#melomel

[clatterbane]

Latest Redneck Brewing experiment: Strawberry Hodgepodge Hooch, now underway!

Just bottled up another batch of easy mixed berry flavored cider out of that jug this evening, so I wanted to just go ahead and reuse the yeast dregs. The little bit of cider remnants shouldn't clash with this.

I had that carton of wild strawberry juice drink to try, so thought I might as well throw in what was left in that open bottle of squeezy strawberry jam--which is actually more of a smooth strawberry sauce with a decent fruit content. Better flavor than I expected. The rest of that jar of cheapo honey can go in there too.

I also ended up adding enough plain white sugar to bring the final ABV up to just over 10%, plus some pectic enzyme to take care of whatever was in the squeezy stuff. Another batch where I figured, "how bad could it be?". Now I guess we'll find out. 😅

#redneck brewing #redneck wine #homebrewing #melomel #sort of #strawberries #alcohol mention

[cremfeegle]

oh yea im making a gallon of melomel btw. just peach bc ive never done it before tho. im using lalvin k1-v1116 yeast and its already started to bubble (not in the pic, thats just foam from the must) pretty heartily!! if anyone with more experience has any tips on NAS or when to rack etc, this is my first time ever making mead so id appreciate any tips!!! lmk if yall wanna see more Mead Updates tbh

#mead #homebrew #brewing #melomel #my special little project just for me :3

[ketchuplaser]

Man that's got a pretty color.

Triple-citrus melomel

#ketchup laser #kl brews #mead #triple citrus mead #melomel

[hilltopwineryandmeadery]

Where can you find Virginia’s oldest meadery, nestled on a beautiful farm with friendly farm animals, with an unbelievable selection of handcrafted meads and fruit wines? We are located in Virginia’s finest craft beverage area, Nelson 151. Hill Top, the winery and meadery, was established in 1998 on the family farm, which was already a pick your own berry farm. Find your favorite place to sip, relax and unwind, be served by a friendly smiling staff, providing you with a unique tasting experience that will keep you coming back. We’ve had many of our customers for 25 years and counting! We are open 7 days a week all year long, 11-5. #vawine #vawinepass #nelson151 #vamead #vameadery #meadery #gotmead #loveva #weship #nectarofthegods #honey #honeywine #honeybee #babygoats #donkeys #familyfarm #sangria #melomel #metheglin #rhodomel #hibiscus #rose #lavender #wineflight #meadflight #25yearsandcounting #51 We are Virginia Winery number 51! #opendaily #fruitwine (at Hill Top Berry Farm Winery and Meadery) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpsGEtROaEu/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#vawine #vawinepass #nelson151 #vamead #vameadery #meadery #gotmead #loveva #weship #nectarofthegods #honey #honeywine #honeybee #babygoats #donkeys #familyfarm #sangria #melomel #metheglin #rhodomel #hibiscus #rose #lavender #wineflight #meadflight #25yearsandcounting #51 #opendaily #fruitwine

[platanosconlechera]

#hidromieloftheday #cupidosigloxxi #hidromiel con #cerveza #cherry #mead #melomel #aguamiel #cerveceriacyprez x #cerveceríaobni #craftbeer #craftbeernotcrapbeer #beergeek #beerporn #ilikebeerbeerisgood #beerstagram #hacercervezaesarte #ilikehidromiel https://www.instagram.com/p/Cop1lODO-Yb/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#hidromieloftheday #cupidosigloxxi #hidromiel #cerveza #cherry #mead #melomel #aguamiel #cerveceriacyprez #cerveceríaobni #craftbeer #craftbeernotcrapbeer #beergeek #beerporn #ilikebeerbeerisgood #beerstagram #hacercervezaesarte #ilikehidromiel

[gaelforcewine]

This is what plums and (what??) hierloom tomatoes look like while fermenting in honey. #tomatoesarefruit #melomel #plum #mead (at Gael Force Wine & Mead) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiJqNLaNscU/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#tomatoesarefruit #melomel #plum #mead

[graytopbrewingco]

3 berry #melomel #brewday is in the books. ABV should be around 15%. I plan on bottling this one in early December. #hornofthor #mead #blackberries #raspberries #blueberries #honey #yeast #diy #handmade #homebrew #homebrewing #rdwhahb #billshoneyfarm https://www.instagram.com/p/ChiX_oMJS1v/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#melomel #brewday #hornofthor #mead #blackberries #raspberries #blueberries #honey #yeast #diy #handmade #homebrew #homebrewing #rdwhahb #billshoneyfarm

[prussianmemes]

remember to put buckethead varg on the labels as you jar your melomel mead. it guarantees passable quality.

