Brewing & Bottling Mead

Mead 101, plus, how to bottle things at home!

By Megan

Mead! What even is mead? It's not wine, and it's not beer, but it can be made at either strength. It's honey, diluted and fermented, turned alcoholic (and aphrodisiacal, and magical, and medicinal, too, if you listen to the old legends about it)!

Fermented honey drinks have been found in every single culture that exists around bees. Early beekeepers would harvest their honey by smashing the entire hive, and the straw basket it was built in, and just letting it drain. Most of the honey would end up leaking out but to get the wax for candles and medicines, the whole sticky straw and wax mess would be boiled. The straw would get skimmed off, and the liquid would separate into beeswax and honey'd water, if you left it alone overnight to cool. The popular idea goes that some beekeeper left it a little longer than overnight, and when they came back, discovered a magical intoxicating elixir underneath the layer of beeswax!

Mead is just that super simple to make, or it can get complicated. Traditionally, mead needed a very long aging process before it tasted good. That's because there's not the perfect balance of nutrients to sugar for the yeasts, and they ferment under stress slowly. There's also things besides yeast, like a multitude of bacteria, in honey (it is bee puke, after all...) that also like to eat sugars. All of this means that during the first few years, a mead of old tasted gnarly; hot alcohol that stung going down, with a strange aftertaste or smell.

hoses, tubes, a siphon cane, bottling wand,

Nowadays we have science on our side and can make a better habitat for our yeast. We can also *not,* and let the mead progress like any old-time mead would. Laura and I are doing both!

I've got a gallon batch of mead sitting on my counter right now. It's about five months old now, and the airlock isn't bubbling anymore, but I'm gonna keep it sealed (checking the airlock for water) until at least next January, when I'll bottle it and let it age even longer.  My "recipe" for this batch was a pint of farmers market honey, a chunk of honeycomb, a few tablespoons unfiltered honey with all the pollen in it, and water. I put a fabric scrap over the top of the jar. I put a real lid on and shook the crap out of it every day for three days until everything looked dissolved and it was starting to get fizzy, and then I stuck the airlock on and basically dropped it out of my mind. This is as old-school of a mead as I can get without keeping bees myself, and I'm excited to try it in several years.

bottles and a tub to contain drips

You can also get fancy and make specialty meads. The one that Laura and I are bottling today, she made with apple juice and honey. Technically, it's called a cyser. Most common honey+___ combos have names. Honey and spices or herbs makes it a metheglyn; honey and malted grains becomes a braggot; honey and fruit is called a melomel.

We're using recycled bottles, which came with painted Coronita labels. You can see how we removed those last weekend by checking out this post.

Equipment that we used; sanitizer, hoses, tubes, a siphon cane, bottling wand, caps, a capper, and bottles. There's also a tub to contain drips, but a towel laid out works just as well. Even though we're doing just a gallon, bottling is a whole lot easier with two people. We've sanitized these bottles already and they're flipped upside down to drain. One bit of equipment I REALLY want is a bottle drying rack!

Stick the siphon hose down almost to the sediment at the bottom of the jug. Here's where you need nineteen hands: put the bottling wand in the bottle and then pump the thing to start the siphon. The bottling wand has a valve at the bottom, and it's gotta stay open in order for the siphon to start, but both tasks require your full attention simultaneously. Needless to say, we couldn't exactly take pictures during this process, but we did set my phone up to take a video!

the right amount of room in the bottle

Once the liquid is flowing, start filling bottles. The wand is sized perfectly so that when you pull it out of a *very* full bottle, displacement leaves just the right amount of empty room in the bottle! Set it down for your capper buddy, and move to the next bottle. The wand has a valve on the bottom, so it doesn't spray everywhere between bottles, it this is still a drippy process.

Meanwhile, capper buddy takes the bottle and sticks a new cap in her capper. Our capping things call for a little oil up in the cup, so make sure you read the instructions for your own device! Stick the thing on the bottle, and push the handles down. This forces the cap down around the lid and it crimps itself, making a nice seal and keeping your drink good for several years.

I went ahead and added a few fun links you can check out if you wanna know more about mead, but make sure to visit your local public library and see what they have available there, too! Last time I went I found several books on mead!

Here's a recipe for a mead that's supposedly ready to drink in a month. Neither of us have tried this recipe, but it seems to be pretty popular and we know not all of our readers have the patience to wait a year or more to drink their mead! It calls for chemicals which you can buy at your local home brew shop, or on Amazon. It's also written with the assumption that the person reading it has all the equipment and experience that comes from brewing regularly.

Here's a recipe for a rather awesome looking mead made with beets! I think this is my next project.

For you linguist nerds out there, here is a great link about the history of the names of mead and what it might mean about the history of the drink.

