this year to try it. Keep up the good work, love the videos!
After watching the first video of Viking blood I decided to make some for myself, using the exact same method as you used although I transferred my mead in to plastic demijohns, bad idea as I believe the fermentation stuck, now I made two batches of one gallon, first, Viking blood and the other mixed fruits, I purchased glass demijohns and transferred both meads into these then left them just to see if fermentation would re start, it did not so I added restart yeast and fermentation restarted, I also added more sugar just for the yeast to work on, they have both been happily bubbling away for the last four days now and will report back when fermentation complete, one last note I used sweet cherries.
Sadly, sometimes meads get stuck. Congrats on getting it started again, though I doubt the plastic demijohns were the culprit. I'm not a huge fan of plastic my self, but I've never heard of a fermentation being ruined by it.
NO, im not sure what it was but plastic seemed a good idea as I have watched other peoples videos who have had success, now im a glass man but stuck with plastic demijohns, perhaps I will try again just to see where I went wrong, surely a good learning curve..
I just found your channel today. I think your videos very entertaining and informative. I have a sour cherry tree which produces about 25 pounds of cherries per year, which I struggle to use up. I have about 15 pounds in my freezer from last year still to use, so I think I'll give this a go. I did a cherry stout last year that turned out wonderfully, so I have high hopes.
@@CitySteadingBrews I had one bottle of what we made (just about every type of fruit went into it) and we didn't drink it for about 10 years. It was the smoothest of all the meads we had ever made. Letting them age improves them. Thanks for answering!!
@@CitySteadingBrews awesome, only just came across your chanel but I'm really enjoying it. I'm new to home brewing and your chanel is giving me so much knowledge and so many ideas for future brews 👍
First time I made mead, having no idea or right to do so, I didnt know about co2 gas build up. I popped the bottle open and spent three days cleaning proto-mead off the ceiling, walls, floor....and I never did quite get the alchohol smell out of my house....lol
Great vid series on this topic thanks. Liked your comments about the French wine tasting, was in France went to a wine tasting and Im not a wine drinker, I did discover when they ask what my 1st impression was and when I said "Diesel" they wasted no time in asking me to leave.
Great brew, I've always wanted to do a cherry Mead. I do find in my experience, the longer mead sits the smoother it becomes. I have a few bottles of my Mead from when I first started and there is a wild difference from 3 month old to 1 year old Mead. (The bottles are 5 years old now and still fantastic). I've also found that aging it in an oak barrel makes a big difference in how smooth it turns out.
Aging does always help, yeah. People don't like waiting a year for a video though, lol. The barrel aging.... how large a barrel are you using and how long do you age it in there?
Just saw your channel. Been brewing mead for about ten years myself. Try setting some aside for a year or even a decade, the longer it sits the better it tastes. 2 year old batch is good, 8 year old batch is divine.
We do. Nearly every brew has a bottle or several stashed in long term storage. I'm gunning for a year, but who knows... if City Steading lasts, maybe we'll try that last Bottle of Viking Blood in 2028.
Guaging interest... I am working on a new mead recipe idea. I have two, the first I call "Black Sack", it's a blackcurrant mead with added tannins and acidity, somewhere in the 18% ABV range, or... "Bourbon Bochet" which is a carmelized honey with oak and vanilla notes. Leave your vote in the comments!
City Steading Bourbon Bouchet.
Seems the crowd favorite at the moment, but only just.
Ohh do the bourbon bochet, id be interested in following and making my own too.
Soon... very soon.
Both sound great, but the Black Sack caught my eye at first.
This is the most married I've seen people in a while. He's so excited and upbeat and completely nerding out about this mead and she's sitting there, patiently supportive. I love it!
Not nerdy... happy
One team.
My dad used to make all sorts of wines.
He made Orange Wine once and opened a bottle after the usual waiting time.
It was vile. Like nasty, bitter vinegar. So, the other bottles got shoved to the back of the cupboard.
About 18 months later he rediscovered them and opened a bottle.
OMG... it was amazing. One of the best dry, white wines I'd ever tasted.
Time's your friend.
I did orange wine once too... hated it.
That's the thing about citrus and why you'll hear so much negativity about using it for wines, meads, etc. It doesn't work the way other fruits work, and is not drinkable after fermentation. It has to age. It probably would have started tasting pretty good after about 3 months, but 18... I can imagine.
Wines and meads are usually pretty decent right after fermentation, so people who try citrus are disappointed their brew tastes terrible when they're expecting to drink it... and so they think it's no good and just throw it out. It has to age, and then it's divine.
same here made some dry orange wine last September was ok-ish but not something I thought I would do again. came back to it this last April, 6-7 months later and it's totally addictive.
I am very new to brewing. I just made my first apple cider so consider my experience with my comment. I purchased a K cup and pour my cider through it so it catches the sediment. Just a thought to consider. What do you think?
Not fine enough to get all the lees out and will make your brew cloudy. Just use a siphon.
