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Happy Mead Day!!!

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Brimminghorn

Gotmead Patrons
GotMead Patron
Mar 30, 2008
185
0
0
47
Seaford,DE
Hi All,

Hope everyone has a great Mead Day! I will be making a traditional mead with some local white vetch honey given to me by the state bee inspector. What's everyone else doing for mead day? Would love to hear about it.



Cheers,
Jon
 

buzzerj

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 22, 2009
117
0
0
San Jose CA
OMG! It's Mead Day! Damn I was caught unaware again. How did that thing sneak up on me like that? Happy Mead Day everyone! I'm unfortunately not able to start a batch today as I have three already cookin' and I'm out of fermenters. But I hope everyone who has a chance to make a new batch to share with friends will do so. What channel is the Mead Day parade on? Can't wait to watch the Mead Bowl today. Anyone know who's in it this year? Oh well. I hope everyone has a wonderful Mead Day this year. Take a picture of your fermenting mead and put it up on the site. Let's celebrate our 2009 Mead Day right!

Buzzer
 

Gardenfish

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 28, 2009
213
1
0
Phoenix,Az.
I'm Going to bottle my Joes grape mead, start my first traditional, and try to figure out whats happening with my blueberry batch today.
Oh and I will drink a JOA that was made on 3-21-09.
Happy mead day

Gardenfish
 

akueck

Certified Mead Mentor
Certified Mead Mentor
Jun 26, 2006
4,958
11
0
Ithaca, NY
I am taste-testing my Yeast Test batches with some friends. I'm also trying to figure out what to do with these tomatillos from our new CSA. So far, all I can think of is salsa (not a bad thing, but rather uninspired). Would nectarine go with tomatillo? I have some of those that need to be eaten too.
 

afdoty

NewBee
Staff member
Registered Member
Feb 19, 2009
636
0
0
Monroe, CT
Mead day

Started a triple "Black Plum" variant (addition of 2# of plums) batch of Wayne's "Occult Noir" and a 6 gal Blueberry/mixberry experiment.
 

wildoates

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 22, 2009
2,373
4
0
Elk Grove, CA
I didn't make any mead today (I'm down in Monterey County), but we did drink some--We had a bottle of Fox Hill Special Reserve Mead (from the second e-bay sale) that tasted very unlike anything any of us had ever tasted before. We toasted my son's immenent departure to Norway and enjoyed both the mead and the Scottish games.

A fair amount of Guinness 250, Harp, and Smithwick's were drunk as well. But not by me.

Al, did you really start ALL that mead today?! You, sir, are a lush. Either that or you have a lot of very happy friends.
8)
 

Meriadoc

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Jul 6, 2005
206
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16
57
D'oh! Well, I won't be starting any meads for Mead Day this year (although, as I walked through Sam's Club the other day, and saw 5 lb flats of blueberries, my first thought was "hey! that'd make a great mead!", so I don't think my next batch is that far off...!).

Instead, I've cracked open a bottle of my traditional mead, and am enjoying 20 oz of a very nicely aged batch...!

Wassail!
 

afdoty

NewBee
Staff member
Registered Member
Feb 19, 2009
636
0
0
Monroe, CT
I didn't make any mead today (I'm down in Monterey County), but we did drink some--We had a bottle of Fox Hill Special Reserve Mead (from the second e-bay sale) that tasted very unlike anything any of us had ever tasted before. We toasted my son's immenent departure to Norway and enjoyed both the mead and the Scottish games.

A fair amount of Guinness 250, Harp, and Smithwick's were drunk as well. But not by me.

Al, did you really start ALL that mead today?! You, sir, are a lush. Either that or you have a lot of very happy friends.
8)

Nice! Enjoy Monterey and good luck for your son.

Yes I started all that mead....actually I got the currants out of the freezer on Thrusday night, mixed everyhting and pictched the yeast Friday night. It was bubbling away Saturday morning when I added the fermaid-k/DAP.

I'm going to have to take up drinking as a hobby. All this mead!
 

wildoates

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 22, 2009
2,373
4
0
Elk Grove, CA
That kind of a hobby is hard on your liver, Al.

Besides the Fox Hill mead, my son also brought two bottles of sparkling mead he picked up at Norway Day in San Francisco--Heidrun Meadery (which I hadn't heard of), one Montana Clover Blossom honey and the other Madras Carrot Blossom. Mead Day notwithstanding, we didn't crack them open, as everyone had had enough to drink.

I'll put them in the refrigerator when I get home later this morning and perhaps we can open one of them on Wednesday when he and his roommate come by with all his stuff to stash in Mom's Garage Lock and Storage™.

So much for my car fitting in there.

Off to the road!
 

akueck

Certified Mead Mentor
Certified Mead Mentor
Jun 26, 2006
4,958
11
0
Ithaca, NY
The American Homebrewers Association has several days in the year, like Mead Day, Teach a Friend to Homebrew Day, Big Brew Day, etc. So I guess it's an American thing.

I had too good of a mead day. Just feeling well enough now to check in with the world. D254 and BA-11 won the taste test though.
 

skunkboy

NewBee
Registered Member
May 30, 2005
2,003
8
0
Between Jackson and Detroit
Happy Post Mead Day, would have posted yesterday, but ended up spending all day either getting contest entries together, out at BNektor, or visiting a pub or two that I had not been to... Fun day! ;-)
 

wildoates

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 22, 2009
2,373
4
0
Elk Grove, CA
The fella on the right is my son, the one on the left is his roommate, who's a good friend of the family. Andrew--the roommate--was quite miffed that I didn't bring any of my mead with me yesterday (it's not ready!), but since he's coming on Wednesday to move Michael's stuff, I'll get the wine thief out to take some samples.

And yes you do! We were all pleased because the mead I've got going doesn't taste bad at all when compared to the Fox Hill mead, which is the one with the Eastern Buckwheat in it. NOW we know what everyone means when they talk about the barnyard smell of that honey--you don't taste it in the mead, but you sure can smell it. At least, it doesn't taste like you'd think a barnyard would taste anyway. I could definitely taste the flavor of a strong honey, though, which I assume was the buckwheat.

Link to more photos (not all mead-related)
 
Last edited:

wayneb

Lifetime Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
I could definitely taste the flavor of a strong honey, though, which I assume was the buckwheat.

[

Yup. That Fox Hill product is one of the best (and one of the only) commercial samples of mead made using eastern Buckwheat honey. They've done a nice job of allowing the "unique" aroma to come through without it totally overpowering the other smells-tastes in their mead.
 

Brad Dahlhofer

NewBee
Registered Member
Dec 20, 2007
508
0
0
Ferndale, MI
www.bnektar.com
Yup. That Fox Hill product is one of the best (and one of the only) commercial samples of mead made using eastern Buckwheat honey. They've done a nice job of allowing the "unique" aroma to come through without it totally overpowering the other smells-tastes in their mead.

B. Nektar Meadery makes a Buckwheat Mead using only eastern buckwheat honey in it. We also use the same honey in our Bourbon Barrel Mead.
 

Carnes del Mundo

NewBee
Registered Member
Happy belated Mead Day,
It was awful nice of those folks at the American Homebrewers Association to plan Mead Day on the same day we celebrate my son's 9th birthday and our 11th wedding anniversary. In honor of such an auspicious occasion it seemed the perfect time to crack and rack the 55 gallon barrel of JAO http://carnesdelmundo.com/catalog/product/gallery/id/190/image/91/. We drank a couple gallons and did this with the rest. http://carnesdelmundo.com/catalog/product/gallery/id/190/image/92/
Helluva Fiesta and with that supply many more to come.
 
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