~ Megan

Readers, have any of you made mead? What's your favorite recipe? I've been winging it so far, but I'd love some recommendations!

How to Choose Plants

Picking what plants to grow is not like picking what wine to drink.

While picking the one with the prettiest picture, or the coolest name might seem like a good idea, it does not always turn out well.

The first year I tried gardening, the only thing I could get to grow were jalapenos.

I didn’t know anything about gardening. I took the usual “Laura approach” and went in head first. No planning, no research, just determination.

Basil is an herb I LOVE 

I didn’t prep the soil, I didn’t water the plants enough, they were not getting enough sun…it was a complete disaster.

Blackberries from Megan! 

Looking back, it’s a wonder I was able to get anything to grow.

The next year I did much better. I learned from my mistakes. Also, I did a lot of research.

Here are three of the most important things I learned about starting a garden, vegetable or otherwise.

1.                   Learn about your soil. Not only PH, but how will it drains. I knew that my soil had lots of rocks, I assumed that meant it would drain well. That was not the case. I have about two feet of good soil, then it turns to clay. Clay = no drainage. Also, it is important to find out what parts get the most sun. I was going to have my vegetable containers on one part of the deck, but after watching how the sun moved across the deck I ended up moving them to the other side, because it got twice as much sun.

Apple tree, year 1 

2.                   Don’t plant things you don’t want or in the case of veggies, won’t eat.

Jalapenos for example, I like them, but I don’t love them. After I had my fill I started taking them to work and leaving them in the break room. Eventually even the people at work stopped taking them. This year I plated blackberries. I know that they are going to get huge and they are going to spread and take over the area. I have prepared and planned for this happening. If I done the usual “Laura approach” I could have gotten myself it into a horrible mess.

3.       Know you weaknesses. If you know you will not be able to spend a lot of time in the garden don’t plant something that is high maintenance, like roses.  Before the hubby and I were dating he bought a house that had three big rose bushes out front. He didn’t know how much extra care they require. Needless to say I had a fairly large project when I moved in.

~Laura

Baby grapes! 

What important gardening lessons have you learned? Let me know in the comments.

Removing Labels pt 2 Screenprinted Labels

Post number 2 for “How to remove labels”

Clean ready to use bottles 

Our last label removal project we worked on the standard adhesive style labels that are common on most food containers. We had a lot of fun re-purposing bottles and containers around the house using this method, but when time came to package some home brew projects (beer, mead, and wine) the bottles that we wanted to use had painted on labels.   

How to remove painted on labels 

We could have gone to the local homebrew store and bought new bottles for a price…

Scrubbing splashes! Be very careful 

Trash to the rescue once again! Or rather, recycling!

Corona beer comes in tiny cute little bottles, labeled Coronita, and they're perfect... Except the painted on labels!

Enter muriatic acid, aka hydrochloric acid. It can be purchased at Home Depot, we found it by the paint thinners.

A quick soak in this stuff (we let ours soak for about 5 min), some scrubby brush action, and they come pretty darn clean. A few required a second soak but the end result is a pretty label free bottle.

Muriatic acid

TIPS and TRICKS

Muriatic acid is no joke. It is very powerful and very dangerous. BE VERY CAREFUL!!!

• We recommend a glass container to hold the acid.

• 

  Don't be like Megan, wear safety glasses

  Muriatic acid is an aicd. Dont be like Megan and get it in your eye. If you do get the acid in your, on or on your skin, rinse it right away with water. Megan flushed her eye for a good 15 min. If you get  acid in your eye it can lead to loss of vision so go to the doctor!
• Wear gloves and safety glasses.

• 

  We used a glass jar to hold the acid 

  Because of the nature of muriatic acid it’s best to use it outside on a dirt surface as the acid can eat any surface INCLUDING concrete.
• Another reason to do this project outside is because the acid smells like rotten fish.
• Fill the bottle halfway with water so they don't float in the acid.
• Don't use the acid when it's windy
• Don't use the acid when it's raining.
• Don’t get water in the acid.
  
  

How to dispose of the used acid.

• Muriatic acid should NEVER be poured down a storm drain, a sink or flushed down a toilet.

• 

  What happens when the acid gets on concrete 

  Most cities offer a hazardous waste pickup a quick internet search should provide you with your local location and timing of your cities hazardous cleanup station(s.) We recommend this method as the best and most efficient method. Plus if you’re like me you probably have a few other items you can dispose of at the same time.
  
  
• You can also neutralize it with lime (the powdered or crushed type used for lawn or gardens) or baking soda. Pour it into the acid until it stops bubbling.

The NatualHandyMan goes into more depth on all of the disposal methods (found near the bottom of his article), as well as going more into the handling of acids.

