and so it begins
actually a couple days ago it all began but hell I'm lazy.
It began with around 15 pounds of honey bought from bj's for 2 dollars a pound. Not a bad price if I do say so myself. Then one packet of lavlin EC-1118 champagne yeast.
First everything was cleaned using some cleaner mark got at mayer's cider mill and then we began mixing the honey with the some water and heating it to a point above 160 degrees F but below boiling for several minutes in a process called flash pasteurization. all the weird bee parts and scum get skimmed off of the surface that I may remind you, you eat that in raw honey. :) Then we put all that in the primary fermenter along with a handful of raisins, a teaspoon of whole cloves, lemon zest, lemon juice, and yeast nutrient. The raisins are nutrients for the yeast and the cloves are just flavoring. The lemon juice makes the must more acid as yeast likes a more acid than base environment.
We started the yeast in a bowl with some water and sugar in order to get the colony going before it went into the must (honey water mixture).
Constantly checking the temperature was mandatory because if it goes above 95 degrees it will kill the yeast. The must had to spend some time inside of the fridge in order to cool it down a wee bit faster. After half of snatch the must was cool enough to add the yeast cover the primary fermenter with a cloth and the top and let er rip.
It'll take around 4-5 days of time for most of the fermentation to be done and then we are going to rack it into another carboy leaving the raisins and seasoning behind. it'll stay in there for a while then move to another one and then be bottled. I believe it is all falling into place.
It began with around 15 pounds of honey bought from bj's for 2 dollars a pound. Not a bad price if I do say so myself. Then one packet of lavlin EC-1118 champagne yeast.
First everything was cleaned using some cleaner mark got at mayer's cider mill and then we began mixing the honey with the some water and heating it to a point above 160 degrees F but below boiling for several minutes in a process called flash pasteurization. all the weird bee parts and scum get skimmed off of the surface that I may remind you, you eat that in raw honey. :) Then we put all that in the primary fermenter along with a handful of raisins, a teaspoon of whole cloves, lemon zest, lemon juice, and yeast nutrient. The raisins are nutrients for the yeast and the cloves are just flavoring. The lemon juice makes the must more acid as yeast likes a more acid than base environment.
We started the yeast in a bowl with some water and sugar in order to get the colony going before it went into the must (honey water mixture).
Constantly checking the temperature was mandatory because if it goes above 95 degrees it will kill the yeast. The must had to spend some time inside of the fridge in order to cool it down a wee bit faster. After half of snatch the must was cool enough to add the yeast cover the primary fermenter with a cloth and the top and let er rip.
It'll take around 4-5 days of time for most of the fermentation to be done and then we are going to rack it into another carboy leaving the raisins and seasoning behind. it'll stay in there for a while then move to another one and then be bottled. I believe it is all falling into place.