Viking Midwinter Mead-The easy way... (home brewing tutorial: win 10 STEEM)

in #mead6 years ago (edited)

Im going to let you in on a secret viking recipe, one that has been handed down from my forefathers and generations before me has, naw just kidding. I actually improvised this home-brew... 😀 And It was so delicious I had to share it with the world. And it's not really "pure mead", but taste more like a cross-breed between beer, mead & champagne, and it packs quite a "Yule-punch", so to speak...

mead-champagne-beer

Ingredients:

  1. Muslin-bag (a fine mesh bag)
  2. A jar/bottle of barley malt
  3. A jar of honey, add as much as you can afford, "The more the merrier".
  4. If you can't afford honey just substitute with sugar or mix em up 50/50.
    But you will need about 70 oz/ 2 kg honey or sugar for this recipe.
  5. Dried hops a few handfuls, or other non-toxic dried wildflowers.
  6. A barrel, I used a small plastic bucket with a lid, (4 gallon/15 l).
  7. "Champagne yeast". I used "Mangrove Jack's" SN9 Premium wine yeast.
  8. Good clean water and a fairly warm and clean brewing space.
  9. Air-lock (looks like a funky little tube you fill it with water and it acts as a vent for the C02).


Image source:

Instructions:

  1. Mix the malt and the honey/sugar with some water in a pot on low temperature.
  2. Pour all the needed water in to the barrel with the sugar-honey-malt mix.
  3. Mix only a tea-spoon of the yeast powder into a cup of lukewarm water,
    then after 10 minutes mix it in with the rest of the fluid in the barrel.
  4. Fill the muslin-bag with the hops or dried flowers for flavoring.
    Throw it in there with the rest of the stuff and drench it properly like a big tea-bag.
  5. make a hole in the lid for the barrel/bucket stick the air-lock in there,
    put some water in the air lock...
  6. I brewed this under tropical conditions so the whole process went fast 3 weeks and it was drinkable straight from the barrel...
  7. If you have time and energy you can bottle this up, plastic soda bottles will do fine, add a pinch of sugar to each bottle if you like it sparkling...It should be sparkling in a couple of days, but be a bit careful with this process cause you can get
    to much CO2 build up in the bottle and then you'll have a foam-party instead of a drink...
  8. I would just skip the bottling process and serve it at room temperature straight from the barrel viking-style, (after about 3-4 weeks), just watch out for the "gunky sediment" in the bottom of the barrel...😂
  9. I don't think the vikings used air-locks so, you can skip the air-lock, but then it might just turn into vinegar from oxidation/being exposed to air. Not nice to drink, trust me... 🤢

800px-Homebrew_Airlock.jpg
Image source: wikipedia:"Air-lock", photo by: http://www.simonrumble.com

Sources:
https://mangrovejacks.com/products/sn9-wine-yeast
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead
Top photo source: @friendly-fenix

Love & peace this midwinter,
& try to not go berserk from the mead.

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And just to make it more interesting, the first one who dares to try and brew it (and document the cooking/brewing process with a photo in these comments down here) gets 10 STEEM, but this is only going for the 7 days this post is "active" the second one who dares to try brewing it and does the same gets 2.5 STEEM and the third-place gets 1 STEEM...

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nice recipe what will be the result going to happen

Drink and get a bit drunk? =)
Enjoy it with responsibility....

/FF

Dang this is a great post and what? you botted thisnti kingdom
Come ahahhaha
Really a great post!

#naturalmedicine

Thanks!
Now Im going to heal my wounds...
/FF

I can't help but think some of this was inspired by skyrim. Lol You would have been the town hero back in the day!

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He he, I heard about Skyrim, but I never played, but Im guessing you could drink mead? =)

/FF

I could and I would! My dad neighbor made some jalapeno beer once and maaan it was good.

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Sounds interesting @pwny! =)
Maybe that can be my next home-brewing project.
/FF

Skal! Just finished watched the Norsemen on netflix so this is good timing!

Skál! My friend, new season of Vikings out too, worth watching... Those where better more cheerful times! 😇😅😜

/FF

I'm not sure I dare to try the result of this kind of spirit drink experiment, but it sounds fun. I would add to this recipe, have at hand two pills for headache.

Thanks @friendly-fenix for sharing your interesting recipe.

It has a quite strong heartwarming feeling too it, and it goes to the head fast like champagne, it has not caused a headache yet, (I think because I used a high quality yeast and very little of it, the brew does not contain that many "headache causing byproducts").

I also always drink water when I consume alcohol usually one glass of water for every glass of alcohol. 😀
Thanks for stopping by @arquiatra!

/FF

Howdy sir friendly-fenix! this sounds like good stuff. Do you know what the alcohol content would be, roughly?

Feels like its well over 10%... I think this specific yeast can handle up to 18%... 😅

/FF

whoa! that's some good stuff there! lol.

Well this looks exciting. And looks worth the time. Im off in search of hops barley and yeast. No idea where to find them on our little island. But I will have to ask around. Put this in my favorites box on @partiko for later reference. And will be checking out more of your articles. Thanks to @crypto.piotr for pointing me in this direction. 😎

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You could always try baking-yeast (I wouldn't recommend it), or make an online yeast/hops/barley order.
/FF

Cool Mate thanks for your tip. I have just realized we are surrounded by vinyards and have a micro brewery in the next village. So might not be as hard as I thought. Result lol 😁😎

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@andyjem
Cool man, best of luck! 😇🍺
/FF

It's the first time I've seen it done with hops. How do you sterilize the gauze, would not it be better to throw the hops directly without gauze and then filter it?

@jacksartori
I sterilized it with boiling water... You could do both, but I feel like filtering a brew is always exhausting I don't like it to much, you could always use a second barrel and a hoes, make sure to leave the sediment in the bottom of the first barrel, then use sulfites, to stop the fermentation and bentonite or something to clear it... But it would be an even more modern and a somewhat unorthodox way of getting crystal-clear mead... This recipe was very basic... Thanks for your comment.... =)

/FF

Thanks for the advices

Nice! Might have to try next year when the hops are ready. I have been brewing some apple Melomels this year. The Meade sounds good.

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That sounds interesting @andre-ager.... Apple cool I love apples... You are something like an expert brewer I hear? Did the Melomels come out tasting dry or sweet?

/FF

Lol I don’t know about being an expert but I do have fun with brewing. The batch I just bottled was nice and dry. I prefer dry usually but I though I would try and sweeten one of the batches I have brewing to be more of a desert drink. We shall see.

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Oh thats interesting! 😇🍺🍻

This batch has now turned from somewhat sweet to quite dry,
so I guess I could add something to sweeten it with...

But experimenting with this home-brew is kind of slowly turning me into a "alcoholic", he he, I don't have to drink this drink the whole time, it's just a bit to strong for an everyday drink, so I take it easy...

Cheers!
/FF

Interesting recipe. I will support with resteem to see if users are animated. thank you!