#name censored for computers purposes #not bad for a first batch #it's honey #blueberries #lemon peels #and a tiny bit of black tea #fermenting for about a month #filtered afterwards just for any fruit debris #~17-20% ABV so not bad #going to try some more normal mead next #i have to figure out how to minimize the fermenting aftertaste if i do melomel again #pic #irl me #i hope someone gets the nordic as fuck #pure prussian german ancestry reference #this one is for you sigismund steinhauser...

[congliocchidellatigre]

#bloodymary rivisitato! #cocktail con #idromele si trasforma in #bloodymead La ricetta originale prevede in ml

Limone 15

Vodka 45

Pomodoro 90

Gradazione circa 12°

La mia versione è per 5 cocktail

Limone 45

Acqua 205

Vodka 125

Idromele al pomodoro 375

Per una gradazione similare

Naturalmente va aggiunto prima di bere #salsaworcester #tabasco #pepe #saledisedano e #ghiaccio

#icoloridellidromele #pazzomele #homebrewingexperience #meadislife #batino #mead #miele #pomodoro #melomeleallapizzaiola #melomele #worchestersauce #vodka

#icoloridellidromele #batino #idromele #mead #pazzomele #meadislife #casaparrini #homebrewingexperience #miele #melomele #bloodymary #bloodymead #Instagram

[clatterbane]

Well, I would say that was some healthy leftover yeast in the jug. Also guessing that pineapple juice must have a talent for foaming up.

And again, I am reminded to pick up some tubing that will actually fit for blowoff hose in just such situations. Because I have a couple of sizes, none of which is what I would need for this.

(I already rinsed out the airlock once a little while ago, and tbh I will probably just leave it now until I get up. Good thing there is an overflow container under it, is all I can say.)

#video #redneck brewing #melomel #alcohol #eventually #if it doesn't all foam out #homebrewing

[cremfeegle]

VERY happy yeast

#mead #melomel #my special little project just for me :3 #homebrew #brewing

[boissonsaumiel]

Slideshow on the benefits of making melomels from juice (as opposed to fruit).

I'm continually surprised how many beginners want to make a melomel with real fruit for their very first batch.

It's extra work, it increases the risk of bacterial/fungal contamination, and it shrinks your yield -> the more fruit you put in fermentation vessel, the less mead your get out of the fermentation vessel.

#home brewing #mead making #melomels

[hilltopwineryandmeadery]

We have a great selection of both meads and fruit wines in stock right now! We have 8 meads in stock: Voyage (traditional clover), Salvaje (traditional wildflower) which is getting ready to sell out, Matador (blood orange melomel) Blueberry Melomel, Tiger’s Eye (hibiscus metheglin), Smart Ass (coffee mead), Hunter’s Moon (pumpkin melomel), and Dragon’s Breath (hickory smoked jalapeños and cayenne capsicumel). We also have ten fruit wines in stock, including a sangria and one traditional grape wine, a Rose’ (Blushing Goat). We have choices for you! Stop by for a $5 Flight and take home a favorite! We also ship. #vawine #mead #meadery #nelson151 #loveva #virginiamade #craftbeverage #gotmead #melomel We are always bottling something so watch for other favorites. (at Hill Top Berry Farm Winery and Meadery) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpVpUt_uEWD/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#vawine #mead #meadery #nelson151 #loveva #virginiamade #craftbeverage #gotmead #melomel

[maniculum]

Meadmaking

Hey all, Zoe here - the other half of this blog, and I decided to try my hand at posting - particularly my little mead-making project. Even though Mac is the medieval drinks expert, I just like mead as a drink and I feel like a potion-brewing witch when I make it. Beer was the more popular drink during the middle ages, as it was cheaper and more widely available, but I think it's nasty and who doesn't want to feel like Early English royalty?

As I dug into mead-making, I fell into a SUPER deep medieval-mead-making rabbit hole. I'm not a mead expert, and I'd highly recommend Susan Varberg's blog, Medieval Mead & Beer, for a very, very in-depth look at how to make medieval mead. HOWEVER, all that said, I did collect some research and played with it myself. Plus, I made some of my own recipes.

