How to Make Mead - Let's Make LEMON Mead!
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- Опубліковано 1 лют 2021
- Lemon Mead, why haven't we done this before? Not sure, aside from Brian not being a huge fan of the lemon. Lemon mead seems natural, as if lemon and honey just go together. So, let's make some lemon mead, shall we?
Lemon Mead Finishing and Bottling: • Lemon Mead Finishing a...
Lemon Mead Tasting: • Lemon Mead Tasting
Ingredients:
Red Star Premier Blanc Yeast: amzn.to/2O13vJh
3.5 lbs Sweet Squeeze Orange Blossom Honey: amzn.to/2NYUErz
Water to fill
Lemon Zest from Four lemons
1 teaspoon Loose Black Tea
1 teaspoon Fermaid O: amzn.to/3tmEvw2
How Important are Tannins and Acids in Brewing?: • How Important are Tann...
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#mead #lemonmead #howtomakemead
First I want to say is you both are awesome on your videos. I have been eating better via all the CS videos. Also the mead, cheap wine, growing your own stuff, and making your own things. I would love to donate to the vip club, but is it yearly or what? In this time money is tight for us all. I would love to see more videos from you both. I am a liquor and wine manger at a local grocery store, and talk about you both all the time with customers and employees. Everything you both do is appreciated, thank you. Micah
Thank you Micah. Glad we can be of some help to you! As for donating to the VIP club, it's monthly, and the link is here: www.city-steading.com/vip-club. We try to be active on all our platforms and respond to everyone, but of course, that's not always possible. The Channel here is our core. This is where the vast majority of our content is. The VIP club is like a community, people get quicker access to us and our admins who answer questions and in general, people hang out and talk about brewing, cooking and gardening and other CS related things. I highly recommend it if you can do it, if not, we're still here for you via the channel and FB page :)
@@CitySteadingBrews Done, I applied, thank you for everything, hugs to you both, Micah
@@micahtutor659 wow, that's awesome! Welcome aboard!
@@CitySteadingBrews thanks to you both!!!
Check your email or spam mail.... I sent you a message for the VIP Group!
Since I couldn’t get sweet squeeze in the U.K., I asked my aunt who lives in Sicily to send me some Sicilian orange blossom honey and I’m so looking forward to making the spiced methaglin!!
I bet that's going to taste fantastic!
@@chargingrhino5636 hope so! I’ll be sure to leave a comment once it’s bottled!
I always very very slightly heat my Honey Not to the point of boiling but just teleport of loosening it up a little bit
There needs to be a video of all of Brian’s rants.
Brian & Derica
Instead of lemon zest how about a mandarin mead, as you know mandarin has a unique aroma and taste it also has very little pith.
I have a Satsuma Mead in primary right now!
I put sake in my airlock because I bought a huge bottle and it turns out, I don't really like sake.
I have Sherry, it is horrible. Thanks for the advice.
If you want to make some wild yeast get some corn cobs remove the cernals keep in the sun with a cheese cloth over it for about 7 days
(Keep it dry ) then remove any roots with green bits and grind or mince it then use it as normal yeast.
You may hit well over 18.37% final gravity, I use the same yeast. It's a trooper and can chew through the sugars till completely dry. Can't wait to see the finished product.
I love Red Star Blanc as well.
Yep. Fermaid O clumps. Having used it a bunch, I can say that it does seem to eventually go into suspension, and the yeast seem to be able to use it. When I add it, I usually just dust the surface so it has less chance to clump. Works pretty well, but it doesn't matter much.
As for rehydrating yeast, Lallemand recently released a video on their UA-cam page discussing this. There is no real difference between rehydrating, or pitching dry. I always dry pitch when using dry yeast.
The only reason they would boil the honey was in the old recipes where it was honey straight from the hive and would have had all sorts of natural bits and bobs you didn't want in it.
I totally agree. Modern honey is 'clean' so we don't need to fool with it. I have my own hive and when I take honey from it there is ALL sorts of stuff in it. When I buy it, which is most of the time, it's (obviously) clean.
A lot of water in Old Time Europe wasn't considered safe to drink right from the source in many cases. That is why making alcohol was quite prevalent. They didn't realize that boiling the water would make it safe to consume. It's quite possible that boiling the honey and water together helped to remove the unwanted bits from the honey but also made the water more sanitary for use.
