In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about why there are so few publications on home-meadmaking, how to brew low-alcohol meads and keep them sweet, investing in stainless equipment, and more!
Welcome to 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.
The first question we got this week is from Nate M. It's a question about asking questions about mead making. He has found that there are innumerable books on the subject of home beer brewing. He has found many, many, many websites on the subject, but he finds a dearth of good public Information about mead making, and he wants to know why. He notes that the Compleat Meadmaker by Ken Schram is out, that we have this show, that our blog is out there, but why so little information about mead making? I think it falls into two categories. One, home mead making is just now coming back into the fore. Back when Charlie Papazian published his book, there was almost nothing out there about beer brewing. It was just starting up again. The other reason? Really, it's just honey, water and yeast. I mean, I love answering your questions, but I've often wondered, how much can you really say on this subject?
Our next question comes from Greg R, who wants to try his hand at brewing a hydromel at home. A hydromel is a low alcohol content mead, but he has some concerns. His first concern is that there will be like no flavor. You don't put that much honey in to begin with, so why would you have a lot of honey flavor at the end? He's worried about mouthfeel. He's worried about aroma. And all of these are legitimate concerns. When we first started our company years ago, one of the biggest complaints we got was that it doesn't taste enough like honey. Well, my rebuttal to that is usually very few people complain when beer doesn't taste like cereal. If you want something that tastes like honey and is alcoholic, mix honey, vodka, and if you want bubbles, throw in a little seltzer. It's a hell of a drink, by the way, if you ever want to make it, but that said, hydromels, things like our Valkyrie's choice and our Mannaz, they don't taste an enormous amount like honey, and that's intentional. I don't want to replicate something that tastes like honey, and vodka and seltzer. I think that brewing a hydromel is something that every home mead maker should try their hand at, because it gives you a really good idea of making mead in general.
Greg also has another concern. This guy seems to be full of concerns. As Charlie Papazian says, relax dude, have a home brew. But his concern, again, is a legitimate one. He wanted to know how he could have a sweet hydromel. He worries about having to stop the fermentation, which is a tricky prospect, or fermenting it completely dry and back-sweetening. He wanted to know if there's a yeast out there that will stop fermentation completely below 7% alcohol. Especially in the mead making world, there's no yeast that I know of.
Wesley has more questions about stainless steel. He thinks he's found an amazing website with amazing prices on small-sized stainless equipment, think 7-14 gallons. And he wanted to know if I thought their prices were good. And I went on their website and the answer is yes, their prices were very good for stainless steel equipment. But his real question was, "Do I think it's a good investment?" As I said to him, at the price of a single seven gallon stainless steel fermenter for home use, he could instead buy a temperature-controlled refrigerator and 14 home brew buckets. Just putting it out there.
Our last question this week comes from Chris H, who was little startled to see that it looks like I, Ricky the Meadmaker, Ricky the Craft Meadmaker, has started making honey wines. He wanted to know if it was true if I have to redact old episodes of Ask the Meadmaker. The answer is, I brew a lot of things. I brew beer, I brew Sake. I don't sell those, but do I make honey wine? Sort of. Every single honey wine available at Colchester's Mead Hall is in fact a collaboration between yours truly and Eric the head brewer from Havoc. We also let our interns help out on the action. So, yes, I help make honey wines. But in my heart of hearts, I am still a craft mead maker.
That's our last question of the week. I just need to send it over to Ricky with our word of the week. Ricky?
Thank you, Ricky. This week's term is invert sugar. Invert sugar is when you take sucrose, and usually using hydrolysis, break it into glucose and fructose, it's two monosaccharide constituents. This increases the fermentability and perceived sweetness of it. Invert sugar, very important in brewing, the word of the week and the end of our show. Keep sending your questions and I will get to them as soon as possible. Cheers.
