NannyMead

Mead, also known as honey wine, is the oldest form of alcoholic beverage known to man.   It is made by fermenting honey and water which converts some of the sugar in honey into alcohol.  

Betty and I discovered Mead in 2013, we became curious after seeing Friar Tuck in the Robin Hood movies being a mead fan.   We purchased some mead at Specs and did a little research on the web.   We discovered there are several meaderies (mead making places) in Texas and, over several months, visited 3:

1. Dancing Bee in Rogers Tx
2. Texas Mead Works in Sequin
3. Rohan Meadery in La Grange Tx.

We've tasted Melomels (made with honey and added fruit), pyments (honey and grape juice) and just plain mead.   I like mead and melomels, Betty likes just sweet mead best.  

While tasting at various wineries, I also discovered port.   So far my favorite is Barrel Reserve Port from Mesina Hoff (we got some in Fredericksburg Tx), its available at Mesina Hoff in Bryan and Specs.    

Mead Making
We purchased the book "The Compleat Meadmaker" by Ken Schramm.   We both like sweet wine/mead (not all mead is sweet) and decided to make the suggested first recipe, a semi-sweet mead.   After reading the shopping suggestions and the basic mead making steps etc. we made a list of what we needed.   With the book and a number of videos on YouTube, we made our first batch of must.
Betty's grandkids call her "Nanny" so we decided to call our mead NannyMead.

We went to Dallas's farmers market and bought some Sabine Creek Honey, then went to HomeBrew Headquaarters in Richardson Tx, and bought a beginner's kit, extra carboys, yeast, nutrient, and energiser.   We also checked out the Wine Maker's Toy Store (AKA: Fine Vine Wines) in Carrollton Tx which has a little larger selection but is farther away.   There are still a few items we will need as the batch progresses (and more batches follow) some bottles, a corker and maybe another carboy.   After talking to several folks, we discovered SunnyVale Honey about two miles from our house, our next batch of must will be made from SunnyVale Honey.   Since we often visit Dancing Bee Meadry, in Rogers Tx, which is also the Walker Honey Farm, we will get some of their honey and make mead from it.   Our objective is to make sweet mead for home use (and maybe some friends or family).  

Our first batch of meade needed a lot of sweetening (adding honey after fermentation stops).   The first batch fermentation took a long time to start and it stopped and restarted during fermentation.   Then it didn't want to clear up so we finaly dosed it with Super-Kleer to get it clear.   The Sabine Creek Honey is a lot darker than the other two honeys we have (SunnyVale and Walker).  

We now have a second batch (made from SunnyVale Honey) that has completed fermenting and it's initial tasting was much better than our first batch.   A lot of things changed in making the second batch: we used SunnyVale Honey, a starter solution, more honey (18#), and in general did a better job of preparing the must.    

We have enough Orange Blossom Honey from Walker Honey Farms (Dancing Bee Meadery) to make a batch and I'm excited about starting fermentation.    

Update 09/28/16
Our third batch and all subsequent batches are made with Walker Farms Honey, we love it.   You can buy it in bulk, very reasonably, (about $40 per galon of wildflower) if you bring your own bottle.   We bought 3 galons in their bottles originally, now we just refill the bottles.   Once every two months, we go to Dancing Bee and get 3 galons of (usually wildflower) honey, that gives us two batches.   We also get a few spreadables, and an assortment of other honeys, usually for our kids, who each have favorites.   Our kids are all grown with kids and grandkids of their own.  

2016, aging rack, last batch here is Batch 27.   Mostly Big Mouth Bubbler carboys.   They sit here for 8 months, then to the utility room for racking and finally bottling.   You can see the sediment before they're racked.

Three more aging next to fermenter.   These are the oldest batches soon ready to rack or bottle.   Batch 17, farthest away, is the next to rack.

We can age a little over two batches (50 Liters), in bottles.   This is where we keep the batches just before we drink them.

We store 42 Liters in the back of Betty's closet.

During aging the corboy has a tag (Green Circle) with the batch number and date fermentation began.   During fermentation the fermenter has a batch/date tag so we always know what batch is where.   The rest of the batch data is kept in the Batches page.

Each liter bottle also has a batch/date tag.   We also store mead on our wine rack (it also handles 1L bottles).   We get 20 or 21 Liters per batch.   As of today we have about 15 batches aging, 11 in corboys and 4 in bottles.

Our fermentation area, formerly known as the utility room.   Note the two boxes on the floor by the fridge, they are two 3 gal. carboys for later on.

Voilla, we have fermentation (it took three days but it finally got started).   You can see the bubbles breaking on top of the vodka in the air lock.   This is after perking all night, I am about to add some more vodka to the air lock.

A few weeks later it stopped bubbling, so we racked it into this clear carboy.   Lo and behold, it started bubbling again, I guess the motion of moving exposed some yeast that wasn't finished yet.   You can also see some of the cleaned wine bottles we will be re-using.

We bought a bunch of these 1 Litre bottles for when bottling time comes around.   I also want to make a wine rack in the dining room so I needed to know what size the bottles were.   In addition we have some regular mead/wine bottles we will re-use.

A one liter bottle with a starter for sweet mead, it started bubbling away (in about 15 minutes) on the bar in the kitchen.   We'll start a batch of sweet mead in a couple of days.

Batch number two (sweet mead) is fermenting in the white fermenter barrel.

Bubble bubble, toil and trouble.

Our fermentation room (AKA utility room).   Batch 1 is on the far end, batch 2 is in the fermenter (barrel) and still bubbling.

I finally got batch number 1 to clear up, after dosing it with Super-Klear.   Compare to Batch 2's color.

Batch 1, racked into two 3 gal. carboys, ready to sweeten.

Our first wine rack used to store empty bottles and aging bottles of mead.   It holds 45 750ml or 1 Liter bottles.   Link to Mead Related WoodWorking Page.

A wine rack I made for Cindy with glass storage under the top.   This rack holds 18 glasses and 40 bottles up to 1 Liter.   This is almost a mini wine cellar!

Batch 3's starter bubbling.

Here we are making a batch, the must is pasturizing in the stock pot on the stove.   You can see most of the equipment we use here, you can just see the edge of the fermenter barrel sitting on the floor.

Pasturizing the must, note the thermometer hanging on a 1/4" dowel.

Prepared, everything here is sanitized (except the drill motor), ready to make a batch of must.

The starter has almost stopped bubbling.   Note the stock pot on the stove, pasturizing.

We've boiled the water, set it off the heat, and added the honey.   Now we're pasturizing the must.   Note the thermometer on the 1/4" dowel, this one floats but is too long to stand upright, so I hang it.

The must is pasturized, now we're cooling it back to about room temp so we can add the yeast starter.   We could have just let it sit in cool water, but Betty added the ice from the fridge to speed things up a bit.

Fermenter sanitized and ready for the must.   We leave it covered after its sanitized to prevent any wild yeast in the air from contaminating it.

Batch 3 is in the fermenter, batch 2 is clearing up.

Batch 2 clearing up.   Compare with Batch 1.

Here is a good look at a starter while its fermenting.   I used a clear bottle so I could see what was going on and that when I pitched it, all the good stuff got into the must.

Closer pic showing the froth inside the starter bottle.   I know it looks kind of ugly, but when you think about whats going on here (yeast multiplying by the millions) its great.