Saturday, January 26, 2013

A New Batch Started

I have not yet bottled the Cranberry Mead I started a while back, perhaps that'll be a task for this weekend.
I have started a new batch of regular mead, this time using some yeast nutrient. ...I think perhaps I made a mistake dumping the maple mead. I noticed that the aroma of the must changed significantly when the nutrient was added. I may have been hasty in dumping that last batch, but I didn't want to risk my health if it was breeding bacteria.

I also started a couple more bottles of the Mister Beer Bottle Brew. This time I am doing the Brown Ale again, and a Pilsner. I think I will continue to make these as they are simple, tasty and cheap, and I'm not a big enough beer drinker to warrant much more than a few litres brewing at a time.

Mead recipe for this week's batch:



Bring 36 cups water to 160F (71C) 
[I only have a 3Gallon stock pot, so I can't do the whole batch in one go]
Slowly stir in 9.9lbs (4.5kg) honey  …because I used President’s Choice unpasteurized honey which comes in 3kg bottles. (9kg total used in this recipe)
cook for 10 minutes or more at 160F or slightly higher.
Cool pot in sink of cold water and ice.
Transfer contents of pot into plastic fermenter bucket.
Make another batch as above
Cool in sink of cold water and ice to 80-90F (27-32C)
Transfer to fermenting bucket
Add yeast nutrient 5tsp, and acid blend (citric, malic, and tartaric acids) 7.5tsp to fermenting bucket
[Both from thehomevintner.com]
Add Yeast to fermenter and agitate to oxygenate mixture.
Yeast Used: LALVIN EC-1118 Gluten-free champagne yeast