I finally got around to making my mead, a Metheglin actually. (I guess that means I was cooking up some meth.
) I spent a bunch of time on
www.gotmead.com and picked up some good tips. Great site for meads and ciders.
Anyway the thing was pretty simple. I made up a 2 liter starter with sweet mead yeast (Wyeast 4184) with a little honey and water (an idea I got from Gotmead). I used a no boil method. I poured the honey directly into the fermenter and racked some warm boiled water onto the top of that to bring the volume up to about 4.5 gallons, poured in a little water that I had boiled with some yeast nutrient. Added fruit and spices, ran some O2 into it for a couple minutes and pitched the yeast.
The recipe is simply 15# honey, 2 large lemons and 2 limes cut into wedges, 5 whole cloves, 5 small cinnamon sticks, and 1/8 tsp fresh ground nutmeg. I pitched the yeast once I got everything cooled down to about 68°F and stuck it into the fermentation fridge.
One thought that came to me when I stuck it in the fermentation fridge was whether I might need to use a blow off tube. Does anyone think I might need it? I don't know if meads will create a krausen like beer will.
Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company
