Forgotten mead

At the weekend I rummaged through the cupboard under the stairs, whilst clearing up after a beer related incident, and stumbled upon - a bottle of mead, which, according to the label, I made 17 years ago !

I'll have to approach it sometime with the appropriate level of caution I'm not sure if homemade wine grade corks are really up to 17 year ageing ...

I suspect mead does not go off. As long as you can get a straw in, you'll be okay.

I am intrigued by the

clearing up after a beer related incident,

Care to share?

I was just cleaning up a brown sticky puddle from a crown cork that didn't seal on a beer bottle further up the winerack.

I'm sorry to disappoint, I know you were hoping for a much better story than that. I'll try harder next time

My parents recently found a bottle of mead they'd made and given to my grandparents back when my older brother was born - 1974! Don't think they've dared try it yet, but surely this stuff doesn't go off.. might be a bit dangerous though!

mmmm ...honey is well known for not going off and alcohol is another way of preserving...

Do you have a guinea pig?

do husbands count?

Thought of this thread the other day when we found a half bottle of unmarked home something in the racks. Unmarked suggests my son made it, so we deduced it could be mead. We were right and it was far more mellow and to my liking then when it was younger.

So how were your ancient meads and did the guinea pig/husband survive?

Since it seemed an approprate occasion, I dug out from the cupboard under the stairs a bottle of mead, this one 14 years old, to take with me to the bodger's ball. I couldn't help feeling a tad smug drinking homemade mead, made with my BIL's honey, from goblets I turned on the pole lathe ! Can't get much more homemade than that, I reckon.

Anyway, the 14 years had done it no harm whatsoever. It was quite a sweet mead, to be sipped rather than quaffed, but there was no shortage of willing guinea pigs. It went down pretty well. Makes me tempted to start another batch ...

This is funny, I was going to try a very small batch of lavender mead tomorrow

When you say lavender mead - would that be mead from lavender honey, or a mead flavoured with lavender ?

I have made some spiced mead before; I used the sort of spices you might find in mulled wine, but added to the ferment, so cinnamon, ginger, lemon (reducing the added citric acid to suit) etc. One of the things I worry about when making mead is avoiding too much of a "medicinal" character. Especially when using honey washed from cappings etc where any beeswax getting into the mix can contribute quite an aroma/taste. Similarly the spices can make things a bit medicinal - especially being heavy handed with cloves ! It would be interesting to know how lavender works. If you do it, keep us posted.

Of course, I make mead as a general purpose drink; it has also been used for medicinal purposes in the past, in which case the aims are quite different !

Oh, sorry. Lavender infused honey. It would be added. I have a recipe from a fermentation book. When I go to do this later, I'll make sure to put the recipe up.

At any rate, it has to sit for a few months before I even know if it was done correctly. I've never made it before.

We drank the last bottle of my 1999 mead sitting around the campfire on Saturday night. And very well it went down too. Still remarkably fresh and floral despite all those years in the bottle. Although it is in a way sad to have finished it, it is much better shared at a gathering; the sweetness is lovely for a glass (or wooden goblet ) or two, but it is a bit heady to drink a whole bottle without accomplices !

Got a long wait till I have any of that sort of age available again.