Distilled mead

[RumJohn]

Has anybody distilled mead and if so, what did you get?

[Benoit]

Without knowing a proper mead recipe I wouldn't call it mead but I have fermented a honey wash to make spirit. Honey, water, raisins & yeast was all that went in & it came out ok. I wasn't thrilled with it flavour wise I thought it was a little bland but I used cheapo supermarket honey blend, I'm sure if you could get raw honey at a reasonable price there would be a bigger flavour carried over.
With a teaspoon of honey in the finished spirit it was pleasant enough, smooth, it just lacked a little something for me personally. It was one of the first things I made though & my cuts weren't great, it may be a recipe I revisit as it did make a good winter warmer in hot lemon for those who don't like whisky.
I think I was expecting too much from it & being a fairly seasoned whisky drinker my tastebuds were expecting more of a slap about! Raw honey or one of the more flavoured varieties cost a fortune in the uk & I wasn't prepared to put £30-40 into an experiment, I'd love to see what someone with your experience could do with it though John

[packapoo]

I used to play around with mead some years back. One of the first things that struck me was a lot of the recipes out and about were far too light on the honey requirement which resulted in a rather bland, taste lacking result. Something like JAOM with a higher honey ration was my go and I'd think it would still out rather well.

[RumJohn]

Gentlemen: Thank you for the feed back.

Honey is bloody expensive, but China does produce a lot. This island has very clean air, and for China, the mountains are very clean. Not so on the mainland. The local honey is very good.

I have never tried mead, but distilling it holds a certain attraction.

I have 2 days on my first wash. SG of 1.090 prior to pitching yeast. Second day 1.090. Third day 1.065. Temp relatively constant at 30C.

It smells absolutely superb. Where it will finish I have no idea. With my rum, I encourage local natural yeasts, etc. As such I don't have/use airlocks. Equipment is clean but not sterile. No reason why mead should be more susceptible to contamination that my rum washes.

[packapoo]

Be interested in your insights when mission accomplished RJ.
AS to the JAOM have seen it mentioned as an ingredient in cloning a particular liquid refreshment....Just can't remember which one

[Seagull]

May I ask what JAOM is please?

A quick Google gave me this:

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/JAOM

I don't think that's it!!

[GrunthosTheFlatulent]

JAOM = Joe's Ancient Orange Mead.

I have absolutely no idea who Joe is in this instance.

Here's a link,

[Seagull]

Thanks GTF!!

[gaza the instructor]

Very nice to, when brewed with care
and most important with mead patience.

[packapoo]

Ha ha gaza, you didn't get that wrong in either aspect....may take a while but worth the end result.

[Phantom]

There's a few parts of the world that do have a tradition of stilling honey spirits. Dunno what they're like.

JAOM would likely NOT be good for stilling. Though that's more to do with knowing something of meads. JAOM is designed for the new mead maker in mind, so they can get most/all the ingredients in a supermarket/grocery shop.

It's a quite unconventional method which works well, as long as you stick to the method religiously. Deviate and it's not good.

The reason it wouldn't likely distill well is the same as why it's not a good dry mead recipe. It relies on residual sweetness to balance it and stilling would remove that.

Of course, sweetening the resulting distillate may work but you'd likely end up with something more like a liqueur than a spirit.

Not having tried commercially made honey spirit, I don't know what it's character or style would be like, but I'd guess making a traditional one for stilling would/could be a start.

But equally, would you make the batch like it was ready for drinking before running it? Or like with whiskies where the "beer" made for distilling is nothing like what you'd drink in a pub etc.......

[Myles]

Not sure I could justify distilling a honey based fermentation unless I happened to have a huge supply of honey available. I am not usually that lucky.

I usually follow the rule of substituting 1.25 kg of honey for 1 kg sugar in any recipe and usually make melomel as opposed to mead. Elderberry Melomel is a firm winner.

[RumJohn]

Gentlemen. Thanks again for the further input. At this stage I am undecided about continuing on or knocking the whole idea over. Mead certainly doesnt seem to get people on here really excited. But then, they are distillers at heart.

In the USA, within the alcohol arena,, meade is the smallest segment, but the fastest frowing. That is what made me look a little more closeley at it.

[Myles]

@RumJohn I don't object to the idea - I just never have enough honey available. I like mead.

Any idea what you would call the distilled product?

[RumJohn]

@Myles: No idea what distilled mead would be called. Sorry.

China is a huge producer of honey and although it is still expensive, I can get my hands on huge quantities. But the price does not justify distilling it - at least not yet.

In the interim I will stick with playing with a little mead and see what shakes. My first batch dropped to 0.000 SG today. Anticipate 12 - 12.5 % ABV.