In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about shipping to other states, what dogs know that we don’t, brewing with fresh cranberries, washing yeast, and how complicated brewing should be.
Nordic Farmhouse Recipe
How We Brew
Your First Batch of Mead
Oh Christ, What’s That Smell?
Hi, I'm famous meadmaker and manly man, Ricky the Meadmaker. And I have 12 cords of wood to split in the next three weeks. So, I'm just going to get a little bit done while we shoot this episode.
Welcome to Ask to Ask the Meadmaker, where I, Ricky the Meadmaker, answer your questions about mead making, mead drinking, mead brewing, and really any question you are willing to send to me.
Our first question this week comes from Ed. Ed has been brewing batches of my mead based on our recipes online, and he wants to know if he can get them shipped to Iowa. The answer is no, Ed, I am sorry. The only place we are available is Vermont, and starting in three weeks in Massachusetts! That is still not Iowa. Sorry.
Here is a great one from Travis. He wants to know if he can brew Fenberry Draught with regular cranberries right out of a bog, instead of using fruit juice. He asked me about four months ago. Travis is local. I showed up at an event, and he had his Fenberry clone at it, and it was awesome. So, the answer for all of those who want to know, Nordic farmhouse and Fenberry Draught can be brewed with almost any type of cranberry.
Our next question comes from Christopher who has a dog that has been sniffing outside of his brew closet and he wants to know if his dog knows something about his mead that he doesn't. The answer is if your dog knows something that you don't, he certainly knows something that I don't.
Jesse's got a question that I like to answer as many times as possible. He's been reading online and wants to know if all of those really complicated mead making recipes, with the step additions and all the nutrient nonsense is absolutely necessary. He found a recipe where all you do is put honey, raisins, maybe orange juice and you shake it up and put an old balloon over it. Is it really that hard? The answer is start with the complicated way. And keep making it easier till your meat is gross. Or, start with the simplest way, and keep doing it better until your mead tastes good.
Our last question this week comes from Aaron. Aaron wants to know if we ferment to ABV tolerance, that means does our yeast go all the way up to the maximum alcohol content that it can handle? If so, do we do anything special to harvest that yeast? Do we wash it like a lot of brewers do? And the answer is I asked one of my friends, a brewer up here in Vermont, how he washes his yeast. And he started talking to me about their yeast protocol. After about 14 minutes, I stopped listening. So, what we do is just what most home brewers do. We brew a batch. We put the batch in cans. Most home brewers don't do that. Then if it was a really good batch, we put more mead on top of that yeast. If the batch wasn't quite where we want it, we buy new yeast. That didn't even take four minutes to say. So that's our process, not saying it's the best one, but it is what we do at Groennfell Meadery.
So, that was our last question this week. I'm going to get to work on that. Keep sending your questions and I'll get to them as soon as possible. Cheers.
