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The Word 15
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05-MEAD_MET.txt
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05-MEAD_MET.txt
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1997-06-30
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|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 <Only from the Mains Tap>
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