Hi all,
Been surfing the forum for a couple of weeks. Tried to register but I think my spam filter munched the registration email. Vicky got me squared away (thanks muchly), so here I am.
Another SCAdian in the hive. First experienced mead back in the 80's in Midrealm, by a guy who's SCA name was pronounced like the mundane name "John Doe" but run together. Never found out spelling, tho. He made some pretty good stuff, according to some better qualified than I to judge.
So I end up married to a mundane and out of the SCA for a decade. Divorced a few years back and eventually met a SCAdian chick through friends. She dragged me (kicking and screaming---yeah right) back in. Seems she knows this brewing laurel here in Trimaris (aka Florida)...
Yeah, so the bug has bitten (stung?) me to make some of my own. We got a gallon or so from various sources as handfasting gifts, and I'm hoping that'll last until myfirst batch matures.
Regardless, I looked up a recipie here, tweaked it a bit in terms of flavorings, etc. And off I went. Well, it was more like "read the forums and articles on gotmead obsessively for two days and then sterilized my kitchen until I could perform surgery on the floor" and then off I went.
so the inaugural batch of Maelduin's Maed (yep, it's that way on purpose!) goes like this...
14 lb Orange Blossom
3 gallons of distilled water
1/2 gallon of boiled tap water (hey, I ran outta the clean stuff)
1.5 lb raisins, choppped
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp whole cloves
1/2 oz citric acid
Red Star Montrachet (said Laurel's recommendation)
Heated to and pasteurized at 160 for five minutes. Got the yeasties fired up in a Mason jar with some of the must at around 100 degrees and let it percolate until the must cooled. Funneled into a five galllon carboy and cooled all day. When it got dowm to around a hundred or so, I pictched my yeasties, capped her off with a bubble lock and said a little prayer to the Mead Gods.
Next morning the lock was perking about once every three seconds. Over the next couple of weeks my understairs storage closet has taken on a nifty aroma. Pitched on 4/19, and am thinking that this weekend may be racking time, as today I counted around five or six seconds between bubbles. Have the carboy already set up high so I dont have to move it before I siphon, to keep the lees down. Planning to bulk age it for about six months, maybe racking again somewhere in there if there's still significant precipitation.
Any other tips? So many things (obsessive sterilizing, lifting the carboy a couple days before you actually rack, etc) were ideas I picked up here, but I may have missed a couple things. Help a guy out, will ya? I want it to come out sweet to semi-sweet, but I'm thinking that the yeast and ingredients I used may turn it a bit dry. I think I read that it's possible to doctor it with more honey when you pitch, if it samples a bit dry. Is this so? If so, how much honey does it take to go from dry to semi-sweet or sweet?
Not going to do the Art/Sci thing with my mead when it grows up. My lady will be doing that when she starts brewing, and I don't want to step on her toes. She was looking into it before I was, but I'm the gung-ho type and got all the gear together. I'm more of a a stick-jock anyway (squired to Duke Gunnar Oxmnamegin--a Viking, go figure) and i'll probably just pass it out half-size bottles among my fighter buddies. What I don't drink first, anyway. ;-) Have an empty three liter champagne bottle (*that* was a hell of a night) that I'm saving for my knight when he wins Crown again.
Thats about it. Probably was WTMI, but I'm a little bit excited about the whole thing. Five gallons of mead! Yesssss, my precious. And two more gallonses of honey in the cupbard, too.
Regards,
Michael Davis
s/k/a Maelduin dubh macDiarmata
Been surfing the forum for a couple of weeks. Tried to register but I think my spam filter munched the registration email. Vicky got me squared away (thanks muchly), so here I am.
Another SCAdian in the hive. First experienced mead back in the 80's in Midrealm, by a guy who's SCA name was pronounced like the mundane name "John Doe" but run together. Never found out spelling, tho. He made some pretty good stuff, according to some better qualified than I to judge.
So I end up married to a mundane and out of the SCA for a decade. Divorced a few years back and eventually met a SCAdian chick through friends. She dragged me (kicking and screaming---yeah right) back in. Seems she knows this brewing laurel here in Trimaris (aka Florida)...
Yeah, so the bug has bitten (stung?) me to make some of my own. We got a gallon or so from various sources as handfasting gifts, and I'm hoping that'll last until myfirst batch matures.
Regardless, I looked up a recipie here, tweaked it a bit in terms of flavorings, etc. And off I went. Well, it was more like "read the forums and articles on gotmead obsessively for two days and then sterilized my kitchen until I could perform surgery on the floor" and then off I went.
so the inaugural batch of Maelduin's Maed (yep, it's that way on purpose!) goes like this...
14 lb Orange Blossom
3 gallons of distilled water
1/2 gallon of boiled tap water (hey, I ran outta the clean stuff)
1.5 lb raisins, choppped
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp whole cloves
1/2 oz citric acid
Red Star Montrachet (said Laurel's recommendation)
Heated to and pasteurized at 160 for five minutes. Got the yeasties fired up in a Mason jar with some of the must at around 100 degrees and let it percolate until the must cooled. Funneled into a five galllon carboy and cooled all day. When it got dowm to around a hundred or so, I pictched my yeasties, capped her off with a bubble lock and said a little prayer to the Mead Gods.
Next morning the lock was perking about once every three seconds. Over the next couple of weeks my understairs storage closet has taken on a nifty aroma. Pitched on 4/19, and am thinking that this weekend may be racking time, as today I counted around five or six seconds between bubbles. Have the carboy already set up high so I dont have to move it before I siphon, to keep the lees down. Planning to bulk age it for about six months, maybe racking again somewhere in there if there's still significant precipitation.
Any other tips? So many things (obsessive sterilizing, lifting the carboy a couple days before you actually rack, etc) were ideas I picked up here, but I may have missed a couple things. Help a guy out, will ya? I want it to come out sweet to semi-sweet, but I'm thinking that the yeast and ingredients I used may turn it a bit dry. I think I read that it's possible to doctor it with more honey when you pitch, if it samples a bit dry. Is this so? If so, how much honey does it take to go from dry to semi-sweet or sweet?
Not going to do the Art/Sci thing with my mead when it grows up. My lady will be doing that when she starts brewing, and I don't want to step on her toes. She was looking into it before I was, but I'm the gung-ho type and got all the gear together. I'm more of a a stick-jock anyway (squired to Duke Gunnar Oxmnamegin--a Viking, go figure) and i'll probably just pass it out half-size bottles among my fighter buddies. What I don't drink first, anyway. ;-) Have an empty three liter champagne bottle (*that* was a hell of a night) that I'm saving for my knight when he wins Crown again.
Thats about it. Probably was WTMI, but I'm a little bit excited about the whole thing. Five gallons of mead! Yesssss, my precious. And two more gallonses of honey in the cupbard, too.
Regards,
Michael Davis
s/k/a Maelduin dubh macDiarmata
But I will try the no heat method you suggest on my first batch of show mead. I want to find a really exotic varietal, and no-heat sounds like the perfect way to ensure that it has maximum flavor.
