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Offline BMAC

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Mead Making
« on: August 07, 2007, 12:00:50 pm »
I have been making my own Mead/wine and beer for quite sometime now.  I have not noticed any conversing about it on here.  So I was wondering....


Does anyone else on the board make their own stuff?

A batch of my mead from Golden Rod just finished fermenting last night.  Well I think it is done now. 

I also just finished up a batch of Blackberry Melomel.  Yum...
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Offline Mici

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2007, 03:09:14 pm »
yeah---i'm trying to make it..sort of. placed it last year at round..october i think, some floral honey. so...after 6 months i closed it, and put some sulphur in, but it didn't stop fermentation so, almost every day i have to replace the cap. don't know why it won't stop fermenting.
i did however try 5 different ways /yeasts and only the natural one stopped fermenting and i used minimum ammount of sulphur to stop the fermentation. other 4 will probably result in vinegar, LOL.

this spring i extracted some sugar/honey from a colony which i can't really remember why i took out those stores, lol. anyway, i mixed that honey with some water and put it in the basement-to feed it this autumn.
well, after a month or so, the bottler really got inflated so i opened them carefully and tasted it. jummy!!!! i'm gonna do it again this autumn, now i'm waiting for hops to grow, so i'll make real honey beer.

Offline randydrivesabus

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2007, 07:25:35 am »
you guys are making me want to do this. how much honey does it take to make it worthwhile?

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2007, 09:30:22 am »
Yeah, I've done a few batches. 

It takes roughly a quart of honey to make a gallon, or 15-18 lbs to make a 5 o r6 gallon batch.  It has more to do with starting and ending specific gravity.  Cleanliness is manditory if you don't want vinegar.  The proper tools make it easier...carboys, airlocks, etc.  Sometimes the meads need a long time before they taste good.

I just racked my 1 gal grape mead (pyment) and a gal of dandelion wine, good stuff!.

I have 5 gallons of apple/pear that is slowly clearing after 6 months....I'm a little afraid to try that on...after what it has been through I'm afraid it might attack me  :shock:

Rick
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Offline BMAC

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2007, 11:58:31 am »
Yep the equipment and sanitation is probably the two most important things to have.

I made a 5 gallon batch of Wildflower Mead from 14lbs of honey.  It finished fermenting just the other day and is around 13% By Volume.  I had to sample a little to check for the fusel alcohols (you know the ones that make you choke and give you a real bad headache and gut ache).  None could be tasted so I think it all went really really well.

Randy.  It is super easy to make.  Mix your honey and your water together.  Add your yeast energizer and yeast nutrient.  I think it is 1/2 tsp per gallon.  Then take a new SS paint mixer and blend it all together until it is foamy white.  After that add your yeast and put the airlock on it.

I always stir it everyday to purge any CO2 built up until primary fermentation is done.

Then you just rack off into clean sanitized carboy or pail and allow the yeast to settle out of the mead.  Bottle/age drink.....
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Offline Cindi

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2007, 12:04:50 pm »
I have every intention of making some mead once the work of the summer has gone by the wayside.  I have read this site from top to bottom and it is very very interesting about making mead.  A very simple drink to brew and I would imagine, very good for you  :-D

http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_rapidrecipe&page=viewrecipe&recipe_id=210&Itemid=6

Check it out when you have some time to do some reading, you'll find it worthwhile.  Have a wonderful day, best life, best health wishes to all.  Cindi
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Offline ooptec

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2007, 06:40:18 pm »
Found a website from Quebec. That outfit has the right idea, is an apiarist and also set up a winery and turns all his honey into mead and sells. Quite pricey too. Talk about $$ returns   lol

cheers

peter

Offline BMAC

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #7 on: August 10, 2007, 01:23:51 pm »
That is an interesting idea.  One that I have contemplated.  I would need to look into all the liquor/wine laws first though. 
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Offline Mici

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #8 on: August 10, 2007, 01:40:33 pm »
just made /set up my second batch of OL/beer. unfortunatelly hops have not rippen so i used linden flowers and some other herb instead (corda benedicta) to get the bittery taste of the beer. also i made only...around 3 pints. we'll see how it went in about 2 weeks (the hops should grow enough by then also)

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #9 on: August 10, 2007, 02:34:42 pm »
There are simpler things to try, but you don't want your first experience to fail and sour you on the idea of investing money to do that.

