fatbloke
Well-Known Member
I don't really want to include this in the recipes, because it's not very original and there are a lot of variables.
To give credit where due, my Mother copied this out from the "Gales" Honey Book (Gales might have been a family concern originally, but now it's just a brand belonging to the "arch Food Nazis", Nestle (that should be an accented e on the end, but I can't work out how to get the character)).
Anyway, basically it's 1.5 to 1.75 Kg/3 to 4 lb of "set" (a.k.a. crystalised) honey, 600 ml/1 pint of cold tea (Black tea indian or chinese, but black, not green), a campden tablet, a citric acid tablet, water to 4.5 litres/1 gallon and either "wine yeast compound" or "special mead yeast" and yeast nutrient.
Ok, so I mentioned variables. Differing types of honey aren't so easy to get here in the UK (they're available in some places but usually prohibitively expensive), so I just use normal, 1 lb/454g retail jars of "runny" Honey, from the local Supermarket. I don't heat this, apart from slightly warming it to make it easier to remove from the jars. Mainly because it will have already been filtered and pasteurised for retail sale.
Obviously it's blended (produce of more than one EU country, no less) and unremarkable.
The tea ? well I'm sure you're aware there are many different kinds of black tea. Names like "Oolong", Orange Pekoe and Earl Grey to name but a few. I'd guess that you could use Earl Grey, but the bergamott in the tea may cause uncalculated/unexpected flavours. I just happen to have some teabags that are blended/produced for a Catering supplier, from Preston, in Lancashire (Lancashires where the in-laws come from, so they prefer Lancashire type products - and that the best thing about Yorkshire is the road out of the place - their words, not mine. Anyway........).
I use 2 teabags per 600ml/1 pint, so it makes a good, strong, dark brown tea. That gets a slight "tanin film" on top of the liquid when it's cold.
The campden tablets ? well I suspect that we're familiar enough with those.
I don't use boiled water normally. I use bottled spring water. Basically because it doesn't have any chlorine/chloramine in it.
Citric acid tablets ? Well I keep forgetting to buy some, so I used the juice of 1 lemon the first time I tried this recipe, but on this occassion, as I suspect it's only the citric acid element thats required, I used bottled lemon juice at a ratio of 2 tbsp's per gallon.
As for "wine yeast compound" or specialised mead yeast/nutrient? Well it seems that mead yeast is no longer available (I believe there used to be one available from Gervins, but they now suggest a general purpose wine yeast).
So on this occassion, I split the wort/mash/must/whatever it's really called, into 3 x 1 gallon glass jars. I'd already added Gervin Yeast Nutrient (I can post the content of the yeast nutrient if anyones interested) and Yeast Nutrient vitamin B1 tablets, as per the instructions per gallon.
The actual yeast ? Well I been getting my info from Ken Schramms' book "The Compleat Meadmaker" (ISBN 0-937381-80-2) and C.J.J. Berrys' "First Steps in Wine Making" (ISBN 1-85486-139-5). The Ken Schramm book is quite "sciencey", but not with that many recipes and the C.J.J. Berry book is very general, with only 2 or 3 recipes for mead.
The Berry book only suggests "all purpose" wine yeast and nutrient, whereas the Ken Schramm book goes into some detail. I noted down all his suggestions as to which yeasts he'd tried only to find that most of them are either discontinued (apparently) or just not available in the UK. One range that is, well in part, are the Lalvin products. So I dug around to see what I can get and ended up with K1V-1116 (all purpose), EC-1118 (a champagne yeast) and 71B-1122 (described as "nouveau"/"narbonne").
Hence the 3 x 1 gallon batches, to see which of them tastes the best at the end of fermentation (and therefore, which is likely to be drinkable the quickest - Ken Schramm did point out in his book that mead can often taste a little like "Listerine" when it's still "green").
I wanted to do that, because so far, all my attempts with mead, have been made with variations of the "dry mead" recipe from the C.J.J. Berry book but using "Youngs - Dessert/ High Alcohol Wine Yeast". Which, due to it's apparent ability to handle high levels of alcohol/sugar etc, has produced mead that does have that "mouth wash" quality.
Though I must add, having basically used the method above with that yeast, the gallon that I racked off yesterday (I needed the flask/demi-john) tasted the best. I reckon it might be ready to try in as few as 6 months.
Oh and I must have had my "head up my arse" yesterday, because I actually bothered to check the specific gravity, prior to pitching the yeast (ha! theres a first time for everything isn't there
). It came out at 1120 (if I understand how to read my hydrometer correctly).
I followed the instructions on the yeast as accurately as possible and rehydrated it with about 50 ml of water. It must have worked, because it only took a matter of minutes before the flask with the K1V-1116 yeast to start bubbling. The other two took just a little longer, but all 3 jars were bubbling away happily when I checked first thing this morning.
If anyone is interested in knowing anything else, I'll happily try to answer any Q's, but I now trying to convince my partner Clare, too let me spend £145 (that'd be about 280 to 300 $US) on an electrical still, so I can start having a go at producing my own sugar/yeast/water alcohol (moonshine ???:cross: ) as I can produce 25 litres of 14 to 16% abv alcohol, that will distill down to 5 litres of 60% abv alcohol, ideal for some of those Italian "home made" liqueur recipes like "Limoncello".
regards
fatbloke
p.s. Oh and the above batch of mead wasn't only made to test a couple of different yeasts, but also as a cost effective way of getting the glass jars from the honey so Clare can then make various fruit jams/jellies (we ran out of jars after she made some Strawberry and Raspberry Jam, some "english" Marmalade and some "Lemon Curd" - Yum Yum!).
