Honey mead

[wonderwolf]

Got a bunch of 1 gallon pyrex bottle neck jugs out of the dumpster (new) so I figured I would make me some honey mead. Got some stoppers tonight as well as some yeast and some other things. I'll let you know how it turns out!

[archmaker]

Do a search for Joe's Ancient Orange Meade.

If I remember correctly one clove, two sticks of cinnamon, 14 raisens, 1 orange and 3.5# of honey. But I have not made it in over a year so do a search on it!!! do not take my word for it!

[leadeye]

Are you using airlocks in the stoppers?

[wonderwolf]

Better than a air lock.....tube leading from rubber corked bottle into glass of water.

[TCLouis]

Like ALL homebrew, Honey Meade can . . . CAN be great!

[leadeye]

Sounds like a great plan, let us know how it turns out.

[Bob J]

Even better yet just use a balloon over the neck of the bottle.... An old pruno trick.....

Better than a air lock.....tube leading from rubber corked bottle into glass of water.

[Jim]

Even better yet just use a balloon over the neck of the bottle.... An old pruno trick.....

Actually, the balloon works quite well. On the rare chance that the chamber pressure goes negative, a tube in a container of water can suck the water back into the vessel and pollute the works. I lost a 5 gallon batch of, umm, uhh, "stuff" to that method.
With the balloon, you need tyo check it twice daily. As the process continues, it will generate a by-product gas. Burp the balloon every time you check it. The first time you go back to check and the balloon is not erect, that's the signal that the gas production has stopped and the process is complete.

[cheese1566]

Mead is good stuff!!

After an adventure of homebrewing I moved to making country style wines. After that, I refined my recipes to Melomels (flavored mead). My favorite (and everyone elses!) was wild raspberry melomel. Problem was my Melomel was taking about a year to produce, from rough fermentation to bottling.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Now I regret selling ally stuff!!!

[leadeye]

I have had the best luck making relativly quick good wine from Welch's white grape juice concentrate. Friends and neighbors can't get enough of the stuff.

[redneckdan]

I've been fiddling with hard cream soda and hard root beer. I use the natural extract from a local co/op, their isntructions are for natural carbonation. I let the mix ferment at room temp until all the sugar is consumed. Then I bottle it up with a tsp of additional sugar in each bottle and let it ferment again for 2-3 days at room temp and then refridgerate it. Turns out rather good, a little stiff.

As lead eye had mentioned, I've made a 'sparkling wine'/champange knock of with store bought juice. Let it ferment a week or so and then bottle it up. Every home brew I've dealt with needs to be refridgerated....I have had bottles explode. Nine times out of ten it happens in the wee hours of the morning and scares the living crap out of ya.

[leadeye]

Maybe I've been lucky, or maybe I just drink it up too fast, but I've not had any expolsions so far. I use the Campden tablets to stabilize the stuff after it is done.

[redneckdan]

You can use the stabilizer stuff too. I like my beverages extra fizzy, thats why I let them set at room temp after bottling. I'll kill a 5 gallon carboy worth of 'brew in about 2 months between a after dinner drink and sharing the stuff with friends.

[leadeye]

You can use the stabilizer stuff too. I like my beverages extra fizzy, thats why I let them set at room temp after bottling. I'll kill a 5 gallon carboy worth of 'brew in about 2 months between a after dinner drink and sharing the stuff with friends.

Speaking of friends, I never knew I had so many until I started making home brew.