Distiller trying to fill drinking horns with more then whiskey

[Honey badger]

Hi all . In Japan anyways

Ingredient list

6 liter unknown store honey

Tablespoon red star

Four teaspoons fermaid

Thumb sized bit of ginger

Child’s hand full of raisins

Tap water to 5 gallons topping off at a potential of 15%

Been about a week now sitting at 10%


Started off really slowly no real krauzen to speak of loads of bubbles after it’s daily aeration.

Waiting isn’t much of a problem and I think with the amount of honey used it should be rather dry , I want to confirm that with mead you flavor it after the first round of fermation and while it’s clearing in another container .

After reading some of the posts I gotta ask , do you reckon the originator of mead was as exacting and if not then for a more original type of mead the ingredient list would be rather simple ?

If it reaches 1.000 I’d be tempted to run through a potstill with corn mash and see how it comes out .

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Honey Badger and welcome. I cannot speak to distillation as that is quite illegal here, but what is the function of the tiny piece of ginger? What is the purpose of the scant handful of raisins? Clearly not for flavor.
Technically, there should be no "krausen" as this ain't beer so no protein to speak of. You might have had some foam but for krausen the protein traps the CO2.
If by "flavoring" mead - you mean when does one add fruit or herbs or spices and the like, well some people add the fruit etc at the beginning, some add this half way through the active fermentation and some add this to the secondary - bottom line: it depends flavors what you are trying to extract...(more "fresh" fruitiness the later you add the fruit where the alcohol extracts much of the flavor)

 

[Honey badger]

The tiny bit of ginger and raisins were for a hint of flavor and just because it seems the thing to do . As to the Krause question I guess it’s the wrong word but when I’m making corn mash or even a sugar wash the yeast really start strong no matter a bakers yeast or a distillers and I’m surprised with all the sugar content of honey how minimal it is .

Anyway added another tsp of fermax last night it seemed to like that .

Distilling is always a grey area unless you’re in Romania I think .

 

[Toxxyc]

The tiny bit of ginger and raisins were for a hint of flavor and just because it seems the thing to do . As to the Krause question I guess it’s the wrong word but when I’m making corn mash or even a sugar wash the yeast really start strong no matter a bakers yeast or a distillers and I’m surprised with all the sugar content of honey how minimal it is .

Anyway added another tsp of fermax last night it seemed to like that .

Distilling is always a grey area unless you’re in Romania I think .

Distilling is legal in plenty of places, but not in the US, which is why it's actually recommended to not even discuss it on forums hosted there.