johnnyo1977
Well-Known Member
I made first batch of mead last night after reading all I can about different types of Mead and watching a whole bunch of you tube videos. while stumbling through videos I found one on burnt mead. After watching his video twice and wondering why he hasn't up dated his comment about how it tastes i was still intrigued with the process and made my mine up that i wanted to try it. I bought 15lbs. of honey from the grocery store. So last night i broke out the propane tank and burner. I posted up on the front porch while the snow was falling and started my new adventure in MEAD.
I started cooking in a large copper pot which i thought it would hold the boiling honey. I was wrong I didn't take into consideration how much the honey would expand. So after scrambling to turn off the heat to stop the honey from going all over the front porch I went and grabbed my large stock pot and transferred the hot honey to the pot and started boiling again. the honey grew about 3 times it original height. The smells were awesome. they ranged from a super sweet honey to a strong nutty roasted smell.
I boiled the honey for about 2 hours. burnt myself 5 times from the bubbling goo. then proceeded to add water very very slowly it the tar that was once honey.
A few key point. all ways use a bigger pot than you think. make sure you have a real long handle spoon. and when adding water it would be better if the water was close to boiling and not out side air temp which was around 36 Fahrenheit last night.
I added 1 gallon to water to the pot and slowly warmed it back to almost boil to get the honey that was now the consistency of hard candy if let cool. (still have some on my shoes) then added another gallon to get all the sugar dissolved.
After bringing the honey water inside and cleaning up a bit while it cooled. I poured it into a plastic bucket and added roughly 3 gallons of cold water to bring the level to 5 gallons. and a temp of 80 F and a gravity of 1.097.
I used a packet of rehydeated Cote des Blancs and mixed the Mead for 5 minutes before adding the yeast.
this morning I started to get some activity in the airlock. I am hoping it will start to pick more activity this afternoon.
I took pictures of the boil and will be adding them this afternoon.
I started cooking in a large copper pot which i thought it would hold the boiling honey. I was wrong I didn't take into consideration how much the honey would expand. So after scrambling to turn off the heat to stop the honey from going all over the front porch I went and grabbed my large stock pot and transferred the hot honey to the pot and started boiling again. the honey grew about 3 times it original height. The smells were awesome. they ranged from a super sweet honey to a strong nutty roasted smell.
I boiled the honey for about 2 hours. burnt myself 5 times from the bubbling goo. then proceeded to add water very very slowly it the tar that was once honey.
A few key point. all ways use a bigger pot than you think. make sure you have a real long handle spoon. and when adding water it would be better if the water was close to boiling and not out side air temp which was around 36 Fahrenheit last night.
I added 1 gallon to water to the pot and slowly warmed it back to almost boil to get the honey that was now the consistency of hard candy if let cool. (still have some on my shoes) then added another gallon to get all the sugar dissolved.
After bringing the honey water inside and cleaning up a bit while it cooled. I poured it into a plastic bucket and added roughly 3 gallons of cold water to bring the level to 5 gallons. and a temp of 80 F and a gravity of 1.097.
I used a packet of rehydeated Cote des Blancs and mixed the Mead for 5 minutes before adding the yeast.
this morning I started to get some activity in the airlock. I am hoping it will start to pick more activity this afternoon.
I took pictures of the boil and will be adding them this afternoon.