Enter Wyck’s Mead-Sharing Event

Have you often wondered how to make mead, but were afraid to try?  Then, we have an event for you! Novice meadmakers are invited to participate in an event designed to encourage you to start, experiment, or hone your skills.

Wyck Historic House, Garden and Farm invites you to start brewing now!  Ultimately you will share the results of your labors during the Philadelphia Honey Festival next September.

You will have the unique privilege of both giving and receiving feedback:  each participant will taste and critique several other entries.  In addition, “experienced tasters” will comment on the flavor profiles of your entries and provide feedback on how you can achieve your desired outcome.

Beekeepers and brewers are encouraged to partner on their entries.  You are invited to enter your own recipes or adapt the historic Wyck recipe below:

Jane Bowne Haines’ Mead (from her 1810 – 1840 “receipt” book)

“Into 12 gallons of water put the whites of six eggs – mixing those well together and to the mixture adding twenty pounds of honey.  Let the liquid boil an hour then add cinnamon, ginger, cloves, mace, & a little rosemary. *  When cold put a spoonful of yeast to it and stir it up keeping the vessel filled as it works, when done stop it closed till finished.”

Categories for entries are:

Traditional Mead – Traditional mead gets its flavoring only from the honey and yeast.  These can be dry (hydromel), semi-sweet (standard), or sweet (sack). No spices or fruit may be used in the process.

Spiced Mead (Metheglin) – Traditional mead but with spices added for flavorings. Common spices are cinnamon, allspice, clove, ginger, vanilla, nutmeg, cardamom. The Haines recipe above is a metheglin.

Fruit Mead (Melomel) - Traditional mead made with the addition of other fruit or fruit juices during fermentation. Common choices are apples (cyser), wine grapes (pyment), blueberries, raspberries, elderberries, cherries.

Beer Mead (Braggot) - Beer made with honey to work with the malt, providing additional flavors and fermentable extract.

More details will be posted here in the near future.  Meanwhile questions about the event may be directed to meadmaker@phillyhoneyfest.com where experienced meadmakers are standing by to take your questions and help you get started!