My 1st Attempt at Mead (Or that funny smelling drink I made)

[Terme]

27.9.11
Hay im trying my hand at mead and thought I would share experiences / recipies after a little hunting round I found this link http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1938&Itemid=14
it has a real easy recipie on it and after I did a few conversions I modified it to this.

Ing

Four 500g honey pots
5 1/2 (ish) Ltrs Water
3 packs Pams Fruit Packs
1 stick of cinnamon
1 orange
Tasti Active Dried Yeast

Heat water to warm and disolve honey into a MIX
Transfer the MIX to your Brewing vessal
Add cinnamon stick
Wash and cut orange to 1/16 add to mix
SHAKE MIX LIKE BUGGERY (prefer cap on)
Add Fruit packs
SHAKE MIX LIKE BUGGERY
Wait for mix to reach room temp
Add good sized spoonful of the Yeast
Slosh around gently to mix in the yeast
WAIT till its done (?)

Further Updates will follow inc my eventual poisoning when I give it a try

Justin

29.9.11
I have no idea if this is working the recipie said I should see frothing within an hour but nothing yet! Unless its not airtight then the gas would just escape and I shoudl not notice a thing? Im going to leave it alone for now and wait and see ill also try to post a pic of the setup.

30.9.11
No worries I smelt it today, whew if thats not doing something im crazy, werid thing is I kind of liked it. Im thinking of trying a couple of small batches in 3+ Ltr containers aka juice style.

[img] http://www.gatheringdarkness.co.nz/forum/gallerydetail.php?i=5000&c=0&u=516#itop [/img]

31.10.11
Well 1 month down and a few weeks to go there is still no bubbles but thats probably coz the container is not 100% airtight? hopefully this does not cause any problems still smells good so I dont think anything has gone wrong yet! next time I will have a proper vessel to brew in.

10.11.11
Well I sniffed it again today and it did not smell as yheasty so I siphoned the mix into 2 3Ltr Juice containers (yep my Ltrs were off) and had enuf left over for a wine glass for testing "its kinda bitter and you can defenatly taste the orange in it" I would love to know the alac content but I have no idea so I will leave it in the other containers for awhile to mature/rot

2.1.12
Cool I have drunk it a few times and I got knocked out after 3 glasses the first time. I will have to bring this to NAAMA 2012 so look out if your a judge this was my first try your in for a treat it will be in the bottle badly labeled Market MEAD.

[Eachan]

It takes a while to really get bubbling; but you should see something within 24 hours... depending on how hot the water was when the yeast was added it might have died..but in my experience it is pretty hard to kill most yeast.

[Terme]

im not too sure if I should leave it for eke camp or try for at naama? ive seen time vary from 4 weeks to 3 months brew time.

all updates on the actual brew will go in the above post with a date to keep it clean

[Eachan]

In my experience it needs to mellow for a little while before it gets really tasty(I have wines/meads that I made last year that are only at their best now)

[Terme]

Updates Above!!

[Silver]

hey Terme.
glad to hear your brewing prob the most fun you can get from suger water
might i suggest you goto brewers world and talk to them about yeast
there is alot of different types -beer (tob/bottom) spirits (hot/fast/smoth/strong) wines ( white/red/fruit/mead)
yes there is a mead yeast it gets more nutrients out of the honey than other yeasts, you can also add yeast nutrient

also ask about a hydrometer it mesures the amout of suger in your mix and with that you can work out the percentage

ohh yea and what Eachan said should be law
the necter of the gods is said to be aged 10 years
i can bearly keep mine over a year

have fun brewing

[Terme]

Thanks mate I think I made the mistake of not having enough honey and thats why its bitter, I did get a hydrometer but from what I can gather you need to measure the mix before and after brewing to determine the %