Best mead I made was 3lbs strawberries 3lbs cherries 6lbs clover honey made 5 gallon batch ec-1118 yeast I dont know how potent it was but it was my first mead and it's a year old age right now and I love it. Now I learned a lot more so I will do it again just wanted to say the strawberries made it.
My dad makes alcohol too. His is mostly wine or moonshine based. He's got pear and apple trees. He's making me some blackberry wine right now. I can't wait to try it.
Now you should let the rest of the batch age at least until Christmas. Mead often needs quite some time to age. The mead I made from mostly spruce honey last year was almost unpalatable until about two months ago, but is now rapidly turning into something great. Also the tartness from the cherry is going to be much more subtle and rounded. You chose the right kind of cherry for fermenting, tart cherry is superior to sweet cherry when it comes to wine making. I just racked a tart cherry wine, it strongly resembles a dry red, quite amazing. Cheers to you!
You have a point, but I am impatient. That said, I tend to keep a few bottles from each batch around for a while so it will happen anyway.
tart cherries make the finest fruit wine
This is what I read, that's why I used them... and they were a good price at Publix!
+City Steading Rock on!
Thanks Dude!
I want to try this recipe. I made strawberry mead and it was really sweet and it came out really sweet. It was 2 lbs strawberries and 5 lbs honey to a 2 gal batch.
A few times I made a blueberry mead I fermented only honey and water for two weeks. Racked into another container with a few pounds of crushed berries and sat again for two more weeks. I remember hearing that putting the fruit in after the main alcohol production will give more fruit characteristics and sweetness rather than a tannic fermented fruit flavor. Something to try in the future, great vid!
Blood Orange or Blue Berry Mead would be nice. Enjoyed the video. I made a mead, a 5 gallon batch, with 10 lbs of clover honey and a 48 oz Riesling wine concentrate with Champagne yeast. Very nice semi sweet/dry, Very high in alcohol, tasted better than any champagne that I have ever purchased. The ladies loved it also I bottled it in beer bottles and added a cup of honey mixed with a pint of water to get a sparkling mead. Wished I had some right now. Figured it was at least 18% alcohol. hope you have a great day.
I agree! I made a blueberry once. May do it again!
Sounds amazing and the way you did yours is my favorite way....sparkling Mead is the best
Brian and Dericka, thankyou both for your great channel, I have learned quite a few new things since watching "how to make Viking blood" from your channel its good to know the rest of the world can learn something just through watching youtube, thank you to the pair of you.
Aww, you're welcome Alan. Thanks for watching!
I only found your channel last week, so the wait for the tasting was very short (for me.) Anyway, thanks, thumbs up!
Samething for me. I guess channel is getting popular.
Not sure how or why it showed up in my "recommended" list, but I thoroughly enjoyed the handful of vids I've watched. I'd thumb this one up again, but alas, only one per viewer allowed! :-)
We are trying! But yes, we did something right recently and got a lot of views very quickly.
Same, only a couple of days between starting and now
Exactly the same here!
I really like your videos. You both are down to earth and genuine. Thank you for giving your time. Please keep up good work
You are so welcome! Thank you!
This was a great informative and responsive video I always find you guys to be very witty and intuitive. I would like to see a spicy cinnamon peach mango banana mead sounds crazy I know but it seems like the taste would be outstanding. Great job and great shows. Thank you.
Just wanted to say thank you for this video. This the first video I watched of you two and it's the video that got me into making my own brew. After 10 weeks I had my first rendition of viking blood thanks to you two. My wife, who was very skeptical of the mess I made in the kitchen is now a big fan of the blood. And, I would like to add, she impounded my reserve of the finished product for "safe keeping". My operation is now running 10 gallons in various batches. You two made this mystical puzzle turn into a fun hobby. Thank you so much for your work.
This viking blood series is how I found you guys, and I'm a fan. You guys are super genuine in what you do. I personally love videos where things don't go according to planned. Its way more realistic, and even informative. Ha! Anywho... I too have a beekeeper friend, now I just need to invest in literally rest of the equipment because now I really want to make mead. Thanks for that. A friend of mine made an orange blossom mead a while back and I'd love to see a take on that. Or maybe a rose water mead? I can't tell if that's a terrible idea or not....
The only terrible idea I have heard for mead was avocado....
@@CitySteadingBrews Might I humbly suggest bitter melon mead as another terrible idea? My wife loves bitter melon, but I can't stand it.
Hmm... you'd have to make some super strong rose water or use a very mild flavored honey. I can see it working but the flavors would be very subtle. Maybe I'll do some research on Rose water and toss together a gallon batch to see how it goes. Wait... what? Avocado? What the hell? No.... just eww... That really is a terrible idea... Melon I would try if I wasn't allergic to it but avocado... I'll keep my avocados for guacamole.
Your first minute is awesome. You are your own man. If I don’t like what you are doing then I can just tune out. You’re a good man!
Viking Blod:
First sip = "Oh God!" cough cough cough
Second sip = "hmmm, warm"
Third sip = "yeah baby!!!" the drunkin' sing-along commences
It was dryer than expected, but.. lol.
Great vid. Thanks for sharing. I will have to give cherries a try sometime. Soon.
