Honey Ale 4 - Sunday, May 23, 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
4.75 lb honey
1 oz fuggles hops
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
Yeast – 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 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 85 degrees, the specific gravity was
tested and the temperature corrected original gravity was found to be 1038.
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.
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.
Saturday June 12th 2004
Brew still showing bubbles and not clear, on racking SG was 998 which
indicates that all sugar has been used. Carboy moved to finish clearing
for a further week to 2 weeks prior to bottling.
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Brew is clear, 1 cup honey boiled with 1 cup water and added to racked
brew and mixed with 1 tablespoon corn sugar and bottled.