Strawberry Splash Mead
Forrest Cook, Jon Corbet (Microburst Brewery)

recipe copyright (C) 1989 Forrest Cook and Jonathan Corbet


Brewed 5/13/89

Bottled 6/23/89

Size 7 gallons


8 lb Alfalfa's Boulder clover and wildflower honey mix

2 lb Madhava western wildflower honey

2 lb fresh pureed strawberries

6 cups corn sugar

0.5 cup lactose

1.5 oz cascade leaf hops (boil)

2 tbsp gypsum

1 pack red star champagne yeast (started in diluted must)

1 tea strainer lemon grass tea added when transferred to carboy

1 cup corn sugar (bottling)


OG 1.052 @ 109 deg F (started in white pail)

IG 1.004 @ 70 deg F (moved to carboy)

FG 0.998 @ 73 deg F


Comments: Tastes sweet at first, has a sour aftertaste, very promising.







(Warning: Long and descriptive, truly meant for beginners)

Tools:

airlock/stopper

a gallon jug (or a large apple juice jug)

1/2 cup bleach diluted in water (as much as you need)(for sterilizing) equipment

A funnel

siphoning hose...


Ingredients:

3 lbs. honey (1.86 Litres)

Juice from 1 lemon - DO NOT USE A LEMON SUBSTITUTE.

Water - bottled or boiled.

1 packages red star champagne yeast


Firstly you need to purchase an airlock/stopper combination from a wine store, and one packet of 'red star' champagne yeast. If you want you can brew this in a large apple juice jug (about a gallon) or you can also purchase a glass one from the wine store. Now for the expensive part, get your hot little hands on 3 lbs. of honey. (works out to 1.86 litres). Also required 1 fresh squeezed lemon to nourish the yeast and 1/2 cup bleach (for sterilizing everything first).
Boil 4 cups of filtered or bottled water and the freshly squeezed lemon. Reduce temperature to low and add honey. Ensure the honey is completely melted into the water lemon mixture. Cover and remove from heat - allow to cool to slightly warmer than room temperature.
Wash everything with hot water and soap, and then rinse it all with the bleach diluted in water. Rinse thoroughly - If you can still smell the bleach rinse again. Check with your nose, and again if you still smell bleach, rinse, rinse, again.
To wake up your yeast, add a little (about 3 tablespoons)of the honey mixture to a measuring cup. Add boiled water. Allow to cool to a point where it is comfortable to touch (cooler than tepid tea or coffee). Sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the water and allow to wake (takes about 15 minutes.) By the way - keep your yeast in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
Pour all your honey mixture into the jug. Pour your yeast mixture into the jug. Add enough filtered or bottled water (room temperature) to the jug to bring the liquid level to about 1 inch from the rim of the glass or plastic. Stopper the jug with the airlock/stopper and then add water (to the fine line on the airlock) and reassemble the airlock. I suggest this way because if you add the water then put the stopper on top of the jug, invariably the air in the jug pushes the water up enough to make a small but annoying mess. Ok - leave this someplace dark and 69 - 75 degrees warm, for two weeks. At the end of that time, you will see a sediment in the bottom of the bottle and a cloudy golden
liquid above. The liquid should be siphoned off into a cleaned/sterilized jug, leaving the sediment to pour down the drain. You can bottle it at
this point or return it to your jug, add enough water to bring it back to 1 inch from the top, and seal with a proper cap. You can drink this
if you like but it's better if you let it set for a while (at least two
weeks) someplace cool and dark (I have a cold cellar which works well this time of year). Eventually, when you are ready to break this out for your wine during rite or to serve to guests, it should be served cold (in my opinion)and will be slightly effervescent.