Mead Part 2

Following on from the mead I started making 6 weeks ago it's now time for the next phase in the operation.

You will need:
Steriliser
A demijohn with a solid bung
A syphoning tube
Stabiliser
A Camden tablet
A sterile glass
And your gallon of fermenting mead


Depending on the conditions your mead has been fermenting in (temperature and light) it should now be quietly sitting there only bubbling through occasionally. It should be time to stop it fermenting and transfer it to a new demijohn to settle and clear. The stabiliser does the business of killing of the yeast and stopping the fermenting process.

Fermentation converts sugar to alcohol (basically speaking) so the longer you ferment the more alcoholic, but also the dryer the mead will be. You can use a hydrometer to test, or just have a taste. If it's too sweet for your liking then it needs a bit longer, if it's just right, or too dry then we can go ahead. I use the high tech method of a sterilised turkey baster to draw samples out of the demijohn.

Sterilise everything as always.



Use the syphoning tube to draw the mead out one demijohn and into the other, via a bit of muslin to strain out any little bits of lemon or bread that get brought through.



Draw off a glass of mead in the process and add a teaspoon of stabiliser and a crushed Camden tablet to give them time to dissolve.



If your mead was too dry here's an opportunity to back sweeten it and add a bit of honey to the demijohn. Some of mine have been very dry and have needed a lot of extra honey. Pour in your glass of stabiliser, fit a solid bung and give it a really good shake. Bear in mind that this will generate a bit of pressure in the demijohn so gently let a bit out after.



Done! Now that needs to go in a dark place to be forgotten about for a few more months.

Cranberry Wine and Frozen Fruit Wine

This is the easiest wine in the world, really tasty too so it’s a good one to have in your repertoire. Usually I like to forage for ingredients for wine as that makes it more free, and therefore better, however at this time of the year ingredients are a bit thin on the ground and frankly it’s too muddy and cold for me to be bothered to get them, so I cheat. This wine uses just bog standard cranberry juice from concentrate from the supermarket, 4 litres of the stuff.



You will need…
Steriliser
1.3kg sugar
3-4 l juice
1 sachet or a heaped teaspoon of dried wine yeast.
1 sterile glass
Cling film
1 campden tablet
A demijohn
A funnel
An airlock and bung
A large spoon for stirring
A large sterilised saucepan
A solid bung


Sterilise everything before you start. Weigh out the sugar in the saucepan. I know what you're thinking, that's an absolute bum load of sugar. It is, but hopefully most of it's going to become alcohol soon.



Add 1 litre of cranberry juice and stir over the hob until all the sugar is dissolved into the juice. It'll be a translucent syrup when done. Don't let it get too hot, cool it a bit before using too.



Pour 1 litre of cranberry juice into the demijohn, then add the syrup, then another litre of juice. You won't fit another whole 4th litre in, just fill up to the shoulders of the demijohn.



Crush and add the campden tablet. Now fit the solid bung and give the demijohn a really good shake. Pour out a little of the juice into a thoroughly sterilised glass and add the yeast. Cover the glass with cling film and leave it for the yeast to re-hydrate and activate. After a while the cling film should start bulging and there will be bubbles on the surface of the liquid in the glass.



When the yeast is ready pour the contents of the glass into the demijohn and fit the airlock. Move the demijohn to a nice dark warm place and let the yeast do its thing. Done! I’ll fill you in on the next part in a few weeks.



As I mentioned, it’s too cold to go out foraging, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use ingredients I foraged last year and have been keeping frozen! These sloes and damsons I picked in about October/November time and they’re good for making a 2 plum wine. I picked and froze nearly 2KGs of them.



Firstly defrost them in a sterile food grade bucket (or big saucepan if you don’t have one) and when they are defrosted put the lid on and rattle them around to severely bruise them. Now pour in 1 gallon of boiling water, either from the kettle, or as I like to do it on the stove so I can add it all in one batch.



Leave this for 4 days, stirring or moving around twice a day. When you are done you will have a “must” that is the extracted concentrate of the fruit. Strain this through muslin to get out all the little bits of fruit and dead insects etc, then pour about a litre of it into a saucepan. Add the sugar as you did with the cranberry wine.



