cjy (11/03/82)
Kevin Karpulus really did a great job with his mead recipe. I have not personally made any, but have made a great deal of wine and I agree with his technique, in the main. A few short cuts can be made, however, the first of which is the water. Rather than boil many gallons of water, I will go to the market and buy a few jugs of distilled water. When I add it to the must, I aerate it a bit by pouring it in quickly. This also saves time later on when I pitch the wort ( add the yeast starter ) as I don't have to wait until things cool down. The quantities of honey shown in the recipe trouble me a bit. When making wine, the MOST sugar that can be tolerated by the yeast is around 3 lbs. per gallon. Beyond this point, the fermentation becomes long and slow ( if indeed it ever ends even at 3 lbs. ) and requires frequent racking to prevent autolysis ( hope I spelled that right ). This is when the yeast feeds on the dead yeast cells instead of the sugar, producing an off taste. I would therefore be cautious in using 3 or more pounds of honey per gallon. Fermentation should take no more than a month to a month and a half. Beyond this point, either autolysis has set in, or there is too much sugar in the wort, or both. What I do to prevent this is to feed in stages rather than all at once. I use only half the sugar, as called for in the recipe, at the beginning. By the next morning, you should have a very vigorous fermentation going. I let this proceed until most of the sugar is used up ( taste a few drops, but not much more, unless you have a "regularity" problem ) - usually only one week. I then rack it into a jug that contains the sugar dissolved in water ( for the mead, dissolve the honey in a gallon of the fermenting wort before adding the rest of it ). Oh yes, when racking, leave behind as much of the sediment as possible. When the fermentation slows down, rack again ( 2 weeks or so ). The wine in now done if the fermentation does not start again. If the fermentation does start again, let it go another two weeks and rack again. When the last racking stops the fizzing, let the wine stand for a couple of weeks to clear. Bottle, age, and in a couple of months, get happy. I cannot stress that keeping things clean is so very important. I lost about 5 gallons of what promised to be the very best banana wine ever made because some bacteria infected it! Use boiling water or a strong solution of potassium( or sodium ) metabisulfite. Get the chemical at a wine making store or by mail from some of the wine stores that advertize in the back of Popular Science. Enjoy! Chuck Young at ......ihps3!ihuxi!cjy