The best mead that I ever made was made in the following manner:
1. Sanitize (obviously)
2. Boil 4 gallons of store bought drinking water.
3. Take it off the heat and add 1 gallon of honey. Mix well.
4. When it cools off sufficiently, transfer to primary. I used a 6 gallon bucket. I poured it "splashingly" to oxygenate the must. This is a very important step IMHO. You cannot overdo that part. It's good to add O2 with an aquarium pump and a bubbler while you are waiting for it to cool. I have heard of some guys using "medical" oxygen with good results, but I have not tried it.
5. Let it cool to room temperature then add the yeast. I usually use some kind of campaign yeast.
6. The yeast should work like mad for 5 to 10 days. When it appears to slow down quite a bit, then rack to a glass carboy. When you do this rack, it's important to do the transfer slowly and not introduce any more O2 into the must. Don't rack any sediment.
7. Let it sit in the secondary until it clarifies. Then it's ready to bottle. How long depends on the honey. I have seen it take from 4 or 5 weeks to that many months. It's important to try and keep the sediment out of the bottle as much as possible. Again. No oxygen in the product. I like to let it sit meditatively for at least a month. If you don't bottle sediment, (and keep the O2 out) then there should be no problems with it becoming fizzy.
Medium to strong honey works best for this. I never use pasteurized honey. (think grocery store) Mild honey still comes out tasting of honey, but there is less sugar in it so it clarifies quickly and has less alcohol content. Really dark honey can give it the product an astringent quality, but not really a lot. A little more than strong tea.
This realistically yields between 3 and 4 gallons of (great) mead. The product will be completely still and not sweet or astringent at all. I think it's best served chilled. When I give it to people who have never tried it before, they tend to drink it like it's iced tea. Then they wonder how they got so drunk. LOL. (mead hangovers are legendary)
I am not saying this is "the proper" way to do it. It's just how I do it. I like the result very much. I think this is about as close to a Viking mead as you can get.
I'm glad to see you dont use chemicals, I have never used chemicals and neither did the old timers I learned from. Like you said, alchohol has been made for centuries without chemicals
Everything is Chemicals, EVERYTHING!
Oops, I'm a moron need to make a correction... Everything is chemicals or radiation.
Yanick Goossens, bip spango obviously in the context of the video the term chemical is used to describe man made/ not naturally occurring substances
Yanick Goossens I bow to the internet Oracle of all knowledge and his magic fine tooth comb that must prove every statement wrong.....I simply choose to not add things that I dont feel are necessary but thanks for the chemistry lesson and vibrant conversation with rapid replies
Yanick Goossens false science?
Yanick Goossens well I respectfully disagree, I may have been mistaken in calling them man made/not naturally occurring(I'm not a chemist and quite frankly couldn't care less about them), however I've never used them and never had a bottle bomb. If people feel it necessary then by all means use them. In the context of the video most people would have understood that my original comment referred to these additional additives as that's how they were referred to in the video. I'm not aware of ancient cultures including these various addictive to their fermentations, if you know of any I'd be interested to read it.
The longer it sits, the better it's going to taste. It's been awhile since I made mead, but on the second transfer (transferred to fresh bottles 3 times to get rid of the sediment, it's been so long I don't remember the proper term) anyway....i simmered some mulling spices (cinnamon, clove, anise and something else I'm forgetting) I topped of my bottle with that and let it sit for 6 months. OMG all I can say is that it was the best mead I'd ever had, I could have made a fortune all my friends wanted more, 3 gallons gone in one weekend. I remember the yeast I used was pink champagne.
Would love to see more brewing videos! It's good to see more videos about making Mead without all of the weird chemicals.
We do have a few more: th-cam.com/play/PLZr9O7bplKgm2X5kQm54wc-2Q-K1Jhhfo.html and more on the way!
This was awesome to watch between the original brewing and your notes post production. My viking fiance and I have been brewing a lot of mead to prepare for our wedding in June and I really want to prep a batch of viking blood now!! Well done guys! :)
Your fiance pillages towns and villages?
@@CitySteadingBrews You know it!!
Currently pregnant watching this, longingly. Mouth drooling. I'm interested in making blackberry mead.
Well one good thing is that you'll be able to let it age longer. My problem is that I don't like waiting, but you have a reason to let it age and get real good. Gonna be a nice drink when you finally crack that bottle open. Congrats on the kid!
Hey Mazrim, had to chuckle and thought you'd be interested that in Hebrew you're name translates perfectly for a brewer. TAIM is tasty, and MAZRIM is flow/pour, so it's like "Tasty Pourer". Cheers.
Eli don’t trust him Eli, Mazrim is in league with the Dark One.
Yes..just bought a huge can of crushed blackberrys. Just made blood orange but it wasn't that good. Hoping the bb turns out better.
I know this is an older video, but I just discovered your channel and I ended up binging most of your mead-making videos in one day. Thanks for all the helpful tips and keep being yourselves!
Thanks for watching!
Could you make a raspberry mead? Oh yeah, new subscriber, you guys are great. I really enjoyed your cherry mead video and this one too.
