It's Saturday, lets make some mead!

After spending the last six weeks away from home, it was really nice to have a full Saturday to do whatever I wanted. Well actually I spent the whole morning doing chores, but in the mid-afternoon I had some free time, and what better way to spend it than making mead?

That is one of the great things about mead, making it is fast and simple. Little more than a container, some sanitizer, yeast, nutrients, water, and honey is required. No heating, filtering, or cooling which makes the process quite simple and enjoyable. The second great thing about making mead is that it is so much fun to drink it while making it, and I always tend to have spare mead lying around.

Before stating anything I like to pour some nice mead to drink during the brew process

Recipe

I tend to follow Ken Schramm's book a lot when brewing, and today was no exception:

• 10 lbs Orange Blossom honey from Miller's Honey, bought in bulk last year.
• 4.75 Gallons of filtered tap water from the Foolhill area in Salt Lake City.
• 10 grams of DYW50B Yeast (Dry).
• 7.5 grams of Fermaid K.
• 7.5 grams of DAP.
• Original gravity: 1.070.

As per Ken's book, the first step in the process is careful sanitation of ALL of the equipment that will come in contact with the must. I use a dilution of Iodophor at a rate of 10 mL per 5 gallons of cold water.

After getting the carboy filled with sanitizer the next step was to organize all of the tools for making the mead: funnel, hydrometer, airlock, Ken's book, scale, pitcher, yeast nutrients, etc.

After getting all of the tools together, the next step was to fill my large (6 Gallon) sanitized bucket with two gallons of filtered water. Adding water to the bucket first before the honey really helps to make the honey go into solution fast. Next, I weighed and poured 10 pounds of honey into the bucket.

With the bucket filled, I rinsed the carboy, filled it and shook it vigorously to add some oxygen.

Next, I re-hydrated the yeast in 100 F water for about 10 minutes (until I saw bubbles in the glass).

With the yeast ready, all that remained was to pitch the yeast and add the airlock

I put the carboy in the closet, closed the door and headed outside to finish the brew day off with a nice glass of mead and a smooth Cuban

Compared to brewing beer (especially from grain) making mead is quite simple and efficient. The entire process lasted about two hours and cleanup was very fast. If only the fermentation was as fast too! To recap, here is a list of the process:

1. Collect all of the equipment that will come in contact with the must and sanitize it.
   1. Put all of the small bits in the wine bucket and fill with sanitizer.
   2. Let the bucket sit for 10 minutes.
   3. Pour the sanitizer from the bucket into the carboy using a funnel.
   4. Rinse the small bits and place them on foil near by.
2. Rinse the bucket and fill with 2 gallons of filtered water.
3. Weight the appropriate amount of honey for the batch and add to the bucket, stirring slowly.
4. Rinse the carboy, place the funnel on the top and pour the contents of the bucket into the carboy.
5. Cap the carboy and shake it a lot!
6. Heat 8 oz of filtered water to 100 F and add the yeast.
7. Pour off a small bit of the must the measure the gravity.
8. While the yeast re-hydrates, add the yeast nutrient and energizer to the carboy.
9. When the yeast is ready (about 10 minutes) pitch it into the carboy and cap with the airlock.
10. Place the carboy in a dark, quite place that will hold temperature at about 70 F.
11. Relax and be happy.