Book of the Week: The Complete Meadmaker

The Complete Meadmaker by Ken Schramm

Photo from www.brewersassociation.org

This has been my reading companion for the last few weeks. It is a filled with knowledge and more importantly is entertaining to read. He goes into detail about the history of mead, the process of making mead, the ingredients and has a section of recipes. The "Complete" part of the title is not a misnomer, he goes into extensive detail in each of these section. The only thin part of the book is when he talks about sparkling mead but I think I will be able to figure it out. My second batch of mead is fermenting away right now and I feel 100% confident that it is a recipe that has been tested and will turn out amazing. The ingredients section will be useful for years to come as he talks about all of the ingredients to add to mead. He even has a heat chart for adding chiles! Each ingredient has a great section where he talks about its effect on the flavor, pH, fermentability, and aging. This book is makes technical information easy to read and understand. I would recommend this book for someone who does not know what mead is and I would also recommend this book for someone that has been making mead for years. At only $19.95 it has already paid for itself!

Kitchen Sink Post

Since I have been slipping on my blogging there is lots to catch up on. This is going to be the most random collection of thoughts ever so prepare yourself!

Nico
The little guy is growing at an alarming rate. Though he does just eat and sleep... The flight over was a breeze. Infants are amazing to fly with! He is full of smiles and has started touching stuff that he is aiming for. His eyes have been becoming more grey and less blue and there were hints of brown the other day.

Lola
She was so excited to get back to her room and seems to be happy with being back in Dhaka. She was not excited about starting school with a new teacher and class. It seems to be that she complains but then is happy while there. She has already talked to her new teacher so that must mean Lola likes her! Lola starts ballet classes soon but has already been busy with play dates and swimming at the club. She is a great big sister and would probably smother Nico with kisses if we did not intervene!

Jessica
I am amazed at how quickly my wife bounces back to her old self after having a baby. You would never even know she had a baby two months ago. She seems content with life and happy to back in Dhaka as well. She has committed herself to taking pictures of Dhaka this year which is inspiring for me too. She has also been redecorating our house since we have bought the new couch. She is still on maternity leave and does not start teaching until the second week of September. Lucky!

                            The before and after of one of Jessica's latest projects

Me
I cannot believe how good it felt to be back in Dhaka. There was a huge sigh of relief when we walked into our apartment, our home. Even the drive from the airport to our house was fun. There is just so much happening here; it is an energy that you cannot deny. School has started and I am teaching a new class. Design Technology teaches the kids about the design cycle and we have a pretty decent wood shop for them to make things in. The kids are full of energy and ready to start working. I will keep you updated with pictures of their projects. Feels so great to have a creative outlet and a shop to build things! I have started using Pinterest to save all the wonderful ideas that I find out there in the world. Can't believe it took me so long to see the value in it.

Brewing
I have 5 gallons of a hoppy, high alcohol summer beer that just got moved to the secondary fermenter. I also made a 3 gallon batch of meed that is shaping up to be an amazing thing. I bought The Complete Meadmaker by Ken Schramm and it has proven to be a wealth of knowledge and I am excited by the collection of recipes. This will be the next book of the week so stay tuned.

Blog
I plan on restarting my Car of the Week and Book of the Week Posts and get back into the swing of posting more regularly. Summer Break is over and life is busy again.

Make Your Own Mead

So, I have run out of brewing kits here (Gasp!) and am almost out of my home brew. In a moment of clarity I decided to see what I could make with ingredients on hand. I could use sugar cane juice, which is readily available here but I was not sure about the quality of the resulting beverage. Mead however is a more proven drink, and people have been consuming this tasty nectar for thousands of years. Mead is wine that is made from fermenting honey. I unearthed a cool fact while researching mead: the term "Honeymoon" came from the practice of drinking mead for a month (more accurately, one cycle of the moon) after your wedding night because it was supposed to increase fertility... huh huh cool. Another source says that the father of the bride would gift a dowry of one months worth of mead, hence the term honeymoon, but I like the first one better. After lots of research it became apparent that becasue I was using pasteurized and filtered honey I needed to add nutrients to the honey so that the yeast would survive. Here is the recipe for one gallon I finally settled on:

• 3 lbs of honey
• 4 quarts of water
• 1 handful of raisins chopped
• The zest and juice of one orange
• 1 tablespoon of black tea
• Autolized (dead) yeast from old batch of beer (for nutrients)
• 1 packet of yeast

Technically this is no longer mead (mead is just honey water and yeast) but I thought the added ingredients were needed to make the yeast survive. With the added ingredients the technical term is now metheglin (or spiced mead). I boiled all the ingredients for 20 minutes and skimmed the foam of the top. I measured the specific gravity at 1.092 (which means a potential alcohol content of 12-13 percent!) Then cooled the mead and pitched the yeast. The yeast that I used was from my last batch of beer (Russian Imperial Stout). The yeast went dormant and its job with the beer was done so it would either be poured down the drain or get to live the life of milk and honey! There is not much info out there and I was flying by the seat of my pants. I pulled the yeast from the secondary fermenter so there was no that much but since I was only making a gallon of mead it seemed like enough. The fermentation of the mead was slow compared to the beer but I attribute this to the small number of yeast cells that were added. I racked to the secondary fermenter after 10 days and it continued to ferment for another month! I just bottled today and the results are encouraging. Here is a picture showing the clarity change which is impressive without filtering.

                    After cooling, while checking SG            After a month of fermenting in secondary

The specific gravity at bottling was 0.995 which means 14% Alcohol! The taste is definitely wine like. You can tell it packs a punch and the flavor is the right amount of sweet and dry. It is recommended that mead be aged 6 months in the bottle before drinking so it should mellow with age. I also think that the little bit of bubbles and serving cold will make it a really enjoyable drink. The only other time I had mead, I was disenchanted with the sweetness but this is just right. It has been a fun experience and I can't wait to really drink some at April Fest!