Honey Ale 3 - February 29th 2003
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
4.5 lb honey
¾ oz fuggles hops
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
Yeast – Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast
Method
The honey was put to boil with 1.5 gallons of water and ¼ oz
of the fuggles hops, this mixture was boiled for 45 minutes, after which
time a further ¼ oz of hops were added. After another 15 minutes
the scum and hops at the surface were skimmed off and the liquor passed
through a sieve containing ¼ oz of hops to remove any particles
and to add a hop aroma to the brew. This hot liquor was then added
to 1.5 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 80 degrees, the specific gravity was tested
and the temperature corrected original gravity was found to be 1050. While
the liquor was boiling a package of yeast was activated in ½ pint
of boiled and cooled (to 85 degrees) water containing 1 teaspoon sugar.
This yeast was used for 3 ferments on this day
One half cup of activated yeast was added to the brew, an airlock was
affixed and the carboy was moved to a warm cupboard to start fermentation.
Monday, March 01, 2004
Brew shows active fermentation.
Saturday, April 10, 2004
Liquor has fully fermented, racked off sediment and 1 cup honey boiled
with 1 cup water added to racked portion. Bottled into 1 pint flip
top bottles and retained at RT for 5 days then moved to basement to finish
aging.
NOTE - do not follow instructions for carbonation, this produced
bottle bombs.