Viking equipment

[DethScribe]

This thread does appear much more cozy here...

akueck: We have two batches of mead currently fermenting in the "modern" way, both of which are looking very tasty.

WayneB: I agree about some old methods not being as risky as many think. It seems many folks get deluded ideas that because a society is ancient, that they didn't know what they were doing, when it was they and their ancestors that started the ball rolling on the processes we use today. Next batch, I think we're going to try your "open" fermenter with cloth and bungee idea (for more historicity, I might bind it with wet rawhide, so that as it dries, it will tighten as would the bungee), then rack to the bourbon barrel.

New question: Assuming ancient Scandinavians did a similar thing with initial fermentation in a crock, then transferring to a barrel -- would they have then transferred to another barrel as the "bottling" process? Or bottled into jugs? (I'm thinking moonshine jug).

I'll start a new thread when the Viking Mjoed gets going. Maybe I'll try to do one of those "Mead Log" things...

 

[YogiBearMead726]

Most of the folks here have wound up elbow-deep in some batch or another and had things go just fine.

*ahem*...I've definitely had to do this on multiple batches. It's really the only reason why I avoid making melomels, since I have yet to get a large bag to contain all the fruit goodness. And it's really the only way to get cherry guts out of the end of the racking cane...

So far, so good. I would recommend an elbow-deep dip in some sanitizer first though.

 

[DethScribe]

I've been doing some Eddic perusing: I'm going to take the several translations of "Hymiskvitha" I've read as a reliable source for a description of a proper brewing vessel, and go with it being a "cauldron" or "kettle". A Viking-age cauldron would be a vessel of hammered metal (presumably of iron , if the reproductions on Jelling Dragon are of accurate material. See this link for a visual: http://www.jelldragon.com/cauldrons.htm

So: it is my deduction that the ingredients would be boiled in this cauldron, stirred with the infamous "magic stick", and transferred to *something*. Still uncertain as to what is that Something...

 

[Medsen Fey]

Just don't stir with the magic stick until it cools down or you'll pasteurize the stick.

 

[DethScribe]

Just don't stir with the magic stick until it cools down or you'll pasteurize the stick.

Thanks for the heads-up! The brews I've done so far have all used a yeast packet, so no cultures on a stick yet.

 

[Chevette Girl]

I bet if you used a cleaned but not sanitized (at least, not after the first time) new wooden spoon designated "brewing only" and used it to stir your meads (or at least splash around in the lees if you don't want to risk cross-contaminating anything if you use more than one variety of yeast), rinse in warm but not hot water to clean, let it air dry thoroughly, you could probably develop your own magic stick... you'd probably want to keep it away from anything using K1V-1116 as it's one of the strains that will kill off other yeasts, there might be others that aren't so friendly with each other... and it certainly wouldn't hurt to make sure the magic stick was introduced to the lees of a JAO as well.

 

[TheAlchemist]

See this link for a visual: http://www.jelldragon.com/cauldrons.htm

Love the cauldrons. Double double toil and trouble...

 

[kudapucat]

Love the cauldrons. Double double toil and trouble...

Yes there're nice, but by no means cheap!

Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake

 

[DethScribe]

Not even remotely cheap, unfortunately. I think I'll have to forego a Viking reproduction in favor of something more cost effective. With luck, I can find something usable at an antique store, Renn. Faire, or even Civil War event.

I think I'll try the stirring stick idea with the next batch of mead. It would be neat to be able to keep it in something "period" also, that would keep the baddies off of it...

 

[Chevette Girl]

Something relatively porous so any trapped moisture doesn't make mold but that will keep the dust off... I'd try for something like a pottery dish with a lid... or maybe a wooden box?

 

[DethScribe]

Good plan... I think I will have to do that.

Hoping to get the Viking mead started in the next couple of weeks, depending on when I can make it up to Carlisle to get the honey I want to use for it.

 

[kudapucat]

Something relatively porous so any trapped moisture doesn't make mold but that will keep the dust off... I'd try for something like a pottery dish with a lid... or maybe a wooden box?

terra cotta slow cooking pots are cheap enough. They'd make a fine crock, and come with a lid. they're about 2 gal I think... bigger might be a challenge.

