Lee.org

Ok, I might end up embarrassing myself on this one. But I’ll go ahead and put myself out there. I wanted to make mead but I wanted to do it in the laziest way possible… just to see how it goes. Maybe it will come out like crap. No fear.

It took me much longer to write this post than it did to actually make the mead.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 tsp of Red Star Premier Cuvee yeast from San Francisco Brewcraft
• 1/4 tsp of Yeast Nutrient made by Brewmaster of San Leandro, from San Francisco Brewcraft
• 1/4 tsp of Red Star Cote des Blancs yeast from San Francisco Brewcraft
• 3.7 lbs Raw Blackberry honey from Rainbow Grocery. $3.59/lb flower honey
• empty glass 1 gallon bottle (from this organic apple juice they have at Rainbow Grocery)
• empty 64 oz juice container from Trader Joes
• 1 gallon Crystal Geyser bottled water

What I did:

1. At the store, I put about 32 oz of bulk honey in a 64 oz container, total 3.7 lbs.
2. Last night in the kitchen I put 1 splash of bleach in the glass bottle and filled it with water. I let it sit for 20 minutes.
3. I emptied the glass bottle and filled it a couple times with tap water, swishing it around a bit
4. I poured a bit of the bottled water into the honey bottle and shook it around so the honey would flow out of the bottle better.
5. I poured the honey into the 1 gallon glass bottle and filled it to about 3/4 with bottled water.
6. I put 1/4 tsp of Yeast Nutrient in the glass bottle
7. I capped and shook the bottle for about 10 full seconds to mix it all up
8. I put 1/4 tsp of Premier Cuvee yeast in the bottle and shook it again
9. I stuck the rubber stopper and airlock on it (it didn’t fit well so I used lots of packing tape to attach it :-( )
10. I stuck it in the corner inside a plastic bucket (to catch any honey goo that comes out if it gets too bubbly)

Done

I had some leftover honey in the 64 oz container… I’m not sure how much because it was mixed with water… maybe 0.5 pounds. I filled the container with the rest of the bottled water, 1/4 tsp of nutrient (oop, I probably should have added 1/8 tsp) and 1/4 tsp of Cote des Blancs. I splashed it back and forth into the now-empty water bottle a few times to try and get more oxygen into it (I read in a couple places that helps) and stuck a stopper and air lock in it.

Both bottles are now sitting next to my bed.
Research time: 3+ hours
Actual preparation time: 15 minutes

We’ll see how it comes out in 6 months or so…

The sites I found most useful:

San Francisco Brewcraft, 1555 clement st, San Francisco, CA 94118 in the Richmond betw 16th & 17th Ave.  415-751-9338
http://www.otolith.com/howitt/mead.html
http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=14
http://www.doctorbeer.com/joyce/mead/BeesLees.txt