Saturday, November 14, 2009

Mad Scientist


After returning from our brewery tour this summer, I have been brewing like mad. The top photo is me making my first mead. Mead is a fermented honey wine. It's even easier than making beer - mix 15lbs honey with 5 gallons of water, add yeast, and wait. This particular batch should be ready for the holidays...in 2010!

In the bottom photo, I am kegging our Mayan Mystery Porter. It has powdered baking chocolate along with other spices such as cinnamon, cayenne, black pepper, mace, etc. I will be unveiling it at the beer benefit party for the Gloo Factory in early Dec. I have also brewed an Imperial Vanilla Oatmeal Stout for Thanksgiving.

1 comment:

Erik said...

Hey Christian, I spent about ten years making a mead when I lived in Idaho. I have also sampled a lot of commercial meads. I don't think I've ever had a commercial mead that I regarded to be palatable.

One thing I learned about meadmaking is that you really need to use the strongest honey you can find, and use plenty in the must, but ferment the hell out of it so it comes out dry. Then . . . you wait. My mead changed flavor considerably even after 4-5 years in the bottle.

I always thought the best way to make mead would be to bottle after a year and then bury it in the yard and try to forget about it for a decade or two.

Good luck! Call me in December 2010!

E