1st Mead or Attack for the Oxygen Stone

[USMCMatt]

Attack for the Oxygen Stone "Bloody Good Mead"

Obviously something needs to go wrong apparently everytime I make anything. Luckily enough everything has tasted fine so what the hell.

I leaned about this place from itunes, the first podcast episode I hear from this station was the Mead show with Rabbit's Foot Meadery (who I'm guessing is out of business now because none of their web links work correctly) at the same time I jsut decided to tackle a JAOM mead just to see the process before I go all out on trying mead, which is going to happen anyways. After meading about the Prickly Pear Mead in the Joy of Homebrewing how do you NOT want to try that?!??

I decide to tackle mead due to the fact I'm tired of seeing this 1 gal container sitting around doing nothing and the mrs. asking me if I'm ever going to do something with it (ie: throw it out)

I decide to buy a cosplay warhammer off ebay and make some mead (I'm still working on growing out the massive beard)



yea yea yea it's not exactly 1 gallon but damn close, it's that bottle they use for that gross grocery store sangria with the hallucinating colors and nasty after taste.

chop chop!





Look what I just bought!



Why is the tube diameter so much smaller then the airstone?!?! Screw it I'll push it in really hard (I've said the same thing to the wife)

ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGG!



hand slips off and blood is everywhere, in the bottle, on the fruit, I think I've severed an artery! ok maybe it wasn't that bad, it was more of a scrape that didn't even bleed a while.. I had to wait a minute to even get a picture of it but I thought it would make for a good story.

Now I know it doesn't make much sense to use o2 with dry yeast but I just got it and hey I'm like a kid at christmas I wanna play.



ZOOOOOOOOOOM

Shit... I better move it to the sink, it's foaming everywhere and Mrs is about to wake up




Ta Daaaaa





I put a pack of MrBeer yeast i had in there and topped it off with some bread yeast this is a very sloppy mix but if it turns out bad after a year I'll just bash it with my War Hammer.

[Bugeater]

That ancient orange recipe does make a good mead (actually a metheglin). Be patient, however. I made a 5 gallon batch of it a few years back. After 6 months I thought about pouring it down the drain. After a year I definitely thought about dumping it but never got around to doing it. Another year and a half later our club was having a mead competition. My daughter suggested I dig that keg of mead out from under the stairs and enter it. I told her that that was some junk I had forgotten to dump but I tasted it anyway. Turned out to be damned good. I won that competition and went on to win the Nebraska Beekeepers Assn. award for best mead at the State Fair. Remember, patience is key.

Wayne

[spiderwrangler]

Welcome! I don't think Rabbit's Foot is out of business, they may just need to revamp their website... there are yelp reviews of them within the last month, so assuming they are still making mead.

[USMCMatt]

Fantastic advice bugeater (greatname)

I'll keep that in mind, I certainly don't mind sticking it away for a long time, I got enough other things going to keep me busy, I was more interested in getting some experience in the process for making some meads I think I'd personally be more interested in.

I'll check back on them then.

[JakeAndBake]

Where do you find those tiny oxygen bottles? I bet they're far cheaper than the big medical ones I keep seeing...

[Chemiker]

Where do you find those tiny oxygen bottles? I bet they're far cheaper than the big medical ones I keep seeing...

I get mine at Home Depot in the welding section. $10 or so if I recall, but I don't yet know how many batches they're good for.

[JakeAndBake]

Where do you find those tiny oxygen bottles? I bet they're far cheaper than the big medical ones I keep seeing...

I get mine at Home Depot in the welding section. $10 or so if I recall, but I don't yet know how many batches they're good for.

Doesn't oxygenation happen way faster with a stone than it does with a air pump? That's how I've been doing it, I thought I heard Doc say a 30 second shot was about all you needed with pure O2.

[Chemiker]

Doesn't oxygenation happen way faster with a stone than it does with a air pump? That's how I've been doing it, I thought I heard Doc say a 30 second shot was about all you needed with pure O2.

Yeah, I think I heard Doc say 30s and Jamil say 1min, or something like that. Seems like the consensus is it's fast. I have been doing 1min and getting vigorous and fast fermentation. Way easier than shaking the fermenter for 5+ minutes!