Just finished a bottle of 6-year-old basic mead, and it was fantastic. This will be no surprise to the veterans here, but I wanted to post in order to maybe help encourage those who are newer...
The recipe and procedure was simple: 3.75 pounds of grocery-store honey and 1.25 gallons of water; K1V yeast rehydrated as per the package instructions; 3 hits of nutrient at pitching, then 24 hours later, then 24 hours after that. OG was 1.096. FG, 15 days later when I bottled it, was 0.998, so ABV was 13%. I racked it once, after 7 days, from a covered kettle to a carboy and a smaller growler-type jug with fermentation traps.
My notes say it tasted hot and was somewhat harsh 2 months after bottling (in 12-oz returnable beer bottles), but it's gotten much, much better with age. It was good after a year, and it just kept getting better after that. Today it's very smooth, sneaky smooth in fact -- you wouldn't guess that it's 13% alcohol. I wish I had more than just one more unopened bottle left
I brew two or three small batches each year, in the winter when my basement temperature is in the mid- to low sixties, and I drink two or three bottles each month -- sometimes from older batches and sometimes newer. It takes a while to build a pipeline, but if you stick with this hobby, the payoff after a few years is amazing.
"I'm on 35 batches and none of them last for more than 3 years. Good on you."
Thats untortunate.
I have some traditional and spiced higher ABV (14 plus) meads that are approacing 10 years and they continue to get better every year. Note Melomels tend to peak at about 3 years, they dont really get any better nor worse beyond that for some reason. Not sure why but thats been my expierience.
Lower ABV or Sessiion meads (8% or so) tend to be consumed pretty quickly. But again with age (months vs years) do get better.
Post time 2022-12-4 22:21:07