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dhype773
Enter the Void



Registered: 10/29/15
Posts: 2,182
Loc: Valhalla
Last seen: 6 years, 2 months
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Cheap and Easy Mead
#23772535 - 10/26/16 08:07 AM (7 years, 3 months ago) |
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If you are a nerd like me, you love shit from medieval times! I happen to love mead, which is basically wine made with honey instead of grapes. There is a website called www.stormthecastle.com where he shares A Lot about making your own mead. If you buy a bottle in the store (assuming you can find it) it's like $22 a bottle. With this cheap and easy recipe, you can make a gallon for about $17. Not bad right?
What You Need: 1: 1gl Spring Water 68cents 2: 3lb Honey (2lb for weaker & cheaper) $12 3: Dry Yeast (preferably Fleishman's) $1.34 4: 1 Orange 98cents 5: Raisins 25cents 6: 1 Balloon 97cents 7: 1tsp Sugar
Step 1: GATHER SUPPLIES

Step 2: Follow instructions to activate yeast and set aside while it does so.
Step 3: Empty half of the water into a clean container and slice orange (I used an apple in the above picture, don't do that) into eighths. Put honey, orange, yeast, 25 raisins into the gallon of water, then fill remaining volume using the water you set aside. Leave about 2 inches of space from the top.
Step 4: Put on lid and shake well for a full 5 minutes. The yeast requires lots of oxidizing to work.
Step 5: replace lid with a balloon and poke a pin hole in the top of the balloon for gas to escape. I put a rubberband around the base of the balloon to help keep it from popping off.
At this point, this is what you have:

Now you wait. Anywhere from 1hr to 2 days tops, that balloon should inflate, like so:
 You should also see plenty of little bubbles rising to the foamy surface. This is the fermentation process in the works. This should go on for about 2 weeks. Then the balloon will go limp again. At this point, the majority of the fermentation is complete. Give it a taste. It won't be very good yet, that will require more time. After a couple of months it should be pretty good. If you have the patience, try to give it a year, the longer it ages, the better! Just taste it every couple of weeks, and once you can't wait anymore, get drunk in true viking fashion!
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trendal
J♠



Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Cheap and Easy Mead [Re: dhype773]
#23790828 - 11/01/16 09:57 AM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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Mead is great stuff!! I still have a bottle or two in the cellar that have been aging for about six years. Now that I am in to beekeeping, with all the honey that comes with it, I think I have to get back into mead brewing
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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dhype773
Enter the Void



Registered: 10/29/15
Posts: 2,182
Loc: Valhalla
Last seen: 6 years, 2 months
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Re: Cheap and Easy Mead [Re: trendal]
#23806603 - 11/06/16 01:21 PM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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Nice! I certainly would. That is my biggest holdup from getting more serious with it right now, the cash. For now I am just going to keep experimenting with some easy stuff until I figure out a decent recipe.
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rubberlizard
Brewer and hobbymycologist


Registered: 10/26/10
Posts: 388
Loc: Probably my brewery
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
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Re: Cheap and Easy Mead [Re: dhype773]
#23841743 - 11/17/16 01:20 PM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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I would not use bakers yeast, it might be fast, but there is a chance it will taste horrible or just boring and yeasty. Instead i would buy a cider, champagne or alcohol tolerant ale yeast. Just have a bit of fruit in it, but i would give it a teaspoon of yeastnutrition and a small drop of olive oil to give ensure a healthy fermentation.
good luck with your project.
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dhype773
Enter the Void



Registered: 10/29/15
Posts: 2,182
Loc: Valhalla
Last seen: 6 years, 2 months
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Quote:
rubberlizard said: I would not use bakers yeast, it might be fast, but there is a chance it will taste horrible or just boring and yeasty. Instead i would buy a cider, champagne or alcohol tolerant ale yeast. Just have a bit of fruit in it, but i would give it a teaspoon of yeastnutrition and a small drop of olive oil to give ensure a healthy fermentation.
good luck with your project.
Thanks, I followed this recipe exactly from a video I saw by one of my favorite Norwegian metal bands lol. After I made it and started reading, I realized there are some things I should definitely do differently next time.
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rubberlizard
Brewer and hobbymycologist


Registered: 10/26/10
Posts: 388
Loc: Probably my brewery
Last seen: 2 years, 7 months
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Re: Cheap and Easy Mead [Re: dhype773]
#23844308 - 11/18/16 06:53 AM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
dhype773 said:
Quote:
rubberlizard said: I would not use bakers yeast, it might be fast, but there is a chance it will taste horrible or just boring and yeasty. Instead i would buy a cider, champagne or alcohol tolerant ale yeast. Just have a bit of fruit in it, but i would give it a teaspoon of yeastnutrition and a small drop of olive oil to give ensure a healthy fermentation.
good luck with your project.
Thanks, I followed this recipe exactly from a video I saw by one of my favorite Norwegian metal bands lol. After I made it and started reading, I realized there are some things I should definitely do differently next time.
Amon Amarth is swedish \m/ awesome concerts!
Good luck with your brewing, go ahead and grab me if you have any questions.
If you have the time and money, i would start making bigger batches. Mead have a strange ability to vanish into thin air.
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dhype773
Enter the Void



Registered: 10/29/15
Posts: 2,182
Loc: Valhalla
Last seen: 6 years, 2 months
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Quote:
rubberlizard said:
Quote:
dhype773 said:
Quote:
rubberlizard said: I would not use bakers yeast, it might be fast, but there is a chance it will taste horrible or just boring and yeasty. Instead i would buy a cider, champagne or alcohol tolerant ale yeast. Just have a bit of fruit in it, but i would give it a teaspoon of yeastnutrition and a small drop of olive oil to give ensure a healthy fermentation.
good luck with your project.
Thanks, I followed this recipe exactly from a video I saw by one of my favorite Norwegian metal bands lol. After I made it and started reading, I realized there are some things I should definitely do differently next time.
Amon Amarth is swedish \m/ awesome concerts!
Good luck with your brewing, go ahead and grab me if you have any questions.
If you have the time and money, i would start making bigger batches. Mead have a strange ability to vanish into thin air.
Ahhh, and vanish it will, no matter how it tastes lol. You are right, one gallon won't last long, I should have made 5.
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