 

[Chevette Girl]

Yeah, that'd work too, although all the ones I've seen are glazed, and I don't know when that technology was developed. A large bean pot or something similar might be available at a second-hand store (I know I've seen some big ones at the antique place too)...

 

[kudapucat]

Hmm the one my mum had wasn't glazed, and you needed special heat dispersers so it wouldn't crack when used. It was pretty low-tech.

Edit: Here's a link describing what I'm talking about. He stresses that it can absorb the flavour of dishes, so I'm certain it's unglazed

 

[Chevette Girl]

Huh, I've never seen one of those before. My mom used to be a potter and the only things she ever made unglazed that were to go anywhere near food were garlic/ginger jars and things like that which were never meant to get wet or were always meant to hold the same thing, mainly because of the flavour absorption as described by the article. The only thing I'm familiar with that's commonly unglazed is a pizza stone, everything else I've seen is glazed.

Now, if you knew a potter ... you could have a crock made whatever size you wanted glazed or not... I had a coworker whose mother used to make wine in crockery primary fermenters and she used to win awards... but I never found out if they were glazed or not.

 

[DethScribe]

I happen to live in the "Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky" (Berea), and may just know a potter or two who could do such a thing for me. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who does any smithing work here anymore, of I would use some homebrew to persuade them to make me a replica cauldron.

The sort of crock I was initially considering was one like this antique stoneware crock, which I tend to see in antique stores around here. If I can find one large enough, I'm thinking on getting it to use as a fermenter with a sort of open fermentation, or loosely covered method. (Preliminary research tells me Viking- and Anglo-Saxon-Age potters used simple glazes sometimes, so I could use one of these and feel like I was being "authentic" enough, if not a little anachronistic). I've seen these in pretty large sized -- one, I think, was around 5-gallons -- but smaller seems most common; might be that I'll just have to make a smaller batch.

I have seen in some "authentic" recipes that it is believed ancient mead makers did not rack their mead, but left them in the primary fermenter until bottling or putting into a cask or jug -- does anyone have any insight into this?

 

[Chevette Girl]

I happen to live in the "Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky" (Berea), and may just know a potter or two who could do such a thing for me. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who does any smithing work here anymore, of I would use some homebrew to persuade them to make me a replica cauldron.


I have seen in some "authentic" recipes that it is believed ancient mead makers did not rack their mead, but left them in the primary fermenter until bottling or putting into a cask or jug -- does anyone have any insight into this?

I cook with cast iron and it does impart some flavour and I'm pretty sure they didn't make stainless steel way back then, so maybe crock over cauldron's not such a bad thing.

As for insight into leaving it till it's done, well, it works for JAO, doesn't it?

 

[DethScribe]

That's actually the recipe of one of the batches we have going, albeit with a few changes (I'm not sure if we put blueberries in that one, or the other one). Jereme did the research on JAO, so I didn't know much about it. I think I may have meant to ask if anyone had had luck with open fermentation and not racking?

As far as materials for the kettle, it's looking like iron or copper were most common. At least, the replicas are of iron.

My plan thus far: Get the honey from an old farmer I know in Carlisle (it's some of the best I've had); find an iron or copper kettle/cauldron to boil the honey and water in; get a large stoneware crock to use as an open fermenter; bottle in *something*. Moonshine jugs?

How hard is it to "forage" for wild yeast? I think that might be nifty to do for this mead experiment also...

 

[veritas]

Maybe get a hold of a large scrap iron propane fuel tank. The ones used for cabins etc and cut the end off for your cauldron. I have seen people do similar things with scrap tanks. I saw someone take just the large curved end of one and use it as a fire pit. Just a thought.

 

[DethScribe]

That sound like a really great idea! I've been racking my brain trying to figure out something that could make a serviceable cauldron if I can't find a replica for affordable. Do you know where I might find a usable propane tank? (I assume I *could* buy and empty one. That would give me a good reason to use the gas grill a little more often...).