The resultant liquor, however, was The Mead of Poetry, a magical drink that allows anyone who partakes of it to became a true poet and to know things other mortals don't. Unfortunately, The Mead of Poetry is a highly controlled substance. Only the gods can mete it out. For those of us who are not permitted to partake of The Mead of Poetry, the highest position we can hope for in the literary world is that of "rhymster." (Which has always made me think that this entire story has to be the invention of a poet, an arrogant, self-important poet who wanted to bad-mouth his competition. What a jerk!)
Anyway . . . this rhymster is in the mood for some honey brew, preferably a brew that does not involve human blood.
Yesterday (August 6, 2011) was Mead Day, according to the American Homebrewers Association. It seemed as good a day as any to return to homebrewing, something I haven't done since 2003. For a short time (2000 - 2002), when I was still living in Washington state, I was brew mistress of a local homebrew club. We brewed novelty ales almost exclusively, but shortly before my move to Ohio, I started to investigate homebrews that required more time and commitment, like wine and mead.
My first mead venture into mead-making was a disaster. I made number of mistakes. The mead's fermentation was very slow (because sterile water and boiled honey contain few nutrients for yeast), and eventually the fermentation stalled completely. This had never happened with any ale I'd ever made, and without doing any research, I tried to compensate by adding more honey (without sanitizing it with heat, adding a major source of contamination to the mix) and more brewer's yeast. A sluggish fermentation started up again, but the entire 5-gallon batch was taken over by wild yeasts and fungi, resulting in an evil-looking green brew that smelled like the juice at the bottom of a compost heap.
A year after I moved to Ohio, I tried again, starting with a one-gallon mini batch before moving to a larger 5-gal batch with the same recipe. I took it slow and I did my research. The semi-sweet Cranberry Mead or, rather, (to use the proper lingo:) Cranberry Melomel, was a great success as a Christmas 2003 holiday gift to my new Youngstown friends. I held back one bottle and allowed it to age a full 2 years in a dark corner of the basement. When I opened it for Christmas 2005, I was astounded by its clarity (a beautiful, crystal rose color), its mellow flavor, and its white wine-like finish.
What follows is a test-run of cyser, a type of mead made with apple juice or cider. Having never used apple cider or juice in brewing before, and wanting to experiment with using buckwheat honey rather than the usual orange blossom or wildflower honey, I've decided to make a small test batch before committing myself to a full 5 gallons of brew. Honey is expensive (between $3.70 and $5.25 per pound, before you start talking about specialty honies), and a 5-gallon batch of mead requires anywhere between 12 and 20 lbs. of the stuff.
This one-gallon rhymster's share of experimental brew will allow me to try out ingredients without risking the full cost of a carboy gone bad. If it works out well, I will start a new 5-gallon batch in late February or early March as a Yule 2012 gift to local friends.
Mulled Apple Cyser
- 1 gallon 100% apple juice, not from concentrate
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 6 whole cloves
- 3 green cardamom pods
- handful of dried fruit, chopped (I originally thought of using craisins, but here I ended up using a chunk of peach ate from other posts on this blog site)
- zest of 1 orange
- 2 lbs. honey (I used one pound of local wildflower honey and one pound of buckwheat blossom honey. Buckwheat honey is dark and is less sweet on the palate than lighter honey. It reminds me a bit of molasses because it has a slightly bitter aftertaste)
- brewer's yeast (I used champagne yeast because it can tolerate high levels of alcohol--up to 16%--before dying off)
1. Sanitize a 1 gallon glass jug (I used a recycled wine jug), airlock, rubber stopper, small funnel with 1 tablespoon of bleach (not more, though; more is not better) to every gallon of cool tap water. Do not use hot water, because heat breaks down bleach, negating its sanitizing effects. Allow the items you are sanitizing to sit in the bleach water at least 20 minutes.
The few specialized items that you need can be purchased from your local brew shop or online. These are: a simple plastic airlock, a rubber stopper with a pre-drilled hole to hold the airlock, and brewer's yeast (I use champagne yeast, but you can use any wine or ale yeast, if you prefer. Some people even use baker's yeast, but that yeast does not have the ability to convert as much sugar to alchol as a brewing yeast does.) A quick run to The Pumphouse in Struthers, Ohio, on Saturday yielded me all of this for less than $2:
I should also mention that I purchased the wrong size of rubber stopper. I've done this before. Stoppers always look smaller than they really are when you are standing in the brew shop trying to make a decision. However, I have found a simple solution:
2. Place half of the apple juice with the cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom pods, dried fruit and orange zest in a heavy pot. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer 10 minutes.
3. Pour the honey into the boiling brew. Turn off the heat and put a lid on the pot. (This will sanitize the honey without totally destroying its subtle flavors.)
5. Using the sanitized funnel, pour 4 cups of the reserved (unheated) apple juice into the sanitized jug.
6. With a sanitized ladle and funnel, move the warm mulled juice and honey mixture into the jug. Leave the orange peel, spices and random fruit pieces out of the jug, but don't worry if a few pieces get in.
8. Assemble and attach the stopper and airlock. Remember to put water in the airlock to the required level.
9. Low the bottle of mulled apple juice and honey to continue to cool. Do not add the yeast until the temperature drops to about body temperature, or the temperature you would serve a warmed baby bottle to an infant. Check the temperature of the jug's contents by pressing the insides of your wrists onto the jug's sides. If the heat makes you uncomfortable, allow the brew to continue cooling.
10. When the brew cools to a comfortable temperature, take out the stopper and airlock temporarily, and pitch the yeast in. Shake jug around to get all of the yeast into the liquid.
12. Set the jug out of sunlight (or cover with a black plastic bag, leaving the airlock open to air.
13. Check on the brew daily. Make sure the water level on the airlock is adequate.
14. After a week or two, we will return to this experimental jug to "rack off" the brew into a new sanitized container. See you then!
Follow this brewing experiment to final bottling by visiting the following webpage --
Mead Day 2011 Mulled Cyser Updates / Brew Journal
UPDATE
Two hours after pitching the yeast, the brew has come alive. This is an excellent omen!
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