The Vikings, when faced with complicated instructions like: "Water, honey, shake!", probably said to themselves, "Hey, if the Phoenicians could do this. . . "
Yeah, I don't know why people want to twist shit-simple things like making mead into brain surgery. Probably because they can.
Above everything else: cleanliness
1 part honey to 3 parts water (feel free to fiddle with this ratio, anything less than 2 lbs honey/1 gallon (finished) mead probably isn't worth your while, anything over 4 lbs honey/1 gallon mead is rocket fuel. . . eventually)
boiling/skimming is un-necessary and over-rated! 140° F for 10 minutes is all that's needed to sanitize honey and it preserves subtle aromas (I didn't take mine above 110° tonight)
keep covered and let cool to blood warm and pitch yeast
(here's the hard part) leave it alone for a month, or so
uhm. . . rack it into a clean vessel every now and then
put interesting things in secondary (fruit, spices, flowers) or not!
when you can read newsprint through the carboy bottle and drink!
It blows my mind that you've never made mead what with all that honey at your disposal. Strange, that. Is it because malting, milling, and lautering grain is that much fun? Well, It's getting late here on the right coast and I 'm seeing some bubbles in my yeast starter. Time to pitch that and hit the hay!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-06-28 04:03 am (UTC)Yeah, I don't know why people want to twist shit-simple things like making mead into brain surgery. Probably because they can.
- Above everything else: cleanliness
- 1 part honey to 3 parts water (feel free to fiddle with this ratio, anything less than 2 lbs honey/1 gallon (finished) mead probably isn't worth your while, anything over 4 lbs honey/1 gallon mead is rocket fuel. . . eventually)
- boiling/skimming is un-necessary and over-rated! 140° F for 10 minutes is all that's needed to sanitize honey and it preserves subtle aromas (I didn't take mine above 110° tonight)
- keep covered and let cool to blood warm and pitch yeast
- (here's the hard part) leave it alone for a month, or so
- uhm. . . rack it into a clean vessel every now and then
- put interesting things in secondary (fruit, spices, flowers) or not!
- when you can read newsprint through the carboy bottle and drink!
It blows my mind that you've never made mead what with all that honey at your disposal. Strange, that. Is it because malting, milling, and lautering grain is that much fun? Well, It's getting late here on the right coast and I 'm seeing some bubbles in my yeast starter. Time to pitch that and hit the hay!