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New to Mead Making -- Help

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aghori

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 18, 2004
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After tasting several bottles of "Honey wine" from the local Ethiopean rest. I decided to try my hand at making mead. I bought the dry mead kit from leeners and followed the recipe.
The air lock was bubling till after the first racking (added 3 campden tablets). Mead started to clear. Last night I did my second racking by adding 2 campden tablets and citric acid and was able to taste my mead and tested the sp.gravity.... The sp.gravity is still at 1.000 and mead tastes flat.

What am i doing wrong and what should i do now. ???
 

Jmattioli

Senior Member
Lifetime GotMead Patron
aghori said:
After tasting several bottles of "Honey wine" from the local Ethiopean rest. I decided to try my hand at making mead. I bought the dry mead kit from leeners and followed the recipe.
The air lock was bubling till after the first racking (added 3 campden tablets). Mead started to clear. Last night I did my second racking by adding 2 campden tablets and citric acid and was able to taste my mead and tested the sp.gravity.... The sp.gravity is still at 1.000 and mead tastes flat.

What am i doing wrong and what should i do now. ???

Nothing. Just wait for it to age a bit. Sounds like it finished quite well. SG of 1.000 is considered dry though not bone dry. Post your exact recipe so we can tell you more. If you mean still by flat, that is normal unless you want it carbonated in which case you will have to prime. Also, Campden tablets are usually only for every other racking by most recommendations. Post your batch size also.
Joe
 

JoeM

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 9, 2004
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Ethopian mead from what i know usually has hops in it. If that is what you are used drinking you may be missing the distinct hop flavor in your own mead. that might be why the flavor seems flat to you. just a thought.
 

aghori

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 18, 2004
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0
0
Thanks Jmattioli.

Batch Size: 3 gallons
The Recipe: Combined 1 gallon of Bottled Spring Water with the Honey and Irish Moss. Heated upto 175 degrees. Added 1 gallon of bottled spring water and acid blend, yeast hulls, yeast extract and pectic enzyme. Added wine yeast into Carboy and let it ferment for 3 weeks. Air lock was bubbling.

I, then did first racking with 3 Campden tablets. Let it sit for 36 days and did second racking with 2 campden tablets and citric acid last night.

I am not looking for mead to be carbonated. I do get some taste of wine but I do not get a full flavour as yet. So, I was worried that I was doing something wrong.

I am planning to wait for 30 more days before racking once again before bottling.

Please advice if this is right course of action.

Thanks
 

Jmattioli

Senior Member
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Aghori,
Sounds like you followed recipe okay and did everything right. Being dry, there won't be alot of flavor at the end of fermentation. Sweeter Meads have more flavor to start with and dry meads need some aging for the nose and flavor to come out. When it is clear and bright you can bottle it and let age 6 months before trying again or if you like Bulk age in 3 gallon carboy and sample it every couple months. The taste will definitely change and improve with age. Mead takes a lot of patience especially when dry. Time will make it more pleasing to you.
Regards, Joe
 

kace069

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 21, 2004
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I agree with JoeM here. Ethiopean mead a.k.a Tej is a hopped mead. I am not familiar with leeners but from all the post i read here i should be. If your mead kit has no hops in it then it won't taste like Tej. Which i have had on a few occasions and if i remeber right it is a little on the dry side.
 

Oskaar

Got Mead Partner
Administrator
Dec 26, 2004
7,874
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The OC
There is a commercial meadery by me called Ni-bit, they are Ethiopian, and they don't use hops in their mead. That one threw me for a loop so I called them and asked about it.

The meadmaker told me that they make Taj sometimes, but they make mead because the market is wider. He also told me the Ethiopian name for mead is Ni-bit (which is the name of the mead they sell too)

So while Taj is definately a hopped mead, not all Ethiopians make Taj some just make good old fashioned mead, and call it Ni-bit.

Oskaar
 

JoeM

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 9, 2004
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aghori
How much honey came with your kit? And do you know what kind of yeast it was?
 

aghori

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 18, 2004
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0
JoeM,
The kit came with 6 lb honey and the yeast was cuvee dry wine yeast.

Thanks
 

Talon

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 8, 2004
431
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Aghori,

Sounds like you're on the right track... One question though... You mentioned that you'd added pectic enzyme. That's not listed in their ingredients for the Leeners kit. What was your reasoning for adding that? Just curious.

I've made their Blackberry, Peach, sweet and dry meads without any issues thus far. Sounds like you're pretty much on track, though. As they use clover honey, it's not a very flavorful honey after fermentation. It's very much like a white wine you get at the store. It's specifically that, a kit which will be a jumping off point for your trek into meadmaking. Since I've made my kits, I've made others of my own and other's recipes which have come out even better than the kits and used different honeys.

Talon.
 

aghori

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 18, 2004
8
0
0
Thanks Talon.

I did not add Pectic Enzyme. That was a mistake copying the recipe from the web site. I checked my notes to make sure that I did not add Pectic Enzyme.

Thanks. How long after bottling did you wait before the mead was ready?
 

JoeM

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 9, 2004
665
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generally if my mead is to be still i will bottle at about 8-10 months and let age in the bottle another 6 months or so before considdering trying it. If it is to be sparkling i like to bottle at around 4 months to ensure adequade carbonation and allow it to age in the bottle about 8 months.
 

Talon

NewBee
Registered Member
Jul 8, 2004
431
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I waited 8 months from the day I pitched my yeast then I bottled it. After that, I waited 3 months to try it. It had a rather distinct dry white wine kind of flavor. Very light honey flavor to it but quite dry on the pallet. Dried the sides and tip of my tongue and left the top tingling.

It also made a great champagne for my wedding, which is what I made it for. ;-)
 
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