Mead - how sweet it is!

As much as I enjoy sweet wines, I didn't like mead at first. It was just too sweet, like syrup. But as usually happens when you taste something often enough, I grew to like it. I tend to like only sweet meads, not dry meads. Like winemaking, meadmaking is easy. And bread yeast does just fine (Red Star seems to work better than Fleischmann's). If it can't ferment out as much of the sugars as mead yeast can, so much the better for making sweet meads. I have liked every honey mead I've ever made (okay, so I've only made 3). I also made one mead with nothing but Aunt Jemima's pancake syrup, which turned out too cloying, but it does make a good pancake syrup or ice cream topping, if you're in that kind of mood. Here are a few recipes you might want to try:


Spiced Mead (4 gallon recipe)

1) 15 pounds clover honey
2) 2 orange peels
3) 2 tbsp ground cardamom
4) 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
5) 0.75 tsp ground nutmeg
6) 0.75 tsp ground ginger
7) 2 tbsp Red Star yeast

Briefly boil and cool 1-6 and water. Add 7. My OG was 1.127 and FG was 1.060. It turned out excellent!


Very Sweet Mead (3.5 gallon recipe)

1) 15 pounds clover honey
2) 2 tbsp Red Star yeast

Briefly boil and cool honey and water. Add yeast. My OG was 1.170 and FG was 1.114. It turned out VERY sweet, and is best drunk after dinner. It almost burned the throat it was so sweet, but it tasted great in small quantities. My friends' kids loved it (kids love candy). You can add more water to make it less sweet.


Cardamead (2 gallon recipe)

1) 8 pounds clover honey
2) 2 tbsp ground cardamom
3) 1 tbsp Red Star yeast

Briefly boil and cool 1, 2 and water. Add 3. Turned out very well.