We have some raspberries from last season... not enough for a full batch but maybe mixed with mulberries...
Just found your channel. I love how honest you were with your description and informative in the video leading to this one. I have been planning on becoming a bee keeper, and making my own mead, thank you for your help.
Thanks! If you thought we were honest there, wait til you see the followup to Cider 3 ways. I haven't filmed it yet, but I know something, something well... probably bad. Spoilers!
We thought about beekeeping. For us, we decided now is not the time. Between our main business, the chickens, the cats, the garden, the TH-cam business.... yeah, no time right now.
19% ABV... That'll clear your sinuses and muddle your thinking! 😁
I really wish I could be there with you guys! You two are awesome, keep up the good work!
Aww thanks!
I brew my mead dry with yarrow honey. I have had friends over for a Yule party and at first, they were kinda freaked out because they were expecting sweet mead like the kind you get at the wine shop. But then it grew on them. By the time 2 hours had passed, I was out 2 gallons of mead (and a half bottle of vodka, 2 bottles of wine, and a jar of homemade liqueur[legally made]) and had to get my friends' parents to come and pick them up. One friend had to be carried to her mom's car. Now every time I talk to her, she asks me for some of that yarrow mead. Unfortunately, I have a limited amount of yarrow honey left and the beekeeper I got it from died last year.
Great story! Sorry about your beekeeper
Thanks. ^_^ If you know where I can get Yarrow Honey, I'm all ears. Bronze age Norse people carved yarrow sprigs on their weapons for irresistability in battle. And the Greeks say that yarrow grew from the wounds of Achilles, or from where his blood fell on the battlefield. Soldiers from Roman times to WWII used dried yarrow leaves to stop bloodloss from wounds. It is aromatic when dead, but not when fresh. It was used to bitter beer before hopps. I am considering trying it on my last batch of yarrow honey mead.
Just found your channel and watched a bunch of your videos. I'm gonna go and buy some basic kit to try it, never even thought about it before! Greetings from England.
Good luck! Leave comments if you run into trouble or have questions!
French wine is not optimal, I prefer something with a bit more bite, whiskey/scotch, or mead.
I never thought of my mead in terms of feet before, but this is one of those things that now having heard it, you can't unhear it and it will become an important tool in my mead-making tool kit. Another fun, entertaining, and yes, informative video!
Yep, time to make the T-shirts.
65k views! I'm glad you made a tasting vid!
Thanks for making a follow up. I'd love to see more recipes and taste tests. It's great!
Awesome. We have morr planned!
I was waiting for this because I am really curious to how it would taste
It was good. Like cherries and mead, shocking, but true. It took more work than I thought though.
I can’t wait to try this out. I have made Pruno and Kvass before so this should be great. Thanks for the recipe
Father 'I want a son"
Nurse 'It's a girl'
Father 'It shall be Derika'
I watched the first video and immediately wanted to know how it turned out. Glad you did the follow up because it helped my confidence to start up. Thank you and great job!
I thought you could make good Mead in like a week to 10 days . This quick brew is or was the appeal to me . Am I way off or does it depend on the recipe ?
Well. There are ways to make a "good mead" in a few weeks. Never heard of a week to 10 days. More like 3 weeks minimum. The ways are the "modern meadmaking" techniques that use more complicated nutrient additions, more chemicals and even more chemicals to stabilize. They do make a great tasting mead in a shorter time than I can but, I don't like adding all that extra stuff, our food has enough of that already, so if I can leave it out, I do. Most meads take months to mature and mellow. I've made some that were good in 6 weeks, many that were good in 3 months.
www.experimentalbrew.com/blogs/drew/time-short This article has a recipe for what's called a short mead that goes from start to finish in a week. It'll likely be very sweet, but is very customisable. Look up short meads for more recipes.
I make a 7 day ready to drink pink lemonade mead? Iv found small batches and cold crashing have been the key to turbo meads
Care to share the recipe and method?
@@CitySteadingBrews absolutely! Youre not going to like it much because it involves commercial type yeast, nutrient, finnings ect but as soon as i get home ill get ye olde mead book out and share... worth warning its not as amazing as most meads but me and my friends have made a batch and drunk it the next weekend!
Yes I like those glasses. And that bottle. And the colour of that mead. And the idea of cherry mead- though I've never had any; couldn't comment on if the taste would remotely match expectations.
Nice job! I loved that you listened to your fan base and made this. Would you ever consider making a Bing cherry or some sort of sweet version of this?
Yes. This is a definite possible maybe.
City Steading you might have a niche channel here with making different and unique meads. Either way, your content is awesome and I look forward to whatever direction you take.
Can meads be make with things like peaches, pineapples and possibly tropical fruits that weren't available during the time periods mead was a staple?
Well.... I plan on doing more than just meads, but... there will be mead! And yes, you can use pretty much any fruit to make mead. I'm going to be making a mulberry mead soon too.
City Steading awesome! Can't wait for what you have in store.
