Small Calamities

Your Calamities

Honey-Wine
July 7, 2008 | permalink

Earlier in the year, I made a couple of small test batches of mead. Mead, if you are not familiar with it, is honey-wine, very old and very simple; in its base form, it consists of only honey, water, and yeast. I made a gallon of mead with clover honey, and another with orange blossom honey. They were delicious.

Both came out light and (unsurprisingly) a little sweet, but also crisp. There was a champagne-like quality about them, which was made more prevalent by the fact that both batches were slightly carbonated. Which was not certainly not a problem, but also not my intention; I bottled them both just a touch too soon, with the yeast still active. Oh, and did I mention that it's really strong? Stronger than wine, certainly. I neglected to take any measurements, so I can't know for sure exactly what proof it ended up, but it's strong enough to warm you as it goes down, and two glasses is enough to make me pretty tipsy. If I had to guess, I would put it at 18 or 20 percent.

This past week, having successfully done my trial runs, I started a big batch- 4 gallons. Which, for your reference, ought to yield me about 18 wine bottles worth of mead. I am quite excited.

I made it with buckwheat honey. I don't know if you have ever had it; it is very sweet, dark, and full of flavor. Imagine an equal mix of clover honey and dark molasses and you have it about right. It ought to end up giving me a very dark, rich, and seriously strong mead. Sort of the stout of meads, I would think.

I know what you are thinking, Gentle Readers. You are wondering how you can get your hands on some of this elixir. The truth is, at it's base, mead is really simple, and you probably have nearly everything you need in your house to make a gallon of mead right now. The batches I have made, including this last big batch, all follow the same basic recipe- combine 3 parts water to 1 part honey, add yeast, and let it sit and ferment for 6 weeks or so. It is a little more complicated in practice- everything needs to be sterile and handled right, so you don't end up growing a giant mold colony- but only a little, and certainly doable in your kitchen.

If anyone is interested, I will post detailed directions for making a batch yourself. And I will certainly let you know how this batch turns out. I should be able to taste it somewhere near the end of August....