Mead and Reddit

I frequently browse www.reddit.com for cute pictures of animals, video game news and brewing tips. I am working on converting some of my posts to those forums into this blog, but I still encourage people to check out reddit and become a part of the community. A sub-reddit is a sub-community hosted by reddit.com but populated by its user base. You get some great people, advice and information.

Some background on the following post: reddit user Toasty_Party started a mead exchange in /r/mead where we all brew a clover honey and juniper berry mead. Some buddies and I got together and here is what we came up with:

Juniper Berries crushed in a mortar and pestle.

MEAD EXCHANGE

Our initial feeling was that we did not use enough of the expensive, hard-to-find spice known as Dried Juniper Berries. However, mead accepts ingredients once fermentation is underway, so we will be upping the ante when the time comes. In the meantime, check out the rustic recipes we whipped up!
We cooked these 24 grams of berries with the total volume of 6 gallons. Juniper was in at 160°F for 10 minutes, during cooling, and left in for fermentation. We will be doubling the Juniper during secondary.

From left to right: 

3 gal carboy - 3 oz fresh local sweet orange peel, 3 pods dried Star Anise. 

2.5 gal carboy - 3 oz dried bergamont peels, .25 oz fresh local rosemary. 

5 gal carboy - 2 cups fresh local Kumquats, 2 oz fresh local lemongrass.

Fresh Sweet Orange Peel and Star Anise Pods

Dried Bergamont Peel and Fresh Rosemary

Fresh Kumquats and Lemongrass

As for the honey, we used 12 lbs of raw clover, 5 lbs of filtered clover (kirkland brand), 4 lbs of raw unfiltered Buckwheat, 1 lb of raw unfiltered carrot. I forgot to take a gravity reading from the must right out of the pot, but got some from the kumquat/lemongrass after pitching the yeast. OG was a whopping 1.135.


A note on using dried spices: my good friend, who bore the brunt of the recipe design, had us heat the dried spices over a low flame before using them. Specifically, the juniper berries and Star Anise pods were 'loosened up' in a pan prior to their respective uses.
A note on yeasts: we made two 4-gram, 500ml starters using the dry D47. For the starters, I used DME, Fermaid-K and Go-Ferm yeast nutrients. I started the starters on Thursday night and we pitched them (after mixing them together) on Sunday evening. We also put DAP, Fermaid-K and Go-Ferm into the must while dissolving the honey and steeping the Juniper. Cheers!




Well, there you have it. I changed the formatting a little from the original post but I think this looks nicer.