Hello folks, obviously I'm new around here. I brew beer and have made wine in the past. I just bottled my latest beer and was trying to figure out what I wanted to brew next. I got to thinking about it and I am doing the research on starting to raise bees, so mead is the perfect next step.
I just made up a batch of Joe's Ancient Orange mead. I stuck to the recipe. I did not use a hydrometer. I do have one, but it was never unpacked after the last move. Everything is very straight forward right now, but I know that will change if I get into making mead.
But I have a couple of questions about this mead.
First is just a terminology thing. Since this has both fruit and spices in it, what would it actually be called? Is it proper to call any variety of mead a mead? If someone brewed a Pyment, would it still be correct to call it mead?
Next, since I used bread yeast, what alcohol level should this end up around? I read once that bread yeast is about 8.3% tolerance, is this about right?
If I decide I like this mead and wanted to do a 5 gallon batch, would I just size it up? Just increase everything 5 times?
Finally, I've always heard that mead takes a long time to age properly. Is this mead ready to drink as soon as it clears? Or should I bottle it and age it some?
Thanks in advance for any help.
I just made up a batch of Joe's Ancient Orange mead. I stuck to the recipe. I did not use a hydrometer. I do have one, but it was never unpacked after the last move. Everything is very straight forward right now, but I know that will change if I get into making mead.
But I have a couple of questions about this mead.
First is just a terminology thing. Since this has both fruit and spices in it, what would it actually be called? Is it proper to call any variety of mead a mead? If someone brewed a Pyment, would it still be correct to call it mead?
Next, since I used bread yeast, what alcohol level should this end up around? I read once that bread yeast is about 8.3% tolerance, is this about right?
If I decide I like this mead and wanted to do a 5 gallon batch, would I just size it up? Just increase everything 5 times?
Finally, I've always heard that mead takes a long time to age properly. Is this mead ready to drink as soon as it clears? Or should I bottle it and age it some?
Thanks in advance for any help.