A few bottles of Baggins Brew

Some as gifts and some to have at home. About six bottles in total this time.

Amazingly this batch is still fermenting. I can still taste a small amount of carbonation. I like it best after it has sat on the counter for a while or, sometimes, warmed a little in the microwave.

The hydrometer read: 0.992

My father-in-law seems to really like it. We’ve enjoyed a few glasses of mead together in the last little while.

There’s only about 1 gallon left of this mead I began almost a year ago. It’s good there are a few more maturing in the ole mead closet. 😉

Traditional v2

Dauphin, Manitoba Location (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A few months back another friend, after learning I was making mead, gave me 13 lbs of honey from Western Sky Apiaries in Dauphin, Manitoba. Today I got the chance to finally mix my second 5 gallon batch of traditional mead. I made the first one 11 months ago in August. That one is finishing very dry in large part because of the yeast I used: Lalvin EC1118. I still have two packages of Lalvin EC1118 which I used in this new batch. In about 5 months I’ll try to stop the yeast from reproducing using a combination of cold crashing and potassium sorbate … I’ve got some time to read up on how to do that properly.

Here’s the recipe I used:

15 lbs Wildflower Honey
(13 lbs of it from Western Sky Apiaries in Dauphin, MB + 2 lbs of wildflower honey from Elie, MB)
Spring water to 5 US gallons
2 Tbsp DAP
2 packets Lalvin EC-1118 yeast

OG: 1.128

The pictures show:

• Western Sky Honey
• Partially crystalized honey
• Honey liquified after hot water bath
• Hydrometer reading
• OG: 1.128
• Mixing the must

JAOM Variants v3 and v4

English: A bee sits on the sunflower, collects honey. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It turns out a friend on my street keeps a beehive. We got to talking and he gave me 4.5 lbs of sunflower honey he had harvested last summer. I’m making some mead and I’ll share the fruits of this labour with him when it’s done. (Not a bad deal, for either of us, eh? ;-))

Joe’s Ancient Orange Mead is quick, ready in just a few months. It’s growing on me but I find it a little too sweet so I’m playing with the honey content. Joe’s recipe calls for 3.5 lbs of honey/US gallon. My JAOM v3 has 3 lbs of honey & v4 has 2.5 lbs of honey. We’ll see how it turns out.

You can find the full details for making JAOM here. This is how these two short meads were put together this time around …

JAOM v3

3 lbs Sunflower Honey
Spring water to 1 US gallon
1 Large navel orange in 12 slices (this is usually 8 slices but the oranges were BIG)
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove
1 snack box package of raisins
1 tsp bread yeast

OG: 1.140

Sunflower Honey

3lbs of Sunflower Honey

Hydrometer Reading

JAOM v4

1.5 lbs Sunflower Honey
1 lbs Wildflower Honey
Spring water to 1 US gallon
1 Large navel orange in 12 slices (the rind fell off two slices)
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove
1 snack box package of raisins
1 tsp bread yeast

OG: 1.114

JAOM v4 Hydrometer Reading