Adventures in home brewing
So, yesterday I began my journey into the fine art of home brewing. That means I have begun to make alcohol out of my own home. For those of you who know me though might say to yourself "but you don't drink" and I will agree with them. The reason I mainly don't drink is because everything tastes horrible to me. Now I'm not gonna lie and say even mixed drinks cause I'm sure there is one out there that if mixed right wouldn't taste all that bad, but for the time being I'm just gonna say everything. Anyway, the reason I'm brewing is actually a few reasons. One is that I think it's interesting and the control you can have in crafting your own beverage from start to finish. Two is that what I'm making might turn out to be something I can stand the taste of and can continue to drink.
Moving on let's begin with a picture setting up my operation.
Aside from the meat and butter seen in this shot, and add in your own version of whatever you think a Orange is, this is pretty much what I'm working with when making my own brew.
This particular alcohol I'm getting ready to make is what people call mead. Mead is an alcohol that instead of using hops or barely as it's base, it instead uses honey as the food source.
A short list of ingredients are as follows:
3 1/2 lbs. of Honey (unprocessed)
1 teaspoon of yeast
25 raisins
1 clove
1 orange (rind and all)
1 stick of cinnamon
1 gallon of spring water
And optional is a small pinch of nutmeg for seasonal flavor
I'm not gonna go through all the details of how to put this all together but I'm basically following this recipe I found online with directions on how to make your own.
Ancient Orange Cinnamon & Clove Mead
With all that in mind after I prepared my container I placed it in a cool dry place that will remain undisturbed for 2 months. Yes 2 months because that's how long it takes for the fermentation process.
Yeah before I hear anything from someone. That is my bathtub. Don't worry though, I live in a 2 bathroom house and I never use my tub anyway. I always use the shower in the other bathroom.
Anyway with all that set up following the guide I linked it says I'll begin to see fermentation taking place within at least 2 hours. Sure enough that happened.
As you can see the balloons are filled with gas that comes from the yeast doing their work. Why balloons you ask? They are the easiest way to make alcohol from home without having to buy a fermentation lock. A few holes poked in the balloons allows them to inflate and stay inflated without popping. The gas that slowly escapes also provides a lock by keeping a steady stream of air coming out while not letting anything get inside. If all goes well it should stay like this for 2 months and then be ready for filtering and changing to a more suitable container.
Also, you can take note that the jugs are dated and marked with either "store bought" or "farm" honey. I did this because well you can figure the honey in one jug is from the store while the other is from my actual farm. Honey is expensive but at the same time I wanted to do a little experiment and see which mead winds up tasting better based on which honey was used. The farm honey was a lot richer and darker in appearance so it should yeild a mead that is much darker and richer in flavor I'm hoping. We'll all see how this turns out 2 months from now when I post the results. Hopefully we can make it that far. This being my first time we never know what could happen till testing time.
Moving on let's begin with a picture setting up my operation.
Aside from the meat and butter seen in this shot, and add in your own version of whatever you think a Orange is, this is pretty much what I'm working with when making my own brew.
This particular alcohol I'm getting ready to make is what people call mead. Mead is an alcohol that instead of using hops or barely as it's base, it instead uses honey as the food source.
A short list of ingredients are as follows:
3 1/2 lbs. of Honey (unprocessed)
1 teaspoon of yeast
25 raisins
1 clove
1 orange (rind and all)
1 stick of cinnamon
1 gallon of spring water
And optional is a small pinch of nutmeg for seasonal flavor
I'm not gonna go through all the details of how to put this all together but I'm basically following this recipe I found online with directions on how to make your own.
Ancient Orange Cinnamon & Clove Mead
With all that in mind after I prepared my container I placed it in a cool dry place that will remain undisturbed for 2 months. Yes 2 months because that's how long it takes for the fermentation process.
Yeah before I hear anything from someone. That is my bathtub. Don't worry though, I live in a 2 bathroom house and I never use my tub anyway. I always use the shower in the other bathroom.
Anyway with all that set up following the guide I linked it says I'll begin to see fermentation taking place within at least 2 hours. Sure enough that happened.
As you can see the balloons are filled with gas that comes from the yeast doing their work. Why balloons you ask? They are the easiest way to make alcohol from home without having to buy a fermentation lock. A few holes poked in the balloons allows them to inflate and stay inflated without popping. The gas that slowly escapes also provides a lock by keeping a steady stream of air coming out while not letting anything get inside. If all goes well it should stay like this for 2 months and then be ready for filtering and changing to a more suitable container.
Also, you can take note that the jugs are dated and marked with either "store bought" or "farm" honey. I did this because well you can figure the honey in one jug is from the store while the other is from my actual farm. Honey is expensive but at the same time I wanted to do a little experiment and see which mead winds up tasting better based on which honey was used. The farm honey was a lot richer and darker in appearance so it should yeild a mead that is much darker and richer in flavor I'm hoping. We'll all see how this turns out 2 months from now when I post the results. Hopefully we can make it that far. This being my first time we never know what could happen till testing time.