To give credit where due, my Mother copied this out from the "Gales" Honey Book (Gales might have been a family concern originally, but now it's just a brand belonging to the "arch Food Nazis", Nestle (that should be an accented e on the end, but I can't work out how to get the character)).
Anyway, basically it's 1.5 to 1.75 Kg/3 to 4 lb of "set" (a.k.a. crystalised) honey, 600 ml/1 pint of cold tea (Black tea indian or chinese, but black, not green), a campden tablet, a citric acid tablet, water to 4.5 litres/1 gallon and either "wine yeast compound" or "special mead yeast" and yeast nutrient.
Ok, so I mentioned variables. Differing types of honey aren't so easy to get here in the UK (they're available in some places but usually prohibitively expensive), so I just use normal, 1 lb/454g retail jars of "runny" Honey, from the local Supermarket. I don't heat this, apart from slightly warming it to make it easier to remove from the jars. Mainly because it will have already been filtered and pasteurised for retail sale.
Obviously it's blended (produce of more than one EU country, no less) and unremarkable.
The tea ? well I'm sure you're aware there are many different kinds of black tea. Names like "Oolong", Orange Pekoe and Earl Grey to name but a few. I'd guess that you could use Earl Grey, but the bergamott in the tea may cause uncalculated/unexpected flavours. I just happen to have some teabags that are blended/produced for a Catering supplier, from Preston, in Lancashire (Lancashires where the in-laws come from, so they prefer Lancashire type products - and that the best thing about Yorkshire is the road out of the place - their words, not mine. Anyway........).
I use 2 teabags per 600ml/1 pint, so it makes a good, strong, dark brown tea. That gets a slight "tanin film" on top of the liquid when it's cold.
The campden tablets ? well I suspect that we're familiar enough with those.
I don't use boiled water normally. I use bottled spring water. Basically because it doesn't have any chlorine/chloramine in it.
Citric acid tablets ? Well I keep forgetting to buy some, so I used the juice of 1 lemon the first time I tried this recipe, but on this occassion, as I suspect it's only the citric acid element thats required, I used bottled lemon juice at a ratio of 2 tbsp's per gallon.
As for "wine yeast compound" or specialised mead yeast/nutrient? Well it seems that mead yeast is no longer available (I believe there used to be one available from Gervins, but they now suggest a general purpose wine yeast).
So on this occassion, I split the wort/mash/must/whatever it's really called, into 3 x 1 gallon glass jars. I'd already added Gervin Yeast Nutrient (I can post the content of the yeast nutrient if anyones interested) and Yeast Nutrient vitamin B1 tablets, as per the instructions per gallon.
The actual yeast ? Well I been getting my info from Ken Schramms' book "The Compleat Meadmaker" (ISBN 0-937381-80-2) and C.J.J. Berrys' "First Steps in Wine Making" (ISBN 1-85486-139-5). The Ken Schramm book is quite "sciencey", but not with that many recipes and the C.J.J. Berry book is very general, with only 2 or 3 recipes for mead.
The Berry book only suggests "all purpose" wine yeast and nutrient, whereas the Ken Schramm book goes into some detail. I noted down all his suggestions as to which yeasts he'd tried only to find that most of them are either discontinued (apparently) or just not available in the UK. One range that is, well in part, are the Lalvin products. So I dug around to see what I can get and ended up with K1V-1116 (all purpose), EC-1118 (a champagne yeast) and 71B-1122 (described as "nouveau"/"narbonne").
Hence the 3 x 1 gallon batches, to see which of them tastes the best at the end of fermentation (and therefore, which is likely to be drinkable the quickest - Ken Schramm did point out in his book that mead can often taste a little like "Listerine" when it's still "green").
I wanted to do that, because so far, all my attempts with mead, have been made with variations of the "dry mead" recipe from the C.J.J. Berry book but using "Youngs - Dessert/ High Alcohol Wine Yeast". Which, due to it's apparent ability to handle high levels of alcohol/sugar etc, has produced mead that does have that "mouth wash" quality.
Though I must add, having basically used the method above with that yeast, the gallon that I racked off yesterday (I needed the flask/demi-john) tasted the best. I reckon it might be ready to try in as few as 6 months.
Oh and I must have had my "head up my arse" yesterday, because I actually bothered to check the specific gravity, prior to pitching the yeast (ha! theres a first time for everything isn't there
). It came out at 1120 (if I understand how to read my hydrometer correctly).I followed the instructions on the yeast as accurately as possible and rehydrated it with about 50 ml of water. It must have worked, because it only took a matter of minutes before the flask with the K1V-1116 yeast to start bubbling. The other two took just a little longer, but all 3 jars were bubbling away happily when I checked first thing this morning.
If anyone is interested in knowing anything else, I'll happily try to answer any Q's, but I now trying to convince my partner Clare, too let me spend £145 (that'd be about 280 to 300 $US) on an electrical still, so I can start having a go at producing my own sugar/yeast/water alcohol (moonshine ???:cross: ) as I can produce 25 litres of 14 to 16% abv alcohol, that will distill down to 5 litres of 60% abv alcohol, ideal for some of those Italian "home made" liqueur recipes like "Limoncello".
regards
fatbloke
p.s. Oh and the above batch of mead wasn't only made to test a couple of different yeasts, but also as a cost effective way of getting the glass jars from the honey so Clare can then make various fruit jams/jellies (we ran out of jars after she made some Strawberry and Raspberry Jam, some "english" Marmalade and some "Lemon Curd" - Yum Yum!).
