It is finally ready. Maybe it was ready some time ago but it does not hurt to be a little patient. But here it is: The mead!
The goal was to make a light wine but in this respect I underestimated the body that honey gives to the final result. I thought that since it is 72% sugar which would be converted to alcohol and CO2 that there would not be much body left.
But here are the results. I made 4 versions. Here you can see the recipe.
Plain (No additions), Mint, Ginger (+ a little thyme), Hop
Since they are very similar I will describe the common features and then the differences.
I don’t have any contacts with the gods so I did not know whether to drink it cold or at room temperature.
I came to the conclusion that it is probably a choice that everybody should make for themselves. The most logical choice is to drink it at room temperature as a desert wine or liqueur. If you want you can add a little sugar in your glass to make it into a sweet desert wine. But since it is not very sweet you can also drink it cold.
Cold or warm, they all are heavy, full bodied, well balanced, little sweet, little acidic. They give the impression that there is a lot of alcohol in it but I estimate that it can be maximum 11,5%. The colour is what you would expect from a drink for the gods. It can only be described as a warm gold or whisky.
There are some differences between the 4 versions. The version with hop deviated a bit from the rest although there was only 1 hop pellet in 5 litres.
Plain: Most taste of honey. Bit sweeter than the others. Most accessible. My favourite.
Ginger: No sign of ginger in aroma or taste at all, but nice and complex taste. Little bit freshness.
Mint: No sign of mint. Bit more accessible, pleasant sweetness, a little freshness.
Hop: No sign of hop. Smells remarkably like whiskey and has a feeling of much alcohol. Most suitable for drinking at room temperature.
I have made mead before and I found that people either like it a lot or not at all. You cannot compare it to normal white wine. Maybe with heavy desert wine but the way I make it it is not sweet. Off course you can add sugar to your glass when you drink it.
I like all 4 versions. They are not very different from each other, but my preference would be the plain.
Cheers
Hans
