TheShadowfox

Recipes 

Hey everyone. I'm new to the forums but I hope to change that soon.

This is my first major brew. I've done mostly very simple wines to get the hang out of fermenting. I've done a lot of research and study about the process but nothing beats experience, and that's why I'm here to meet all of you.

I started a 6 gallon batch of vanilla mead last night. I've been going by this recipe here: http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_rapidrecipe&page=viewrecipe&r ecipe_id=19&Itemid=459


I started off by sterilizing everything in a potent bleach blend. I filled my 6 gallon carboy with hot water and bleach, let it sit for about 10 minutes and then bathed ALL my tools and components for this endeavor. I made sure to thoroughly clean everything afterwards of bleach and then proceeded with the rest of the process.


My ingredients for this entire endeavor are as follows:

25lbs dark honey



2 Madagascar vanilla beans
30 allspice
30 cloves
2 1/2 sticks of cinnamon (all spices crushed and free in the must)



6 oz frozen Orange Juide Concentrate (pulp free) for citric acid
6 oz frozen Apple Juice Concentrate for malic acid
(I couldn't find 6 oz concentrate containers so I just put half of each in)


5 gallons water (spring water)


Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast




I first put in 2 gallons of water before 1 gallon (12 lbs) of honey in to kind of thin it out to prevent it from staying at the bottom. The three gallons of liquid sloshed around in there for a while before I ground all the seasonings and out them in too. I added another pound of honey, then the concentrates, and then the rest of the water. I topped that off with the bung and that was it!


I may be getting oak cubes for this later but we will see how it goes. Wish me luck everyone!