@@Onager-xv3gz actually, they did know that boiling water made it safer to drink. It's stated in written documents from the middle ages in france and britain. They didn't have a good grasp on the concept of microbes though. So they didn't really know why boiling was good.
Haha! Unbelievable! I actually put together this recipe 2 weeks ago because it seemed like a good combo. 3 pounds of orange blossom honey, and the zest from 4 lemons dumped on top of it. I even considered using tea, but didn't have any on hand so I opted out. A packet of 71B and some nutrient and it took off in like 2 hours.
I was so entertained! And the awesome knowledge!! I'm making mead for my handfasting ceremony this summer and this was so informative thank you!!
I love the idea of this one. I can almost taste it in my mind.
I use Fermaid O in my meads. Brian, I make a slurry with a little bit of water & it mixes quite easily, then you have no clumps.
I have used that same yeast for years in my wine making. Its very aggresive. It can ferment a 6 gallon batch in 10 to 12 days. At 15% abv.
Don't be too concerned with using lemonade. I've made several batches with good success. Both lemonade wine and mead. All while using Red Star Premier Blanc no less
adding the tea in this way is very interesting, looking forward to see the final result ...
Just ordered an Odin's Brewery T-shirt! I absolutely love how it looks and am excited to get it.
I also really want to try this recipe, so I can't wait to hear how it turns out!
Hello from sunny South Africa. Just wanted to say thank you for the content you guys make, i'm a new brewer and your channel actually inspired me to start brewing you guys make it look so fun. Can't wait to see what you brew next.
Sounds interesting, I made a basic honey mead which I aged for @ 8months before sampling one of the bottles and a blood mead ( cherries ) which I sampled after 4 months both were so different but really nice to drink. I had some friends over for a tasting who have been making mead for a while and they really enjoyed them. Thanks for your UA-cam mead programs it helped me so much to get going with this process and helped me get through the Covid restrictions as well with something else to do.
You might find it easier to mix by using your turkey baster to draw a bit of must and put it in a small jar. Add the Fermaid to the sample and shake the bejeezus out of it. When mixed, pour it back.
Thanks for making this! I’ve been wondering about lemon mead. I’d also love it if you decided to make a brew using mandarine oranges and their zest. The zest is totally different in flavour and scent.
Mmmm lemon...I'm really looking forwards to how this one turns out!
Ooh I'm too excited for this!
The addition of Fermaid O is interesting. I agree with your observation about honeys having varying degrees of sugar/sweetness. This just happened to me when I used a different honey provider.
i use red star sauvignon blanc and i hydrate my yeast in a little of my must just to make sure it starts. It is a very aggressive and fast ferment, my starting gravity is usually around around 1.150 to start (yes high for you all i know), but i still end up with 14-18% ABV in about 3 weeks, i like my mead on the sweeter side so YAY me LOL.
the point... red star is a solid yeast, works fast in the 15 or so batches i have made with it and i think/hope you all will have the same success
Just checked my 6.5 Gallon fermentation bucket I started today . 3 Big bubbles a second , going to Town . The liquid is 3 1/2 inches below the top of the bucket . Yeah, I brought everything back inside . The Temperature has been 42 degrees in the morning for the last week . I hope it don't Blow like the Blow Off Batch . But Hey, the harder it boils the quicker it makes . I keep the temperature at 72 in the cold weather , and 67 in the Hot . Outside in the Old Store it's whatever the weather is . When I put it in the ground I think it stays around 68 , same Temperature as Well Water. I'll keep you posted for Science . 🤠
Another excellent video! I would suggest adding the Fermaid-O while mixing the honey. I base it on the yeast not the gravity. And like you I think getting in Primary most of the time. However with really high starting gravities i do usually add 1 addition maybe 2 further down the line. It does make a difference if there is a chance of it getting stuck.
Premier Blanc has been my goto for restarting stuck fermentations. I find it to be a pretty cleanly fermenting yeast that won't bring its own flavors. I also add it to barleywines and other strong ales that age for a long time at the end of a long sit in the carboy to make sure I can carbonate in the bottle.
I made a lemon mead with real lemon the juice and the zest. Also used orange blossom honey. Has come out fantastic.
Yum, I really want to make this one.
I’m making it this weekend!!!!
I built an experimental hive out of scrap, got some bees from an acquaintances old farmstead, and got enough honey to make mead.
I have to build more permanent hives now. I don't get to drink the last four bottles until I have more bees.
Cheaper than buying honey.
