/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.6547099]

Someone know how to do mead? I'm trying, but I'm not sure in the details

[Anonymous No.6547124]

>>6547099
Homebrew is difficult, expensive, and seldom rewarding, OP. I tried it quite a few times with homegrown and locally with decent results, but it's nowhere near as good as storebought. But hey, I've never done mead and your mileage may vary.

[Anonymous No.6547140]

I'm itching to do a one gallon batch, but I hear it takes a long time to condition, like 6 months or more before it becomes good.. I have a hard time waiting 3 weeks for beer sometimes.

[Anonymous No.6547148]

>>6547124
You probably did a bad job of sanitizing or didn't keep it in an area with a regulated temperature. 9/10 times a batch of homebrew comes out bad it's your own fault. My friends have been brewing for years, and while their first few batches were lacking, their shit is better than anything storebought.

Anyway, OP, a website to look at:

http://beersmith.com/blog/2013/09/20/making-mead-for-home-brewers/

As I stated above, the little things are extremely important and can make or break your booze. ALWAYS sanitize every single piece of equipment. My friends prefer to use bottled water as opposed to tap because we live in the city and our tap water is shit, but obviously that is up to you. If you want to make a fruit mead, I would try and hold off and just do a basic honey mead first to make sure you have the right method.

Good luck, OP. It does pay off in the end.

[Anonymous No.6547154]

Op here is a great place to start-
>http://www.ambrosiafarm.com/mead.php

This site sells quick mead kits for 10$ each. These are a great way to try making mead for the first time.

[Anonymous No.6547161]

Well, 8€ in honey in 5L water. Were do you buy mead? Here can buy beer or wine, but don't mead :(

[Anonymous No.6547166]

>>6547124
>Homebrew is easy, cheaper than regular(non-discount brand) booze, and fairly rewarding

ftfy. The only downside is the time investment.

I live in a 'city' of 100k people. I can buy homebrew supplies within walking distance at a health store. These are the prices I've experienced:

5L demijohn - €7
airlock+bung - €2
food-grade tubing - €0.50/metre

For the single use(unless you breed the yeast) required items
champagne yeast - €2/sachet
alternatively if you're poor, you can get bread yeast at €2/12sachets, it'll just require more aging
Honey - €2-4 per lb(454g).
I'm aware honey is more expensive in USA and apparently ye can have HFCS labelled as honey sometimes, too. In a 5L I would use between 3-4lbs, depending on what kind of mead I'm making.

The one I've enjoyed the most has been ginger mead, which I use 3lbs honey, 1lb ginger(shredded or thin cut), adding the ginger at the start and allowing it to stay in the must for the 4 weeks of fermenting.

[Anonymous No.6547178]

>>6547099
Use champagne yeast and aim for 15% initial gravity, I think 3 pounds of honey per gallon of water can give you this gravity. If you use only honey I'd also advice to put in some lime juice because yeast needs vitamin c. Some people add raisins and orange slices but it's not needed and in fact when you add fruits it becomes a melomel, not real mead.

[Anonymous No.6547183]

>>6547148

thanks for the info and the link, I was read about sanitizing and it was clean at start :)

>>6547154

thanks for the link

is necesary to filter it when past the 4 weeks, or is better to migrate to the bottle without filter?

[Anonymous No.6547193]

>>6547178

for the first test is only two diferent honey tipes, water and yeast (https://www.google.es/search?q=levital+levadura+fresca&espv=2&biw=1152&bih=774&site=webhp&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=6UpnVfPNGovuUrr9gKAB&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ))

[Anonymous No.6547221]

>>6547124
>Homebrew is expensive, seldom rewarding and nowhere near as good as storebought

this link might help you, op: http://www.gotmead.com/

[Anonymous No.6547249]

>>6547140

I have a gallon fermenting in my kitchen, and I'm about to start another batch up in a few days. I'm more than happy to answer any questions you've got.

[Anonymous No.6547278]

>>6547249
How do you stop the fermentation?

[Anonymous No.6547283]

>>6547278

You ask it very nicely.

But seriously, that gallon is my first batch, so I have no experience stopping it. IIRC, you don't really stop it...you're supposed to just let it ferment on it's own.

[Anonymous No.6547285]

>>6547278

Wait. Fermentation stops itself when the alcohol concentration gets high enough to kill the yeast, or when the yeast eat all the sugar, whichever happens first.

[Anonymous No.6547288]

>>6547278
Carefully.

[Anonymous No.6547289]

>>6547278
I rack it to secondary after a month, let it sit for another month and rack it another time to let it sit in the fridge so it drops more sediment. Once sugars are gone yeast will go inactive but if you want to kill yeast before you get a certain gravity for a sweeter mead add potassium scorbate.

[Anonymous No.6547294]

>>6547289
Potassium sorbate*

[Anonymous No.6547348]

>>6547289
Potassium sorbate change the flavor?

>>6547285

I do not want to exploit bottles at home, if that happens I will lost my drink and my girl kills me. :P

[Anonymous No.6547387]

>>6547348
>I do not want to exploit bottles at home, if that happens I will lost my drink and my girl kills me. :P

What does any of that have to do with the post you replied to?

[Anonymous No.6547413]

>>6547387
I'm not sure because is my first time, but I read about when move the fermented mead to the bottles, it makes a second fermentation and is posible it broken the bottles. I think it is because when I move it to the bottle mead take some oxigen.

sorry if my english is broken ^_^

[Anonymous No.6547418]

>>6547413
>but I read about when move the fermented mead to the bottles, it makes a second fermentation and is posible it broken the bottle

Normally that does not happen. The situation you are describing was an unusual mistake, not something you normally have to worry about.

[Anonymous No.6547423]

>>6547418
Great!