Michael Fairbrother from Moonlight Meadery joins me to discuss how you can make mead with the same equipment you are using now to brew beer. Michael walks us through the entire mead making process and provides some great tips along the way!
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Topics in This Week’s Episode (46:11)
- Michael Fairbrother joins me from Moonlight Meadery for a discussion on mead. Michael is the founder and CEO of Moonlight Meadery, now one of the largest meaderies in the Northeastern US. He is also a nationally award winning mead maker, and frequent speaker on the topic of meads.
- Thank you to our sponsor Craft Beer and Brewing Magazine who is still offering a 20% discount with your subscription when you use the offer code beersmith when you purchase.
- We talk for a few minutes about what is going on at Moonlight Meadery and what mead is
- Michael tells us about some of the different styles of mead and what goes into them
- We overview the mead making process and how you can make a batch of mead at home
- We talk about honey, the main ingredient, and also what varieties of honey work best in mead and where you can purchase quality honey including the Honey Locator
- Michael tells us about different varieties of honey and how they affect the finished mead
- He discusses yeast, and why he prefers to use a single type of yeast on all of his meads. We also talk about the proper pitch rates and water to be used for mead making
- We talk about how staggered yeast nutrients can really improve fermentation and decrease the amount of time needed to enjoy your mead
- Michael explains why oxygen is good in the early stages of mead fermentation, and why you should aerate your mead for the first few days
- We discuss fermentation temperatures, schedules and tips for getting a clean fermentation
- Michael shares his thoughts on additives as well as using sorbates to halt fermentation
- We discuss making mead with fruits or spices
- Michael shares some more thoughts on Moonlight Meadery as well as his final tips on making great mead
Thanks to Michael Fairbrother for appearing on the show and also to you for listening!
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Great show on Mead. One comment from the guest was a bit unclear. He said that “a ratio of 25% honey and 75% water will make a nice semisweet mead.” Is this by wieght of volume? He said it b oth ways in less then 60 seconds.
Thanks
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