City Steading oh, and as a caveat, I would never take anything away from your other content... But that mead video was exponentially more popular than your other content... Just saying there might just be a market or interest in it! Just my $. 02
I just bumped into you today, and was looking at making my second batch of alcohol ever. Definatly subscribing. It's nice watching you guys just enjoying making it and being relaxed about everything. Keep up the good work guys
Thanks! I have a saying, “you should be having fun at what you’re doing or you should be doing something else.”.
"It has a strong foot note." Okay, I see what you did there, lol. And, you are now up to 215,906 views now, congrats!
Thanks!
I've had mead batches that didn't come out the way I wanted. I bottled it and left it for a few years and went back to it only to discover the stuff turned out awesome! Sometimes just let it age. I got to try this recipe. I like using Juicy Juice to make corgels and wines.
Made a 10 gal batch of wild grapes wine. Sour and tannic. Put the carboys to the back of the wine cave and forgot about it. Found it 5 yrs later and did a taste test. Mellowed out a lot, but not a really good wine. Back to the cave it went. I was looking for a red wine and decided to give the wild grape wine another try. It was 10yrs old at that point. I was thinking red wine vinegar was going to be what I had. I was blown away, the best red wine I had ever tasted. It even beat out some $ 400 a bottle reds. My wife heard me cursing and came down to see what was up. I handed her the glass and said you have got to try this. She was also amazed, but angry I broke my promise of not buying any more very expensive wines. When I shown her the carboys, she was shocked. Then she asked why would be swearing so much. I only made 10 gallons of it. Then she also swore. We learned a valuable lesson. Never give up on a brew/wine until it goes to vinegar. Let age at its own pace.
Why isn't it called 'bees keeper'? There's a whole bunch of em. Also, did you use any generic cherry juice? Some people say they don't like the preserves in it but adding it at the end that shouldn't matter (?)
A good question, one I don't have an answer for. As to the juice... yep, just one without preservatives, though you're right, wouldn't have mattered at that point.
If you're going to use juice instead of fruit, you should try to avoid lots of preservatives and artificial sweeteners. The added chemicals make it hard for the yeast to grow and can give you some nasty off flavors. That's why if you add preservatives, you do it at the back end of your batch.
I have to say, if you did a series on making mead, and perhaps other alcohols, i would definitely watch it. I've been wanting to make my own mead for a while now and seeing what all can be done with it would be great.
Well... it just so happens I have a bunch of video ideas coming up over the next few weeks, different ciders, a mead or three, and maybe even a wine.
That sounds fantastic! Going to have to keep a close eye now to make sure i don't miss anything. Hope it all goes as planned.
Oh, it never goes as planned, but we always have fun with it.
SKÅL would be the correct term for drinking vikings blood
Actually... mead is pretty universal but I see your point!
I have made mead once, only a half-gallon though. I added a handful each of fresh chopped peppermint and spearmint from my garden and let it stand 10 days before removing the herbs. At racking it was this gorgeous yellowy-green and very clear. It was bright and fresh, with a very sharp menthol kick that really cleared the palate.
To grow your channel, do what you love, and those people you would want to drink with will watch. (More then you guess) Many youtubers burn out because they stop loving it. They think of views and not fun. When you are having fun we will. The Mythbusters failed, and laughed for years and made it work. You can fail, just laugh and make a video about what you learned, and we will learn with you. :) (You have this in you)
Thanks for that! This is why we have a variety of topics on the channel. We like a lot if things and wanted to show people how easy it is to make things for yourself.
Loved these 3 vids. Thank you for showing me how to do something i have been thinking about for a while. I can't wait to get started. AND .. I love that whisky collection! Keep doing what you do.
I'm drinking down that whiskey collection... Used to have about 80 some odd bottles, now I think it's 30ish. All the "good stuff" is gone, now I'm down to daily drinkers.
shout out for that bullit and buffalo trace
Someone asked us to do a video on whiskey. Not sure it fits our brand, but hey... it’s whiskey.
guardiandevil3 sláinte means health for those who didn't know
Kudos for your extensive selection. good whiskey is good.
I like whatcha doin with the channel keep it up!
I have been drinking down my collection. Had 80 bottles at one point!
Love this video and your Viking Blood recipe. I will try it for myself soon!
Can you put together a honeydew melon mead recipe?🍈🍻🤪
Sounds good but I wonder if the melon would come through..... hrmmm
I’m not sure 🤔 lol pretty much all I know about mead is from the last 3 videos I’ve watched of yours!
Can you (or does it ever happen) where you put in some sort of flavoring? Whether natural or not? Cause I’m wondering if you could use the stuff they use to flavor other honeydew drinks (like boba tea)... Let me know whatcha think 🙃
If you use cherries again, you might want to try a batch with the pits included. It's an old canner's trick to put up sweet cherries with the pits intact because they impart a slight almond flavor which I have found, really enhances the flavor of the cherries. Thanks for the video!
They were tart cherries btw.
I like this idea! I may even add almond slivers for just this! I have a few ideas for what I want to do and cannot decide. So I am planning on back sweetening a basic honey mead and racking with 1 with berries and 1 with herbs and 1 with a green tea note. I am planning on making a few gallon batches with the back- sweetening with different profiles.