Pour it back in the demijohn, make sure it’s not warm to the touch and add the yeast and campden tablet as described in the cranberry wine.



Swirl it around, fit an airlock, and yer done. There’s another couple of gallons of wine that’ll be ready to enjoy at the beginning of next year (I’ve got last year’s to keep me going until then).

Mead

As you may remember I visited Paynes Bee Farm a couple of weeks ago and picked up some of their brilliant honey. Well as if I wasn’t going to make mead with it!



I won’t bore you too long with the history, I hate those blogs that spend half a page on it before you get to the recipe. If you want to know more that’s what Wikipedia is for. But anyway, mead is probably the oldest alcoholic drink in Sussex, perhaps the world. It’s basically just honey dissolved in water and fermented, with perhaps a few herbs added for taste. Saxons were big fans of it apparently.

Right, on with the mead. I will be doing a few of these how to make booze posts on the blog and it is assumed that there are a few basics that you’ll need to have down before we begin. There are countless books and forums on the subject, but most important is sterilisation. With any homemade booze you need to be anal about keeping things clean and sterile. I suggest you buy some good homebrew steriliser like VWP and have a good read of the label before you use it.

The ingredients for this mead are:

3lbs honey
A couple of sprigs of rosemary
A lemon
Some fresh ginger
A slice of bread
Fresh yeast



And the kit you’re going to need today is:

Steriliser
A demijohn
A funnel
An airlock and bung
A solid bung without the hole for the airlock
A kettle
1 camden tablet
A knife

You can get fresh yeast if you go up to the bakers in a supermarket and hang around annoyingly until someone comes to see what you want. Usually it’s free! But if you can’t get any or the supermarket are being tight you can substitute the bread and yeast for a packet of dried gervin yeast that you’ll be able to pick up anywhere there’s brewing gear. I get mine from the garden centre or Wilkinsons.



Sterilise all your equipment. Sterilise the airlock and bung in a bowl and keep the water in the bowl to fill the airlock when you get round to fitting it.

Pour the honey down the funnel into your sterilised demijohn. The viscous nature of honey makes watching it goo into a funnel and down into the demijohn hypnotic.



Pour in a kettle of boiling water and dissolve all the honey. Put the solid bung in the top and shake it all about until there is nothing sticking to the side of the demijohn.

Get the rest of your ingredients together and add them to the demijohn. Cut the lemon into 8ths and slice up the ginger. Remember to cut everything up small enough, if you have to force it into the demijohn think how you’re going to get it out again. My rosemary is sat in my greenhouse flowering at the moment. You may have to buy some if yours isn’t looking too clever in the winter.



Now top up with cold water to the gallon mark (about where the demijohn starts curving to the mouth usually). Put the solid bung back in and swirl it all around again.

Make sure it isn’t too hot, it should feel just about room temperature to the touch on the sides of the glass, not warm.

Pop in a campden tablet, these take the risk out of homemade wine making, available from all the usual homebrew sales places alongside yeast and steriliser. They remove the oxidants from the mead and help prevent it spoiling. My wines improved over night after I started using these. Crush it under a glass and pour it in.



Spread the yeast on a slice of bread, cut it into strips and poke it down into the demijohn. If the yeast is rubbery and dry then it’ll only need a drop of water to make it spreadable on the bread.



Half fill the airlock with sterilised water and put it on the demijohn.



Now the waiting. Leave it in a dark place, as light will hinder the yeasts work. I’m using a brown demijohn so I don’t need to worry about this, but if you’re using a clear one put it in the cupboard, and if you don’t have cupboard space just stick a black bag over it. Very soon, if not immediately, it’ll start bubbling through the airlock.



Note the tray underneath. I’ve got a feeling this could go a bit mental and bubble up through the airlock. If that happens take out the airlock, clean it and replace. Otherwise it’s going to smell something rotten.

Part 2 of the mead will come next month and you’ll need another demijohn and a syphoning tube. In the meantime keep an eye on this one every now and then, it should be slowly bubbling through and it’ll slow down and maybe even stop after a while. As long as you get a good 2 or 3 weeks fermenting out of it though that’s all good.