CG on the 100k subs, you deserve more tho keep up the good work.
Thanks a ton!
Congrats on 100k subs btw!!
I use Fermaid-O as well, and can highly recommend it. I too 'front-load' all the neutrition and forget about it until it's done.
However, I add it to the honey, before water, and then mix thoughly. Makes it mix nicely together with the honey then :)
Thanks for sharing!
I've been using the Fermaid O the same way as you. It works great!
My latest fruity mead is finished at 11.03 ABV. I am happy indeed.
I have been heating my water and honey to around 100°F to loosen it up and mix faster. Using the Carlos Rossi 1 gal jug for primary gets heavy to shake the bejeezus out of lol. Only on my 2nd batch now, so looking forward to your heat vs no heat video
I used plain water in an airlock because I didn't think it would make a difference. I checked on it after a few weeks in secondary and found a bacterial mat that looked like "snot" on the surface of the airlock. I had to throw out the brew which was an apricot melomel. I learned my lesson.
I like it. I like it a lot!
I love you guys! Keep at it
I do heat my water and honey mix but I do it slowly and don't actually bring it to a boil I usually get it to around 130 degrees and then put it in the carboy. I still hydrate my yeast separately because I have gotten some bad yeast that never started and it really doesn't take any extra time with my process. I always enjoy your videos. skol
Don't be afraid of the goop Bryan!! Hehe
I'm intersted to see how mine turns out, i'd followed another recipe that did very similar, but put two of the lemons that were zested worth of juice in. we'll see if it was too much for the yeast. if that doesn't work, will try this one. I got some of the honey from your link, only issue was the temp during shipping seemed to sugar it so it was a rock when it got here. just gave it a warm bath for a while and was fine. They're shipping is great though, it came with a broken lid because of the bang around, but they include an additional lid in the box. that's smart shipping :)
Wow that's actually the yeast I use typically use and I'm trying 71b right now in a couple of brews, I get 15% out of that red star yeast pretty consistently
love love lemon.... i'll have to try this, and maybe do a lime one too.....
I made a lime and mint one that everyone seems to love. It's definitely a meadjito kind of drink but it has an almost keylime with mint. I'm not sure where the creamy taste came from but it's good.
You guys are really fun people!! I have enjoyed y’all’s videos so much. And thank you for explaining as much as you do. I don’t like to just know ‘how’ to do something but ‘why’ I’m doing it. Also what part of Florida are y’all coming from??
I agree with the not bothering to hydrate the yeast. I have had no difference between the 2 and you're putting the yeast in water anyway when you pitch it.
I've actually been thinking about doing a lemon mead, but trying to ape the sensation of lemon meringue pie- thinking about including a vanilla bean in secondary and backsweetening with lactose for that creamy feel.
Wow, you are a like a Chef envisioning a plate of ecstasy. I cook like that, wondering what this or that might do to enhance the experience. Thanks for pondering in chat, made me ponder along with you. Salute!
Loved the video,
Also gotta compliment on the thumbnail
Glad you like it
a meadery near me accidentally burned a batch of honey but they salvaged it and made a chocolate mead out of it which turned out great
I'd bet you could augment regular honey with belgian candy syrup. Could add some very interesting flavors and colors that way...
We do Bouchets at home, so we actually caramelize the honey. Usually atracts a lot of bees... An since we do 20L ish by batch, that can take a while to cool...
I think I’m about ready to start purchasing things but the last detail I need is where I’m going to store everything in my small apartment. I think I have a good idea but i need one detail to make it work: how tall is the tallest of your primary fermenting containers with the airlock? Could you please take a quick rough measurement or just recommend the right amount of clearance? Thank you, your videos have answered all my question and hopefully allow me to brew correctly.
Heres the idea if you are interested: If I can locate plastic storage shelves tall enough for the fermenters i can store everything neatly and away from sunlight by covering it with a tapestry.
On the Red Star Premium Blanc, I used for a Blackberry mead... it finished at 16.7%
When i pitch yeast i put some of my mash in a container then add the yeast to that, so it doesn't change the gravity.. Been doing that since i started making wine. Premier blanc is awesome in honey.. Ferments well
Yeast won’t change your gravity anyway though. That’s why we just put it all right in and take readings a lot of times.
Congrats on the 100k!
Thank you!!
Hmmmm...it could be interesting with an addition of thyme...
