THE ICE DRAGON

Brewers Spotlight
This Months Recipe
Courtesy of Lord Robert l'Étourdi
From the Autocrat for
Champs:
My mead recipe:
This is most definitively NOT a period recipe but it
works for me:
Ingredients:
17-20 lbs of honey (anything light (e.g. NOT buckwheat))
2 gallons of fruit juice (no preservatives...) or 1-96
oz can of wine starter juice.
water to make up 5 gallons total
1 packet Lalvan EC-1118 yeast (yeah, this is why it's
not period)
yeast nutrient
wine makers acid blend
In a 20 quart or larger stockpot, heat water to 160
degrees F. Turn off heat and mix in honey until dissolved.
Heat to 160 degrees, again. Do not heat
beyond 160 or you will boil off the esters that give
the mead it's distinctive nose. Carefully transfer to
fermenter and add juice. Cover and wait until cool
(less than 80 degrees). Add in 5 tsp of yeast nutrient
and 5 or less tsp of acid blend. If the juice that
you are using is very acidic, use less acid blend.
Follow directions on yeast packet for activating dry
yeast. Add yeast to fermenter and stir vigorously.
Cover, install airlock and forget for a month or so.
Since honey ferments much slower than cane sugar, it
may take as long as 3 days to start bubbling in the
airlock. Ferment until bubbling stops. Rack into
clean carboy and wait until clear. Bottle and allow
to age until the sharpness goes away. The aging could
be as little as 8 months or as long as 2 years, depending
on what juice has been used.
Put June 11th on your calendars.... That is, if
you have a cheap calendar that is missing days;
otherwise mark June 11th as Baronial Champs.
We will be at the same site as last year
(Cummings Lodge in Akron Falls Park). Pani
Zosia will be cooking up a Fabulous Feast(tm).
We will have loads of space for fighting, fencing,
archery, thrown weapons, fishing (no, there
will not be a fishing champion), sitting in the
sun (also, no champion), bardic and A&S. And,
the parks service will be spraying poison-ivy repellant,
in the woods, as soon as the snow
melts.
Check out next month's exciting episode of
the Ice Dragon for the full event announcement.
Illumination by Katyrn
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