Aloha all!
I've been a fledgling homebrewer for a while now, brewing beer in little 2-gallon batches with a secondhand Beer Machine. A chance conversation with a friend found me the inheritor of a fine 5-gallon setup. So... what to do? Run out and buy Charlie's "Joy of Homebrewing" book!
But my boo was frowning at me... where would we store all these hundreds of bottles I'd inherited, not to mention the carboy? Any why did I need to buy such a large pot?
How to keep the peace? Make something she would get excited about! And guess what's in an appendix of the book... MEAD! Perfect!
We looked at getting honey from some of the local beekeepers, but for our first batch, were really hesitant about spending upwards of $5/lb, so we ended up with a flat-and-a-half of Costco honey.
The brewing was something of a comic adventure... 20 pounds of honey and a gallon of water into the 3-gallon brewpot. "wow, that's full" I said. "What a mess should it boil over!" Not 3 minutes later...
And there were the bees... our house was in a cloud of bees...
Then the entertaining elements that come with the first time out on a 5-gallon setup. And the DAY it took for the wert (I guess it's actually called 'must' for mead) to cool enough to pitch the yeast. Oh how I wish we'd videotaped the process!
Anyway, we've got 5 gallons merrily 'blooping' along. The simplest of recipes I could find... 20 lbs honey, Red Star champagne yeast, and some yeast nutrients. Oh, and water, of course.
Now that we're waiting, I decided to start a little research, and found my way quickly here. I'm excited, but since I've done some reading, I'm actually getting worried. For example...
If you didn't pick up on it already, we live in Hawaii. It simply does not get cool here... right now in November, we have daytime highs in the mid 80's. Most homes are not equipped with A/C, nor are they designed to be.
Also, I'm reading about people recommending "bulk aging" for 6 months or longer before bottling. Just how many carboys am I going to need? I certainly intend to brew more than 2 batches per year!
Anyway, just thought I'd stick my head in and say "Aloha!" Any other local kine folks, feel free to connect!
Tom
I've been a fledgling homebrewer for a while now, brewing beer in little 2-gallon batches with a secondhand Beer Machine. A chance conversation with a friend found me the inheritor of a fine 5-gallon setup. So... what to do? Run out and buy Charlie's "Joy of Homebrewing" book!
But my boo was frowning at me... where would we store all these hundreds of bottles I'd inherited, not to mention the carboy? Any why did I need to buy such a large pot?
How to keep the peace? Make something she would get excited about! And guess what's in an appendix of the book... MEAD! Perfect!
We looked at getting honey from some of the local beekeepers, but for our first batch, were really hesitant about spending upwards of $5/lb, so we ended up with a flat-and-a-half of Costco honey.
The brewing was something of a comic adventure... 20 pounds of honey and a gallon of water into the 3-gallon brewpot. "wow, that's full" I said. "What a mess should it boil over!" Not 3 minutes later...
And there were the bees... our house was in a cloud of bees...
Then the entertaining elements that come with the first time out on a 5-gallon setup. And the DAY it took for the wert (I guess it's actually called 'must' for mead) to cool enough to pitch the yeast. Oh how I wish we'd videotaped the process!
Anyway, we've got 5 gallons merrily 'blooping' along. The simplest of recipes I could find... 20 lbs honey, Red Star champagne yeast, and some yeast nutrients. Oh, and water, of course.
Now that we're waiting, I decided to start a little research, and found my way quickly here. I'm excited, but since I've done some reading, I'm actually getting worried. For example...
If you didn't pick up on it already, we live in Hawaii. It simply does not get cool here... right now in November, we have daytime highs in the mid 80's. Most homes are not equipped with A/C, nor are they designed to be.
Also, I'm reading about people recommending "bulk aging" for 6 months or longer before bottling. Just how many carboys am I going to need? I certainly intend to brew more than 2 batches per year!
Anyway, just thought I'd stick my head in and say "Aloha!" Any other local kine folks, feel free to connect!
Tom
