The Home Made Wine Thread

[Necron2.0]

Sitting here with a glass of Mead (Metheglin to be precise):


Started Champagne yeast in ~2 cups apple juice
12 lbs Honey (boiled with ~2 gallons filtered water, skimmed and cooled)
While cooling, added the following spices:

1.5 tsp Anise seed (crushed)
1 tsp Cardamom (crushed)
11 whole Cloves (crushed)
10 whole Cinnamon Sticks (crushed)
1.5 tsp fresh Ginger (chopped fine)
2 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 tsp Yeast Energizer

Chilled to 65°F and added enough filtered water to bring specific gravity to 1.1
Combined must and yeast in primary fermenter and stored at 65°F
Racked to secondary fermenter after 7 days
Continually racked must off the dregs as needed until fermentation ceased
Added equivalent of 4 cups very strong tea as fining agent
Continued to rack must until wine completely fined
Bottled and allowed to age for one year


Alcohol content: ~18%

<*sigh*> Forgot to add the lemon zest. Oh well, still good.

[Necron2.0]

Unfortunately, because of my genetics, one glass puts me down. Thank God I didn't inherit my ancestral predisposition to alcoholism though.

[Deadlift]

We have a medieval themed restaurant in the area that serves mead, whilst its not really my type of restaurant I have been once or twice. The mead there doesn't taste that strong, but boy after a few it sure starts to creep up on you.
Me personally I prefer my wine made with grapes , and whilst you Americans aren't bad at making wine I think the French and somewhat to a lesser extent the Spanish have the edge on you guys.

[Psychosplodge]

Isn't mead honey based?

[Deadlift]

Yep :)

[Psychosplodge]

Oops I didn't read that properly...

But is it wine if it's not made with grapes?

[Deadlift]

Yeah I think so, I intend to stick to the norm but I have tried elderflower and pear wine. But I think it isn't really a honey wine, it's just "Mead" buggered if I know.

[Necron2.0]

Mead is a wine. Technically, anything fermented from fruit is a wine, while anything fermented from grain is a beer. Mead is made from honey, which is made from pollen. It doesn't fit nicely into any category, but since its alcohol content is closer to a wine than a beer, because it has to be aged like a wine, and because it's definitely not made from grains, it gets lumped into the wine category.

Following the unnecessary hoopla roiling out from another thread, I guess one could say mead is the transgendered bi-sexual of the spirits world. ;)

By the way, although it is sometimes refered to as "rice wine," Saki is technically a beer.

[Necron2.0]

Also, I should point out that mead is, as I understand it, the oldest fermented substance known to man. As such, it goes by a bunch of different names (see Wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead)).

Going further down into the trivia bucket, mead is also the source of the term "honeymoon." Seems back in the days of arranged marriages, newly weds were traditionally given enough mead to keep them well sedated for one full lunar cycle.

[Psychosplodge]

Then how would they consummate the marriage? ;)

[Psychosplodge]

http://www.thepoke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/JubGuo5-1024x823.jpeg

[Necron2.0]

To celebrate US independence from imperialism, questionable standards of dental hygiene and slavish adherence to proper grammar, I started another five 'Merican gallon batch. Should be drinkable come Guy Fawkes Night, although properly it'd need to age a year.

[Necron2.0]

Not certain if I've shared this before, but ...

What follows shows things to consider when making mead. Tile #1 shows a batch of mead at the start of fermentation. Tile #2 shows how much CO2 gas can be produced in a single day as a result of fermentation (so you have to use an airlock).

Tile #3 shows a potential side effect of mead consumption. ;)

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/104/3/b/the_effects_of_brewing_mead_by_necron2_0-d4w4rzz.jpg