In which Ricky the Meadmaker answers questions about lost mead, warming mead during fermentation, warming crystallized honey, and using kiwi in mead.
Happy harvest fest everyone. It's also Yom Kippur while I'm shooting this, so I'm going to try to shoot this entire episode while drinking herbal tea. So, we'll see how this goes.
Welcome to Ask the Meadmaker, where I, Ricky the Meadmaker, answer your questions about mead making, mead drinking, mead brewing, and really any question you're willing to send to me.
My little girl Nora is also finally asleep. Now that she's a big three-month-old, she decided she doesn't need to take naps anymore. So, we're going to cross our fingers. She's right above us. So, that just adds a little layer of complexity to this whole episode.
Anyway, our first question comes from James, who made a batch of mead and then forgot about it. Now, all homebrewers do this, you know, you got five or six fermenters going and one of them stops bubbling you don't get to it for a couple days or a couple weeks. James lost his batch five years ago, maybe six. He wants to know if he should just dump it or what? And I don't know what the two alternatives are dump it or what he doesn't say. But I'd say, give it a try, man! It ain't going to kill you.
I'm going to answer the next two questions together. They come from Todd and Adam. Todd is making a one-gallon batch of mead and he wants to know how to warm it up. Do I recommend a little heating blanket or some way insulating it or making a special sort of fridge with a light bulb in it? I would say for a one-gallon batch, in the metabolic activity of yeast if you wrap it up, will probably keep you going unless you live in a house like mine, which I keep at 44˚F. But for a one-gallon batch, it doesn't take a lot of thermal input to bring that temperature up. So, you can do one of two things. You can put in a little bit of warm water just to get it high enough that the metabolic activity keeps it going from there. Or if you're a very large man, you can stick it in your armpit. But Adam is trying to do a three-gallon batch and I just don't know anybody with armpits big enough for that. So, I would recommend wrapping it up and putting a heating pad underneath.
Our next question comes from Eric and this one's really fun. So, he's making a batch of mead and it's going super well. His exact words. It's going super well until, wait for it, he opens the honey. So like, I don't know what was going well so far. Like, I guess a dog didn’t come into his kitchen and bite him while he was sanitizing. But so far, he has an empty vessel and it's going super well, and he opens his tubs of honey, and they are rock solid. He's super pleased because he's following my advice, right? He got raw honey, and it looks like a block of wax. Now, it's not a block of wax, unless you bought the wrong thing from your farm stand. It's just a thin layer of wax on the top, but he didn't know how to heat it up. Also, he asked me this like nine months ago, so I hope things went well. But here's the easiest way to do that. Again, not super complicated, but all you need to do is add heat to it. And the easiest way to do that, if you have a bathtub, fill it up to just below the lip of those jugs, put them in the hot water, and be patient.
Our last question this week comes from Charles. Charles Jarman II, which I hope is your real name. I've never known a Mr. Jarman before, but his question is, "have you ever made a batch with kiwis?" And he specifies the fruit and not the people. He's not crazy after all, also his words. So, in a one-gallon batch, what would I recommend? Well, the problem is I have made a kiwi mead, but I have never made it with the fruit or the people, which is illegal. I have ground up the tiny little birds and put them in there. Oh, they make a horrible sound. Don't do it. It's just a terrible batch of mead, like, it tastes fine, but... I'm just kidding. I've never made it with any variety of kiwi. But there's an amazing resource that I should have sent all of you to a long time ago, and it's the meadmakers' Reddit. There are tons of recipes on there. Lots of advice. You think I'm good? Those people are way better. I've never been on, but I've heard, because I don't do the internet thing very much. But the meadmakers' Reddit is an excellent resource. And if you have specific questions about fruits and things that we don't brew with at Groennfell or Havoc, it's a great place to go.
That's our last question this week. I would usually send it over to Ricky with our Word of the Week, but Nora started fussing, so he is up there taking care of her, which is very sweet of him. He is very good with kids. Anyway, keep sending your questions and I will get to them as soon as possible. Cheers.
