Instead of getting lost in the clutter of the Mead Reviews thread, why don't we start a new thread specifically for those home-brewers among us! This thread will be updated with links to various external sites and such. Websites: Home Brew Talk All About Mead Making Home Brew Digest An Analysis of Mead, Mead Making and the Role of its Primary Constituents http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html Recipes: Joe's Ancient Orange Mead Mason Grimm's Vanilla Mead
Okay, I'm about to pull the trigger on my materials! I'm going to start off simple and do the JAOM (Joe's Ancient Orange Mead). Here's what I'll be picking up for equipment. 3 gallon Better Bottle Carboy Better Bottle PET O-Ring Closure Better Bottle DryTap Airlock I do question if I should spent the extra $1 and get the 3 gal BB that has the drilled port. This whole "racking" thing is foreign to me. The JAOM says not to rack as well... Apparently 3 gallons will make 15 750ml bottles... so I'd pick up some of these Bordeaux bottles to put it in. Any better methods out there to bottle this much once it is done? I'll need corks (do they sell those rubbery/plasticy ones? I like them over normal corks honestly) and a way to pop the cork in of course. Also, HOW do you bottle it up without getting the sediment and such? Ingredients: The JAOM says to go with bread yeast, but I wanna step that up to some REAL yeast. Recommendations between the Lavin d47, wyeast Sweet Mead Yeast, and the KV-1116? Those are all recommended yeasts I've seen in the thread on the home brew forum. I'll be slicing up my oranges to get rid of the rind and tossing in some of the zest instead of just cutting them up and tossing the whole thing in.
As far as avoiding the sediment, a good way to do that would be to use a little Irish Moss Powder. Basically, while boiling your first stage, you pour out a little of the wort into another boil pot, add the irish moss, then allow that cook for about 10 minutes. Then readd it back to the wort. As the wort boils, it collects all the sediment and sort of allows it to congeal together into a solid mass at the bottom. That way when you remove the wort from your brew pot, it comes out cleaner. As an additional step, you can buy a filtered funnel for when you remove the wort to pick up any additional sediment. No opinion on the yeasts at the moment man. Sorry! Not enough experience yet.
$69 for 10 lbs, that's pretty damn cheap for 15 750ml bottles of mead... Or hell, go even cheaper. Dutch Gold Orange Blossom Honey, 5 lbs for $15.99. Any knowledge of Dutch Gold?
None, I've not made mead since my wedding in 1998. When I did I went to a local producer and would fill my gallon jugs from his 55 gal barrel.
$108.84 for 3 gal better bottle, simpleflo, racking adaptor, pet o-ring closure, and drytrap airlock :disturbed: Maybe I'll just go redneck for this first batch... Edit: screw it, wife gave me the go ahead as part of my birthday present! Carboy (and goodies) ordered as has been 10 lbs of Orange Blossom honey!
I have no idea for making mead. For beer it's awesome. Makes it really simple to move it to secondary.
Sorry, been busy of late and should have piped up earlier. Go with the sweet mead wyeast. It comes in vile in liquid form if I remember correctly. Carboys - I buy 5 gallon clear plastic PET carboys for my secondary. They're $19.99 in the homebrew supplier, and less than 5 bucks for the airlock and the stopped thingy. Keeping the pith out of your batch seems like a good idea. Last year I used the JAOM as it was, and this year I updated it to do something similar. I racked them, though, and they're smelling mighty fine. Yeast info - Bread yeast will get your alcohol content up to about 12%, but it leaves your booze cloudy. The wyeast should do a much better job. The recipe says it'll be ready in about three months, and it will be. It'll be drinkable and tastey. BUT. If you wait 6 months to a year it smooths and mellows out a great deal and is really damned good. Racking - Racking is how you get rid of the sediments. It'll all be in the bottom (though when I made my rasberry with a puree, it congealed at the top during the fermentation and left an inch think spongee wierd thing). Dead yeast, the bits of the fruit your yeasties didn't eat, the raisins (if you wait long enough, they'll sink), cinnamon sticks... all of it. If you get a second carboy, once your fermenting time has passed I'd rack that stuff off the crap in the bottom, let it sit a month, and then rack it again, wait a month, and bottle it. That's just me, though. If you bottle cloudy booze you're bound to get crap in the bottom of your bottle. Clarifiers - I've not used Irish moss as a clarifier before, but I've heard it doesn't do well in meads. I just use isinglass. I think it was discovered by the ancient Nordic folk anyways. It's ground up fish bladders or something (I might be thinking of a different clarifier). The drilled port/racking thingy makes life much easier, but it's not essential. Make sure you have a racking tube! It's what you'll use to get your booze into the bottles. Corking - There are specific corking doo-dads. I'm fond of the floor corker myself, but there are smaller hand ones that you can get as well. Here's a pic: http://www.ebrew.com/Products_C/portuguese_floor_corker.jpg You put the bottle on that black plate, load the cork into the top, press it down, and wala. Corker. I recommend soaking your corks for about 24 hours before corking your bottles. And finally - How long do you plan on keeping these bottles before cracking into them?
I'll probably crack 1-2 bottles a month, that's my plan anyway. That way I can take notes as it ages to gauge a good time to leave it bottled before popping them.
My carboy and honey arrived yesterday. Probably the best honey I've ever tasted. I think I'm going to wait and birth it on the 30th, for my 30th birthday. Hey Josh, how the hell do I get my racking adapter dealie into my bottle? Are there instructions somewhere for how to get that thing installed into the port, cause they sure as shit didn't come with any?
If you bought them separate I have no idea. I just bought them preassembled. This is what I found from Googling it:
Pr-assembled wasn't an option. I guess I'll drop the snorkel in and shake the bottle around till I get it lined up with the port... we'll see how that goes!
I just talked to an expert on the matter. He took the part that is going to be on the inside of the carboy, went ahead and put all the washers on it, then took a nice long piece of pvc that could fit over that snorkel piece on the inside.. (not too tight of a fit as you want the pvc to let go after you get it assembled). Take the long piece of pvc with the snorkel pushed up into it and feed it down into the neck of the carboy. Fit the piece through the hole and hold it there while assembling the rest of it from the outside. He recommends 3/8" pvc. Hope that helps!
