Thought I'd better take this into its own thread, rather than clog up the 'easy recipie' thread.
Here's the recipie I found, and that I'm following with this experiment:
Original recipe (Digbie, p. 124):
Take nine pints of warm fountain water, and dissolve in it one point of pure white honey, by laving it therein , till it be dissolved. Then boil it gently , skimming it all the while, till all the scum be perfectly scummed off; and after that boil it a little longer, peradventure a quarter of ah hour. In all it will require two or three hours boiling, so at least one third part may be consumed. About a quarter of an hour before you cease boiling, and take it from the fire, put to it a little spoonful of cleansed and sliced Ginger; and almost half as much of the thin yellow rind of Orange, when you are even ready t take it from the fire, so as the Orange boil only one walm in it. Then pour it into a well glassed strong deep great Gally-pot, and let it stand so, till it be almost cold, that it be scarce Luke-warm. Then put into it a little silver spoonful of pure Ale-yeast and work it together with a Ladle to make it ferment: as soon as it beginneth to do so, cover it close with a fit cover, and put a thick dubbled woollen cloth about it. Cast all things so that this may be done when you are going to bed.
Next morning when you rise, you will find the barm gathered all together in the middle; scum it clen off with a silver spoon and a feather, and bottle up the Liquor, stopping it very close. It will be ready to drink in two or three days, but is will keep well a month or two. It will from the first, very quick and pleasant.
Master Robyyan's recipe:
Add one. pound of honey to 5 quarts of water, bring the mixture to a simmer and skim the foam as it rises, until there is no more foam, approximately 30 minutes. (Aelfwyn: though boiling the honey isn;t necessary.. ) Add approx. 2 tbsp. coarsely chopped fresh ginger, the juice of one lemon, and 8 cloves, stuck into the lemon peel for easy removal. Boil for 15 minutes, then remove from the heat and cool to lukewarm. Place the wort in a jug, straining the ginger and lemon pieces out. Add 1/4 tsp. ale yeast, and fit a fermentation lock.
After 48 hours, bottle and store at room temperature. After 48 hours in the bottle, refrigerate.
OK, so it's not exactly 48 hours, but near enough....
Now I have no way of working out alcohol content (I have a hydrometer ordered, but it's not arrived yet) so I can't figure that out just yet.
I am now well over halfway through the fermentation time (16 hours or so to go), and though I've had no bubbles in my airlock, I can see it's been bubbling quite nicely, and in fact, is still bubbling. There was a very nice cap to it about seven hours ago, and now the froth's subsided, but I can still see small bubbles rising up. It's a wierd colour, though. Though that may just be the honey I used - I used a different brand than last time. Racking it off tomorrow, so I'll nab a quick swill while I'm doing so, and see how it tastes.
So far, so good....
"48 hour mead" updates
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