Vegan mead

[The Goatreich]

Hey all, been a long time since I posted on here as I've only brewed once this year! I'm hoping to get back into it very soon. Hope you're all well and all the old faces are still posting?

Anyway, recently I racked off a mead that I made a year ago, and I'm pretty pleased with it. It's very dry, but still nice. I'll likely back-sweeten with some more honey. However, that leads me to my question.

My girlfriend and I have recently turned vegan. I have a few vegan friends, and I've been vegetarian for about 15 years, and so I've always made all my beers and wines vegan friendly, however I made the last batch of mead when I was veggie, and so I'll still drink it now, but I'd like to make a fresh batch, which agave nectar, and some proper mead yeast this time. Does anyone see any reason why this wouldn't work? I don't want to be too keen to dive straight in, as the agave nectar is around £3.50 for 250ml, so could be an expensive mistake if it doesn't work.

Here's the agave I was hoping to use:
http://groovyfood.co.uk/images/agave_01.jpg

Another alternative is this fructose based syrup:
http://www.sweetfreedom.co.uk/index.php?page=products2

Whilst I'm happy to answer questions about veganism etc, I'd rather this didn't open up into a debate about whether it's right or wrong. :thumb: Thanks chaps.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I have no idea if agave nectar will work or not, but maple syrup is one alternative to honey, as are the saps of silver birch and Boston ivy taken in Spring and boiled down until you reach the SG you want.

Boston ivy sap was once the source of sugar used in early Japanese wagashi sweets, before cane sugar became widely available there in the middle ages. I have no idea what the flavour would be like, but it would certainly be interesting to find out.

 

[The Goatreich]

Good to know, thanks. I didn't think of using maple syrup!!!

 

[Gayle]

I don't know if the agave nectar will work, but you can always try a small batch to experiment, using a one or two litre plastic drinks bottle, and a balloon for an airlock (or drill a hole in the bottle lid for the airlock). Maple syrup as someone suggested might be a good alternative, but any recipes I've seen for it include honey for the body of the drink. Also, pure maple syrup is very expensive too! You could try golden syrup too, although it is mostly sugar and will probably need some additional flavouring. I think mead is a uniquely flavoured drink, which could be difficult to replicate vegan friendly!

I'd love to be vegetarian but bacon is a weakness. Veganism though, is not for me! I understand peoples' (sorry, no idea where the apostrophe is supposed to go there) reasons for being vegan, not wanting to exploit animals or have the "unnecessary" ones killed (male chicks, non-perfect sheep bred for wool etc)...but where do you draw the line? Aren't yeast a living organism? Or is it okay because they don't have a nervous system? :hmm: Would you keep bees for their honey, if you thought it was beneficial to them and the environment, and you treated them very well? Just curious questions :)

 

[The Goatreich]

I'd love to keep bees, and use their honey. I'd also eat eggs if they were from my own happy chickens, but I don't have the room to keep either unfortunately.

I might well have a go at doing a two litre batch as you suggest, that's a great idea. Thanks.

 

[alanywiseman.]

I wounder if your solution may be to brew a braggot (I think that it what it is called :wha: ). It is a cross between a brew and honey where the fermentables come from both. If you used maple syrup instead for the honey you would get some body in to the drink but still have the strong maple flavour.

Have you looked at the gotmead forum?

 

[The Goatreich]

I haven't heard of those before, sounds great though, thanks for the tip off.

 

[Robbo]

I'm not sure but I thought Agave is used to make Tequila

 

[The Goatreich]

:drunk:

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I wounder if your solution may be to brew a braggot (I think that it what it is called :wha: ). It is a cross between a brew and honey where the fermentables come from both. If you used maple syrup instead for the honey you would get some body in to the drink but still have the strong maple flavour.

Have you looked at the gotmead forum?

A maple syrup braggot. Wouldn't that be a maggot? :twisted:

Either way, that sounds like a nice idea. Maple syrup is roughly 2/3 fermentables, so when calculating from how much malt you'd use you simply multiply by 1.5. It's still a lot more expensive than malt though, so a blend of syrup and malt might be wise. What balance would people go for?

 

[RobWalker]

hey mate, good to see you again!

technically speaking it all comes down to whether the sugars are fermentable or not, and I can't find any information on that. Maple Syrup (as it's been mentioned) is said to leave non fermentables behind, it's in the chemical makeup of the syrup. If I remember right, Fructose is fermentable - so that leaves you with at least a 75% fermentable "mead." It's likely that the whole thing will be anyway.

as for it it'll work and taste good, I couldn't say, but it's certainly worth a bash. I can vouch for a honey braggott - it's a wonderful drink after a cold day.

worst case scenario, you'll have fermented syrup, and if it tastes rough, you can blend it with beer to create your braggott.

 

[dennisdk2000]

I have found Aldi to be the cheapest place to get pure maple syrup, but still it isn't exactly cheap there! Maybe it would be possible to get it cheaper if buying in bulk (once yoiu have experimented and decided you like the result).

As for body, I know raisins are used in wines to add body - maybe that could work for you too?

Dennis

 

[The Goatreich]

Thanks both. I used raisins in my last mead, so I would likely do the same. It was an Orange clove recipe from stormthecastle.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I have found Aldi to be the cheapest place to get pure maple syrup, but still it isn't exactly cheap there! Maybe it would be possible to get it cheaper if buying in bulk (once yoiu have experimented and decided you like the result).

As for body, I know raisins are used in wines to add body - maybe that could work for you too?

Dennis

Aldi was the cheapest place for maple syrup, but neither my local nor my mother's stocks it any more. It's a pain, because I buy the stuff for the bottles as much as for the syrup as they're a nice size for sloe gin.

I suspect that this Spring might not have been good for producing syrup, as the window is relatively short (never more than eight weeks, and often lower than four) because the sap can only be collected when the night-time and day-time temperatures fall within relatively narrow ranges. Too cold during the day and you get no sap; too warm at night and the sap becomes "buddy", resulting in an unpleasant flavour. Last Winter was much longer and colder than normal, and Spring was late and short, so it's likely that there was only a short window where trees could be tapped for sap.