Dorm Closet Mead

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 1/4^th 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 1/4^th 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.

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