Really only need honey, water, yeast, a glass jug, and an airlock of some kind (balloon with hole in it).

Mix it togather in the jug, and cover the hole with the ballon with a little hole in it for an airlock.  But that is really basic.  It can and does work, but increases the chances of failure.

On gotmead.com they have some discussion of starting a commercial meadery/winery.  It is pretty expensive, because with the licensing it isn't worth doing it only part way.

I've read quite a bit at gotmead...some of those people are way.... into the mead making thing...

Rick
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Offline Mici

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #10 on: August 10, 2007, 03:00:49 pm »
http://www.harvington.org.uk/hic/index.html
simple, jet useful, there's a honeybeer receipe.

Offline ooptec

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #11 on: August 10, 2007, 03:02:26 pm »
Being a home brewer making whine, beer and mead, which incidentally is what got me into bee keeping. Something like 'how much for honey' ???? 'how much are bee's worth?'.    lol  I cannot emphasize enough, and I think is the reason the most quit or have poor results is.....

sterilize ..... sterilize ..... sterilize ..... sterilize .....

Pretend you are doing an operation, don't lay any sterile implement that comes in contact with the solution down on a non-sterile surface.

For a beginner a 1/4C of laundry bleach in a gal. of water is fine, but later a product like 'Diversol' which is used in food factories and milking operations etc. for cleaning/sanitizing is superior as it also has detergent qualities if left to soak.

The second suggestion is to buy 23L (6 US Gal) GLASS carboys and use for both primary and secondary/tertiary. ferments.

I think there is a primal satisfaction in making your own booze, especially if the raw ingredients like your own honey, hops, berries etc. makes the bulk of the concoction.

cheers

peter

Offline ooptec

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #12 on: August 10, 2007, 03:26:40 pm »
Gee I seem to full of advice today   lol

Here is the recipe posted from above:

Ingredients:

    * 1 lemon
    * 1.5lb dark honey
    * half an ounce of hops
    * 1 teaspoon granulated yeast (a beer one would do - or bread yeast)
    * 1 gallon water

Method:

Peel the lemon rind, avoiding the white pith. Squeeze the juice and strain to remove pips.
So far so good   lol

Dissolve the honey in 2 pints of the water in a bucket.

Put the rest of the water into a large (suitable sized) pan with the hops and lemon rind.
and lemon juice

Bring to the boil and boil gently for 30 minutes.
It takes 60 mins, to totally extract hops. I'd boil the hops in water for 3/4 hr. then add lemonjuice and rind last 15 mins.

Strain the hop water into the honey solution and leave to cool.
If you use leaf hops instead of pellets in makes a very nice filter bed in a regular screen strainer

Discard the hops and lemon rind.

Add the activated yeast and lemon juice into the cooled mixture, cover over and leave for 3-4 days in a warm place to ferment.
If you are going to all this trouble, get a pkg. of whine yeast. Bread yeast makes excellent bread, but poor booze. Also I'd leave it till fermentation quits probably closer to a couple of weeks at room temp.

When fermentation has ceased, siphon into sterilized 1 pint beer bottles, leaving an airspace at the top. Add half a level teaspoon sugar to each bottle. Seal with plastic pop-off caps and leave in a warm room to ferment in the bottles for a few days.
An easier method is dissolve 1/4 cup sugar in a little hot water, then add to mead. Bottle in any plastic bottle and seal. Leave at room temp. till bottles become 'hard'. If using clear bottles like pepsi etc. let stand till solution clears. I found out the hard way after great effort making cider from my apple trees that plastic bottles are the easiest, but you can only store them in there for a couple of short months as the plastic is not an oxygen barrier and it will oxidize and will taste .... not good    lol..

Then store for at least 2 weeks in a cool, dark place before drinking.
I would estimate alcohol content to be around 5%

My advice   lol

cheers

peter

Offline Mici

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #13 on: August 10, 2007, 03:36:06 pm »
good thing you're advising. i thought the 30 minutes with hops is a joke (why so long..if tea is prepared in a few minutes LOL).
but how do they do this in large breweryes? i mean...to boil thousands and thousands of gallons is just...uneconomical.

what do you mean by "plastic not oxygen barrier"? don't bottles close good enough or what?

