|
Page 1 of 3 Greetings everyone. Brewing is not perhaps the most often spoken of topic at these forums, but it does crop up occasionally. Here is a basic overview of how to make mead, a sort of honey based wine. Keep things as sterile as possible, and there should not be too much of a problem producing your own homemade, high quality, mead. Before we begin, allow me to state that I do not condone breaking the law, I am not encouraging anyone to do so, and I strongly urge you to check on local laws pertaining to brewing and the use of any ingredients you may choose to add. In the United States of America each adult citizen is permitted to brew 100 gallons of fermented beer and/or wine annually, according to federal law. Individuals are not permitted to sell this liquor without a proper license, and certain states and localities may further restrict production of fermented beverages.
For each five gallon batch: - 5 pounds of honey (up to 10 lbs. to increase sweetness & alcohol)
- 5 cans of frozen orange juice concentrate (makes ~2 qts. per can)
- 5 pounds of sugar
- 2 tbs. of yeast nutrient
- 4-5 tsp. of fruit acid blend
- a good wine or mead yeast
- water to five gallons
Now, this is sort of a rule of thumb type of recipe. For instance, with that much frozen OJ concentrate, I probably would feel just fine about skimping on the fruit acid. At that, a couple of teaspoons of citric acid from the grocery store would be fine. Real fruit acid blend sold in brew stores contains malic, citric, and tartaric acid, present in about that same order of concentration. The acid is a good idea, as it plays a pretty good hand in the final taste, and more importantly helps keep the must more suited for yeast, and less suited for bacteria. Mold, mildew, and other fungus will still grow in it though. A reminder that more is not always better, excessive acidity inhibits the yeast as well as most bacteria. Lactobacillus and aceterbacteria are acid lovers that may take over and produce vinegar if the acidity drops too low.
The yeast nutrient is mostly di-ammonium phosphate and magnesium sulfate. Use a good wine yeast. It is vital to your success and is cheaper than bread yeast in most locales. When I started I skimped and used bread yeast. Bad idea. Good wine yeast is about the cheapest, and most important thing in a brew store. One last thing that isn't mentioned above, but is needed, is sulphite. Again, this is another thing easiest to find in a brew store. Do look for it, as it is very much a useful thing. Sulphite will kill off the molds, etc., that can grow in your acidic unfermented mead. This unfermented liquid is referred to as the must by the way. Perhaps it is called this because you “must” ferment it before drinking!
OK, everything else should be pretty easy to come by. Hopefully you have found a glass carboy, or plastic water cooler jug. It will make things easier to keep sterile/clean. First thing to do is take a 1 gallon glass jar/plastic bottle/other sealable container and mix up 1 tsp. of sulphite powder, or two campden tablets (basically sulphite powder in tablet form) to a gallon of warm or hot water. Don't inhale a lot of this directly, as you may cough up a lung. This will be your sterilizing solution. Clean everything well with hot soapy water, then rinse in hot water. Last thing, rinse with enough sulphite water to coat the surfaces. This will kill just about everything but yeast. In high concentrations it will stun (probably not kill though) yeast too. Wild yeast and baker's yeast tend to be more susceptible than wine yeast.
|
