My second Joe's Ancient Orange Mead (JAOM) is going in today. With tweaks. 3 gallons 10 lbs of Orange Blossom honey The meat of 4 Bigass Oranges 3 tsp yeast nutrient 3 cinnamon sticks 3 pinches of all spice 3 pinches of nutmeg 2 cloves Lalvin KV-1116 yeast Notable changes: Dissolved the 10 pounds of honey in a huge pot of hot water before placing in the carboy No raisins, I used actual yeast nutrient Didn't put in the orange zest Different yeast, hopefully it will eat more
Tonight is the night. The Dihm mead will be consumed. Just waiting on pizza to be delivered, I've already got at good head start with some Harp lager. Join me on Ts in an hour and a half for real-time updates.
because all mead is made better when drunk from an Official Skjaldborg Mug!! See Dihm for awesome swag like this.
After a few years of break (when it got a bit out of hand), we're starting a new patch of home-brewn this Friday! Last time, it was straight sugar-wine (or as we call it, kilju) which in Finland is technically illegal. By law, you can't purify alcohol (the max percentage you can make at home is 22%) and when you brew stuff, half of the weight of the sugar has to be from fruits, berries, wheat or similar source. Anyhow, that aside - I'm not exactly making mead, but rather high-percentage wine the proper way - that is, not rushed in few days or a week, but in a month - and am currently figuring the ingredients. I'm leaning towards rhubarb (it's -really- tasty in a wine) and some apples to offset the bitter side taste of the former ingredient. Here's the recipe and such: Day 1: 20l of lukewarm water (between 15 and 25C, don't want to kill or deactivate the yeast), mix in 5 kg of sugar, 3 kg of rhubarb, 3 kg of apples. Add turbo yeast (a specific yeast strain made for alcohol production) and use a water trap with activated carbon to stop the stench of yeast spreading all over the apartment. In a few hours the water trap should be about ready to spit out all its water from the bubbling! Day 7: Shake away the worst of extra carbon dioxide. Use a siphon to move the stuff to another bucket (both buckets have to be well disinfected!), leave a few cm of the musky yeast-thick liquid to the old bucket. Leave the apples and rhubarb in the old bucket, add a bit of fresh new ones to the new bucket. Add a fermentation stopper to the new bucket that kills off the yeast. At this point, the bucket has to be shaken a few times every day to get rid of carbon dioxide which would make it hard for the yeast to fall to the bottom of the bucket. Day 14: This day no shaking! Have to let the yeast fall to the bottom of the bucket in peace. Then use a siphon to again move the stuff to another bucket and add a wine purifier enzyme (unsure what the real name for this is, but it's basically pectolase) which breaks down the less-tasty and aesthetic pectin. After this is done, shake a few times every day. Day 21: And we're almost done! Now the last step is yet once more siphoning the stuff from the current bucket to another and leave the last bits of yeast to the bottom of the old bucket. Bottle up, and good to go! Righto! So, I'm putting this stuff to come on Friday and will be taking pictures of the process. I foresee some really tasty, cheap wine on its way. If you have tips for the ingredients, be sure to share.
Salmiakki. Hides the actual taste of the product. Consume separately. I started to have flashbacks just by reading the word "kilju". That is something that everyone should get drunk with at least once to get some perspective on the hangovers.
Reading the mead recipes here, I suddenly realised that we are making it constantly here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sima_(mead) It's mostly considered a children's drink, but the version my mother-in-law or godmother makes, I wouldn't give to my kids For those who are worrying about the state of our children, the regular mead contains something like 0.001% alcohol, just enough to give it some sparkling effect. Basic recipe for the children's mead: 10 litres of water 3 lemos 300g brown sugar 300g honey 1 tea spoon of yeast (dry or something else) Slice the lemons into a bucket. (wash them well before slicing) Add sugar. Add some hot water. (few liters, can be boiling) Mix. Add more water until temperature is 37 celsius. (10L total) Add honey and yeast. Mix again. Let it stay in room temperature for 24 hours. Bottle it the next day (filter the mead while bottling it), add one teaspoon of brown sugar into each bottle. Raisins optional (good indicator when the drink is ready as the raising will start to float) Store in cool place and the drink is ready after 1 week.
Tee hee :rolleyes: But yeah, not gonna go the kilju way this time, now it's with apples and rhubarb! I'm.. not really convinced salmiakki mixes well with those.
Children's drink!? :unamusedcat: My batch appears to have stopped it's rapid bubbling, now that over a month has passed. Guess it's settling in. Will get a picture of how much lighter it is soon.
Nope. Glögg is rum+raisins+almonds. I also remembered the saying wrong. It was raisins in thinner not booze.