Offline ooptec

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #14 on: August 10, 2007, 03:49:58 pm »
Believe it or not, they do. And is even more complicated a they use malted barley grain and have to hold it a one temp. near boiling for a period, then increase to next slightly higher temp. for a period then boil as different enzymes that change the barley into fermentable sugars act at different temps. Next is boil followed by a protein break. Making beer is probably the hardest of all the bevvy's to make.... well. Home brewers frequently use malt syrup or dried malt extract  to eliminate the enzyme part but still boil w/ the hops for an hour to extract bitterness, add some more for 15 mins. to impart flavor and lastly add some more last 1-2 mins. for aroma as hops are not very soluable in water.

The bottles seal excellently, even reusing the caps. But the actual plastic bottles allows oxygen in.

B.T.W. - You don't need hops for a mead, but as this is lower alc. it acts as a preservative. You can increase the honey to make more alc. (if this makes 5% then 2X will be 10%....mol) then just bring to boil rind and lemon juice then etc. etc.

cheers

peter

Offline Mici

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #15 on: August 10, 2007, 04:21:15 pm »
/shock\ :shock:

plastic allows oxygen in, another /shock\ :shock:

i know i don't need hops, but still hops are somewhat what makes beer a beer, :)
just waiting that they grow
so far...i boiled some linden flowers and a little lemon peel in 2 pints of water. i dissolved aprox. 300g of honey in another pint and mixed it together (when it cooled) and added some lemon juice. now i have it in my room (for the next 3-4 days)
ummm, ok so obviusly one could replace honey with sugar, now...how big affect would it have on the flavour itself?
i don't mean all the honey just like..30%, you know...to cheat :-D

Offline ooptec

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #16 on: August 10, 2007, 04:36:39 pm »
But...but...but     lol

If there is no barley malt you are making mead not beer.

A commercial brewery here sells a honey-lager which is what I am aiming for as soon as fall comes (all too soon hereabouts   lol) and I can keep my shop at a steady 40°F.

If you add dextrose (corn sugar) it will ferment w/o any off flavors. In fact the canned beer kits call for quite a whack of dextrose which to me defeats making true beer as true beer is

malted barley > water > yeast > hops

Too much sugar and you get the wonder bread like commercial product. Which not to pooh-pooh 'cause there are no bad styles of beer.   It's all good ....hic

cheers
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Offline Mici

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #17 on: August 10, 2007, 04:48:56 pm »
what's the name of that movie? Lost in translation or something?
ok so..beer has to be made of malted barley, whilst lager is...anything as long as it has 5-10% alc and bubbles:D.

so i'm making honey lager. why is it called lager? is it because if you drink to much, you get real lag? :-D

thanks for all the info, really apreciate it

Offline ooptec

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #18 on: August 10, 2007, 05:33:23 pm »
har-har

Probably.

Lager or lagering is when beer is fermented at around 40°F (4.5°C) to 45°F (7.2°C) with Lager yeast

Ale is when beer is fermented at around 60°F (15.5°C) to 65°F (18.3°C) (or warmer) with Ale yeast

Steam Beer (aka:common beer) is when beer is fermented at around 60°F (15.5°C) to 65°F (18.3°C) with Lager yeast .

The higher the temp. of fermentation the more extra flavors develop which is neither good or bad as you know if you've ever had any run in with Belgian Lambic Beer which I'm sure is one of those 'acquired' tastes   lol. The so called cleanest and crispest tasting beers is lager as nothing but the special low temp. yeast can grow.

More than you ever probably wanted to know    lol

cheers

peter

Offline BMAC

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #19 on: August 10, 2007, 07:20:24 pm »
Mici you can also make a very good tasting beer using wheat as the base malt instead of using barley as the base malt.  Also a gentleman local to our area has commercially produced a beer made exclusively with Sorghum as the base malt.  It is for those that are gluten intolerant that still like to drink a beer.

which brings up my wifes very favorite beer in the entire world as she doesn't care for the bitterness of hops.  I make her a Honey Wheat beer that is very tasty.  It has a nice clean taste with a slight citric finish to the taste buds.  Very crisp, but yet full of flavor.  Certainly not as flavorful as say a nice Lambic.  Actually I believe most Belgians carry much more flavor than other ales.  For good or bad.  Most like to believe it is for the worst.

Ale yeast is a top fermenting yeast which as Peter has pointed out runs 60-80 depending on the strain.

Lager Yeast is bottom fermenting at the much colder temps.  Again this depends on the actual strain.  I am a fan of German Lagers so the last Oktoberfest I made fermented out at 55 degrees. 

