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Mead Month
Hail Vikings, Norman descendants and enthusiasts. September seems to have been an important month for the Vikings and the Normans alike. Festival of Mabon begins
Mabon, the Celebration of Harvest End, 22-23 September, traditionally a Pagan festival is but a minor blot on the Nordic radar acknowledging the end of the Harvest Season, also associated with vintage and mead-making. Most people held off the full celebration of this holiday, though, until the main festival of Winternights, which strangely enough is the same time the Mead is ready to be consumed.
Yes, that's right people. It's time for us Viking Hipster descendants to brew some mead and celebrate the end of the Harvest. As I mentioned in previous articles, September marks many important events in Viking and Norman heritage for many reasons, but today I am concentrating strictly on mead!
It is almost certain that even though the Normans were Christian from approximately 1000 AD, the festival of mead making still would have been celebrated, but with the usual Norman adaptation that made them the culture absorbing people as we know them to be. There is NO WAY you could ever deny a Norman his mead! It exists to this day for a reason.
Depending in which hemisphere you reside, one may prefer a chilled honey mead, or a warm, spiced mead, but today I shall only be submitting one recipe, and that is for Honey Mead. I hope you enjoy the season, and if you are too lazy to make your own, I'm sure one of your local liquor outlets will stock them.
YIELD:
Makes about five gallons, which should fill 53 twelve-ounce bottles.
Makes about five gallons, which should fill 53 twelve-ounce bottles.
INGREDIENTS
12 to 18 pounds(5-8Kg) of grade-A honey
4 1/2 gallons (17 Litres) of tap or bottled water
7-8 grams (1/4 ounce) of freeze-dried wine, champagne, or dedicated mead yeast
12 to 18 pounds(5-8Kg) of grade-A honey
4 1/2 gallons (17 Litres) of tap or bottled water
7-8 grams (1/4 ounce) of freeze-dried wine, champagne, or dedicated mead yeast
PREPARATION
Note on equipment:
Making mead requires essentially the same basic kit necessary to brew beer at home: primary and secondary plastic-bucket fermenters with air locks and spigots, transfer hosing, a bottle-filler tube, heavy bottles, bottle caps, bottle capper, and a bottle brush and washer. You should be able to find these items for approximately $70 total (excluding the bottles) through a home-brewing supplier. Bottles cost from $6 to $20 per dozen approx, depending on style. You might instead buy a couple of cases of beer in returnable bottles, drink the beer, and after sanitizing them! — reuse those bottles. Being economical is the key!
All your equipment must be sanitized or sterilized before use. Ordinary unscented household bleach does the job fine. Put all the equipment (including the lid and stirring spoons) into the fermentation bucket, fill with water, and add 2 teaspoons of unscented bleach. Let it sit for 30 minutes. Drain the water through the spigot, rinse everything in hot water, and allow to air-dry.
Bring the 4 1/2 gallons of water to a boil. Well water, by the way, should be avoided because of potentially high levels of strong tasting minerals like iron. Boiling should remove harsh chlorine from municipal tap water. If you don't own a pot large enough to hold five gallons of water, boil as much as possible. You will add the remaining water to the fermenter later.
Once the water reaches a boil, remove it from the heat and stir in all of the honey. Do not boil the honey, as it reduces the aromatic quality of the finished mead.
While the honey dissolves in the water, put a cup of lukewarm (90 to 100°F or 32-37 Celcius) water into a clean bowl. Sprinkle in the yeast and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. When the honey has been fully dissolved in the water and the pot is cool to the touch (not over 80°F- 26.6C), pour the honey-water into the fermentation bucket and stir in the yeast mixture. Note: Cooling the honey-water should take about half an hour. This process can be accelerated with a so-called sink bath, that is, repeatedly immersing the pot in cold water in a sink or basin.
If you have not already added the full 4 1/2 gallons of water, top it off with the balance in bottled water (or tap water if you're confident of its quality).
Seal the bucket and allow the mixture to ferment for two weeks to one month. The progress of fermentation can judged by monitoring the carbon-dioxide bubbles escaping from the air lock: When they drop to one bubble per minute, the process of fermentation is near its end. Note that is only an issue during the primary fermentation; secondary fermentation has more to do with aging and mellowing and hence allows more flexibility. When primary fermentation has subsided, siphon the mead over to your secondary fermentation bucket and seal it. Allow one to four months ageing time. Do not open the fermenter, as this risks contaminating the mead.
When you decide it has matured enough (and the mead has cleared), you will want to siphon it into sterilized bottles and cap them. Follow the same procedure as you would for home-brewed beer.
Mead typically improves with age, so the longer you can wait to open the bottles, the better.
Note on equipment:
Making mead requires essentially the same basic kit necessary to brew beer at home: primary and secondary plastic-bucket fermenters with air locks and spigots, transfer hosing, a bottle-filler tube, heavy bottles, bottle caps, bottle capper, and a bottle brush and washer. You should be able to find these items for approximately $70 total (excluding the bottles) through a home-brewing supplier. Bottles cost from $6 to $20 per dozen approx, depending on style. You might instead buy a couple of cases of beer in returnable bottles, drink the beer, and after sanitizing them! — reuse those bottles. Being economical is the key!
All your equipment must be sanitized or sterilized before use. Ordinary unscented household bleach does the job fine. Put all the equipment (including the lid and stirring spoons) into the fermentation bucket, fill with water, and add 2 teaspoons of unscented bleach. Let it sit for 30 minutes. Drain the water through the spigot, rinse everything in hot water, and allow to air-dry.
Bring the 4 1/2 gallons of water to a boil. Well water, by the way, should be avoided because of potentially high levels of strong tasting minerals like iron. Boiling should remove harsh chlorine from municipal tap water. If you don't own a pot large enough to hold five gallons of water, boil as much as possible. You will add the remaining water to the fermenter later.
Once the water reaches a boil, remove it from the heat and stir in all of the honey. Do not boil the honey, as it reduces the aromatic quality of the finished mead.
While the honey dissolves in the water, put a cup of lukewarm (90 to 100°F or 32-37 Celcius) water into a clean bowl. Sprinkle in the yeast and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. When the honey has been fully dissolved in the water and the pot is cool to the touch (not over 80°F- 26.6C), pour the honey-water into the fermentation bucket and stir in the yeast mixture. Note: Cooling the honey-water should take about half an hour. This process can be accelerated with a so-called sink bath, that is, repeatedly immersing the pot in cold water in a sink or basin.
If you have not already added the full 4 1/2 gallons of water, top it off with the balance in bottled water (or tap water if you're confident of its quality).
Seal the bucket and allow the mixture to ferment for two weeks to one month. The progress of fermentation can judged by monitoring the carbon-dioxide bubbles escaping from the air lock: When they drop to one bubble per minute, the process of fermentation is near its end. Note that is only an issue during the primary fermentation; secondary fermentation has more to do with aging and mellowing and hence allows more flexibility. When primary fermentation has subsided, siphon the mead over to your secondary fermentation bucket and seal it. Allow one to four months ageing time. Do not open the fermenter, as this risks contaminating the mead.
When you decide it has matured enough (and the mead has cleared), you will want to siphon it into sterilized bottles and cap them. Follow the same procedure as you would for home-brewed beer.
Mead typically improves with age, so the longer you can wait to open the bottles, the better.
I wish you the best on your mead making endeavours!
Till next time, Skal!
Written by Justin Ferry
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