Things to do while waiting for your mead...

[Chevette Girl]

I've been building a Cabin in the mountains.

Eventually we'll be homesteaders on the place. Until then just doing what I can to get ready.

A-frames are so awesome... I used to spend my summers in a small one... My dad had insulated it so well that even in the winter with no heating, one person's body heat would keep it around room temperature...

 

[Good4TheCompany]

So i saw mention of drinking horns... and seeing how I just started cleaning some horns I picked up to make them drinking ones, I have a question: Is there a food AND alcohol safe sealant that I can use?

Now I ask this because my research so far hasn't yielded any for sure results, but I want it capable of holding high alcohol percentages (for shot taking, one is kinda small) and also able to handle some nice hot mead or grog.

My original plan was to just clean them repeatedly and finally cure them using a nice thick heavy stout of some sort, but they still currently smell as horrid as they started, so I decided sealing them would be the best bet (not that I am anywhere near done cleaning or sanding)

Anyways hope this post is relevant because it is what I am working on while waiting, besides working which I do a lot of recently.

 

[AToE]

I think the classic thing most people do is clean them and then fill them with beewax and dump out the excess. Not sure how that would fare with hot beverages though (I've never made a mead I'd drink hot so it's never come up! Plus I like a good wine glass for my meads, unless they're braggots, then a wine glass or nice beer glass will do).

 

[Good4TheCompany]

Yeah, I've read that beeswax is the classic, and from all my research so far I have found that hot and horn don't go together, which is fine (more rare for me to drink the hot drinks). But how does Beeswax do against hard alcohol?

As for my horns, with one of them my plan is to carve the Sons of Skyrim Poem in the Draconic runes in celebration for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Which brings my other hobby, gaming, and I can't wait for Skyrim, also probably gonna start a mead themed for it to be drunk on release day while I game til my eyes bleed

 

[veritas]

I remember people Ive met using some type of food grade varnish for their drinking horns that I was told would hold hot liquids. Sorry I don't know what it was called but chances are searching out something like that may help.

 

[Guinlilly]

Yeah, I've read that beeswax is the classic, and from all my research so far I have found that hot and horn don't go together, which is fine (more rare for me to drink the hot drinks). But how does Beeswax do against hard alcohol?

As for my horns, with one of them my plan is to carve the Sons of Skyrim Poem in the Draconic runes in celebration for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Which brings my other hobby, gaming, and I can't wait for Skyrim, also probably gonna start a mead themed for it to be drunk on release day while I game til my eyes bleed

I brought up horn carving. I drink mead, beer etc out of my horn and it's coated with beeswax. My boyfriend has many horns including one which holds 6 bottles of mead (about a gallon and half) that he has used for years and the beeswax is still going strong. My personal horn has Sleipnir jumping down out of the branches of Yggdrasil descending into the roots (Helheim).

Horns aren't really meant for drinking hot beverages out of. Heat makes the horn itself malleable. It's best to keep the hot liquids to wooden tankards.

 

[wy_white_wolf]

Nice house, wy_wolf!

Thanks. At 20' by 20' base it's only a cabin. We'll build the main house when we can move there fulltime and use this as a guest cabin or art studio.

Chevette girl - We had this spray foamed so it should be real easy to heat. Hopefully I'll get the interior done enough this summer that we can use it next winter.

 

[Chevette Girl]

Yeah, I've read that beeswax is the classic, and from all my research so far I have found that hot and horn don't go together, which is fine (more rare for me to drink the hot drinks). But how does Beeswax do against hard alcohol?

I have a drinking gourd that I coated with beeswax, and so far hard alcohol hasn't affected the beeswax surface...

 

[Good4TheCompany]

Thanks for all the info everyone, Beeswax it is! I just hope my guy has some when I go pick up honey next. I have 4 horns total, but only two that I have started cleaning and still need a lot. They range from only 7" to 9", so they are all fairly small, but didn't want to invest time and money in a big one until I had done it, got the 4 horns for 20 bucks including shipping. And the more I thought about it the more I realized that I don't drink hot alcohol drinks all that much, but my huge glass mug that I drink tea out of daily is just fine for when I do.

As for what else I do while waiting on brews, I play games, watch shows and smoke ALOT (not cigarettes though, quit that years ago) and resist the erg to taste the brews. And as for both my loves, got my Everclear ready, just waiting on my buddy to give me "something" once his babies are done so I can marry the two.
**I apologize if it is against the rules to bring up my favorite plant.**

 

[Good4TheCompany]

I brought up horn carving. I drink mead, beer etc out of my horn and it's coated with beeswax. My boyfriend has many horns including one which holds 6 bottles of mead (about a gallon and half) that he has used for years and the beeswax is still going strong. My personal horn has Sleipnir jumping down out of the branches of Yggdrasil descending into the roots (Helheim).

Horns aren't really meant for drinking hot beverages out of. Heat makes the horn itself malleable. It's best to keep the hot liquids to wooden tankards.

I would like to see pictures of your horns if you got them , 8 legged horses are always good, I was thinking of doing a Beta Ray Bill design (Thorse!) but am still unsure.

