In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about hazy mead, how long mead should age, how sulfites work, why he chose to make craft mead over honey wine, and more!
We apologize in advance for the alcohol abuse in this episode.
Aging: The Secret of the Ages
Pasteurizing with Heat or Sulfites
How We Brew Everything We Brew
Craft Mead: A Possibly Contentious Article
On Carbonation
Clouds on the Horizon
You know how last episode, I made a joke about how much wood I have to split? Well, this is the third cord and I haven't really made a dent. So, here we go.
Welcome Ask the Meadmaker, where I, Ricky the Meadmaker, answer your questions about mead making, mead drinking, mead brewing, and really any question you're willing to send to me.
Our first question this week comes from someone who claims to be Brego Graybeard, which may or may not be his real name. Anyway, he made a clone recipe of Bitter Bee, also known as Hop Swarm, and it's very hazy, and he wonders if he has to do anything about that. The answer is no. We don't. We actually like our meads hazy. So, I guess that makes us different from most people on the internet.
Our next question is a very easy one. It comes from Matteo. And he wants to know if he has aged his mead long enough, between June and December when he wrote to me. He read on the internet that it takes a year. I don't know how many of these episodes you've seen or what you've read on our blog, but we try to get from honey to glass in three weeks.
Jack got some free honey because his friend is a beekeeper and the honey had started to ferment. Jack didn't put sulfites in. So, if the honey is fermenting, that means there's wild yeast in it. He worried if he put sulfites in, wouldn't that kill the yeast that he was about to pitch? How can I explain it? The answer is yes, the sulfites would kill the wild yeast. But then, after 24 hours, it bubbles out of solution. So, when you put your sulfites in, you wait 24 hours before pitching your yeast. That's all there is to it.
Cordero wants to start a meadery. As I've said many times, don't. It's terrible. But if you insist, Cordero wants to know why I chose craft mead over honey wines. The answer is, very simply, people were making very good honey wines, and no one was making craft mead.
Our last question this week comes from Mike, who is bottle-conditioning mead. He wants to know, after he pitched his priming sugar and bottling yeast (good for you, I never bottled yeast), if mead is always this slow to carbonate. It's been a week. Now, I used to work at a home brew shop. We used to tell people go ahead, drink it in a week. It's going to be flat. In two weeks, it might be carbonated. Depends on how warm your house is. So, a week would actually be really quick. The other thing is he wrote to me seven months ago, so I guess let me know if it ever got there. If, after seven months, it's not carbonated, I guess we have something to talk about.
Anyway, that is our last question this week. Keep sending your questions. I'm going to keep working on this, and I'll get to them as soon as possible. Cheers.
