The Complete Guide to Making Mead: The Ingredients, Equipment, Processes, and Recipes for Crafting Honey Wine Kindle Edition

My hunch is that most first-time meadmakers are already experienced at either homebrewing or winemaking. So this book -- that tries to be complete yet is also written for the person without any of this experience -- spends a lot of time on some fairly elementary details for such folks, but lacks really in-depth discussions on some of the questions that are likely to pop up, especially as the meadmaker wants to try anything beyond the most elementary.My first meadmaking read was Ken Schramm's "The Compleat Mead Maker," but that is over 10 years old now and is now dated. So it isn't that one author knows more than the other, because both are recognized as experts in the meadmaking arena. In that respect, I rate Piatz's book as better because it is newer and covers subjects such as degassing and staggered nutrient additions that aren't covered in Schramm's older book. Yet I really wish that Piatz's book would have gone into more detail of the underlying logic of some procedures (such as these) so that I could make judgments as to whether his "typical" approach would work in all instances or in mine.I highly recommend buying this book because it touches on just about every topic that I could imagine, although I did find it particularly lacking on the small little matter of oxygenating musts. While this might not be relevant to the first-time meadmaker that has also never made beer or wine, most experienced homebrewers will have the equipment to do this and routinely use pure oxygen on high-gravity worts.In short, buy this book if you're interested in meadmaking, but still be prepared to surf the net and/or ask questions of homebrewing or winemaking friends that have experience making mead.

I bought & reviewed Ken Schramm's "The Compleat Meadmaker" 10 years ago, probably why Amazon suggested this one to me. Both books seem to be top picks for mead making books, and this book (Piatz mentions Schramm and his book in the intro… wish I could remember where my copy is so I could compare the two) does seem to be good for just about anyone with start to finish detail including troubleshooting. With careful reading, taking good notes along the way, I think maybe anyone could make the different types of mead described (with sample recipes).Piatz does seem to leave off equipment details, not much beyond nice photos and a little text for the various bits of equipment. He seems to think "get it at your home brew supply store" is close enough, the resource page in the back is mostly honey and yeast. I think the tools and ingredients are described well enough that you can find it here at Amazon if you can't locate a store.I also thought he was a little vague in his use of water and fruit juice- especially the juices but could probably get the job done if I ever get around to using the book.Good book, worth owning.

This is a very well writing book on making mead. The author goes into great detail regarding all aspects of the process starting with ingredients and equipment and procedures. It is quite comprehensive and makes a good reference book for making mead. I would have like to see actual detailed recipes, however, where the use of spices is concerned. The author only goes into general detail as to the relative amounts of some of the spices that are suggested for mead. Other that that, I found the book to be a good book for both beginners and the more-experienced wine makers.

This is one of the two best books on making mead. The other is by Ken Schramm. Push the buy button and get to learning. You know you want to make the sweet nectar of the gods everyone is talking about. Steve Piatz is a long time mead maker, an award winning mead maker and master judge for BJCP. He was the guy creating the judges test, if that tells you anything.

Not only do I love this book, it was the first book of 3 others I have bought that actually made me feel confident enough to pitch my first batch of mead. This is a GREAT book full of everything from the basics to advanced techniques all laid out with quality writing and extremely well done photographic instructions. I highly recommend this book if you are just getting started and suspect it will help advance even experienced mead makers

This is a must-have for any beginner at brewing anything, since Meade was the first Brew of mankind. I've never been into Brewing but I like drinking and I wanted to start brewing with the first Brew. While it is obvious that this guy does not write books for a living and probably doesn't have the best editor, he does an awesome job explaining the steps and proper equipment that you will need. I have not made my first batch yet because this book has told me I need more equipment. But every Meade maker I have met does it wrong according to this book so I suggest you listen to this book and nobody else's advice.

great book to start with, I expected more detail in some areas but it certainly helped understand some things. this with Ken schramms book will set you up for success.

Great book for the modern mead maker, includes so much great info including the lastest methods in organic stagered nutrient additions.

I gave this book 4 starts because it is good but could be better. I am a beekeeper in the UK and make mead not only for drinking but also for exhibiting at the Honey Shows. This book is more for modern USA mead maker than for UK traditional mead maker. IMHO.

It is a "complete" guide and is way too detailed for someone just wanting to try making mead as a complete beginner, try the web for simple advice and tips. If however you want to expand and understand far more about mead making then this may be the book for you.

A good guide.

Lots of useful information and a good collection of recipes too.

Interesting book full of information and table but the prose is a little dry.