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There used to be a really old thread, which I can't seem to find anymore, about people brewing lots of different stuff. I remember quite a lot of Dakkaites having experience in making the stuff, as evidenced by that thread. I'm looking for a new "hobby" to get into now that assembling my Adeptus Mechanicus army is starting to give me Carpal Tunnel with all the small bits (I have no envy for horde Guard or Ork players...)
Does anyone have any good starter resources to point me to, as well as tips and tricks for a beginner? I found these three books on Amazon and am probably gonna get them for starters:
Click here for my Swap Shop post - I'm buying stuff! DR:90-S++G++M+B++I+Pw40kPbfg99#+D++A++/eWDR++T(T)DM+ Black Legion/Iron Warriors/Night Lords Inquisitorial Friends & Co. (Inq, GK, Elysians, Assassins) Elysian Droptroops, soon-to-add Armored Battlegroup Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World Lucius
There's nothing to it - 5-10 lb of honey per 5 gal brewing bucket.
1) Sanitize equipment.
2) Use clean very warm water from tap, fill bucket about half way.
3) Dump your honey, then stir til well-mixed.
4) Fill rest of water and mix.
5) Make sure it's well mixed and under ~80 degrees, then pitch yeast. I like using a champagne yeast for higher attenuation but be sure to add extra honey if you do this. Otherwise a sweet mead yeast will work well too, but it won't be as strong.
6) Stir well, cover bucket for a month or so.
7) Rack to sanitized glass carboy and let sit...however long you want. Years if possible.
I've done lots of beers, wine, etc., and the easiest thing I've ever made is yeast.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2015/06/19 22:18:46
NuggzTheNinja wrote: There's nothing to it - 5-10 lb of honey per 5 gal brewing bucket.
1) Sanitize equipment.
2) Use clean very warm water from tap, fill bucket about half way.
3) Dump your honey, then stir til well-mixed.
4) Fill rest of water and mix.
5) Make sure it's well mixed and under ~80 degrees, then pitch yeast. I like using a champaign yeast for higher attenuation but be sure to add extra honey if you do this. Otherwise a sweet mead yeast will work well too, but it won't be as strong.
6) Stir well, cover bucket for a month or so.
7) Rack to sanitized glass carboy and let sit...however long you want. Years if possible.
I've done lots of beers, wine, etc., and the easiest thing I've ever made is yeast.
I made a "burned mead" last November. Boiled the honey and let it caramelize for an hour until it was a very dark brown. Let the mead ferment a month with an addition of vanilla beans and various spices (followed an old ~1500 recipe), then bottled it. Ended up at 18%, and when I tried it at 6 months it was pretty tasty. The plan is to give it away, and drink some myself, for Christmas this year.
Relapse wrote: d-usa! It's good to see you posting here again!
I'm just gonna keep my ass out of any thread that includes religion, politics, and any kind of -ism.
'fraid you got yourself into one - alcohol-ism. All jokes aside, that seems like a really nifty recipe - would you mind sharing it? Only fermenting for a month, though?
Click here for my Swap Shop post - I'm buying stuff! DR:90-S++G++M+B++I+Pw40kPbfg99#+D++A++/eWDR++T(T)DM+ Black Legion/Iron Warriors/Night Lords Inquisitorial Friends & Co. (Inq, GK, Elysians, Assassins) Elysian Droptroops, soon-to-add Armored Battlegroup Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World Lucius
Manchu - "But so what? The Bible also says the flood destroyed the world. You only need an allegorical boat to tackle an allegorical flood."
Shespits "Anything i see with YOLO has half naked eleventeen year olds Girls. And of course booze and drugs and more half naked elventeen yearolds Girls. O how i wish to YOLO again!"
Rubiksnoob "Next you'll say driving a stick with a Scandinavian supermodel on your lap while ripping a bong impairs your driving. And you know what, I'M NOT GOING TO STOP, YOU FILTHY COMMUNIST"
Relapse wrote: d-usa! It's good to see you posting here again!
I'm just gonna keep my ass out of any thread that includes religion, politics, and any kind of -ism.
'fraid you got yourself into one - alcohol-ism. All jokes aside, that seems like a really nifty recipe - would you mind sharing it? Only fermenting for a month, though?
Primary was a month or so. I added nutrition to the years in phases at the beginning to make sure the yeast had what it needed (mead is hard on yeast, it's not really great food for the cells). I did make sure that fermentation had stopped before botting to avoid bottle bombs by making sure he specific gravity reading was stable. If you keep the yeast happy you can finish the fermentation fairly quickly and have it in a bottle before too long. It's all the action happening in the bottle that takes a long time and why aging is important. The burned mead didn't taste "bad" when I first bottled it, but it smelled like a mix of rocket fuel and moon shine and burned your nose while drinking it. 6 months in the bottle resulted in a lead that has almost no burn, a nice underlying fruity flavor from the vanilla that just gives it lots of body, and the spices remind me just a little of mulled wines. I'll try to find the recipe for it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Edit: Looking back I actually did a month in primary fermentation (with the spices) and a month in secondary fermentation with the vanilla bean. And I found my pictures!