The actual term lagering is the actual technique of aging the beer at cold temps.  Typically < 40 F.  For example my Oktoberfest will age (lager) > 3 months prior to drinking.  This aging does not include primary or secondary fermentation.

www.hbd.org is a great resource to be able to understand different beers and the basic concept of making your own beer.
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Offline Mici

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #20 on: August 10, 2007, 07:25:56 pm »
More than you ever probably wanted to know    lol

dead on!

but still, some very interesting AND useful info!!!
great to finaly have someone who knows something about it, to talk!
oh, back to the /shock\ thing, i mean..just wondering, are you sure they don't like..boil a hundred liters+hops and then just pour into the thousand liter tank? just wondering.

so...beer is when you have malt+hops and stuff
and ale/lager is when different yeast is used
ummm where can we regular mortals get these two types of yeasts?
what if i let the natural yeast that's in honey to do the job?

do the commercial breweryes pasteurise their beer?

the difference between lager and ale yeast is commonly explained as "upper and lower" fermentation, right?

Offline Mici

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #21 on: August 10, 2007, 07:34:41 pm »
i see that my habit of disregarding the:
Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.
doesn't really pay of, answered much of my questions heh.

so basicly, lager is more sensetive thus harder to make, and expensiver. rearly does one drink a real Lager huh?

Bmac, i appreciate your suggestions but as this tread applyes i'm interested in honey-ale. so...neither wheat nor barley really interest me. BUT, as one says, never say never!
as for the malt part...i guess ANYTHING containing carbs would do, in my case hooooneeeey.

well, i just gotta use this occasion. why do some bear cause headaches and hangovers before one even gets ummm intoxicated, while with some...you can drink by barrels?
how do i make my beer drinkable by barrels :-D?
i heard filtration is the biggest catch?

Offline ooptec

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #22 on: August 10, 2007, 09:10:50 pm »
Weeelll ...

I wouldn't say making lager or ale is harder or easier, The actual beer part is identical till the temp. of fermentation and type of yeast comes in. Say you make ten gallons of beer wort, you can divide it in two and make a lager w/lager yeast at a low temp. and an ale w/ale yeast at room temp. and although it started out w/the identical wort (soup) because of the yeast and temps. fermented at/with they will taste totally different. The style is mostly personal taste and if you can keep temps. constant. Whether you make a nice lager is mostly if you can keep it at the desired cold temp. As ale is room temp. it is what most people have the physical ability to do and is an excellent beer too.

"There are no truths;
There are no facts;
It's all a matter of style."
-unknown-

Malt-malting-malted refers to barley grains that have undergone a specific treatment to make it able to make beer. Barley, wheat, whatever is a starch and it is necessary to react any starch with the enzymes that are produced from 'malting' barley specifically. What they do is take regular barley and germinate it till the sprout is 1/2 the length of the grain and then dry it. What that does is when it sprouts certain enzymes are produced and it is these enzymes that when making beer transforms the starch in any grain to sugars which then yeast can feed on and bleep out CO2 and alcohol. Alcohol is yeast pee when it feeds on sugar.

The hardest part of making beer as opposed to whine or higher alc. brews is that as the alc. content is so low in most beers it allows things to grow that higher alc. doesn't which gets back to the sterilize .... sterilize  ....... sterilize

If it has ANY amount of barley in it it's beer. If no barley, not beer. Beer-like refreshment made out of wheat isn't beer it's weizen. Liquor made out of honey is mead. It's all good, just semantics.

B.T.W. - I found out thru trial and tribulation that yeast strain has the most effect on what the final product will taste like. Until pure strain beer yeasts arrived that we small guys could buy, no matter out of what, or how I made beer it tasted like home made crap. So the hard way I found out that yeast is the most important part of fermentable bevvy's actual taste. Hence the bread yeast is good for bread but not for booze.

As well as you bring up about headaches from some and not all. That comes back to yeast strains as some will make only ethanol and some make fusel alcohols etc. also which is neither good or bad re:Belgian Lambic's. "It's all a matter of style"    lol

As I slurrily type this, once to get it down and once again to correct it    lol, I'm into my own 'Steam beer dispensed out of a soda fountain system as bottling is the other part of beer making that s__cks.   lol

Oh yea, a whole range of different styles of yeast for all sorts of beers, ciders, meads, whines are easily and cheaply available from any reputable home brew store. Or on line. Actually yeasts is a whole field called zymurgy, the last word in an english dictionary (maybe   lol)

cheers

peter


Offline BMAC

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #23 on: August 10, 2007, 11:28:07 pm »
Nicely put Peter.  And MICI when you start to play with meads, I would keep Peters most important advice right at heart.  SANITATION is key to everything.