Let us know how your projects went in the comments below.

By Laura

Removing Labels

beautiful clean jars 

We've been saving up our jars for a while, intending to reorganize our pantries. Megan's need for canning jars is about to hit, and Laura's husband eats a lot of salsa; the only problem was the unattractive labels. They didn't look nice, and they made it harder to figure out what was in the jar. Is this white powder cornstarch or flour? Who can tell, it's labeled salsa?

OxiClean to remove labels 

After some lost hours on Pinterest, one of us stumbled upon an article saying that if you soak the jars in hot water with OxiClean the labels would come right off.

It worked like a charm! Most of the labels do come right off, and you will find them floating in the water with little to no work.  

Tips

• The hotter the water the better. Boiling water works the best. WARNING! Boiling water will melt plastic jars. Plain ol' hot water will work fine for getting labels off plastic.
• Wear gloves. The OxiClean will do horrible things to your fingernails. Also, it makes working in the hot/boiling water more tolerable.
• Use steel wool and a scraper (like a butter knife) to get the exceptionally sticky labels off.

We found the clear labels have to soak longer. Then you have to peel the label and get down to just a sticky residue.

Megan gets a stubborn label off a jar 

Truly a labor of love.

Plastic jars don't come as clean as the glass, the glue used on the labels take a lot of soaking and scrubbing.

After the Oxiclean method of label removal you get left with a lot of jars that still have glue residue making them exceptionally sticky.

clear label and extra sticky glue 

We mixed together some baking soda and coconut oil. 

Why that particular combo? Well, baking soda for the scrubby action, and coconut oil because Megan always uses it to remove

Most labels come off with just a little soaking 

sticky crud when it gets on her hands. 

It seems to have a good cleansing effect, like it’s actively breaking down the sticky hand junk. We've tried other oils to clean with, and have found that coconut or castor oils are the way to go; the cheapie vegetable oil just makes a bigger mess. If you have castor oil, it'll probably work just as well, if not better. It's just a lot more messy than coconut oil.

Slather the coconut oil and baking soda mix onto your stubborn stickies, and then let them sit for about 20 minutes. Grab a scrubbie, and wipe away all the mess. Also, we found that using a dry paper towel to just wipe all the crud off works perfectly.

coconut oil mixed with baking soda to remove glue 

Wash your bottle or jar like normal, to get the oil residue off, and you’ll be left with a sparking clean new jar, awaiting all sorts of adventures.

Later we will post about how to get those screenprinted or painted labels off glass and ceramic! We'll also show you two ways of decorating the lids of your cleaned jars, so nobody will have to know your entire pantry storage came out of the recycle bin!

~Megan and Laura

Let us know if you have any additional questions or if you have another a better method to get labels off! Our comment section is just below, and you don't need to register first.

Crockpot or magic time saver?

A quick side note: 

Crockpot, much like Kleenex and Xerox, is one of those brand names that has become a ubiquitous title for all ceramic-crock-lined electric slow cookers. Crock pots are produced nowadays by several different brands, in a bunch of sizes and with lots of different features. Shop around and compare to find one that best fits your lifestyle. For Megan, that's a little vintage red one that used to belong to her Nana. For you, it may be an enormous oval one with a timer and a delayed start setting.

Having a crock pot is like having a magic cauldron!

Having a crock pot is like having a magic cauldron!

You add a jumble of ingredients, turn it on, and leave: when you come back, it has transformed into fantastic meal.

I found these chicken dump recipes. I can prep for the whole week in just a couple hours!

In the morning, all I have to do is dump everything in the crock pot before work; when I get home, dinner is ready!

four down, three more to go

The only downside to crock pots is cleaning them.

Mine permanently smells like tacos, but the smell doesn't transfer and make anything taste like tacos, luckily!

I have read that to fix baked on food messes fill the crock pot with water, add about 3 tablespoons of baking soda, turn the crock pot to high and let it set for 30 mins.

I use mine often enough that it barely has enough time to dry before more food is getting put in it.

The crock pot is not limited to just chicken dump recipes. You can make just about anything in them.

Below are some of my favorites.  

Taco Chicken bowls

Turkey and veggie chili

Creamy Italian Chicken Tomato soup

Crockpot Butter Chicken

Cashew Chicken

Chicken Noodle soup

Moroccan lamb soup (for when I am feeling adventurous)

You might notice that all of these recipes are chicken, my body can't process red meat well. So I play it safe  and stick with chicken.

Let me know what your favorite crockpot recipes are. Or if you know a way to get the taco smell to go away....

