Honey Ale 5 - Saturday, June 12, 2004
Recipe Source – The Compleat Anachronist #120, Summer 2003. Making
Medieval Mead or, Mead Before Digby. Page 34 recipes from Scandinavia
and Poland 1555. Olaus Magnus, Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus.
Polish or Lithuanian Mead [mead with hops].
A synopsis of the recipe. Take a quantity of honey in the proportion
of ten pounds of honey to five gallons of water, dependent on the strength
required. Boil and skim. Separately boil hops, up to one pound
dependent upon the amount made. Following boiling mix the two liquids
together and let them stand.
Ingredients
5.5 lb honey
1 oz fuggles hops
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 tsp Irish moss
Yeast – sludge from honey ale 4 (originally Danstar Nottingham Ale
yeast)
Method
The honey was put to boil with 1 gallons of water and 1/3rd of
the fuggles hops, this mixture was boiled for 45 minutes, after which time
a further 1/3rd of the hops were added as well as 1 tsp of Irish
moss. After another 15 minutes the remaining 1/3rd of the hops was
added, the heat was turned off and the hops were strained off and the wort
transferred to a clean pan and allowed to cool. This liquor was then
added to 2 gallons of cold water in a pre-sanitized 3 gallon carboy to
which had been added 1 teaspoon yeast nutrient. The temperature of
the brew was tested and found to be 85 degrees, the specific gravity was
tested and the temperature corrected original gravity was found to be 1050.
The lees (yeast) from the previous brew was added to this brew, an
airlock was affixed and the carboy was moved into a cupboard to start fermentation.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Brew has cleared, 1 cup honey boiled with 1 cup water and added to
brew. Bottled and allowed to mature at room temperature for a week
before moving to the basement.
Note: this brew was used for champagne toasts at the wedding reception,
it required careful handling as it was very overcarbonated.