Ijustwant1
Senior Member
Can you show some photos of the gear you use to make mead ? Sounds interesting !
Are there any home brewers here?
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Making mead is stupidly simple. What you see below are a couple of the 1 gallon test batches I'm working with to fine tune the processes and get a baseline for yeast types and such. But basically, just dilute the honey (in this case 5# honey with 1 quart water), heat to 160F and hold to kill off any wild yeast, then add 3 quarts cold water, pitch the yeast and wait 4-5 months.
My wife and I brew beer, wine and champagne and the savings are astronomical. $45 for a kit to make 6 gallons of very good dry champagne is outrageously cheap. $1.43 a 750 ml bottle is amazing! The only downside is having to be careful when pouring to not get any of the residual yeast in the bottom of the bottle into your glasses. A small price to pay!
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
Process-wise making mead is really no different than making beer from extract. The main thing, in my opinion anyway, is sanitation. While good sanitation is crucially important when making beer, sanitation importance is about off the scale when making mead because honey takes so damn long to ferment. In short, your gear has got to really be clean because any undesirable yeasts in your carboy are going to have lots and lots of time to do their undesirable thing and you don't want that. I love me a good mead but damn they take a long time to make and mature. My best mead recipe required one... full... year... from (yeast) pitch to (drinking) glass. If memory serves that was about nine months in the carboy and another three months (give or take) in the bottle. There are faster meads, much faster, to be sure; but the best ones I've had take lots of time and lots of patience.
Meads are special though... In a way I can't quite explain. There's a certain magic about them. If you've brewed mead and you're nodding your head right now, you probably know what I mean.
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Making mead is stupidly simple. What you see below are a couple of the 1 gallon test batches I'm working with to fine tune the processes and get a baseline for yeast types and such. But basically, just dilute the honey (in this case 5# honey with 1 quart water), heat to 160F and hold to kill off any wild yeast, then add 3 quarts cold water, pitch the yeast and wait 4-5 months.
There is also another reason to hold that temperature to kill any residual yeast. Clostridium botulinum, the Gram positive, strict anaerobic rod that causes botulism and is also found in honey, which is why you should never give honey to a young child because their immune systems are not yet capable of destroying the pathogen. Pasteurization is defined as heating the liquid to 140º for at least 30 minutes is adequate to kill essentially all organisms except theromophilic bacteria, which are not pathogenic to humans.
Ijustwant1
Senior Member
Do you need any special gear to brew the champagne ? Sounds like I might get my wife interested in brewing yet!
Not really, we start with a dry white zinfandel. When the wine has been bottled we drop a sugar tablet (bought at the beer and wine store) into each bottle, cork it and let it sit for 4-6 months. You DO need different corks and sturdier bottles than regular wine bottles because the pressure inside the bottles will far exceed that of normal wine or beer.
Ijustwant1
Senior Member
Ok tomorrow is Brew Day ! Plans have changed a little so brew one is a golden ale (APA style ) seconded brew is a German Lager !
Photos to come ....
Photos to come ....
Ijustwant1
Senior Member
Well I am a dunderhead :-( I left my camera at work ::what:: But all was not lost as my son-in-law had his D80 so I got a few shots but then forgot to transfer them to my computer and am now waiting for them to email them to me! Well it was a long brew day but I enjoyed it So the photos are still coming !!!
So the photos are still coming !!!
Ijustwant1
Senior Member
Ok here is the grain
and these are the hops and yeast
and these are the hops and yeast
Ijustwant1
Senior Member
Mix the grain with hot water and let sit for an hour then drain off the liquid (wort)
Ijustwant1
Senior Member
Boil the wort for an hour adding hops at different times!
Ijustwant1
Senior Member
then cool the wort down from boiling to about 15-20c with my counter flow chiller , the hot wort goes in the top through the centre copper pipe the cold water flows from the bottom over the copper pipe and out the top and the wot comes out cool!
Ijustwant1
Senior Member
and then the fermentation process starts, this is the lager going nuts!
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Ijustwant1
Senior Member
Two weeks fermenting then we bottle the beer! Can't wait