PBJ Inspired Mead

[Locke141]

The big one has the water, honey, oranges, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, and bread yeast that will all become the mead (Honey wine). The tube from the top of the large bottle runs to the bottom of the small one, thats filled with water. This is an air lock to keep the air out and to let the CO2 escape that the yeast is making as it eats the sugar to produce the alcohol.

It's a 15L bottle (about 4 Gallons) with 4L of Honey (about one gallon). Being in Tanzania the honey was only 40,000 TZS or $21.93 USD.

 It's bubbling so fast I can't count so it off to a good start.

[Slippyblade]

Sweet!  Another brewer!  I really need to get ---my bottom--- in gear and get some hooch going myself.

[Locke141]

This was super easy to set up. When I found out how cheep honey was here I just had to try.

[Slippyblade]

A good short mead is a thing of beauty.  I'm not a booze drinker to be honest, but I loooooove the taste of a well brewed mead.

[opt2not]

What kind of alcohol percentage will this wield?  This does look ---steaming pile of meadow muffin----simple though. 

[Louis Tully]

.

[Locke141]

PBJ Inspired Mead - fail.

You're gonna need to hood that up, or down... a bit.

 

Seriously though, I'm with opt, looks less complicated than I thought it would be.

I'm sure PBJ's method is fine but it has to look safe if my wife is going to try it.

When I read PBJ's mead post I went and looked up some recipes and found this. Then I found some cheep honey I had to give it a try. I think I have around $30 invested in this and if it works out Ill have 3.75 gallons of mead.

I did zest the oranges with a carrot peeler before adding it and the meet in. The white rind I peeled off and through away as it is apparently undesirable.     

[Locke141]

What kind of alcohol percentage will this wield?  This does look ---steaming pile of meadow muffin----simple though. 

  I didn't take a gravity before fomentation started and bread yeast seams to have a large range in terms of when it will start to die out. The post on the recipe thread seem to indicate that about 12% alcohol is what you can expect.     

[Nephasth]

I've been wanting to brew mead for a couple years now. Next house, I want to get 10-20 gallons going. I love mead.

[Locke141]

I've been wanting to brew mead for a couple years now. Next house, I want to get 10-20 gallons going. I love mead.

This could not be easier to do. Hopefully it comes out ok. If so there is no reason not to start a batch. 

[Nephasth]

My reason for waiting is moving. I don't want to move carboys full of brewing mead. In time though, in time.

[Locke141]

My reason for waiting is moving. I don't want to move carboys full of brewing mead. In time though, in time.

True, your going to have your hands full enough moving the two headed beast. 

[Nephasth]

My reason for waiting is moving. I don't want to move carboys full of brewing mead. In time though, in time.

True, your going to have your hands full enough moving the two headed beast. 

Don't remind me. The single worst thing to move that I own... It gets harder and harder to find help moving it, my friends are all catching on...

[Locke141]

You should invite them over for some mead, then ask after they get there

[pbj]

I've made two batches of mead, which makes me an expert.  The one that tasted better I went way over the top adding sugar and yeast to it at the beginning.  Both of them benefited substantially from adding some agave syrup derived sweetener when it was time to serve them.

When my batches weren't keeping the balloons erect, I slapped on balloons that didn't have holes in them.  That system seemed to work well enough.  I do have another batch of prison wine that I got lazy with, suppose I need to run that through the coffee filter and see if it's quaffable...

[Locke141]

One week update.

When I came home today the seal on the air lock on the big bottle was broken, not badly. The pressure was a bit much for the epoxy I used. I made a new better top with the cap of a jug from our water dispenser. 10 seconds later it was bubbling like a champ. I think will be fine as the pressure was positive and I checked it last night.

The color has changed quite a bit from day one.

[Generic Eric]

One week update.

When I came home today the seal on the air lock was broken. The pressure was a bit much for epoxy I used. I made a new better top with the cap of a jug from our water dispenser. 10 second later it was bobbling like a champ. I think will be fine as the pressure was positive and I checked it last night.

The color has changed quit a bit from day one.

Are those rolling bubbles?  Or chunks?

[Locke141]

If by rolling bubbles you mean a steady stream then yes.

I often do a post in a rush and have to go back to fix the spelling. I'll fix the above post a some point.   

[yotsuya]

One week update.

When I came home today the seal on the air lock was broken. The pressure was a bit much for epoxy I used. I made a new better top with the cap of a jug from our water dispenser. 10 second later it was bobbling like a champ. I think will be fine as the pressure was positive and I checked it last night.

The color has changed quit a bit from day one.

[Locke141]

I really think its going to be ok. It was fine last night and I tested the seal buy dripping wax, there were bubbles so I just replaced it. And to be clear the color has changed a lot from day one but it's not noticeable at all from yesterday.

[opt2not]

So I did a bit of research and figured I'd try this out as well.
Since I already brew my own beer and sake, and I already have all the gear, I threw a small 2 gallon (8 litre) batch together to do a test-run on a simple recipe: Honey, Water, Orange rinds and flesh (pericarp/white membranes removed), raisins, cinnamon sticks, cloves, nutmeg, Lalvin K1-V116 yeast.

My airlock bubbles every 7 secs consistently, but I won't see the colour change till I transfer it in the second fermentation.

[pbj]

Well, well, well, look at Mr. Rich Boy and his adequate supplies trying to upstage my milk jugs and topo chico bottles.

