I woke up this morning and decided to start a batch of mead. I am on the move a lot, so I decided to make a small batch that uses no specialized equipment and will be portable. Thanks to Joe Mattioli at http://www.gotmead.com, I found the perfect recipe for my travels.
Mead is a wine that is brewed using honey and water, and fermenting with yeast. Mead is incredibly easy to make. All of the ingredients that I used in making my mead can be purchased at the local grocers. The total cost of my ingredients came to around $20.
You will need the following ingredients to make 1 gallon of wine:
• 1 gallon of spring water (room temperature, do not refrigerate).
• 3 lbs of unprocessed honey.
• 1 balloon, (large enough to stretch over the mouth of the spring water jug).
• 1 package of Fleishmann’s yeast.
• 25 raisins (get a small box).
• 1 orange.
To make room for your ingredients, pour half the spring water into a clean container. Slice your orange, so you can fit them through the mouth of the spring water. Add the orange slices, twenty-five raisins, yeast, and honey into the spring water container. If your honey is too solid to pour, place the honey container in a bath of warm water. This will soften the honey and allow for an easier time when pouring it into the spring water. Fill the container up with the remaining spring water, leaving a couple of inches from the top. Put the cap back on the mixture and shake the container vigorously for a few minutes.
When the mixture is evenly mixed, you take the cap off and place the balloon over the mouth of the container. Poke a small hole in the balloon. This will allow for the gases to slowly escape, while preventing foreign contaminants from entering your mixture. If the balloon does not feel tight enough, you may need to use rubber bands around the mouth of the container to keep it on tight.
Over the next twenty-four hours, your balloon will start to inflate. Watch carefully to make sure the balloon does not inflate so large that it pops off. If you feel there is too much stress on your balloon, you can poke another hole to allow more gases to escape. When you are comfortable that your balloon will hold, place your mixture in a cool, dry place like a closet or a kitchen cabinet. The fermentation process will last two to three weeks. At the end of this period, the balloon will go limp.
Patience is the name of the game at this point. For your batch of mead to get really tasty, you will need to let it sit for at least two and a half more months. During this time, you will notice that the cloudiness disappears as the wine slowly clarifies. If you can stand it, allow your mead to process for six months and your taste buds will love you for it.
I am hoping to consume this batch of mead with my friends and family at a Peace Corps send off party. There is no telling when that will be, I am still playing the waiting game. The wait has been rather painless, because I have been keeping myself busy with fun projects and new experiences. Next on my immediate list is making kefir.
