Hoppy Brewing

So I caught the brew bug last night at about 4:30pm, right before I left the office. I had some honey and yeast already sitting at home, so tonight was a mead night. I had been looking for something interesting to make and had decided a few days ago that a ginger mead needed to be attempted. So I swung by the local Food Co-op, picked up some ginger, and headed home.

Not being a simple man, I knew I needed one more ingredient to make the mead really shine. I was searching the cupboards when I noticed the fruit basket out of the corner of my eye. A lone orange was calling to me. My quest was complete. Here, then, is the recipe:

7 ½ lbs Colorado Wildflower Honey
½ lb fresh thin-sliced Ginger
Zest of one medium-sized orange

Additives:

1 ½ tsp Yeast Nutrient
3 tsp Yeast Energizer
Lalvin K1-V1116 re-hydrated in 105º water for 15 minutes

I brought 2 gallons of water up to about 178º and then removed it from the burner (to avoid scorching the honey) and added the wildflower honey. At the same time, I added the orange peel and the sliced ginger. I let that sit at 155º for 30 minutes. Then I cooled it down to 70º and transferred it into my 3 gallon carboy, ginger and all.

The OG was 1.084.

I’ll let it go for a month, then rack it off the ginger and orange peel. It sure does smell amazing though! I can’t wait for this one to age a bit! I now have 8 gallons of mead either in the primary or secondary, plus about ten 12 oz bottles left from batch 001. I should have a decent supply now, as soon as some of those in the carboys get settled and then bottled.