|1-WINE-MAKING RECIPES By Fireball |1-MEAD To make 1 Gallon: Honey: 3.0 lb for Dry 3.5 lb for Medium Dry 4.0 lb for sweet Malic Acid 1/3 teaspoon Tartaric Acid 1/4 " Tannin 1/2 " or 4-6 tablets Wine Yeast 1 " Wine Yeast Nutrient 1 " Demijohn (Glass fermenting vessel) plus airlock. Water Blended honey is good for a bland mead, if you want a good flavour, then you will need to use a single variety honey, preferably from an independant supplier or bee-keeper. NB! Don't use Chinese honey - I know it's cheap from Holland and Barrett - about £1.15 as opposed to £1.50-£2.00 per lb, but it makes shite quality mead - ok it's drinkable and tastes nice, but is nothing compared to some of my previous meads and metheglins... All the tubing and glassware needs to be sterilized first, preferably with a sterilizer powder such as Chempro SDP for about 1/2 hour and then rinsed free of the smell of the sterilizer. The airlock will need to contain Sodium Metabisulphate to reduce contamination by fruit flies, unless you want to make wine vinegar! Dissolve the honey in hot, but not boiling water, stir the honey into a good, smooth mixture and pour it into the demijohn. If you boil it you will lose most of the flavour - you might just as well use some brown sugar for all the good it will do, try to get unfiltered honey (ie where the pollen is still in the honey. Acid is needed as honey doesn`t contain a lot, the best mixture to use is 2/3 Malic Acid with 1/3 Tartaric Acid. Of this mixture, dissolve approx 1/2 tsp with approx 1-2 tsp of nutrient and 3-4 tannin tablets. Add cold water to the demijohn and leave a 3-4 inches of airspace to allow for any froth to develop in the first couple weeks of fermentation. For the fermentation, start at about 26`C <78`F> and drop to about 18`C <65`F> a rapid start is needed to avoid any spoiling of the mead. |1-METHEGLIN To make 1 Gallon: As above for mead, except you ferment the mead along with several ounces of mixed herbs, such as: Fennel - flowers, seeds and stems 2-3 oz Angelica - seeds 1-2 oz Cinammon - crushed 2-3 sticks crushed Nutmeg - crushed or freshly ground 1-2 Mace - broken up 0.5-1 oz Borage - flowers 1-2 oz Marjoram - stalks & flowers 1-2 oz Rosemary - " " " 1-2 oz Liqurorice Sticks 2 sticks crushed other herbs can be used, as long as you know their effects - try books on herbal teas for the advantages & disadvantages. Use fresh if possible. As you are using herbs, the honey quality is not too important - but don't use Chinese honey either - it's still shite |1-MELOMEL The same as for metheglin, except the only herbs that you are using are rose hips - either fresh or dried Quantity - approx 2-4lbs per gallon - best cut up / crushed / put thru a food processor with a little water... I tend to make 6-8 gallons of metheglin, 2 mead and maybe 2 gallons of melomel each year. end