Mead

Homebrewing literature is full of references to mead needing years to mature. I've heard brewers say they wished they could make a mead that would be ready to drink in just a year.

And my answer is always, I've made meads that were on tap in three months.

And it's true. I make light meads, original gravities around 1.070, usually twelve pounds of honey for a five gallon batch. And I usually use the lees of a recently racked cider as my yeast culture, meaning I'm pitching a massive amount of live, hungry yeast. Honey is hard to ferment, but a sort of shock and awe campaign works.



But this mead sat in the secondary for a year or so, and I think it's benefited from it. Gravity-wise, it had pretty much fermented out when I racked it. It dropped four more points in the secondary, but it was already pretty dry when I racked it.

Dry, crisp, just a hint of acidity. And crystal clear. It's perfect, or at least it's exactly what I had in mind when I commenced to fermenting the honey.