Need a very simple no boil cool temp mead recipee for antarctica

[tinknocker66]

I will be going to Antarctica for 8 months and would like to make something good to drink while im there. I will be bringing 2 collapsible water containers to do the mead in. worst case scenario I rack first over into second container. best case is no racking at all. I have never made mead before and I can bring honey but I don't know what else I can buy there that is fermentable. I cant heat or boil anything to make so if there are any other recipes you can do like that please share them guick. I leave in 1 month.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

All my meads except for bochets are no heat / no boil. As long as you sanitize all your equipment with some star-san prior to making, you'll have no issues at all.

 

[tinknocker66]

All my meads except for bochets are no heat / no boil. As long as you sanitize all your equipment with some star-san prior to making, you'll have no issues at all.

Im not sure what temp they keep the dorms at. What would be a good yeast to use between 55-70 deg. F ?

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

d-47 is good if you know it won't go above 70. between 55-70 you likely can't go wrong. You won't be pushing out any fussels at those temps. Worst case is that it will ferment a bit slower. Just don't use a saison yeast and you'll be golden.

 

[Arpolis]

D47 is a great yeast to use in cool temps. It has a alcohol tolerance of about 14%. If you want it higher (but probably shouldn't since you are there for less than 8 months and will not have much aging time) Then K1v-1116 works super well. I have had that yeast in the upper 30*F range for a few days and it still fermented strong.

Either would be good for a nice spiced mead, probably D47 for my pick.

Here is a spiced chia mead I did a while back that turns out really well

Here was my favorite spiced mead recipe given to me by a friend. This recipe never made it to bottles, I just tapped from secondary and drank that because it was that good lol.

1 gallon Spiced Chai Mead
3 lb of Honey
10 bags of Earl Grey Black Tea
1 ½ tsp ground Cardamom
½ tsp of Whole black Peppercorns
2 whole cloves
2 sticks of Cinnamon
1 Madagascar Vanilla Bean (Split in half, seeds scraped, added to the must and the whole pod thrown in)
3tbs of Ground Ginger
1tsp of yeast nutrients
½ tsp of yeast energizer
1tsp of Acid Blend
Water to one gallon
Yeast “Lalvin D47”

Mix the Honey water & nutrients all together leaving enough head space to add your yeast starter as explained below. The energizer will be added when 1/3 of the fermentation is done. Add the entire spices/tea/vanilla bean to a nylon bag and place in the must. The powered ingredients can be added directly to the must. Then create a yeast starter:

1 cup water
¼ cup of honey
¼ tsp of yeast nutrients
5 chopped up fine raisins

Sprinkle the Yeast on top and cover with a paper towel for 8 hours. Then pitch the yeast starter into the must. There should be a lot of activity in the starter after 1 – 2 hours. For larger batches of this recipe “3 or more gallons”, Increase the water to 2 cups, Honey to ½ cup & 10 raisins.

 

[Matrix4b]

You can do most any spiced mead or even a fruit mead. Yes I am aware of the official names of those meads. (Dealing with a newbie, so kept it simple)

D47 is the best yeast to have if you are going to be fermenting below 70 degrees. Just as long as the yeast don't go dormant with the cold, you are ok. I am not sure about the plastic though. But you may want to check out the JAOM style. That uses bread yeast. The reason why I say this is that the mead, once completed and clear from fermenting usually needs 6-8 months to age, that is, just sit around. It wont really taste good until it ages a bit. The longer the better, I have been known to age a full year. And I have a chocolate mead that is going on 2 years but that is a special case. You may be better off with a cyser done up with the JAOM style for tastyness. This will make a good hard cider with orange spice flavor that may be drinkable quicker. You can also use orange oil inplace of the oranges and zest. That will save on your space. So here is what I recomend:

4 gal apple juice whole
8 pounds honey

1/2 oz orange oil, food quality
2 cinnamon sticks
3 whole cloves
1/4 of a whole nutmeg
1 handful of chopped raisens (This is primarily for nutrients but adds to mouth feel)
3-4 vanilla beans (split and scraped into secondary)

2 packets of bread yeast: For JAOM style it MUST be bread yeast for it to be done quick.

Process: Mix the juice with the honey fully. Stir in yeast and add the orange oil and raisens. Let ferment. When fermentation slows down to almost un-noticeable then transfer to your other container. When you transfer put in a hops bag (Cinnamon sticks, cloves, nutmeg and vanilla beans) then let that sit in there for about a month. Then rack off again and use cold crash method. (You should be at about 2 months time from start) Then just cold crashing and letting it settle is all it needs.

Hope it works well for you.

Matrix

 

[Paul_F]

Am I the only one who read the subject line and had the first thought "Ooh! Meadcicles!".

Sorry... I'll go now...

 

[loveofrose]

While D47 is a good yeast, there is the time frame to consider. If you will be there 8 months, D47 will not yield anything drinkable in that window. I am assuming bringing it back is not realistic.

