Ask the Meadmaker Ep. 86 – Home Again

I'm back at the house again this week and I know you thought to yourself, "I'm going to see the amazing transformation of the baby's room!" I am working on it.

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. 

This week's first question is from Azazeal, and he asked it like a year and a half ago. It's about my thoughts on Bram's One-Month Mead and Jay's One-Month Orange Mead, or something like that. They're both quick meads that can be done in about four weeks. And finally, I have an opinion on them. I never had one. I don't make them. So, I didn't know, but I did a wine judging a little while ago, and there are a lot of things in that category. My conclusion is they're fine. They're good. Watch out for your nutrient loading especially if you're using Fermaid K. 

The next question this week comes from Kyle, who is having chalky flavors in his mead, a specific mead, and he doesn't know where it comes from. His wife tastes it too, so it's not just in his head. Then again, tastes are in your head because that's where your mouth and tongue are. Anyway, what causes chalky flavors in mead? Now, there are three things. He did have spices in there. He had cloves and cinnamon. Both of these can give sort of a tannic flavor that some people perceive as mineral-y, but I don't think that's what he's talking about. Chances are very good he has high minerality in his water. Chalky flavors in wines come from high minerality in the grapes. So, it's possible that wherever he is, his water source has a lot of minerals in it. 

The next question comes from Ryan, who wants to know what kind of yeast we use in Nordic farmhouse. We claim we use a Saison yeast, or a Nordic farmhouse strain. What on earth is that? Nordic farmhouse is a wild-fermented yeast, so it has the yeast that naturally occurs with the raw honey and the cranberries. When we need to inoculate it to complete the fermentation, we use Bell's Saison. 

Adam from Haymaker Meadery wrote to me, which is like a huge honor to be asked a question from another pro meadmaker, especially one who is that good. He wants to know how I would go about using thyme in my mead. I have made a mead with thyme before. My advice is to go fresh. Do a hot water steep at about 150-160˚F. You'll get a lot of flavors, and then either strain it off like a tea or go ahead and throw the whole leaf in there. 

The sun is setting here at Redbrick, so I'm going to answer one more question this week. There will be no word of the week because Word of the Week Ricky is actually at the Mead Hall, believe it or not. He's cleaning tanks for the first time in his life. 

I am not reading this to tease the person. Anytime it's your second language, I'm rather impressed. "I am from Mexico, near the border with Texas. Here in my country, the culture of drinking mead is very low. I'm a beginner in the mead making world. When the game Skyrim comes to live, I always looking to try to make a nice mead. But the first two batches that I make were very bad vinegar taste. I was making bad practices. Since the 2015, I start making new recipes and making experiments with fruits and spicies. This experimient make me do a nice craft mead. Also, I have a question." I wanted to read it to you because I thought somewhere in there there's going to be a question about the vinegar taste. There wasn't. Acetobacter. "I made low alcohol meads, like 7-9%. Am I doing mead or hydromel? What is the difference between mead and hydromel?" The answer is there is no difference. A hydromel is a type of mead. So, if it's a low-alcohol mead, you made both a mead and a hydromel. 

Thank you very much for your question. I enjoyed reading it and trying to figure out what you were asking. And I like all of your questions. 

So, keep sending them to me, and I'll get to them as soon as possible. Cheers.