Dorm
Closet Mead
Dorm
Closet Mead is the most basic recipe for anyone looking to get into home
brewing, but who does not want to make a large investment. The cost of
ingredients and equipment together should not be any more than $15.00. It is
the cheapest recipe you could possibly hope for when first experimenting aside
from the recipe found in De re Rustica,
but comes with less control in flavor and clarity. Flavors aside, if this is your
first time as a mazer this is a nice, simple test recipe.
Ingredients
and Equipment:
To
make Dorm Closet Mead, you will need to collect a packet of dry Fleischmann's yeast,
an orange, 2lb honey, a packet of raisins, a gallon of spring water, and a
balloon/rubber glove, a square of foil, and a rubber band for the airlock.
- Fleischmann's Yeast: $1.50
- Orange: $0.75
-2lb Honey: $7.50
-Raisins: $1.50
-Spring Water: $1.00
-Improv-Airlock: $2.00
Total: $14.25
Directions:
-Step One: Preparation
-Wash,
freeze, and slice the orange into eight parts. Washing the orange is important
to keep any wild yeast out of the mead and freezing the orange will break up
some of the flesh and make it easier for flavors to transfer.
-Pour
half the gallon into clean containers. Leave 1/4th C of the excess
water in a separate container as illustrated by the red cup above. This will be
used for yeast activation later on. The rest of the water will probably not be
needed, but if you poured too much out, you may have to top off the brew at the
end.
-Place
the bottle of honey in a pot or bowl of water just below the boiling point to
warm up the honey and make it more pliable. If the plastic is cheap and the
water is too hot, you risk melting the bottle and ruining the honey, but the
risk in minimal.
-Step Two: Mixing
-Pour
the heated honey into the mixture using a wide mouthed funnel. The honey not
only acts as the base flavor, but provides most of the fermentable sugar for
the mead.
-Add
the 8 cleaned and frozen orange slices, peel and all, to the jug to give the
mead a more complex flavor.
-Add
25 raisins to the jug which will act as a yeast nutrient. Adding too few will
leave the yeast starving and leave fermentation incomplete while adding too
many will leave the mead with an unwanted grape aftertaste.
-Step Three: Pitching
-Put
the cap back onto the jug with an inch or two of empty space between the top of
the must and the bottom of the cap and shake vigorously for 2-5 minutes to
aerate the mead. The yeast will need some oxygen to survive and ferment.
-Heat
the extra 1/4th C of water to between 100-105 °F and stir the packet
of yeast into the water. Swirl the glass until it begins to give off the smell
of unbaked bread, allow the yeast to rehydrate for around 4 minutes before
pitching the yeast into the mead.
-Step Four: Finishing Touches.
-If
you have more than 1 inch in between the top of the must and the bottom of the
bottle neck, top off the mead with some of the extra water. After you have the
mead at an appropriate volume, place the square of foil over the mouth and poke
5 holes in the covering.
-Poke
three holes in the balloon or glove and secure this over the foil with a rubber
band. If the mead ferments too vigorously and the balloon/glove is overly
inflated, add a few more holes until the swelling goes down. The improve-airlock
is there to keep insects and free floating bacteria out of the mead. It will
not work perfectly, but it will serve you well enough.
Storage
and Fermentation:
The
mead will need +30 days for fermentation and for the yeast to do some cleaning
up and dying off. The first two of these thirty days should be spent sitting in
a sink or tub on the off chance of an explosion or an overflow, but that should
not be an issue with bread yeast and an improve-airlock. Through the rest of
primary fermentation the mead should be kept in a dark place with a temperature
between 55-70 °F to create a nice habitat for the yeast. During this time,
frequently check the balloon/glove and rubber band for atrophy, replace them as
needed.
After
a little over a month, the Dorm Closet Mead will be done and drinkable. If you
can control yourself, it is a good practice to leave the mead longer for the
flavors do develop and mellow, but it is not necessary.
If
you are worried about clarity, after the thirty days is over pour the mead into
another empty gallon jug being careful not to transfer any of the orange, pulp,
raisins, or yeast residue. Place that jug in a refrigerator for 48 hours to
killing off some of the remaining yeast and let it settle at the bottom, also
known as cold crashing. Finally, thoroughly clean the first jug and pour the
cleared up mead back into the first jug being careful not to transfer the dead
yeast at the bottom. This entire process is known as racking and will leave you
with a cleaner, clearer mead, but will not clean it up perfectly.
Final
Step:
Drink
and enjoy.
If you want to
find more recipes by this author go to alcoauto.blogspot.com
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Do you know what the approximate alcohol content is?
ReplyDeleteLikely from 7 to 9 percent.
Delete