You can add too much honey.  You can avoid adding yeast nutrient and energizers.  Make sure you Sanitize everything before touching the potential mead.  Also keep it covered.  The open fermentation thing works, but as crude as the balloon method maybe it is still far better than straight open fermentation.

Yes the yeast in the honey will ferment it.  You decide if you truly want to use it though.  I may turn out excellent one time and it maybe the worst tasting booze you ever had the next.....

Cheers..

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Offline Mici

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #24 on: August 11, 2007, 07:34:37 am »
ok so..the damage is already done i guess, used bread yeast and have it in a pot for fermentation, but i guess the first fermentation isn't that sensetive? (luckly i'm trying a very small ammount).

yeah...when i was making the real mead-wine stuff, i didn't really obide the STERILIZE issue so..that might be the source to my problems lol.
the sterilizing part, do i have to get myself some ot those canden tablets and stuff, or can i simply use some snopps(like whiskey) to sterilize the equipment. also...aren't the bottles the most sensetive, i mean...the whole procedure isn't all that sensetive is it? the last  step is-bottling right?

the yeast part will be kinda hard but, fortunatelly we know the local brewery well so i guess i'll be able to get some of that yeast, just for future reference, i can freeze that yeast to store it right? don't wanna be bugging them every month or so..

Offline BMAC

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #25 on: August 11, 2007, 09:11:05 am »
Sanitation needs to be carried thru from front to end.  This obviously includes extracting your honey.  lol.  You want to introduce as little bacteria as possible into your booze.  It is the bacteria and crazy yeast strains that kill the taste. 

You can buy dried yeast culture from companies like Lalvin.  If you can buy some liquid yeast from your local brewery (which may not be the best yeast for making mead) you cannot freeze it typically.  You had better discuss that with your brewery prior to leaving.  The local brewery here propogate their own yeast and will not allow myself or anyone else in the public to purchase their yeast.

Now here is an idea.  Purchase you favorite bottle conditioned beer/mead/wine etc.  Open the bottle and pour off all the liquid contents.  If it is truly bottle conditioned their will be a small ring of yeast on the bottom.  simply add some of your honey and water to the bottle.  Shake well and place a balloon over the opening and let it sit for 24-48 hours.  Bang.  There is your yeast culture ready for your new batch of future mead......

Bottoms up..
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Offline ooptec

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #26 on: August 11, 2007, 11:43:03 am »
Couldn't have said it better.

All I have to add is that the campden tabs, potassium sorbate, potassium metabisulphite, et al are chemicals some use in whine making.

Although I don't. I don't think they are necessary and as I wouldn't stick my finger in a package of them and lick it off I don't want it in my whine. That decision is yours.

Make your must (soup) strong enough to get at least 10% alc/vol (or more) which I think would be around 4lbs/gal (2Kg/4L)

YOU MUST sanitize everything that comes in contact with your must (honey soup) with common chlorine laundry bleach. The active ingredient escapes me, chlorine maybe?, at a rate of 1/4C per Gallon water. Rinse in clean water.
(125ml/4L)

Pitch a decent amount of yeast.

Let it ferment till clear. With the balloon with the pin prick (good one I'll remember that) over the opening. However long that takes. I think you would have to add some fresh berry juice, or barley malt, or something to your ingredients as if you don't or alternatively add yeast nutrient and energizer the fermentation will be at best painfully slow if at all. Yeast needs more than pure sugar to live and reproduce and honey is essentually pure sugar.

If you cannot find yeast, let me know as I bought out a home brew store and I seem to have quite a whack of dried in individual dose foil packs and would mail some if you want. But it is probably more common than you think. Surely you know someone, even who knows someone who makes whine??

Although you said you made a real nice one with wild yeast. If you are lucky enough to have a bottle left, I'd guess it would have sediment in it. If so use the sediment and pour into about 1 pint (500ml) of honey-water-solution and cover loosely  (lol)  and leave at room temp for 4-5 days and see if any action starts. If it does fairly vigorously you can use that as the yeast. At least it's the devil you know.

happy brewing, don't be put off, like I said there is great satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment to the primal core of one's being when one creates booze from whatever. Esp. if it is nice to drink and with attention to a few things, mostly sanitize    lol it is easier than it sounds.

