Mead, anyone?

jujube

jujube

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Location
I think I'm in Florida, but I'm not sure any more.
Is anyone here into mead? I've been reading quite a bit about it and thought I'd give it a try. I bought two bottles of North Carolina mead last week and opened one today.

Boy, was that stuff nasty! I don't know if it's supposed to taste that way or if it's spoiled, but it smells like beer that's been sitting around open in the sun for a few days (you know, the kind you find in the bushes the week after a big BBQ) and tastes worst then it smells. I actually had to spit out the mouthful I had.

I've emailed the "meadery" to see what they have to say, but if that's the way it tastes, then I'm not going to be a mead fan. I'll go back to my beer and hard cider.

That stuff wasn't cheap, either......

I've brushed my teeth twice and still can't get the taste out of my mouth. Yuck!
 

I never heard of mead, so I read up on it. Maybe that particular batch didn't come out right. It's probably important to get the yeast & other spices just right.
 
Mead is made from fermented honey plus fruits and spices and sometimes hops, but basically it's honey wine. Well made mead isn't super sugary though, and it's not supposed to smell or taste like beer. The ingredients can be fermented to the point where there is no sugar left at all and it's left tasting like a well balanced table wine that rivals any grape wines you’ve tried.

You got a bottle from a bad batch. Or maybe a novice mead maker.
 

Good mead tastes good, and not as you described jj. I have had a lot of mead; the one who ran my medievalist program was a socialite who threw medieval faires (invitation only) and I was a serving wench. Loved the taste, texture, sight & smell of genuine recipes for mead.
 
Back in the 70s
My boyfriend and I made mead from a recipe from the "Mother Earth News". My nurse friend gave us IV tubing so the gas could escape while it was fermenting.

It didn't taste much like anything, as I remember.
 
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RadishRose said:
Back in the 70s
My boyfriend and I made mead from a recipe from the "Mother Earth News". My nurse friend gave us IV tubing so the gas could escape while it was fermenting.

It didn't taste much like anything, as I remember.
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That sounds like fun!

You used to be able to buy these little brewing kits for making homemade beer. I tried it once, and my little plastic beer barrel exploded. The house smelled like a combination of baking bread and rotting plant-matter for about a month.
 
Alligatorob said:
I have tried may times to make homemade wine, using grapes, strawberries, peaches, cherries, even cantaloupe, mead as well. The results have varied from disastrous (cantaloupe) to kind of interesting. Never great, or even real good. Homemade wine is a challenge.
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My grandfather made beer at home. He was a dairy farmer, so had access to equipment that he could modify. His favorite was his tomato beer. All the neighboring farmers liked it, too, so he never had any trouble getting enough tomatoes for it.
 
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