March 7, 2006 @ 1:00 PM: Started my 1st batch of Mead, it’s Joe’s AO recipe. I tried to follow it to the letter.

 

 

  1. Sanitized  everything used….air lock, bottle stopper, 1 gal. jug, funnel, and anything else that would come into contact with my Mead.
  2. I used 1 gallon of  my well water (which taste very good…deep well @ 298’) brought it to a boil and let sit covered until temperature came down to about 160˚ F.
  3. Added a tad over 3½ lbs. of Clover honey form Ohio and maintained the 160 temp. for about 20 minutes. Never saw any scum or floating bee parts (maybe the honey was filtered?).
  4. Added the Orange (thin skinned navel) cut into 8 wedges, cinnamon sticks (somewhat crushed), 1 whole clove, and about 25 raisins into the empty gallon jug.
  5. Put the Mead in an ice bath to help cool it down prior to pouring into the jug.
  6. Took a OG reading of 1.18 which seems a little high from what I’ve been reading here in the different forums.
  7. Poured half the Mead into the jug and shook the heck out of it put the rest leaving room for some yeast action. Shook some more.
  8. Added one teaspoon of  Fleishman’s yeast.
  9. Put the stopper with air lock on.
  10. Placed on a shelf up high (away from the cats!!!).   3:00 PM. Have to go to work.

 

 

March 8, 2006 @ 6:35AM

  1. Home from work and had a slight mess. Didn’t allow for enough head space in gallon jug. Air lock was filled with blow off material. Had to clean out and refill with clean water/vodka mixture. Didn’t loose much maybe 4 oz. or so. Toped off and keep right on burping away at 1 blip per sec.

 

March 10, 2006  @ 12:00 PM

  1. Blips down to 1 every 8 to 10 sec. Very cloudy. The orange slices, raisins, cinnamon, and clove are still floating. Still a lot of yeast activity though.

 

March 26, 2006 @ 6:00 AM (been out of town)

  1. Blips down to 1 every 30 sec. Still very cloudy. Most of the raisins have fallen to the bottom as well as the cinnamon sticks. The orange slices are floating at the top. Have about 1½˝ of sediment on the bottom. Activity has slowed way down. Just a few very tiny bubbles at the top of the jug near the orange slices. Somewhat disappointed, hoping for my Mead to start getting a little clearerFrown……but not so.

 

 

M
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