LOL, foot smell scale...
I made a 5 gallon batch of Concord
grape wine, just like the one you guys
did. Found some grape juice at my
favorite store, 45 cents, for a 46
ounce container. I got 13 of them.
I used Red Star baking yeast. After
it had fermented out, I added about
1 quart of light agave nectar, $12.50,
a gallon,at that same store. When it
was finally fermented out, I put it in a
5 gallon "Cornie" and in the
kegerator. Yes, it is carbonated,
and tastes like a "wine cooler."
I had some residual sweetness,
and wanted it. It didn't clear out,
but I'm not worried about that.
steve
Mmm feet
Yes, the Foot Scale is now a thing.
Within seeing your videos yesterday, I have already went and impulse bought the needed equipment. Thank you for this new passion!
You are so welcome!
Once again love you two,keep them comin
Came across your Viking blood Mead video. And I absolutely love it. U guys are great. I'm going to attempt to try this myself. Lol. Hopefully it turns out OK. Thank you for sharing This knowledge my friend. .
Also I love your website. We need more knowledge about living off the land and away from chemicals and processed foods. Thank you again for teaching these things.
Thanks @Tonnie, we are far from experts, but we know a little about a lot of things, read a lot of books, and have very varied interests so... we do what we can!
@@CitySteadingBrews your welcome. I love learning about these kinds of things
Great fun watching you and good job on the mead! Each time you do it, it only gets better! John
Making mead is a fun hobby. I tend to leave my mead sitting a lot longer than you were mentioning. My favorites so far have been a blueberry mead and a pomegranate mead. Try adding a bit of ginger or clove to get a spicy undertone. I'll have to look into that bucket for the initial fermentation... I've just been using my 6 gallon carboys... which works fine but hard to clean the fruit out of some times...
You didnt expect us to NEED to see YOU drink it? Wow, seems a 'meads' to an end! Lol! Thanx for the finale! Tart!
The way your wife looks at you when you say 'de-gas' is priceless! ❤ love her!
I made a gallon batch based of your recipe and it came out to be 15%! Ill be cutting it in half tonight and one will get cherry juice and the other strawberry juice.
So excited!
Update: after adding cherry and strawberry juice to the 2 half gallons they came out to be 12.2% and 12.6% and taste fantastic! This is only my 3rd batch and i loce it! Thank you for sparking my interest and getting me started!
You guys have blown up since these videos! Awesome!
It’s been a great year!
"make mead like a viking" by jereme zimmerman is a pretty good read. One thing i did notice in the first video was you didn't use any tannins? have you ever? Another thing he talks about how the taste can change if its bottled longer. He recommends if you don't like it at first come back to a bottle in another 6 months or so.
I didn't add any no, but the skins of the cherries added them like we said in the video.
i wrote the comment before I got to that part of the video. lol my bad. Do you have any thoughts about adding tree bark or other forms of tannins to the must? was this your first batch of mead? Ive been debating making a batch of blackberry mead and leaving some of the stems on the berry.
Said 13k subscribers, i look down and see 175k in 4 years and think he had NO idea how big this would become! You guys are awesome!
Thanks :)
Found you either yesterday or the day before so the wait for this wasn't very long, but I quite enjoyed this :) I'm not really a brewer myself but I'm planning to give it a go one I finally get a chance, I look forward to seeing more of your creations in the future :)
And I won't lie, it does make me happy to see how happy you get when talking about the comments on your videos.
Also "Mead is the OG Alcohol" needs to go on a shirt because I'd totally wear that
Okay, totally going to get that T-Shirt made now.
I've wanted to make mead for years. I gave away all my brewing equipment some years ago. I gave away my collection of Grolsch bottles to a brewer who was supposed to give me some of his beer and mead in exchange but none ever showed up. Your videos will inspire me to give it a try...
I just stumbled on your channel and I really like the content. I've been brewing for a few months now with mostly beer. I do have an Ale mead fermenting right now (I found the recipe in a mead book I had for a while) and for one gallon I used 1 pound honey, 1/2 oz hops, and 1/4 teaspoon cinammon. Boiled for 45 min with cinnamon added at the end of the boil.
A Beer mead is called a braggot. That sounds nice... is it 2 row barley? How much of that?
Hey! I just cracked open my 3 month old viking’s blood!!! I’m in my happy place!! I used half tart cherries and the other half non tart. I will definitely use NO tart cherries the next time but, it’s still really good and I am happy with it. Thank you for all you do! Sharing with so many people is working 😊
Using all sweet cherries may make it taste like cough syrup.
City Steading - thank you for the tip!!! I haven’t started it yet luckily 😃
To save a lot of time, you can buy Cherry juice not from concentrate. No straining, no mashing it, and you get more mead in the end.
But you don’t get any of the tannins or nutrients for the yeast. I use juice a lot but nothing beats whole fruit.
The whole fruit definitely has more flavors, color and nutrients.