 

[Guinlilly]

I certainly don't mind sharing. These are the ones I have photos of. The Sleipnir design is mine, the rest of the designs and the carvings on these were done by my boyfriend. I'm giving links and not embedding images 'cause there are so many pics.

Sleipnir:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/Guinlilly/Horns029.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/Guinlilly/Horns028.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/Guinlilly/Horns027.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/Guinlilly/Horns023.jpg

The epically large Thor horn:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/Guinlilly/Horns014.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/Guinlilly/Horns016.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/Guinlilly/Horns018.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/Guinlilly/Horns022.jpg

Raven horn (unfinished):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/Guinlilly/Fall008.jpg

Yggdrasil horn:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/Guinlilly/Fall003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/Guinlilly/Fall004.jpg

 

[Good4TheCompany]

Very nice Guinlilly, I like the design on yours a lot! How hard was it to do the metal rim? I'll have to definitely post pics of mine once I get started on the carving process, I just don't know if I'll do my Skyrim one first, or the Beta Ray Bill. With the BRB one it most likely will involve Thor as well. and just in case you don't know of the great Thorse, here are some pics I'm using as reference so far, hope the pics aren't too big

 

[Guinlilly]

Very nice Guinlilly, I like the design on yours a lot! How hard was it to do the metal rim?

I had to put a band on the horn because it was super thin at the top and had a little bit of damage. I knew this horn was going to see a LOT of use so it had to have that extra protection. To be honest, on that particular horn it was a pain in the butt. The opening on the horn is oval and because of the curvature of the horn the band kept slipping. It had to be glued on and then the screws were screwed in and the heads ground off smooth. Where the band and the horn don't meet was filled in further with a glue. It's perfect now though!

 

[Loadnabox]

My family has some Norse artifacts from the 1600's. What was apparently used was a "Skoal Bowl" (spelling could be completely off there I would love for one of our friends in Norway to correct me). I'll try to get some pics, but imagine a very wide but shallow bowl, about 24" diameter but 8" deep, with a flat spout along the top rim of the bowl.

The spout wasn't a hollow hole, but looked like a flat handle protruding perpendicular to the rim that had a 1 cm deep groove carved in it. The spout started around 4" across with a 3" wide groove that narrowed to mouth width at the end.

I've never tried it, but supposedly it's scary to drink from because you keep tipping the bowl back, and back, and back, then the drink suddenly comes rushing at your face.

The bowl would be passed around family style to all enjoying the libations.

Sorry if this seems off-topic, but I thought it relevant as it occurred to me that I haven't seen any drinking horns in the family artifacts, but then again we don't have all of them. The skoal bowls certainly don't lend themselves to travel as would a horn with a cap, and my family would have been rather poor, so they wouldn't have had a fancy horn either (the bowl is made of wood)

 

[Smarrikåka]

What was apparently used was a "Skoal Bowl" (spelling could be completely off there I would love for one of our friends in Norway to correct me).

In modern Swedish the word "Skål" means "Bowl", and then I mean just any bowl, and not a specific bowl that's used to drink out of.

So saying "Skål bowl" makes no sense at all in modern Swedish (though it may in modern Norwegian), as it would translate "bowl bowl". A bowl used to drink out of would probably be called something like "Dryckesskål".

But what's interesting is that "Skål" in Swedish also means "cheers", which might be a clue to the history of the word.

I imagine the thing you're refering to is pretty similar to what's called a mazer in English.

 

[AToE]

So saying "Skål bowl" makes no sense at all in modern Swedish (though it may in modern Norwegian), as it would translate "bowl bowl".

Hey, we're English, we don't need for things to make sense! Take "chai tea" for example.

 

[Loadnabox]

In modern Swedish the word "Skål" means "Bowl", and then I mean just any bowl, and not a specific bowl that's used to drink out of.

So saying "Skål bowl" makes no sense at all in modern Swedish (though it may in modern Norwegian), as it would translate "bowl bowl". A bowl used to drink out of would probably be called something like "Dryckesskål".

But what's interesting is that "Skål" in Swedish also means "cheers", which might be a clue to the history of the word.

I imagine the thing you're refering to is pretty similar to what's called a mazer in English.

Interesting you mention the cheers part, family tradition is to say "SKOAL!" after a toast before drinking. So I kinda knew that part.

The tradition that's getting lost is the song "Hoax auber lagen" which I could be completely bungling once again

 

[Smarrikåka]

Not a song that rings any bells. But it's supposed to be from the 1600s?

I can't really make sense of it. "lagen" means "the law", "auber" sounds more like german but either way probably means "over" or "above".

I don't see how the word hoax comes into it. It's 18th century and with anglo-saxon origin as far as I know.

 

[jkane]

Sorry for being late to this thread.

The sealant you are looking for that can handle hot liquids is called Envirotex Lite. It is a 2 part epoxy that is food safe. I use it on my horns and to seal my plastic conical fermenters. Ace hardware sells it locally. I buy it online myself.

 

[YogiBearMead726]

I love all the discussion about horn making and homesteading! Homesteading is what I'd love to do, but with no real yard to speak of, it's a little bit hard.

On a different note, I make lots and lots of beer while waiting for my meads to be ready. I've been averaging one brew every other week, so I'm pretty well distracted from tasting the delicious aging mead.