Cavemen did it, it is just the more attention the more predictable the results. Think of all the work the girls did to give you the honey but if batch went south (bad) all those flying hours grace the drain.

cheers

peter

Offline doak

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #27 on: August 14, 2007, 03:24:41 pm »
I wish all you mead makers the best. I cannot do it.
I am an Alocholic and if I mess with anything like that I'd get in trouble.
Going on 11 years.
doak

Offline BMAC

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #28 on: August 15, 2007, 09:08:04 am »
Sorry to hear that Doak. 

I have other habits that do not co-incide with drinking alot so I don't believe I will ever fall into your shoes.  The thought has crossed my mind several times though.  It also doesn't help that I have a rather sensative stomach so I have found that even if I only have a few beers a day for a couple of weeks straight my gut starts killing me.
God Bless all the troops
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Offline Cindi

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #29 on: August 16, 2007, 02:24:56 am »
Doak, I admire you.  Eleven years is a long time, we all struggle with our demons.  My gardening and working hard every minute of the day, except when I sit down and enjoy some alcohol,  keeps ALL my demons at bay.  We all struggle.  My hat off to you, Dude.  Have a wonderful day, best of this gorgeous life we're livin'.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline ooptec

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #30 on: August 16, 2007, 11:56:30 am »
Everything in moderation

cheers

peter

Offline doak

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #31 on: August 17, 2007, 06:38:00 pm »
Thanks Cindi.
ooptec, thats one I couldn't Moderate.
No shame here. ;)
doak

Offline Cindi

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #32 on: August 18, 2007, 02:03:50 am »
Doak, been there, done that, I savory every moment of my life.  This is a beautiful gift we are given,  that be life.  I am smiling. Cindi.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline Mici

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #33 on: September 12, 2007, 10:28:08 am »
ok so...the batch i tried the other day, went bad, i actually smelled it almost at the begining-opened fermentation.

so, today i cooked 3 liters of water+hops (i picked them a fortnight ago)
dissolved half a kilogram of honey plus let's say 250g of sugar in one liter which give
4l
and 750g of sugar/honey (yea i cheated a bit)

i added some water to the glass in which i had the honey (some was left in) and added the yeast.
i poured the two mixtures into the glass carboy and no i'm waiting for it to cool down, so i can add the yeast.

question is...
how am i gonna know, when the 1st fermentation is over?
also, does the second have to be a "closed" one?, if yes, how in the world do you open those bottles without getting wet? and losing half or more of the beverage?

Offline ooptec

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #34 on: September 12, 2007, 02:17:28 pm »
1st fermentation is when vigorous activity subsides and the solution starts to clear.

Put in secondary and leave till crystal clear. then it's done

Closed fermentation is when there is an air lock that lets the CO2 escape but will not allow outside air in (airlock)

When done add about 1/2 cup sugar dissolved and boiled to 23 liters solution just as putting into pressure (beer) bottles.

Leave a few weeks to develop pressure.

Hope it works for you as w/o any barley malt it is recommended that yeast nutrients are added, but you might be fine too.

Keep us informed

cheers

peter

Offline Scadsobees

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Re: Mead Making
« Reply #35 on: September 12, 2007, 02:22:56 pm »
This is how I understand it...I'm sure that it will be corrected if wrong :)

there isn't really a first and second, it is just a point in the process.

The "first" is open in the sense that it is in a more open type container,a bucket or something, the fermentation is more aerobic, meaning it uses oxygen, and is more vigorous, generating a  lot of gas.  Foaming is possible.  The large opening container makes this easier to control.

The second fermentation is when you rack it out of your "primary" into your carboy.  Since the fermentation has slowed down, there is a much less likely chance of the gases causing the liquid to shoot out of the narrow neck of the carboy.  It is also the beginning of the anaerobic ferment, meaning that all oxygen is excluded.  An airlock of some sort is still required for releasing the extra CO2.  At this point you don't want oxygen in there, that can increase risk of infections and oxydation which will cause bad flavors.

Closed just means that nothing else gets in (air).  You still need to vent the extra co2.  A truly closed carboy...hmmm...that sounds dangerous!!!

Rick
Rick