Loving the mead videos! I started my own batch of basic mead back in September and it's turning out really well! Come the summer time i plan in doing more batches with fruits like peaches and blackberries and blueberries and strawberries. Didn't think to try cherry because i don't like cherries much...but after watching your mead videos I just might try cherry 😀
Hey, this was great! Theres a brewery (meadery?) in Michigan called B.Nektar that makes a cherry mead-cider thing called Zombie Killer. I *love* that stuff. Curious how it stacks up against your homemade viking blood. If you ever get to try it, post please!
I would absolutely love to see you redo the original video with the added steps.
Someday.... I might. Matter of fact, my Barbados Cherry is producing well enough that in a year or so I might have enough home grown cherries to do it. Also, I plan on making a clone of the Dansk Mjod Viking Blod too. It's nothing like mine, but I've been asked, and I know something about it that most people don't know!
Love ur honesty in ur videos man, huge thumbs up, I remember when I tried making alcohol the first time when I was around 16, with some mango juice sugar and bakers yeast, and a condom as a "air lock" lol it was sooooooo bad. I'm glad people on TH-cam can teach it appropriately and even explain what they did wrong and did well instead of boasting on it no matter what the product is actually like in the end.
There's no point in me making it up... if you do what I did and it sucks, then.... I'd be found out pretty quick. I'd rather just be honest. In the end, with a little sweetening, the Viking Blood is pretty awesome though. :) Saving a bottle for next year and we'll do a 1 year tasting.
@@CitySteadingBrews good point, and yeah Mead gets so much better the more you let us age, I can't wait to see it.
Love your videos man you get into detail and the whats what in 1 to 2 videos, where others don't and make 10 videos off of 1 to capitalize on the first video by making 10 lol
I recently started a 5 gallon fermentation from instructions from your Viking blood video (my first time doing this). I made the mistake of buying sweet cherries so I ended up doing 6lbs of cherries, 3lbs of raspberries, 9lbs of clover honey, and the yeast you suggested. I’m nearing day 4 of fermentation, I know it ended up being a little different from your recipe but if you have any advice moving forward I would greatly appreciate it. Love your videos, I’ve been thinking about home brewing for a while and this definitely got me started.
i had made some cherry mead a few months back after seeing your original vikings blood video and only used tart cherry juice and honey with bakers yeast . i have to say it was very expensive to make a 5 gallon (aprox. $65. usd ) batch but it came out absolutely fantastic.
$65 for 5 gallons, let's break that down.... That's about 25 bottles of good quality mead for about $2.60 each. Still think it's expensive? Mead goes for about $20-$30 a bottle normally.
@@CitySteadingBrews sorry if i came across as if i was complaining about the price . i wasn't trying to . i was just stating i had made something similar to you recipe and really enjoyed it although i feel like an alcoholic now since ive drank all but the last quart that im saving for xmas ....lol
Refrigerate that bourbon cream if it's open, "says the back of the bottle". Love you guys' videos!
Good call... not sure if that one is open though.
I love that stuff in my coffee!
Again, outstanding presentation! Thank you for the clarifications and defining what you mean. For those of us too stupid for the "technical" definitions, this is hugely (not "ugely"!) helpful. 😁
Making alcohol is easy. Actually, we don't make it at all, we just guide it. You can make it complicated if you want to, but... I prefer a more traditional method.
Been making meads for a few years now, raspberry is nice, orange zest, and ccocoa and orange zest with a dash of vanilla essence is great.
A fun one was Carolina reaper ginger and lemon.
Currently experimenting with freeze concentrating
All kinds of ingredients for meads. Erm... careful with freeze concentrating. In many states that is still considered distilling and therefore... illegal. That's why we don't talk about it at all. Also, it does not remove the fusels and instead concentrates them so... far more dangerous than you might think.
City Steading thanks for the warnings, UK here and care is being taken,
Yes mate. Had to pause the video. I actually cannot wait if you decide to grow hops. Last week I actually learnt a little bit about them. I have two Vitis Regent vines to make grape wine hopefully in the next year or few and last week I was talking to some people and a long story short I wanted to grow other plants that produce something edible but could be planted and left sort of thing. Well I learnt that hops is a vine and would suit me because I'm already growing another vine. I've been thinking that if I get into making alcohol I might grow hops to produce probably beer but I know there are other products I can make with them. So in short if you do grow hops I look forward to seeing you guys make alcohol with it.
We grow raspberries, mulberries, and have a huge grapevine. Keep a lookout for videos making alcohol with them. I have to plant the hops still... not sure where to put it!
So glad you put this up. Enjoying it, would have liked seeing the whole thing. My dad and I used to make dandelion wine, so very sweet but that’s how I like it. Have you ever tried it???
We have three videos on this. This is the last one...
I've found that if the pH goes too high (alkaline) that things get bitter and medicinal tasting. Tart is one good way to fight that trend. If your input fruit and flavors don't bring the pH down and you don't want to add tartaric, malic or citric acid powders (that is grape, apple and citrus acid in scarry scientist form) then you will have to develop a taste for bitter medicinal. Lactic is another possible exit ramp.
I’m definitely using the foot scale of measurement when referring to wine now.
