fatbloke
Well-Known Member
Fatbloke's the name a.k.a. John.
Only just started this home brewing "lark".
Mainly because my Father keeps bee's and often says that he'd like to have a go at making some Mead.
Hence, I just decided one day too google for mead. Read a few articles. Then checked the local yellow pages to see if there was any local home brew shop. Bingo :rockin: there is.
Hit the shop for a "starter kit" and book. Then hit the local supermarket for an appropriate amount of honey and off I went.
The book only had a couple of recipes, but one of them for dry mead seemed straight forward enough to attempt.
All seems to have gone quite well. While it was fermenting I spent some time digging round what google could come up with, and since then have augmented my kit a little with a couple of plastic brewing bins, a few additional items of "chemicals" i.e. campden tablets, pectalase etc.
I finished reading the book (C.J.J. Berrys' "First Steps in Wine Making) and noticed that when I was driving around for work, there are several locations where there are "wild" apple trees. So my partner Clare and me proceeded to "pillage" some of them, collecting enough apples for about 5 gallons of wine. Which is currently fermenting in one of the plastic 18.9 litre bottled water containers that I found during my travels.
It's a little "Heath Robinson", inasfaras, bungs and corks seem to be in limited supply for this type of container, though I found a place online thats not too far away that does corks that'll fit (44mm or 1 and 3/4 inch). I did have to drill it myself and while that wasn't as successful as it might have been, I've managed to achieve a reasonably good seal with PTFE plumbers tape around both the side of the cork and the shank of the fermentation valve.
I'm currently experimenting with trying to seal this size of cork by using very dilute PVA/water solution as the corks aren't of very good quality, but I suppose I have to make do with whatevers available.
My first batch of mead is now "finished" and is sitting nicely under the stairs (coolest place in the house) aging, though it's gonna be nearer this time next year before I think about checking to see if it needs anything else prior to bottling.
Luckily, under the stairs, means out of sight, out of mind and I'm currently planning my next batch. Though I can't quite make up my mind whether it's gonna be the same recipe or different. Or maybe just change it slightly, like using different yeast, or a bit more honey to make it sweeter, or maybe just different water (bottled mineral water, as opposed to local tap water which is quite hard with a reasonably high calcium/chalk content).
I'll have to have a bit of a "think" on which way to go.
regard
John a.k.a fatbloke
Only just started this home brewing "lark".
Mainly because my Father keeps bee's and often says that he'd like to have a go at making some Mead.
Hence, I just decided one day too google for mead. Read a few articles. Then checked the local yellow pages to see if there was any local home brew shop. Bingo :rockin: there is.
Hit the shop for a "starter kit" and book. Then hit the local supermarket for an appropriate amount of honey and off I went.
The book only had a couple of recipes, but one of them for dry mead seemed straight forward enough to attempt.
All seems to have gone quite well. While it was fermenting I spent some time digging round what google could come up with, and since then have augmented my kit a little with a couple of plastic brewing bins, a few additional items of "chemicals" i.e. campden tablets, pectalase etc.
I finished reading the book (C.J.J. Berrys' "First Steps in Wine Making) and noticed that when I was driving around for work, there are several locations where there are "wild" apple trees. So my partner Clare and me proceeded to "pillage" some of them, collecting enough apples for about 5 gallons of wine. Which is currently fermenting in one of the plastic 18.9 litre bottled water containers that I found during my travels.
It's a little "Heath Robinson", inasfaras, bungs and corks seem to be in limited supply for this type of container, though I found a place online thats not too far away that does corks that'll fit (44mm or 1 and 3/4 inch). I did have to drill it myself and while that wasn't as successful as it might have been, I've managed to achieve a reasonably good seal with PTFE plumbers tape around both the side of the cork and the shank of the fermentation valve.
I'm currently experimenting with trying to seal this size of cork by using very dilute PVA/water solution as the corks aren't of very good quality, but I suppose I have to make do with whatevers available.
My first batch of mead is now "finished" and is sitting nicely under the stairs (coolest place in the house) aging, though it's gonna be nearer this time next year before I think about checking to see if it needs anything else prior to bottling.
Luckily, under the stairs, means out of sight, out of mind and I'm currently planning my next batch. Though I can't quite make up my mind whether it's gonna be the same recipe or different. Or maybe just change it slightly, like using different yeast, or a bit more honey to make it sweeter, or maybe just different water (bottled mineral water, as opposed to local tap water which is quite hard with a reasonably high calcium/chalk content).
I'll have to have a bit of a "think" on which way to go.
regard
John a.k.a fatbloke
