Mead Making 101
So I have started a new obsess- . . .er, hobby. Let's go ahead and add mead and wine making to the huge list of things I already do with my "copious" amounts of free time. Good things about this hobby, you can start off cheap and it really takes much less effort for the outcome than most of my other obsessions. Bad thing: you have to wait and wait and wait and wait for it to be done!
When I say cheap, I mean cheap. I found the perfect first mead recipe on the GotMead forums. I went to my local home brew shop to get the equipment (one gallon glass jug, solid stopper, drilled stopper, and bubbler). This set me back about $7 including taxes. You could do it even cheaper, as I have heard that you can get apple juice in one gallon glass jugs. I don't do this myself, because I have a 3 year old running around who loves helping in the kitchen, so plastic is good. It bounces when dropped. When she's a little older, I might consider doing it this way if I keep brewing. The supplies that I needed to buy from the grocery store: the orange, honey, cinnamon stick (I only had ground on hand), and yeast (I only had Red Star baking yeast on hand, and I did not want to deviate from the recipe on my first mead). Again, you might already have some of this stuff on hand, or buy it as an automatic in the grocery store. The only part of the recipe that cost a lot of money was the honey, and that is sheerly for the amount involved. I spent about $7 on 2.5 pounds of goodish honey (from the grocery store) and $3 for a pound of the store brand. I could have gotten 4 pounds of the cheap store brand for $8 or so, but I didn't want to mess with measuring.
Total outlay for my first gallon of mead: $23 (ish)
If I bottle in 16oz bottles, cost per bottle: $3
Next batch I make, cost per bottle:$1.50 (assuming I use the same type of honey)
Not bad, not bad. Chaucer's Mead, the most widely available commercial mead, sells for $12 a bottle at their online store. Granted, it is prolly a 750ml bottle (standard wine bottle size), and their 1.5L bottle sells for $22. 16oz is about 500ml, so 1.5L of my mead would cost $9 for the first batch and $4.50 for subsequent batches. Definitely cheaper to make your own.
Now as for some logistics. Joe says very explicitly not to shake or stir or even look hard at this particular mead after you stare at it. Well, we just sold our house, and are packing to move within the next couple of weeks. Even if I were as gentle as possible, carrying the jug in my arms like it was my dear daughter, I live in Houston, where potholes are a fact of life. And we don't drive luxury cars, especially not when moving. We call in all available friends and relatives with pickup trucks so we don't have to rent a UHaul for more than one day.
So I decided to go ahead and start this mead over at my mother's house (with her permission, of course). Started Sunday morning (September 4, about 9:30am), and by the time we left after brunch it was starting to bubble (about noonish). I think I may have left too much head space in the jug, because it was bubbling very very slowly. I need to remember to call mom tonight and have her check on it for me, and maybe top it up. Anyways, it's fermenting! And hopefully it will be drinkable by Christmas.
When I say cheap, I mean cheap. I found the perfect first mead recipe on the GotMead forums. I went to my local home brew shop to get the equipment (one gallon glass jug, solid stopper, drilled stopper, and bubbler). This set me back about $7 including taxes. You could do it even cheaper, as I have heard that you can get apple juice in one gallon glass jugs. I don't do this myself, because I have a 3 year old running around who loves helping in the kitchen, so plastic is good. It bounces when dropped. When she's a little older, I might consider doing it this way if I keep brewing. The supplies that I needed to buy from the grocery store: the orange, honey, cinnamon stick (I only had ground on hand), and yeast (I only had Red Star baking yeast on hand, and I did not want to deviate from the recipe on my first mead). Again, you might already have some of this stuff on hand, or buy it as an automatic in the grocery store. The only part of the recipe that cost a lot of money was the honey, and that is sheerly for the amount involved. I spent about $7 on 2.5 pounds of goodish honey (from the grocery store) and $3 for a pound of the store brand. I could have gotten 4 pounds of the cheap store brand for $8 or so, but I didn't want to mess with measuring.
Total outlay for my first gallon of mead: $23 (ish)
If I bottle in 16oz bottles, cost per bottle: $3
Next batch I make, cost per bottle:$1.50 (assuming I use the same type of honey)
Not bad, not bad. Chaucer's Mead, the most widely available commercial mead, sells for $12 a bottle at their online store. Granted, it is prolly a 750ml bottle (standard wine bottle size), and their 1.5L bottle sells for $22. 16oz is about 500ml, so 1.5L of my mead would cost $9 for the first batch and $4.50 for subsequent batches. Definitely cheaper to make your own.
Now as for some logistics. Joe says very explicitly not to shake or stir or even look hard at this particular mead after you stare at it. Well, we just sold our house, and are packing to move within the next couple of weeks. Even if I were as gentle as possible, carrying the jug in my arms like it was my dear daughter, I live in Houston, where potholes are a fact of life. And we don't drive luxury cars, especially not when moving. We call in all available friends and relatives with pickup trucks so we don't have to rent a UHaul for more than one day.
So I decided to go ahead and start this mead over at my mother's house (with her permission, of course). Started Sunday morning (September 4, about 9:30am), and by the time we left after brunch it was starting to bubble (about noonish). I think I may have left too much head space in the jug, because it was bubbling very very slowly. I need to remember to call mom tonight and have her check on it for me, and maybe top it up. Anyways, it's fermenting! And hopefully it will be drinkable by Christmas.
posted by CraftScout | 6:49 AM
2 Comments:
Hi, I dropped in surfing around too. Couldn't help remembering this weird booklet (well, A4 papers xeroxed and neatly stapled together) called BLUE FLAME X, it was like a recipe book that western expatriates in Saudi Arabia used to brew their own booze .. the basic "foundation" recipe was this lethally strong clear alcohol called "sayideeyah". It had diagrams and everything for stills and stuff. The funniest recipe was for vodka, it went something like this .. "Unscrew top of empty vodka bottle. Pour in 1 litre of sayidiyah. Screw top back on."
Love the recipe for vodka! *big grins*
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