Makin' mead by moonlight...

…Day Two.


Yesterday Effervescent Spirits’ CRAFTYcrew went out and about to harvest Multiflora Rose flowers for a summery, aromatic drink that’ll quench anybody's thirst. That drink is mead. For those who don’t know what mead is it is arguably the oldest fermented beverage and is made using honey as the sugar source. Mead is also a healthy drink, in moderation, containing micronutrients, vitamin B-complexes as well as pollens and enzymes good for the body. Mead has so many wonderful qualities, but we’ll move on for now.

Into Day Two of our brewing project we are right into making mead, after a delicious meal of course! All of our equipment was well cleaned before use. We mean very, very well sanitized. We added two gallons of water into a large pot, adding one gallon of honey whence it became 160 F/ 71 C. When the honey had dissolved completely, two gallons of Multiflora Rose tea were added into the mix. The aroma hit our faces with sweet smells of sugar plum, spice, and bouquets of flowers. After adding the tea, allowing the temperature to rise back to 160 F/ 71 C for five minutes or so, we wait as our concoction slightly pasteurizes to give the yeast a better start.

We then remove the concoction from the heat and set the pot into a cold bath of water to bring the temperature down fast. It took our brew about twenty minutes to cool to the optimum temperature between the temperatures of 75-95 F/ 24-34 C. There are better methods, but this is what we had available to us. Occasionally checking the thermometer, we prepared the yeast by priming it in a warm sugar solution. Then we added the yeast, capped the carboy with an air-lock and the yeast will do the rest!

Here's our multiflora rosebud tea ready to be added to our honey and water.

the set up

addin' the sweet, sweet honey...

honey + h20

in goes our heavenly rose water.

mmm mm,smells good.

adding the magical yeast.

pouring our potion into the carboy.

ta daa!




check out how to make your own mead, and try experimenting with how to make use of an invasive plant near you.

http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/mead-recipes.htm



Occasionally check in with E.S. to see the progress of our concoction. Be sure, we’ll keep y’ posted! And Hey maybe you can send us some of your brewing stories we’d love to see ‘em.