SC - Tyrca makes Pyment again

[Tyrca]

 Here is a repost of my letter of the first of November.  If you are not
interested, skip this message now.  I had already given the simple recipe for
5 gallons of White Pyment.  It is 15 lbs of honey, 7 cans of Welch's 100%
White Grape juice, half a bottle of rosewater (I'll have to look up the oz
measure later) 3 tbs ground nutmeg, and water to make 5 gallons.
    Some of this comes in with the basics of mead-making, so those of you
already familiar the hardware and step-by-step will want to skip this.
    A normal 5 gallon batch of mead is usually about 12-15 lbs of honey.  For
Pyment, I used 84 oz of grape juice concentrate.  This means that I bought 7
cans of Welch's 100% white grape juice in frozen concentrate. I also added
some nutmeg, rose water, and yeast nutrient and energizer. More on all of that
later.
     I usually use my 20 qt stainless steel pot just to avoid aluminum
contamination.  But it doesn't affect the outcome.  First of all, put 12 lbs
of honey  and just enough water in your pot to keep the honey from scorching.
Since I use an electric range, I use a piece of coathanger right on the
burner, under the pan.  This helps keep the honey from scorching, but not
enough for inattention, and there is no worse mess to clean off the stovetop
than burned boiled-over honey.
    Heat the honey but do not boil, as it is easy to burn it, and make it
useless.  As the honey warms, a foam forms on top.  skim this off, and keep
skimming as long as it rises.  This foam is mostly albumen (protein) from the
honey, and keeps mead from clearing, so it is important to remove it.  If the
foam starts to be brown, turn the heat down, your honey is getting too hot.
    After a few minutes (5 to 15, depending on your honey and equipment) the
foam stops rising, and you are ready to start brewing.  Make sure that your
carboy (the big glass bottle we use to brew in) is clean and sanitized.  I
wash it out, and then leave bleach water sitting in it until I am ready to use
it.  This is not totally sterile, but at least keeps most bacteria and wild
yeast away from my mead.
     So that the hot must does not crack the carboy, open the 7 cans of thawed
grape juice concentrate, and pour them in the bottom of the carboy, with 4 tbs
of rosewater, 1/2 cup of nutmeg tea (I make this by steeping nutgem powder in
boiling water, and then straining out the powder with a coffee filter, so that
I don't have more floaties in my mead) and a gallon of cold water.  All of
this will cushion the glass from cracking under the hot honey.  With a funnel,
pour the hot honey into the carboy (and be VERY CAREFUL about it because this
can be tricky, especially if your glasses steam up in the process).  Fill with
water until you have 5
gallons, and set aside to cool.  This is called the must.  It is not at all
alchohlic, just sweetened water.  
    When it is about room temperature pitch the yeast. This means, pour in the
yeast from the package, or add the yeast from where you have been allowing it
to grow in liquid culture.  I use Wyeast Sweet Mead Yeast, which works nicely.
When you pitch the yeast, add the yeast nutrient and energizer, and put the
air lock tightly on the carboy.  Honey does not have quite enough of the
things yeast
likes to grow, and so it is much more productive to add nutrient and
energizer, this will speed your process from an average of 6-8 months to
closer to 2 months.  Definitely worth the effort.  This is why I can maze in
so much lesser time than the 11 months we saw in the TI last year (whew!!)
    I learned one more thing, it is called the "shaker method"  After you
have pitched the yeast, and it has been in the must at least 12 hours, take
firm hold of the carboy, and shake vigorously. This puts lots of  oxygen into
the liquid, and allows the yeast to begin multiplying in preparation for
fermentation.
    Now comes the difficult part, waiting for the mead to finish.  There is
nothing left to cook, just wait.  When your mead blips (this is the sound of
carbon dioxide leaving the air-lock) only once in 15 minutes, it is done
enough to bottle.  If you do it any earlier, you are risking having your
bottles explode under the pressure.  I happen to like sparkling pyment, and
so bottle it when it is blipping about 1 time in 10 minutes.  This means
there is still fermentation going, and still a little bit of active yeast.
   I use champagne bottles (hard to find, best to ask friends and restaurants
to save them for you) and wired champagne corks.  Regular bottles will not
hold the pressure, and you will have geysers of mead all over your floor.
    The brewing equipment and yeast, nutrient and energizer are all available
from a local brewing store, or you can probably find a place on line to order
from.  It might be a good idea first to check around and find what kind of
alcohol regulations your state has for home brewing, as everywhere is a
little different.  Here in Oklahoma, I can homebrew with a license that I
obtained free from the ABLE commission.  Check around a little first, you can
probably find information at same brewing store.
    The bottling is another process, and I do not want to make this note
longer.  I can even wait for a couple of weeks until someone more experienced
than I can give all of us a few pointers, or until your mead really is ready
to bottle.  

Good Luck as a Mazer (a brewer is someone who makes beer, a vintner makes
wine.)

Lady Tyrca Ivarsdottir
Barony Namron, Ansteorra
autocrat for the Rapier Championship on January 24th
(no, I'm not cooking, I have someone much better for that!)
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