The Compleat Meadmaker

Este libro detalla todo el proceso de elaboración del hidromiel desde aquello que necesitas para empezar hasta los problemas que pueden surgir y como solucionarlos. Es un manual de elaboración de hidromiel no un recetario, aunque también hay un capítulo dedicado a las recetas. Tanto si quieres aprender a hacer hidromiel, como si quieres perfeccionar tu método, este es el libro que necesitas.

Comprehensive and very easy to read. It was so interesting I finished the book withouy even buying equipment for my first trial. The book focuses on the understanding of the variables that determine the outcome of mead production from a fairly scientific angle, as opposed to just giving recipes. This is exactly why I loved the book: no one will spare you the trial and error process, but at least you will understand why each batch came the way it did.

Very informative and plenty of information suitable for people of any level of ability. Thouroughly reccomend if you want to get into mead making.

This book is a large snap shot of how to make honey wine (mead). (Mead was the original party drink of the Vikings and Anglo Saxons while beer was basically used like water with just barely enough alcohol in it to make the water safe to drink.) This book covers just about everything and the authors well-rounded education shines through in every well-spoken and educational chapter. This is the "Betty Crocker Cookbook" of mead making... No it doesn't have tons and tons of recipes but it does have a fair number of them and tons of ideas to create your own recipes. The book covers everything from how much honey and of what kind to use, spices, fruits, sanitation and a good history of mead and chapters on honey and a bit of general Chemistry. I have found the "No Heat" method of mead making (as explained in the book) to be simple and produce wonderful results. My own notes in addition to the book are as follows. Although the book walks you through the mead making process in great detail the one error is the book doesn't tell you how to make your mead taste like mead in the chapters that explain how to START making mead. The process as the book describes converts almost all the honey to alcohol but leave few sugars to even taste like mead. The actual answer to this problem can be found in the index under sweetening but that's in a different section. The short version is convert the honey to alcohol, get fermentation to finish and then add more honey or whatever juice to sweeten it and get the flavor to suit your taste... the books instructions are more complete than mine but keep in mind you will have to look up that section it is not in the section for beginners. Lastly there is an orange red airtight cover for glass carboys that has two holes, the central hole is obviously for a racking cane to drain liquid but there are no instructions for what the other hole is for... The other hole is to blow into in order to create air pressure that starts the racking process (siphoning). This doesnt seem to be covered anywere even though theres no way for a novice to know it... The book is great overall and well worth the price.

Excellent book! Lots of great info, and recipes.