Mead Or White Wine 

What an accident did we have in this concoction of mead or white wine? At Costco we had found a passion fruit jam. This “jam” is advertised to be useful for this, for that and for everything else. The tea it was claiming for delight was what initially caught my eyes and by golly I was hardly able to contain my excitement.

How It All Began, My Baby Carboy of Destined Mead Began

Larry and I bought the Passion Fruit Jam and 2KG of honey. We were set and ready to go! I chose a 1118 yeast from the supply store and we were off to the races per say.

I used the small 2 gallon carboy. The mead we let sit for about 3 months and what a travesty. I was mortified! What I began tasting was faced with no mead whatsoever. As I said it was ruined. I was hoping to procure a luscious fruity, sweet and broad flavoured mead. What I tasted was a nasty version of disgusting white. A dry white that was a five dollar bottle with the hangover of the century. Sadness pure sadness everyone. 

Larry, forever the researcher, went into the depths of YouTube land and began research. We have discovered where we went wrong. What we made was a large mistake of the most dry white wine possible.

Now there are two tangents in which Mead or White follows:

Tangent Number One (Sticking with Mead)

If we were to do the mead with the exact same items we needed an extra step. We needed to back sweeten. Yes, back sweeten! What is this? As with more experienced mead makers may know this handy dandy trick but we did not know.

I have here a link to a YouTuber I have watched on and off over the years. I enjoy the videos City Steading Brews makes. Real people, real information and show that the process should be fun. here is a link to five ideas presented for how to back sweeten and what it all means.

When I end up recreating this mead with all the love possible and more knowledge under my belt I am going to try back sweetening. With other meads we have been making over the year we have not done back sweetener. We did try using artificial sugar and yes I am sad to say a waste. It adds an odd flavour, if you enjoy it you enjoy. Myself, I would prefer not to lean towards this way of sweetening. I would prefer to put more work in for a more real, less “fake” tasting beverage. Mead is made to enjoy and since it takes more time than a standard beer for example, it makes more sense to just put all the work in and not take short cuts. 

Tangent Numero Deux (Enjoyment of the Accident)

We let the “wine” sit for almost a year. (And yes I recognize mead is wine but it is of a different kind.) This bottle that we opened about a year after sitting was still very dry but had turned into a luscious dry white. Gorgeous clarity, gorgeous flavour (keep in mind, I do not care for white wine). I was pleasantly surprised as was my mother who does enjoy white and always has. I must say it would’ve been difficult to tell whether it was actually a nice drink when neither Larry or I drink white.

I ended up being so happy with the result of the bottle and of where we had the pleasure of enjoying the beverage at sunset. Our pure bliss, but no I will not be making it again. 

Much Love 

Nora