I would suggest you check out Brays One Month Mead (below). I don't know if it's possible to get/take the stuff you would need, but if you can, your hooch would be very drinkable very quick. You could make batches directly in the 1 gallon water jugs that are probably on site. A pin pricked ballon could serve as a low weight airlock. You could scale up if needed.

Bray's One Month Mead aka the "BOMM"

1 gallon recipe

Start with 1 gallon of spring water (I use Ozarka)
Remove 1/2 cup water to compensate for smack pack volume.
Draw line on jugs at current water level.
Remove 3.2 cups of water from 1 gallon jugs. (757 ml)
Add honey to line. About 2.4 lbs.
SG 1.09-1.1
Add 1/4 tsp DAP and 1/2 tsp of Fermaid K.
The above nutrients will be added again at 1/3 & 2/3 sugar break.*(Day 2 and 4 if you can't bring a hydrometer)
Add 1/4 tsp K2CO3
Shake until honey is fully mixed in water. This will take some effort.
Add a smack pack of Wyeast 1388 yeast activated for about 2 hours to overnight.
Put it somewhere warm or best you can do in Antarctica.
Shake everyday for a week.
No water in airlock for 7 days or just use a pin pricked balloon.
Ferments dry in about a week, drinkable in a month from pitching.

 

[Paul_F]

While I would not argue with anyone who has more than one measly batch of mead under their belt... my opinion is that if any of this "Antarctic's Finest" mead is destined to return to the Northern World, there is a certain style and novelty value in using 10,000 year old ice-melt water from Antarctica for the brew rather than imported spring water.

 

[tuner240]

Just a thought, but what about Joe's Quick Grape Mead? I did a no boil version with 3# of honey per gallon without the final back-sweetening suggestions (although I did top off with more grape juice to make an even 5 gallons) and it turned out great, just like alcoholic grape juice with a subtle aftertaste of mead. My starting gravity was 1.140 and it finished under 1.000 in less than a week with proper nutrients and energizer additions. 18.2% was what I believed the abv to be, and the mead hid it well. Dangerously well.

Anyway, here is the original recipe and link:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-quick-grape-mead-57190/

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Lalvin EC-1118
Yeast Starter: Add Dry
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: No
Batch Size (Gallons): 1
Original Gravity: ?
Final Gravity: 1.000 or less
Boiling Time (Minutes): 1
Color: Deep Red
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14-21
Additional Fermentation: No
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14

Joe's Grape Mead / Pyment / Melomel

Ingredients
2 lbs Clover honey
1 oz buckwheat honey
64-oz Welch's Grape Juice with Vitamin C added- Make sure it has no preservatives in ingredients other than Vitamin C added (A.K.A. Absorbic Acid)
Balance water if you need it to make 1 gallon after adding honey mixed in water (don't use too much water in honey mix or you'll end up with more than you bargained for.
Lalvin EC-1118

Methods/steps
Just finished bottling my first Grape Mead Melomel or Pyment whatever one wishes to call it and it was started on November 4th and is simply wonderful to drink already. It was ready in 5 weeks!
Thought I would share my recipe with you, as it is the youngest best tasting, quick mead I have had thus far. Too bad
It will ferment super fast to dry (about 13% alcohol) because of type of yeast and all the nutrients and natural sugars in Welch's grape juice. It should be to SG =1.000 or less in 14- 21 days max.
Rack to clean carboy over mixture of 6-oz honey, 6-oz Welch's grape juice, 1/2t of Sorbate and 1/2 crushed campden tablet.
It will stabilize and clear fast. Let it clear and set for another 2 weeks and it will be ready to bottle and drink.
It will be medium sweet but smooth and drinkable right away. If you want it semi sweet use 4-oz honey instead of 6-oz / gal.
The only reason I used the Campden (Sulphite) is because my understanding is that using both Potassium Sorbate and Sulphite together will definitely inhibit renewed fermentation and it did for me.
Color is deep red, has nice legs on sides of glass after swirling, good nose and great balanced taste) Just don't tell everybody you used Welch's. I won't. Because the juice is clear to start, clearing is naturally fast, fast, fast.

 

[tinknocker66]

While I would not argue with anyone who has more than one measly batch of mead under their belt... my opinion is that if any of this "Antarctic's Finest" mead is destined to return to the Northern World, there is a certain style and novelty value in using 10,000 year old ice-melt water from Antarctica for the brew rather than imported spring water.

That is kind of what I was thinking. I would call it "Mc Murdo Mead" I wonder if this would be the first ever mead made that far south.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

I wonder if this would be the first ever mead made that far south.

Most likely, call Guiness records up.

 

[Paul_F]

Make ME wonder what the laws on distillation are in Antarctica... I know we can't really get into it HERE... but just sayin', small still... a few gallons of mead. That's enough to supply the entire population of Antarctica, right?

 

[Matrix4b]

Heh, yeah. Antartica, no contry, no laws. So it sort of just falls under the international laws right?

Matrix
"Ever hear of Bancock rules?"