I did this same recipe with orange peel instead of lemon, it is taking forever to ferment. I didn’t use any fermadO. It’s been going for 6 weeks and it’s still bubbling away. Good luck hope your brew turns up well. Love the videos
Have you guys ever tried using the stirring paddle drill bit attachment? I used it to mix the honey and it was super quick and very thorough.
One last thing. I also use fermaid-o and I’ve found that if I make a bit of a slurry with it before it gets added it incorporates much easier. Just like when you’re adding cornstarch to something.
Yep, makes sense.
Anything that clumps goes into my brew room magic bullet.
Today I just bottled a 3 litre batch of lemon mead, 4 standard wine bottles, I used the whole lemon in the fermentaton and it worked out fine, I find that citrus fruit seems to make the mead brew really fast.
Since you are dry pitching the yeaat, you might want to mix it with the Fremaid-O before adding both to the brew. It should work like mixing cornstarrch with sugar before adding it to whatever to prevent clumping. I've noticed that you sometimes mix the Fermaid-O with a liquid to desolve it before adding. Mixing the yeast with the Fermaid-O should work in that situation as well. I am grateful for this mead idea. I have a lemon tree which often produces more lemons than I can use so I am going to give this a try when the current crop ripens. Have you ever tried brewingg with kumquats? Their skins are sweet while their flesh is tart -- the reverse of oranges. Thanks for the inspirations.
There’s no reason to hydrate and putting yeast in with that concentration of nutrients could be harmful.
Awsome I asked for this video months ago
I made a Orange wine that came out pretty good. I call it "Orgor Saft".
I bloom my yeast, because it goes into solution so much easier and I know it's active by the time I add it. I sample my mead after everything has been added.
I make mead with store bought raw honey and from my hives once or twice a year. The fresh honey I heat to skim it off because of not having professional filtration devices, but it's really only to get out whatever the fine mesh can't.
Hi! You two are awesome and have peaked my Meade interest! (Beer brewer) wonder if the yeast nutrient would mix better if you add it after the first water addition? Cheers!
So for the boiling the honey part;
I’ve seen on many videos and articles, that the reason for this is that when you being honey to the boil, (slowly while stirring and taking off the boil as soon as it begins to foam) your breaking down the cell walls gently to preserve flavour while making it more attack-able for the yeast right away so it has even less of a reason to stall/ not be able to munch and colonise :)
I could be wrong - it’s just what I’ve learnt so far :)
That’s applicable for fruit but not so much for honey.
On handling fermaid O, I had the same goop problem using it, and also had an overflow problem adding it to a batch, then I reread the instructions. They say to mix it with some water before adding it to your must. I found a couple tablespoons of water in something like a shot glass let me mix it quick and easy. It dissolves reasonably well, and is much easier to poor into the brew. YMMV.
Pfft... directions.... just kidding!
@@CitySteadingBrews #IKnowRite?!!?
Following up, I would certainly recommend making a lemon wine (skeeter pee), as is this one's inspiration.... assuming you really like lemonade (like I do), as it adds a nice fermented lemon taste to what is otherwise lemonade.
1 year later, and I wish I made a 3 gallon of it (as it was a more involved). Easily one of my favourite wines. It came out around 8%, and it has aged better than expected (since the recipe assumed it would be gone by the end of that summer).
Of course, the one issue for Brian is that to balance the tart, you'd need to find a better way to sweeten it (other than sugar). Final gravity was 1.051 (which still leaves it pretty tart)...
It's called dissolved :p
I just fill the sink with hot water from the tap, and let my bottle of honey soak in that to soften. I do the same thing to fix the crystals
I don’t boil the water, but I heat the water to like 110 F because there is so much less stirring to do. Plus, then when I top it off with cold water, the must is the perfect temperature for the yeast. I don’t think 110 will hurt flavors, but 212 might.
Blanc is one of my favorites in my experience it cuts out at 12ish leaving 10-15 points almost everytime
Great video I might try to make something similar to that :-)
As far as I can understand boiling honey over 50°C starts killing some flavours and properties in the honey, heating it will kill other stuff yes, but the laboratory yeast will be much more predominant than the natural yeast... Which still will get in there in the lemon peels or other fruit/fiber you add...
For me just shaking the bottle with natural temperature water and some heat like from a cup of tea or using warm water when shaking the "empty" honey jar to extract more does the job... Plus you don't have to wash a pot afterwards :)
Hey guys, thanks as always.
Is there a reason why you used dry tea leaves and not the usual concentrated steeped tea?
