{"id":1549,"date":"2011-03-13T21:34:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T02:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/?p=1549"},"modified":"2011-03-13T21:34:54","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T02:34:54","slug":"ben-holt-maker-of-fine-meads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/1549\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Holt, Maker of Fine Meads"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have now brewed five complete batches of mead. If you’re new to mead, it’s a fermented drink consisting of honey, water, and yeast. Some people think it’s the most ancient of alcoholic beverages. I’ve also been using fruit in mine (whole and\/or juice), which technically makes it a type of mead called melomel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I haven’t figured out how to measure the alcohol content yet, but I estimate they have all been somewhere around 15%, a bit stronger than wine. So far I have done the following batches:<\/p>\n

– Orange melomel based on this recipe<\/a>, using clover honey and a whole orange<\/p>\n

– Blueberry melomel (same recipe as above), using clover honey<\/p>\n

This recipe uses common bread yeast you get at the grocery store, regular honey, and some fruit. It turns out very sweet, almost like a desert wine. It’s very easy to make and doesn’t require racking (transferring the fermenting drink to another container for secondary fermentation).<\/p>\n

– Pomegranate melomel based on this recipe<\/a>, using clover honey, a whole sectioned pomegranate, and grape juice<\/p>\n

– Black cherry and grape melomel (same recipe), using blueberry blossom honey and fruit juices<\/p>\n

– Black cherry and blueberry melomel (same recipe), using orange blossom honey and fruit juices<\/p>\n

This recipe is my favorite so far. It takes about a month to make, which isn’t very much for mead. It uses champagne yeast, which gives it a nice bubbly, carbonated taste. It’s sweet but not too sweet. It tastes fruity while still being a wine sort of drink. It’s fairly alcoholic without tasting like hard liquor.<\/p>\n

I brought two bottles of the pomegranate batch to a neighbor’s party. Both were gone at the end of the night. Everyone said they loved it! Jill and I both like it too.<\/p>\n

Today Jill and I tasted the first bottle of the black cherry and blueberry batch. It’s my favorite mead so far. I’m really proud of it! I’m not sure why, but I think it’s the orange blossom honey. Perhaps it just complements the fruit flavors well. Here’s a picture – come on over for a taste if you want!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have now brewed five complete batches of mead. If you’re new to mead, it’s a fermented drink consisting of honey, water, and yeast. Some people think it’s the most ancient of alcoholic beverages. I’ve also been using fruit in mine (whole and\/or juice), which technically makes it a type of mead called melomel. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theholtsite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}