Or wannabe vikings. Ghetto Neck Brewery & Winery is adding Meadery to its repertoire. Due to my current fascination with honey bees, I couldn't help myself. Today I started my first gallon of Mead. This will be an apple cyser mead. I found the recipe on www.makemead.net. I followed the recipe, as given, except I tossed in 24 raisins.
Last night I heated the cider, then added the honey and everything except the campden tablet and the yeast. After it cooled in the pot I placed it in my small fermentation pail and added the crushed & dissolved campden tablet.
I loosely covered it and let it sit overnight. Actually until this afternoon. Then I poured the works into a 4 litre jug, using a funnel to pour and trying to get it all aerated. Then I dropped in the 24 raisins,
and pitched the yeast (which I had already acclimated by stirring it into 1/4 cup of very warm water).
Oops....I forgot to mention that before I pitched the yeast I used my hydrometer to check the specific gravity. This batch has started at 1.074, which means it has the potential for approx. 9.8% APV at completion.
I found this handy wine log PDF online, and am going to try my darnedest to be organized and keep track of my different batches. Just in case I hit on a great one, I want to be able to recreate it.
I am also chipping away at the huge task of delabeling and scrubbing all my empty beer bottles. Ugh! Will it never end? This is not even half of them. And once those are clean, I can attack the wine bottles. Groan.
Now for something completely off topic. I found this nifty old meat/cheese slicer on Craigslist (where else?) for a whole $10.
The guy was asking $20 but since this is a vintage slicer (late 70's or early 80's) I talked him down. And yes, it works. probably better than most of those on the market today. I want one in case I get a chance to make some beef jerky. But it will also come in handy for slicing lunch meats and cheeses.
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