My first attempt at mead was a cherry mead. Total fermentation batch was 5 gallons. Used 15 pounds of light clover honey and 5 pounds of fresh Rainier cherries (pitted then frozen to break up the cell walls. It turned out dark blood red and tasted great. Used a sweet mead yeast from Wyeast. Those Rainier cherries made all the difference. I even carbonated a gallon and let it age for 2 years refrigerated, got even smoother. ABV was 14%. Next try for me will be raspberries.
Well done. I'm always amazed how many people make a 5 gallon batch as their first try. That's a pretty expensive test. Glad it worked out for you!
Been brewing beer for a number of years now, so it wasn't too big a step. Paid $90 for 30lbs of honey from a local bee keeper. I'd like to see you try a raspberry mead, I have too many projects left to complete this year to try it. Keep up the good work, love the videos!
I only just found this channel, so time to binge these videos!
Binge away and welcome to the channel!
After watching the first video of Viking blood I decided to make some for myself, using the exact same method as you used although I transferred my mead in to plastic demijohns, bad idea as I believe the fermentation stuck, now I made two batches of one gallon, first, Viking blood and the other mixed fruits, I purchased glass demijohns and transferred both meads into these then left them just to see if fermentation would re start, it did not so I added restart yeast and fermentation restarted, I also added more sugar just for the yeast to work on, they have both been happily bubbling away for the last four days now and will report back when fermentation complete, one last note I used sweet cherries.
Sadly, sometimes meads get stuck. Congrats on getting it started again, though I doubt the plastic demijohns were the culprit. I'm not a huge fan of plastic my self, but I've never heard of a fermentation being ruined by it.
NO, im not sure what it was but plastic seemed a good idea as I have watched other peoples videos who have had success, now im a glass man but stuck with plastic demijohns, perhaps I will try again just to see where I went wrong, surely a good learning curve..
You can use plastic for primary all you want, I'd say.
I just found your channel today. I think your videos very entertaining and informative. I have a sour cherry tree which produces about 25 pounds of cherries per year, which I struggle to use up. I have about 15 pounds in my freezer from last year still to use, so I think I'll give this a go. I did a cherry stout last year that turned out wonderfully, so I have high hopes.
Love mead and mead brewing!
I brewed a Hibiscus, Sumac and Chamomile mead last fall that is so incredibly good!
Sounds awesome! I will be doing a hydromel 3 ways soon. And... Black Sack is coming too!
As a mead maker, we always let the Mead age for at least a year to fully develop in the bottle. The Mead aged at least 3-6 months in the carboy.
Yup. We do that too. Generally though we try it at 2-3 months then decide from there.
@@CitySteadingBrews I had one bottle of what we made (just about every type of fruit went into it) and we didn't drink it for about 10 years. It was the smoothest of all the meads we had ever made. Letting them age improves them. Thanks for answering!!
REALLY liked this keep it up, always wanted to do this kind of mead
Be like Nike... just do it! We're here if you have problems.
can i ask if adding some sugar or honey obviously would that make it more sweeter
Yes it would. Sometimes it can restart fermentation and actually keep it dry too.
Could you just use cherry juice rather than using the frozen cherries or maybe a cherry pure?
Sure, we did that in Viking Blood 2! th-cam.com/video/sZBbFX5wJwk/w-d-xo.html
@@CitySteadingBrews awesome, only just came across your chanel but I'm really enjoying it. I'm new to home brewing and your chanel is giving me so much knowledge and so many ideas for future brews 👍
First time I made mead, having no idea or right to do so, I didnt know about co2 gas build up. I popped the bottle open and spent three days cleaning proto-mead off the ceiling, walls, floor....and I never did quite get the alchohol smell out of my house....lol
Great vid series on this topic thanks. Liked your comments about the French wine tasting, was in France went to a wine tasting and Im not a wine drinker, I did discover when they ask what my 1st impression was and when I said "Diesel" they wasted no time in asking me to leave.
Ours would have been "gym socks" so.... we'd be kicked out together!
Great brew, I've always wanted to do a cherry Mead. I do find in my experience, the longer mead sits the smoother it becomes.
I have a few bottles of my Mead from when I first started and there is a wild difference from 3 month old to 1 year old Mead. (The bottles are 5 years old now and still fantastic). I've also found that aging it in an oak barrel makes a big difference in how smooth it turns out.
Aging does always help, yeah. People don't like waiting a year for a video though, lol.
The barrel aging.... how large a barrel are you using and how long do you age it in there?
@@CitySteadingBrews I have a 2 gallon oak barrel and I only aged about a month in it but it made a noticeable difference.
I really enjoyed this video, it made me laugh with you both at the end and I bet that 'Blod' tasted good. Thank you both.
Just saw your channel. Been brewing mead for about ten years myself. Try setting some aside for a year or even a decade, the longer it sits the better it tastes. 2 year old batch is good, 8 year old batch is divine.
We do. Nearly every brew has a bottle or several stashed in long term storage. I'm gunning for a year, but who knows... if City Steading lasts, maybe we'll try that last Bottle of Viking Blood in 2028.