can't offer any help on ales or stouts, though I like em just fine. Tooth's Sheaf Stout is a lovely sip and big enough to stop at one..
usually.
BUT I've made mead that got rave reviews, and it's rather a primitive sort, with extras.
Honey & barley malt for the base, with organic yellow raisens and apple juice to boost the flavor and bring up the alcohol both.. double racked, (@ 7 + 14 days) and bottled at 21, top fermenting ale yeast, with champagne yeast added after the first racking.
Bottled in flip tops, aged 2-5 months (5 was optimum, it got drank!) ..
It's very very important that the raisens be UNSULPHERED ORGANIC (and yellow) because the normal sulpher treatment ruins the mead. The apple juice should be from ordinary soft apples, fresh & unfiltered, cloudy (almost milky looking) .. NOT green apples like pippins or granny smiths. not sharp & cidery, almost apple nectar, very sweet. fallen apples are preferred, if you can get em.
The proportions for a 5 gallon batch, made in a 7 gallon glass carboy, are: 5 gallons water, 5 quarts strong honey (orange blossem & native wildflower, NOT clover) 5 lbs yellow raisens, 5 quarts apple juice, 5 lbs UNHOPPED light malt syrup.
Add yeast (top fermenting ale yeast) and all ingredients. use cork/hose/bucket of water for 7 days after ferment begins, and then rack into fresh carboy. Add champagne yeast, allow ferment 7 days, rack, repeat. final rack into chilling bottle @ 22 days, chill @ 35 F for 12 hrs, bottle. Drinkable @ 8 weeks, best @ 5 months. Est. ABV 12 %, VERY STRONG, & not obviously.
Tasting notes: Warm & nutty, light brown and similar in appearance to a good english nut brown ale..
A surprisingly thick and oily head, for a finish on champagne yeast, though a good fine prickle on the tongue reveals it.
The head seems organic, 'natural' color, towards beige, with various sized bubbles..
The flavor of course sweeter than hopped brews, with a faint overlay of citrus and cider, and walnuts and raisens underneath. Complex, shifting tastes, with a long warm finish. The sort of thing you deliberately sip slowly.. and Still drink that 2nd one you hadn't meant to.
It's not cheap, fast, or easy to make, and I'll be more than happy to offer guidance for One Tiny Bottle.
Edit: uhm, that was a mistake. TWO tiny bottles. :whistling: