A friend of mine, who is not on Steemit yet, convinced me to get into brewing. I am not a big beer drinker however, so I ended up brewing mead instead. Mead is expensive unless you can get your honey for "free." By free I mean through barter or by being a honey farmer.
Thankfully, I have a local honey farmer who accepts mead in exchange for his honey.
As you can see below, the other ingredients are pretty inexpensive. The Italian glass brewing bottles are about $30 for a 3 gallon model. It's of course about twice that for the 6 gallon bottle. Do not start out with the larger bottle however. If you mess something up, you'll be wasting 21 pounds of honey!
The 3 gallon bottles were used for my first attempt, and it was a complete success.
The mead can be brewed with yeast specifically made for it, or you can simply use regular bread yeast. I like knowing how to brew it with regular bread yeast since it can be easily stockpiled. My first batch used a special yeast though to make sure it worked. The yeast specifically made for mead will give you a 18% alcohol content, and the bread yeast will range from 13-15%.
The recipe, shared by Joe Mattioli, was orginally found here. I have made some minor adjustments to it, and the steps involved have been summarized into an easier to follow process. If you have any questions about the recipe or any details left out, I'll gladly help you.
Now, without further delay, here is the recipe:
Ancient Orange Mead
Materials:
- 3 gallon brewing bottle
- 10.5 lbs Clover or your choice honey or blend (will finish sweet)
- 3 large organic oranges (later cut in eights or smaller rind and all)
- 75 organic raisins
- 3 sticks of organic cinnamon (Make sure it is not China sourced)
- 3 whole organic cloves
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon allspice
- 3 teaspoons of Fleishmann’s bread yeast
Process:
- Dissolve the honey in warm water using a large stainless steel pot.
- Pour the mixture into the brewing bottle.
- Wash the oranges well using spring water.
- Remove the stems, and cut the oranges into eight pieces each.
- Put the oranges, raisins, cloves, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, and allspice into the bottle.
- Top off the bottle with spring water up to 3 inches from the top.
- Cap the bottle and shake it vigorously for two minutes.
- When at room temperature, add 3 teaspoons of Fleishmann’s bread yeast.
- Swirl the top of the bottle around a little to mix in the yeast.
- Install the airlock and place the bottle in a dark warm room.
Once you have everything bottled up, do not expect to see a reaction immediately. You will not see a reaction for at least half a day. Don't be alarmed if no bubbling occurs at first. If after 24 hours you still do not see bubbling, your yeast may have been bad. You can always add yeast at that point to not waste the contents. Just be sure not to add yeast unless you are absolutely sure the original yeast was bad.
One primary reason to wait longer with this recipe is to get the bitter rind taste out of the mead. After three months of aging though, I did not detect any bitter taste at all. When you go to remove the mead from the bottle, you can siphon it out with a tube and a special brewer's siphon. On the bottom of the siphon, there will be a place to wrap cheese cloth around it. Use a rubber band to hold the cloth in place.
Now, pour yourself a glass of it over ice, or heat it up to drink it warm. It's your choice. I prefer mine over ice. Don't be fooled by the delicious taste either. You're enjoying a very high alcohol content drink, and the effects of it can easily sneak up on you!
