Mead

Granddad Tucker
September 9, 2016

1. Collect honey from hive in frames (frames are in the boxes supers only the
top supers will have honey. Bottom super is just hive)
2. Take warm knife, cut off caps on comb
3. Put uncapped frames in centrifuge
4. Leave top off centrifuge (minor point)
5. Honey collects on inside of centrifuge, flows to bottom
6. Catch in a bucket
7. Pour into stainless tank
8. Hasnt been strained at this point
9. Leave in tank for about a week, wax will float to top
10.Can drain tank from bottom to bottle
11.Can keep bottles in warming fridge at ~95 deg will mimic conditions in the
hive and clarify (clear) the honey
12.Never let honey exceed 150 deg. 160 deg will kill yeast you will need this
indigious yeast to ferment
13.---- start mead section
14.A gallon to gallon and a quart of honey
15.Champagne yeast one small packet (pulled one from his fridge LALVIN EC1118 saccharomyces cerevisiae (ex-bayanus) 5 g)
16.Different yeast can tolerate different amounts of alcohol champagne yeast
can tolerate up to about 12% ABV
17.For one 5 gallon brew of mead
18.Using only the indigenous yeast will ferment very slowly; champagne yeast
helps speed the process. Also indigenous yeast will probably die at a lower
alcohol. Kind of interesting the yeast are killed by the alcohol they create.
They never run out of food.
19.Or one quart of honey to make one gallon and ~1 g yeast
20.Take a cup, put warm water in it, dissolve some honey in it, then the yeast
into it
21.It will start fermenting this will take 10-20 min??
22.Then put the liquid in the cup into the bigger brew jug (which is full of honey
and remaining water)
23.Put airlog on jug (with water in the serpentine)
24.Itll bubble as it ferments
25.Leave in jug while fermenting which will be 4-6+ months
26.Youll know its done fermenting when its cleared up when you start the
process, it will be cloudy
27.Could put a cap on the jug and age it then, or put it in bottles (w/ turkey
baster, as otherwise youll get deposits from the bottom)
28.Age it longer is better gets better at about 10 years. Or, if impatient, drink
it immediately.
29.----wine process notes

30.When he makes five gallons of fruit wine, he puts in the fruit slurry with 10
lbs of sugar, which is almost equivalent to the honey
31.For a 1 gal jug, could do a can (or two) of frozen grape concentrate with 2 lb
sugar
32.If he made 5 gal of grape wine today, (9/9) it would be ready for Christmas
so ferment for ~3 months
33.With grapes, he uses about a gallon of slurry in the carboi (5gal jug)
34.With blackberry or raspberry, he uses gallon
35.Makes slurry by putting fruit in a food grinder like on the front of the
kitchenaid
36.He uses concord or white grape, Tucker has some other kind grape
37.Make a bit over a gallon of slurry
38.Sediments will sink to bottom and float to top
39.Dissolve sugar in a bucket of water, put in 5 gal jug
40.Strain the slurry before putting it in the 5 gal jug
41.Put a bit of the warm sugar water and slurry into a side vessel to start yeast
(same way as for mead) then recombine it with the rest of stuff in the 5 gal
jug
42.He uses the same yeast for wine and mead
43.Then put everything in 5 gal jug, top off with warm water
44.Plug with the airlock; let ferment for 3 ish month
45.Then bottle, let age 1-5 years
46.Mark knows a lot and has experimented with this formula. Give him a call.

His book theres a copy in the Rockingham Co. Library, and another in the
Library of Congress
Corporal buck sergeant -platoon sergeant
They were the ones that broke through in Bastogne to get the 101 st airborne
Then they fought with the 506 division of the 101 st airborne- there was a book
written about that -Band of Brothers

Grandmom used to say in real estate, theres a seat for every ass
Note beeswax will melt at 142 deg F. But, never let honey and components
exceed 150 deg.