Thanks!
I wonder if it would be better to add the Fermaid-O/hulls at the shake the bejeezus stage to break up the clumps? Perfect timing for this, I have honey, an empty fermentator and lemons (also black tea).
Can I ask for a mild spoiler? Do you think I should start this today?
Doing a raspberry blueberry mead wish I had known about the rumble jar!
I use the Magic Bullet self stirring cup to mix my fermaid-o because of the clumping lol.
Good idea.
When you add the yeast hulls hydrate them using your self stirring cup
Could do that.
I am sure by now someone pointed out that if you took a small amount of must and your Fermaid O in a small jar with a screw lid, then shake the bejezuz out it, clumping problem solved.
You guys should get a Discord going. I would love to have a place to talk about brewing and farming
Oh! You have playlists! How practical! I feel like such a grandpa for not figuring that out in the year that I have watched you guys. Great content though. "71BEAST!"
lol
Also to get rid of any residual wax 😊
This might be good mixed with the dandelion mead or combining the recipes
Brian i woulda used a small hops nylon bag, granted they are spendy but will save some help when you rack
hugs to ya both, gonna make a crazy one today. blood orange, orange blossom mix. thats the first one. I have been fermenting bourbon soaked apples, then transfer apples to a wildflower honey thats gonns be a crazy mix. Oh btw my kilju is still sitting after months. you both have givin me so many ideas for many meads. and natural ingredients
The rumble jar is WAY easier than a bag.
@@CitySteadingBrews have you used the big mouth bubblers? i have two of the 6.5's have you ever used the stainless dry hoppers from them. Im kinda unsure about them?
I’m sure you have along list of ideas to get through already, but I’ve been thinking about making a citron mead. It’s a citrus fruit, a fair bit more bitter Than lemon, with a perfume-like scent. I would love to see how you would build a recipe around that.
Have yall done a frozen concentrate melomel? If not could you either in primary or secondary? Looking for ideas and instruction on getting good gravity readings.
It may be easier to mix in before you put the rumble jar in :P. I actually use a mixer I use with a drill since its just so dang fast to mix everything including the honey.
How about adding your nutrients when you add the first half of water? That way you stir/shake the crap out of it early on.
You ahould trademark thia recipe as "Vikings Pee"
Heck yeah! Skeeter Pee is good stuff, I think I'd prefer some Viking Pee though! LOL
if you are trying new yeasts, I'd love to see one with WLP099 (if you fortify it, I wouldn't be opposed haha.) This seems like possible way to make non distilled high proof frementables
From what I've read, this takes a lot of work to do. Step feeding, nutrient additions, etc. The tolerance is high, but it still takes a lot of work to get it there.
I've used premiere Blanc for a long time mostly because I ordered a bunch of it when I first started It's crazy powerful definitely made a rookie mistake of not checking the sugar levels of a blackberry wine before adding sugar ended up with an og of 1.136 and went went dry to .990 so right around 19 percent this was a wine not a meade I also love making lemon wine I enjoy lemon and sour so it's always very acidic probably far more acidic than would be ideal for the yeast in primary fermentation but it always Powers right through it
I've never really used it, as I tended to stay with things I knew. We started branching out and so far I'm impressed with classique. The premier blanc is more like EC-1118 as I understand it.
Smartwater says it has a ph of 9, ever think to use some of that to reduce acidity?
my first mead was from a online recipe that called for you to heat but not boil the must as you add ingredients, I've since learned otherwise but lots of beginners are led to heat their mead.
You should do that boil test
Brian heres one for ya. Video idea.. Make a video listing all the equations needed to figure out abv, sugar levels, gravities.. Like the fg when you backsweeten when it ferments more then you have to find out the new abv bc the added points.. So a whole mad scientist video on equations..
I suppose having them all in one place wouldn't be a bad idea.
@@CitySteadingBrews definitely not and put em up on the screen so we can write them down
Lithuanians still do the boiling bit. It could make sense back in the old days, in order to get clearer brew, maybe that was the trick. Honey would melt, as well as wax and other debris and float to top? Also, dodgy water sources perhaps? Boiled water would have less oxygen, so there is that.
Really like that Rumble Jar. Have you tried it as a filter for an auto-siphon while racking a brew with a fruit cap? Will the 64 ounce filter fit inside a Big Mouth Bubbler as a replacement for a brew bag?
It should fit, and no, haven't tried it as a filter, but it should work well!