Futret
Member
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2015
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Tomorrow I plan to start brewing a batch of mead that will be ready in time for Christmas. I've only brewed once before, I made lager using a homebrew kit, so I don't really have a clue what I'm doing. I also have no brewing apparatus and a budget of approximately nothing (the ancient druids didn't have fancy brewing equipment either so this shouldn't be a problem).
I'll write out my plan of action and, if you want, you can give me pointers on how to optimise the chances of me having a batch of delicious, spicy, fruity mead by Christmas.
Ingredients:
~10L hard tap water, ~2Kg honey; 500g muscovado sugar; oranges, lemons, plumbs, root ginger and blackberries chopped; raisins and dried currents; allspice, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, dried chilli and mixed pepper corns crushed; red wine yeast (high alcohol tolerance because I like to get drunk at Christmas (Lalvin EC-1118 maybe if I can find it))
Apparatus:
Huge saucepan, muslin bag, hose, 1L swing-top bottles
Method:
Half fill saucepan with water and add honey and sugar.
Bring to a gentle boil.
Add fruit to saucepan.
Fill muslin bags with spices and add to saucepan.
Boil for 1 hour then allow to cool.
Remove fruit and spices.
Add yeast to pan, cover with lid and leave in the airing cupboard for 1 month.
Make a sugar solution, add to saucepan and stir gently.
Siphen into bottles, seal and leave in the cold, winter shed until Christmas.
So the main problem I recognise with my method is that I am not using a carboy or an airlock. Will the pan lid and layer of CO2 be enough to stop oxygen entering the brew? Will airborne microbes wreck my mead? (what did people do before Louis Pasteur?) I didn't plan on using a chemical steriliser either because I just don't like the idea of drinking bleach and, again, the ancient druids were probably filthy; I'll will, however, sterilise everything with boiling water.
I'll write out my plan of action and, if you want, you can give me pointers on how to optimise the chances of me having a batch of delicious, spicy, fruity mead by Christmas.
Ingredients:
~10L hard tap water, ~2Kg honey; 500g muscovado sugar; oranges, lemons, plumbs, root ginger and blackberries chopped; raisins and dried currents; allspice, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, dried chilli and mixed pepper corns crushed; red wine yeast (high alcohol tolerance because I like to get drunk at Christmas (Lalvin EC-1118 maybe if I can find it))
Apparatus:
Huge saucepan, muslin bag, hose, 1L swing-top bottles
Method:
Half fill saucepan with water and add honey and sugar.
Bring to a gentle boil.
Add fruit to saucepan.
Fill muslin bags with spices and add to saucepan.
Boil for 1 hour then allow to cool.
Remove fruit and spices.
Add yeast to pan, cover with lid and leave in the airing cupboard for 1 month.
Make a sugar solution, add to saucepan and stir gently.
Siphen into bottles, seal and leave in the cold, winter shed until Christmas.
So the main problem I recognise with my method is that I am not using a carboy or an airlock. Will the pan lid and layer of CO2 be enough to stop oxygen entering the brew? Will airborne microbes wreck my mead? (what did people do before Louis Pasteur?) I didn't plan on using a chemical steriliser either because I just don't like the idea of drinking bleach and, again, the ancient druids were probably filthy; I'll will, however, sterilise everything with boiling water.