Supplies

[Katjie]

Does anyone know of a nice place/website where I can buy the ingredients?

So far I've found Wilkenson does do the basic equipment, but I've been on a hunt for acid blend and champagne yeast, and found only one online shop in the UK that stocks both. I was glad to see this - but when I was about to confirm my order I saw postage would cost more than the two items combined! Any alternatives would be greatly appreciated so I can finally get this mead started!

[Duffbeer]

Well funny you should ask, it may be a couple of weeks before things are fully set up and running, check out this thread it will offer exclusive discounts to members of this forum, which now includes you.
Welcome to wines at home btw.

[Mamgiowl]

Hi Katje and welcome to the forum. You don't say whereabouts in London you are but if you go to www.Yell.com and type in 'home brew supplies' you should be able to find an HBS near you. Google the above phrase and you should also find some good sites.

I agree that postage is the biggest bugbear as far internet shopping is concerned so maybe have a good browse on the site, think of heavy equipment etc, that will make the p&p worthwile.

You could also hang fire and use our very newest home grown supplier who will be up and running very shortly - he's already given you the link I see.

[Duffbeer]

I should be banned for spamming

[Mamgiowl]

Lol!

[Her Lushness]

I was also going to suggest Ebay, often you can combine postage to save a few pounds.

Where in London are you?


PS - I can post you some champagne yeast if you like?

[fatbloke]

Does anyone know of a nice place/website where I can buy the ingredients?

So far I've found Wilkenson does do the basic equipment, but I've been on a hunt for acid blend and champagne yeast, and found only one online shop in the UK that stocks both. I was glad to see this - but when I was about to confirm my order I saw postage would cost more than the two items combined! Any alternatives would be greatly appreciated so I can finally get this mead started!

If you just google for "home brew shop" and just try for UK only results there's quite a few.

Lots of people here will advise you against an acid blend - I'd suspect that'd be because you wouldn't know the make up of the blend.

Plus it depends on what it is that you're making, different fruit suit different acids (of the 3 main suspects i.e. malic, tartaric and citric).

Either way, if you can't find something reasonably local from Yell.com as per Jans (Mamgiowl) suggestion, then either way it's gonna cost for shippinng etc, and is often better to have a good scout round the various online HBS to see who offers the best choice. You might also find that your local HBS only carries a limited range. I'm in that position but until the £ Vs $ Vs € nonsense started I was getting stuff from the US and Europe (despite the € being "up" at the moment, pretty much the best HBS is a car ride away, in Belgium - oh and yes they do online sales as well).

regards

JtFB

p.s. Oh and welcome to the forums

[Katjie]

Hey all,

Thanks to everyone for the response, nice to have people who know what they're talking about.

I'm in North London, Enfield to be exact. I had a look on Ebay and even though i told it to only show UK results the only things I could find where in the US, or had the same postage issues.

I already have pretty much everything I need, except a few odds and ends, so bulking out my order will be kinda pointless.

Thanks very much for the link for Hobbywine Supplies - will definately keep that in mind next time I need anything. For the time being I've ordered the supplies from a website called Hop and Grape which a friend suggested (will be recieving some yeasty goodness soon, though thanks for the offer Lushness) .

In regards to using acid blend - I'm just making a basic honey and water mead to start with till I get the feel of it, and the recipe I got suggested the blend. As with everything mead related at the moment I'm just gonna go with it and see how it pans out.

Wish me luck guys! And thanks again for the tips

[Her Lushness]

I just googled for you, and found an address of 14 Pitfield Street, London N14 6HA, which is close to Southgate Tube, their tel no is 0207 739 3701.

The list I found looks old, so you'd best call first to make sure they're still there before you traipse down to visit them!

[fatbloke]

-----%<-----
In regards to using acid blend - I'm just making a basic honey and water mead to start with till I get the feel of it, and the recipe I got suggested the blend. As with everything mead related at the moment I'm just gonna go with it and see how it pans out.

You could try having a look at Gotmead for ideas on acid. I tend to use the suggestion that I got from an old (and very "out of print") amateur winemaker book that suggested a mix of 2 parts malic to 1 part tartaric. It seems to work well.

Your main issue will be the quality of the honey. If you just try and use cheapo supermarket honey, then you'll end up with mediocre mead.

The book suggested using the darkest colour honey you can get (buckwheat is one of the darkest, but not that easy to get i.e. my honey wholesaler doesn't stock it but can get me a 25kg/56lb bucket - most of his lines are available in 1lb jars and 3lb + buckets) but they also mentioned heather honey. Both of those aren't cheap. The only bonus is that you will need between 3 and 4 lb of honey per gallon (start with 3 mixed up and check the gravity). Something in the region of 1080/1090 is a good starting point.

Your other things worthy of consideration, is that often, when "green" (recently finished fermenting), mead often tastes hideous. It's one of the weird ones of the winemaking world, it will need to be aged - you can consider 6 months as a basic minimum, some meads take years to become good.

If you want to try something easy in the mead world, then Bob has posted the recipe for "Joe's Ancient Orange", if you follow the recipe religiously you can attain an decent (if sweet) mead that's drinkable quite soon after making - though as ever, ageing benefits it. If you do try it, just remember to keep the spices to the minimum - less isn't necessarily more (especially with cloves). Plus the bonus is that you can get away with using cheapo supermarket honey.

regards

JtFB

p.s. and yes, most of my home brews are mead!

[Katjie]

Ooooh, I'm loving this recipe, thanks JtFB. I've found a seller of honey (http://www.honey-online.co.uk/) which looks good for heather honey, so will get started soon.

I tried that number by the way Lushness, the line has been disconnected. It's a pity but I'm sure I will find all I need if I just keep my eyes open.

Thanks again for all your help guys - will keep you updated on how it goes

[fatbloke]

Ooooh, I'm loving this recipe, thanks JtFB. I've found a seller of honey (http://www.honey-online.co.uk/) which looks good for heather honey, so will get started soon.

I tried that number by the way Lushness, the line has been disconnected. It's a pity but I'm sure I will find all I need if I just keep my eyes open.

Thanks again for all your help guys - will keep you updated on how it goes

Hum? A bit difficult to work out whether that's expensive or not.....This is the place I use as it's only about 10 miles up the road from me (or about 40 down the road from you - depending on what part of London you're in). I seem to recall that they'll ship/deliver though you'd have to check out the price per 100gms or something to be able to compare who does the cheapest. The only downside of my local bloke is that the opening hours aren't brilliant.

Anyway, good luck with your efforts, and don't forget that if it does taste a bit weird or at least not how you'd suspect when it's first finished, remember, that the changes wrought by ageing are amazing and by ageing I'd say 6 months as a minimum - my old mead book mentions periods of up to 5 years .

If you're thinking of getting a book, then of the currently available ones that is good is called "The Compleat Mead Maker". The author Ken Schram (I think I've spelled that correctly) is a member here but only seems to visit occasionally. Yes it's aimed at mainly US mead makers but there's a hell of a lot of good hints and tips to be gleaned from his book.

Or you can just search amazon and you'll find that if you check the market place sellers then you can also track down some good, though out of print, books on mead.

regards

JtFB

[Tuco]

Ooooh, I'm loving this recipe, thanks JtFB. I've found a seller of honey (http://www.honey-online.co.uk/) which looks good for heather honey, so will get started soon.

I tried that number by the way Lushness, the line has been disconnected. It's a pity but I'm sure I will find all I need if I just keep my eyes open.

Thanks again for all your help guys - will keep you updated on how it goes

Thanks for that honey link Katjie