Spoiler:
Boiling honey:
Warning, honey will increase 837 times in volume when boiling. Okay, not that much, but a little bit will expand, overflow, and catch fire very easily.
Honey caramelizing over time as it's boiling:
Primary:
Secondary:
Leftover from primary after racking to secondary:
After secondary:
Bottled and ready to age:
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/06/20 00:46:05
I love mead. Wanted to brew some but never got round to it.
Besides its outside the high alcohol tax tarrifs so its often fairly cheap if you know where to look. Though some suppliers use its relative rarity to jack up the price.
I settled for Harvest Gold, only Morrisons stock it, its a cheap mead, but its good to drink.
n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.
Just out of curiosity, I'd like to experiment a bit with different mixes, and want to run several batches simultaneously instead of doing one every few months. What's the smallest you can reasonably make a batch? And how does the bottling process work?
Mind, I've never made any kind of alcohol from scratch before, I just consume large amounts of it.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/06/21 19:45:25
Click here for my Swap Shop post - I'm buying stuff! DR:90-S++G++M+B++I+Pw40kPbfg99#+D++A++/eWDR++T(T)DM+ Black Legion/Iron Warriors/Night Lords Inquisitorial Friends & Co. (Inq, GK, Elysians, Assassins) Elysian Droptroops, soon-to-add Armored Battlegroup Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World Lucius
Just out of curiosity, I'd like to experiment a bit with different mixes, and want to run several batches simultaneously instead of doing one every few months. What's the smallest you can reasonably make a batch? And how does the bottling process work?
Mind, I've never made any kind of alcohol from scratch before, I just consume large amounts of it.
1 gal is the smallest batch you could probably want to do.
The bottling process involves either a bottle capping get device and bottle caps (you can reuse sanitized non- twist beer bottles), corking wine bottles, kegging it (not recommended for mead) or my favorite method: buying a case of Grolsch, pouring it out or having your worst enemy drink it, and using those effort free swing top bottles.
If you are making gallon batches of mead then you should really look into 7oz bottles. Mead really does taste best the longer it ages, but you will be tempted to sample the progress along the way. Doing 10-12 16 oz bottles isn't going to last you long if you do any sampling, and you will wish that you had waited longer and have more now that it tastes great. 7oz bottles lets you sample either more frequently, or have ,ore bottles at a later date. It's also a great size for having a glass of mead or for giving away as a gift.
NuggzTheNinja wrote:
The trick to posting about mead is to post BEFORE you drink it.
I've learned the trick to posting is not to do it after beverages
gunslingerpro wrote:....and I think I just decided that my brother and I will be making Mead.
Getting that much honey has to be a bit pricy, no?
Once you have a beehive set up, at least here in Australia you should be pulling about 60 kgs of honey a year - more or less depending on the season.It's a bit more expensive in the US as you have to deal with verroa destructor.
In my case as I inherited most of the gear, no. I also inherited anywhere between 500,000 and a million bees.
Manchu - "But so what? The Bible also says the flood destroyed the world. You only need an allegorical boat to tackle an allegorical flood."
Shespits "Anything i see with YOLO has half naked eleventeen year olds Girls. And of course booze and drugs and more half naked elventeen yearolds Girls. O how i wish to YOLO again!"
Rubiksnoob "Next you'll say driving a stick with a Scandinavian supermodel on your lap while ripping a bong impairs your driving. And you know what, I'M NOT GOING TO STOP, YOU FILTHY COMMUNIST"
gunslingerpro wrote:....and I think I just decided that my brother and I will be making Mead.
Getting that much honey has to be a bit pricy, no?
Once you have a beehive set up, at least here in Australia you should be pulling about 60 kgs of honey a year - more or less depending on the season.It's a bit more expensive in the US as you have to deal with verroa destructor.
In my case as I inherited most of the gear, no. I also inherited anywhere between 500,000 and a million bees.
I'm not sure my apartment landlord will approve of me setting up a beehive in the children's playground or the BBQ pits...
Click here for my Swap Shop post - I'm buying stuff! DR:90-S++G++M+B++I+Pw40kPbfg99#+D++A++/eWDR++T(T)DM+ Black Legion/Iron Warriors/Night Lords Inquisitorial Friends & Co. (Inq, GK, Elysians, Assassins) Elysian Droptroops, soon-to-add Armored Battlegroup Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World Lucius
Black Legion/Iron Warriors/Night Lords 
Inquisitorial Friends & Co. (Inq, GK, Elysians, Assassins) 
Elysian Droptroops, soon-to-add Armored Battlegroup 
Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World Lucius
All jokes aside, that seems like a really nifty recipe - would you mind sharing it? Only fermenting for a month, though?