By Laura

~Laura

How to make Extracts

Extracts are amazingly easy to make.
They are whatever you can stuff into a bottle with alcohol.
The hardest part is waiting for the alcohol to extract the flavor. It is a process that can take weeks or even months.

Homemade extracts

I am attempting to cut down how much sugar I consume, so instead of sugar I use vanilla extract.
Most of my sugar consumption comes from all of the coffee I drink, Long story short ,we go through a lot of vanilla extract. When I deciding to make my own I went with the "go big or go home" approach so I am making a gallon of extract.

For a quality extract you will want a 1 to 4 ratio. For every 4 oz of alcohol you use will need 1 oz of whatever you are extracting.

Vanilla beans are ridiculously expensive ($4 for two beans in most grocery stores). Luckily, if you purchase then in bulk they are cheaper. Beanilla  has really good deals as well as Amazon. For one gallon of extract I needed 10 beans. I found a friend who was willing to split the price of 1 pounds worth of beans (150 beans). Now we each have a "lifetime' supply of vanilla beans.

For citris items like oranges, grapefruit and lemons you will only want the cored part of the rind and not the pithy white part. One way to get it is to grate it, but this is very labor intensive, and unrealistic (personal opinion). I used a very sharp knife and cut went slowly. Any piece that had the white pithy junk was discarded. Please note: no fruit was wasted, all eatable pieces either went in breakfast smothies or to work as snacks,

You can use whatever kind of alcohol you want to extract flavors . I used rum, vodka and ever-clear. The quantity of the alcohol does not matter much for making extracts, so go ahead and get the cheep stuff.
Considering the amount of vanilla extract I was making, I got the cheapest vodka I could.

 Rum has such a strong recognizable flavor.  Think of rum cake around Christmas time. I knew I wanted to try making something with rum,

The ever-clear was an impulse buy, the lady at the liquor store sold me on it. She also makes extracts and it was what she recommended. Or so she said, whatever, I am an easy sell.

In the end what I made was grapefruit with rum, coffee with vodka, basil with ever-clear, rum with orange and vanilla lastly orange with ever-clear.

This picture is one month after being mixed. I am planning on waiting 6 months to bottle everything. I will post an update at that time. Even if the ever-clear being an impulse buy, the basil and the orange were the first to extract the color.

Add caption

Keep the jars out of the sun and shake them every now and then. The herbal extracts will be ready within a couple weeks, with this being my first attempt I am going to wait the full 6th months before I strain mine and bottle mine.

I will do a follow up post when the time comes.

If you have made extracts or what to know more about what I have done let me know in the comments below.

By Laura

Making Bread

Bread dough that needs, just a bit, more water

 I had been trying to find a good bread recipe for a while, and this one has proven to be very multitudinous. I use it to make a lunch roll for the fiancee, but it can be used for pizza, loaf bread, rolls....the sky's the limit.

• Things that go in the dough


• 1 packet of yeast
• 4 cups flour 
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup hot water

1. Plop the 4 cups of flour in a bowl along with the sugar. 

   

   Rolled out to about 1/2 inch thick

2. Add the yeast packet.
3.  Add the hot water.
4. Mix until it sticks together like taffy.
5. Take dough out and place it in an oiled bowl and cover with a warm moist cloth for 45 min.
6. Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees. Get your pans and toppings ready. This way you are not wandering around the kitchen with doughy hands getting flour on everything.
7. Once dough has doubled in size, kneed it until taffy consistency is back. 
8. At this point you can roll it out and add yummy things like what I did, or put the dough in bread pans to make bread loafs. 
9. Bake for 20 min, or until the brown and crispy.

Now for some information about ingredients.

Yeast

Covered in pesto and sun dried tomatoes

Rolled and cooked

Yeast is a very special ingredient, mostly because it is alive. What this mean to you, the cook, is that the things in its immediate vicinity will directly affect how the yeast works.
So first and foremost you want to use "fresh" yeast, not something that has been hanging out in the pantry for months. The quality/type of flour and sugar will also play into how your yeast acts.

As silly as it sounds, the weather outside will also affect how well the yeast rises. If it is dry outside the yeast will not rise as well, if it is humid the yeasty beasties will go to town and the wont stop growing.


Flour
I am using whole wheat flour, much to my fiancee dismay. This makes my dough more dense and harder to manipulate. I use
to buy the fancy bread flour, but it is expensive and due to some food allergies I don't get to enjoy my bread. 

Sugar

If your sink looks like this, then you are doing it right

I am using just regular old white sugar, nothing fancy.


HOT Water
The water needs to be hot enough to wake up the yeasty beasties, but not to kill them. A good gauge is once the water is too hot for you to comfortably put your hand under it then it is too hot for the yeast creatures. 

If bread making is your thing, another fun recipe to do is pita bread.

By Laura