How do you make mead without chemicals?

[2togo]

I know it can be done, but everything I read says you need to put in special tablets. Would you just ferment honey and water? Also, I'm assuming you can make wine without sugar by just leaving out the sugar. Does anyone know if it will taste funny or if it affects the process at all?

[gobug]

Water and honey are chemicals.

Mead dates back to the beginning of brews. Perhaps they captured local yeasties, as Zeal has explained in a former post. Of course it is also a chemical.

Only nothing is non-chemical, and it is lethal.

[Haoleboy]

No, you don't need to use Campden tablets (sulphite). Boil your water if it's not filtered, add your honey, yeast nutrient, acid blend, Irish Moss (optional), gypsum, and mix it all up. Then add your yeast. Just make sure all your equipment is santized and you're good to go.

[tinknal]

Alochol is produced when yeast consumes sugar, so no, you cannot ommit sugar and produce alcohol.

[Iddee]

My first mead was 3 3/4 gal water, 5quarts honey, 1 pack champaign yeast. Nothing more. When it was finished, I didn't care much for the taste until I added a small amount of ginger. Then it was a fairly good flavored drink, and very potent.

[MELOC]

if you want to do it without chemicals just pay special attention to sanitizing everything with boiling water or alcohol. do this to everything that touches it every time you handle it.

[ace admirer]

well, i guess i'm missing something again,,,,,the honey IS the sugar. the ratio of water to honey vs how strong a resistant yeast you are using will determine how much alcha level is acheaved before the yeast dies at vs how sweet vs dry the finished mead is. the use of a hydrometer will allow you to adjust mixtures for dryness. you will need a quality yeast to brew the HARD stuff. last batch i made climbed the glass like brandy. (it might not have tasted so good. but after a glass, noone seemed to care)

mead is probably THE first alcha drink. so yes, you can make it with out chems. but i would not want to. i've made more than one 40 gallon batch of vineger cause a wild yeast slipped in.

do a search and i think you can find some recepts that are over 3000 years old and make use of the whole comb with pollen, brood and all. now thats ORGANIC!

oh yeah, before someone slips one in on me....yes they had computers that long ago.....i know, i was trying to get the little holes punched in the cardboard at the right locations.

anyway..good stuff, but takes a good 3 to 5 years to age properly...so start up a celler now.

[flowerpower]

Mead is basically water, honey and yeast. We like it best with the champagne yeast added. It does get better as it ages. I am glad to hear we are not the only ones to have tasted the honey flavored vinegar. lol

[2togo]

What floats to the top during fermentation process, can be skimmed and used as a starter for the next batch, correct? Do you have to add more yeast on top of the starter?

[ace admirer]

hummmm, "flowers" seems i have seen a webpage that showed picures of which mold flowers could be reused and which to destroy. maybe it was one of my mead books, can't remember. just a little too risky for me to play around with, i always just purchased a good high alcha resistant champ. yeast. and made sure everything else was sterilized, including the water and honey.

[BCR]

Yeast is as cheap as 50 cents a package and up. Buy new yeast to get a consistently good product. It is easy to get yeast now....maybe in the future when it is nigh impossible you can risk $$ worth of ingredients on such a guess. People buy yeast to have consistent results and it is worth it.

Sanitation is a big deal so do it properly. You do have a book to follow some basic procedures don't you?

Try "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" or similar title by Charlie Papazian to get started. Your library probably has it.