So. Mead. What is it? Fermented honey water, in its most basic form. Honey-wine, it can be called to those who aren't familiar. There's a lot of other names mead has when it's mixed with other things:

Mead – water, honey and yeast

Sack Mead – mead made with extra honey

Short Mead – low honey and low alcohol yeast to be drunk quickly

Hydromel – watered down mead (in period, another word for mead)

Braggot – (period) ale refermented with honey; (modern) malted mead

Melomel – mead made with fruit

Mulsum – mead made with fruit

Cyser – mead made with apples

Metheglin – mead with spices

Pyment, Clar – mead made with grape juice

Hippocras – spiced wine, sweetened (but not fermented) with honey

Botchet — caramelized honey mead

Really, though, when you see it on the shelf, a pumpkin melomel will be marketed as "Pumpkin Mead," so really only the brewmasters get into the weeds on the names. I was really curious as to how the ingredients were sourced in the middle ages - nowadays, brewers get really into where they source their ingredients (there's a bazillion different yeasts you can use!), but after doing some research, turns out the medievals were too!

Honey.

The medievals categorized honey in different ways. The best quality honey was called "life honey" and was the honey that dripped freely from the wax when pierced. Grades of honey diminished as the honey became harder to get out of the hive. The dregs of honey (collected by heating the frame in water to blend the honey but not melt the wax) was given to servants and was not preferred. Honey was also categorized by location - Egyptian honeys were very popular and expensive. Honey from different regions in Spain were considered of different quality - one merchant got particularly fussy when one of his batches was "spoiled" by mixing honey from a better region with that from a worse region. Finally, honey was categorized by flower type. One monetary requested honey made only from lavender. Since hives were highly mobile frames or skeps, it would have been possible for apiarists to move their hives to lavender fields.

Water.

Water is, well, water. Right? Not quite. Medieval recipes do specify using fine, spring water. The water and honey were often boiled together - likely to kill bacteria. However, the wording on "boille" is not super clear. Mead-masters knew that honey shouldn't be boiled (it kills natural yeast), so whether or not the must (the water/honey mix) was boiled in the modern sense or just warmed is unclear. Perhaps the need for "fine, spring, fresh water."

Yeast.

While modern brewers and vintners have a wide variety of yeasts to choose from, medieval brewmasters didn't have as many options. There were a few different options, however. Baking yeast (like a sourdough starter) was one option, while other recipes call for the leftover lees of wine/mead batches. Hops were also used. Of course, yeast is also naturally occurring, so brewers could fairly reliably rely on the natural yeast to kick-start itself.

I'll dump my own mead pics here and then get into the details of a Middle English mead recipe in part two, I guess. I'll talk a bit about the mead-making process, too. Mead is made by mixing honey and water into a must. Then, yeast is added. Modern mead-makers also add yeast nutrients and other additions to ensure their batch doesn't get infected.

A newly made bottle of mead. Notice the cloudy colour characteristic of new mead. As the yeast eats the sugars, they'll create a bottom layer of debris and the mead will clear, as seen below.

After the primary fermentation has occurred (you can tell when the bubbles of gas, telling you the yeast is eating, have stopped), mead-makers will re-reack their mead. This involves moving it from one jug to the next.

At this point, the mead can be put into a closet and age for a while. The best meads have high clarity - that is, they're clear! The example below is only about 2 months old. It has a way to go, but has good clarity already. Notably, the sagas state that the best, oldest, clearest meads were served to Odin and the gods.

Anyway - that's the basics of mead-making. I'll make a part two about older recipes! Sources:

Beekeeping in late medieval Europe: A survey of its ecological settings and social impacts. Llu.s SALES I FAVÀ, Alexandra SAPOZNIK y Mark WHELAN

Trade, taste and ecology: honey in late medieval Europe. Alexandra Sapoznik, Lluís Sales i Favà & Mark Whelan

Of Boyling and Seething: A re-evaluation of these common cooking terms in connection with brewing. Susan Verberg.

#bees #beekeeping #mead #mead-making #mediveal #medieval literature #witches #cottagecore #potions #i feel like a witch #maniculum

[gaelforcewine]

Pressing all the goodness from fermented peaches! #melomel #peach #mead (at Gael Force Wine & Mead) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiJpt6YNC1j/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#melomel #peach #mead

[graytopbrewingco]

Ran to #billshoneyfarm in Meridianville today and picked up a gallon of honey for a 3 berry #melomel. This will be the second release in my #hornofthor #mead series. Should be done just in time for the holidays. #mjolnir #asgard #ragnarok #rdwhahb #homebrewing #handmade #diy #honey #bees #beesknees https://www.instagram.com/p/ChddvlYJ3Ap/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#billshoneyfarm #melomel #hornofthor #mead #mjolnir #asgard #ragnarok #rdwhahb #homebrewing #handmade #diy #honey #bees #beesknees