OK, I've been reading around for a while - I guess it would be appropriate to say hello.
Started my first batch of mead in late august. Heated some water (a litre or so), dissolved a pound or so of honey in it, poured it in a one-gallon carboy, threw some ordinary bread yeast from the supermarket in, airlock on. It started bubbling almost immediately. When the initial frenzy seemed to be over, I poured more water and honey in, and it just continued to bubble on.
Then I started to read around a bit, like on this forum. Aeration? Um, what? Nutrition? Well, as the yeasties apparently had a sort of rough start with little oxygen, I decided to be nice to them and threw a handful of raisins in the must. Not that they seemed to need it, but you never know.
Recently, things seemed to calm down, and a thick layer of sediment had piled up on the bottom of the carboy. I decided to rack it and tried a little sip on that occasion. Very dry, not to say sour, but I guessed that aging would make it a bit smoother. I added more honey water to top the carboy and expected fermentation to live up a bit, as it now had a bit more sugar. The opposite seemed to happen; within a few days, there was no trace of the tiniest little bubble. Well, in that case I thought I could as well bottle it and on the same occasion have a little taste again. This time, it was a truly divine drink. I still don't quite understand how I managed to sweeten it with more honey water without fermentation restarting, but the result is good anyway. I just hope I can keep my hands off it, so it'll get a chance to age a bit.
The problem, however, is that I have no proper place to store it. It's either at room temperature (good for fermenting, less good for ageing, as far as I've understood) or in the fridge (actually a bit cold for ageing, or what? In all cases, there is only so much room in it, and occasionally I have something called food that I need to fit in there too).
Well, I guess I've just have to start another batch while I figure out what the best thing to do is. That's probably going to be more of the same super-simple, no-nonsense, back-to-basics kind of mead, with water, honey and yeast from the supermarket. I like the thought of knowing the basics and see how far I can push that. I might, though, try to be a bit more systematic - like trying some aeration from the beginning (well, shake the carboy or something, at least). Hell, I might even go and buy a hydrometer to find out what's actually going on.
Started my first batch of mead in late august. Heated some water (a litre or so), dissolved a pound or so of honey in it, poured it in a one-gallon carboy, threw some ordinary bread yeast from the supermarket in, airlock on. It started bubbling almost immediately. When the initial frenzy seemed to be over, I poured more water and honey in, and it just continued to bubble on.
Then I started to read around a bit, like on this forum. Aeration? Um, what? Nutrition? Well, as the yeasties apparently had a sort of rough start with little oxygen, I decided to be nice to them and threw a handful of raisins in the must. Not that they seemed to need it, but you never know.
Recently, things seemed to calm down, and a thick layer of sediment had piled up on the bottom of the carboy. I decided to rack it and tried a little sip on that occasion. Very dry, not to say sour, but I guessed that aging would make it a bit smoother. I added more honey water to top the carboy and expected fermentation to live up a bit, as it now had a bit more sugar. The opposite seemed to happen; within a few days, there was no trace of the tiniest little bubble. Well, in that case I thought I could as well bottle it and on the same occasion have a little taste again. This time, it was a truly divine drink. I still don't quite understand how I managed to sweeten it with more honey water without fermentation restarting, but the result is good anyway. I just hope I can keep my hands off it, so it'll get a chance to age a bit.
The problem, however, is that I have no proper place to store it. It's either at room temperature (good for fermenting, less good for ageing, as far as I've understood) or in the fridge (actually a bit cold for ageing, or what? In all cases, there is only so much room in it, and occasionally I have something called food that I need to fit in there too).
Well, I guess I've just have to start another batch while I figure out what the best thing to do is. That's probably going to be more of the same super-simple, no-nonsense, back-to-basics kind of mead, with water, honey and yeast from the supermarket. I like the thought of knowing the basics and see how far I can push that. I might, though, try to be a bit more systematic - like trying some aeration from the beginning (well, shake the carboy or something, at least). Hell, I might even go and buy a hydrometer to find out what's actually going on.