[opt2not]

Well airlocks are pretty cheap, besides, the most expensive thing is the honey. Honey ain't cheap here in the great white north, which also why I opted for a small batch trial-run.

[yotsuya]

That's allright, PBJ. You homemade hootch will cause rotgut waaaaaayyy sooner than these other pretenders will.

[pbj]

I was pouring my latest batch of prison wine through some cloth on Sunday to filter out all the fruit and it occurs to me I still need to figure out a way to really clarify the stuff and sweeten it.  Siphoning was a bit of a disaster.

 

[Vigo]

Well, well, well, look at Mr. Rich Boy and his adequate supplies trying to upstage my milk jugs

Things told to Kanye West when he jumps on stage at a strip club?

[opt2not]

I was pouring my latest batch of prison wine through some cloth on Sunday to filter out all the fruit and it occurs to me I still need to figure out a way to really clarify the stuff and sweeten it.  Siphoning was a bit of a disaster.

 

Bentonite (aka fining agent) is your friend:

[Nephasth]

Bentonite, aka drilling mud...

[Locke141]

I was pouring my latest batch of prison wine through some cloth on Sunday to filter out all the fruit and it occurs to me I still need to figure out a way to really clarify the stuff and sweeten it.  Siphoning was a bit of a disaster.

 

Bentonite (aka fining agent) is your friend:

Would this work?
http://www.amazon.com/Aztec-Secret-Indian-Healing-Cleansing/dp/B0014P8L9W/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1423681538&sr=8-4&keywords=calcium+bentonite

[opt2not]

Would this work?
http://www.amazon.com/Aztec-Secret-Indian-Healing-Cleansing/dp/B0014P8L9W/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1423681538&sr=8-4&keywords=calcium+bentonite

Errr, I would use this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Simi-Valley-Home-Brew-Bentonite/dp/B0064O9B7E/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1423684601&sr=8-2&keywords=bentonite+wine

It's the same stuff you can get at wine-making supply shops.

[Locke141]

Thanks,
Just ordered.

[opt2not]

Ok, 2.5 weeks later my first fermentation is slowing down to a bubble every 27-30 secs.  I'm going to rack it tomorrow night.

It's smelling pretty awesome right now, has a nice alcoholic scent and doesn't appear "off" at all, so glad my thorough sanitizing worked out.

I plan on splitting this batch into two, one of them I'm turning into a Melomel (fruit added to the second fermentation), while the other one I'll add a bit more honey for some added sweetness and boosted alcohol content.
I seemed to have misplaced my hydrometer, so I hope I can find it before I rack tomorrow because I want to take a reading before doing so.

Also, I've found a Bee Farm not too far outside the city that has a good selection of honeys for cheaper than what the stores are selling. Here in BC Canada, Clover and Cranberry Honeys are in prominent production, so my next batch I'm planning on making my Mead more "locally" fuelled (except for the yeast), blending a mix of Clover and Cran Honeys from Chilliwack BC, and Glaciar water from Whistler Mountain. I've read good things about Cranberry Honey for meads, so this should produce some interesting flavour for my next batch.

I'll post some pics once it's racked into my glass carboys. 

[pbj]

Now one of you needs to figure out how to make salted pork that doesn't have me glued to a toilet for 16 hours after I eat it.

[Locke141]

Nice,

I started mine on Feb 6. Over the week end bobbles have stopped. I'm going to migrate it over to a clean plastic water jug at some point but for now I am planing on leaving it as is. The recipe said it is fine to leave it for 6 week - 2 months.

[Locke141]

Now one of you needs to figure out how to make salted pork that doesn't have me glued to a toilet for 16 hours after I eat it.

I'm a vegetarian so that one way not to end up on the pot for 6 HR.

[opt2not]

Now one of you needs to figure out how to make salted pork that doesn't have me glued to a toilet for 16 hours after I eat it.

What's so hard about making Salted Pork? It's salt + pork. 
You are cooking it before you eat it right?

I racked my mead, and decided to just make two melomels. One with mango, the other with blackberries.

Murky, but it's tasting and smelling good, so we'll see how it clears up in a couple months.

[pbj]

So, you don't cook salted pork, just FYI.  But I was curious if that was the issue, so I tried both pan frying it and slicing up into pho.  When you pan fry it, it tastes entirely too salty.  It worked okay in pho but I was still purging.  I have a feeling the issue is the salt content and I can't handle it.  Other people have been fine with it.

[opt2not]

Ooohhhh, salted pork = pancetta. Durrrr....for some reason I thought you were talking about salted bacon, without the smoke flavour of traditional bacon.
Perhaps it is the salt content doing you wrong, because curing any meat doesn't look too hard to prepare. But you can eat Phở  (which is loaded with salt/MSG), so perhaps it's the type of salt you're using?

You could try "alternative" salts and see how that does ya', I know a few people who cannot properly digest the processed table salts.  There's a big trend in the food-nation for the use of pink Himalayan salt, and Hawaiian Sea Salt...could be worth a shot.

 I personally really enjoy the Himalayan salt, we use it on everything now. But it's like Power Salt, so you don't need to use as much as you would with table salt.

[pbj]

Nope, you can set your watch to the pho countdown, too.  Once that bowl is finished I've got 20 minutes or the car ride home is going to get VERY interesting.

And it doesn't matter what you use - NOTHING gets a shart stain out of the upholstery.  Los Robertos taco shop nailed my truck's bench seat once and it bothered me until the day I sold that thing.

[opt2not]

   I'm concerned about you, James.