Hi,
I'd like to share my recipe to make some mead.
We need:
-1L bottle, I make mine in 1L bottles because I can finish the bottle soon enough to avoid changes in taste due to contact with new air and bacteria.
-Baloon
-Needle
-A big bowl to mix
-Raw unheated honey. 50g (alcohol content will be %2 approx.)
50g/l is %2
100g/l is %4
I keep mine at %2 because alcohol is a known toxic compound, and I don't want to get drunk in my daily basis.
All enzymes present in honey are preserved in mead, but fructose is gone(alcoholic fermentation).
-Mineral water. Not chlorinated.
The process:
This mead is wild as it's not inoculated with some isolated strain.
Fill the bottle with water almost full.
Now, put that water in the bowl/container and add the honey.
Mix it thoroughly until totally disolved; by hand, with a processor, or whatever.
The sooner the mixing is completed the faster the fermentation.
Fill the bottle with the mix.
Perforate the baloon with the needle. That will be your valve.
Put the baloon in the bottle, it should be tight, if not attach with a rubber.
The gas created will be expelled slowly, and it will avoid anything to enter the enviroment.
WARNING1: Don't do mead in a closed jar, this is not lacto fermentation, alcoholic fermentation creates much more gas, and thus, pressure, so we need the valve.
My mead is done in ~2 weeks time.
WARNING2: You can sip to try your mead sooner, but be careful and don't drink more because if fermentation is not completed there will be tons of yeast yet that will trigger diarrhea.
Flavours:
I do mine in 3 different flavours. Try different ratios, to taste.
-Plain mead.
-Cinnamon, vaniilla and clove
-Raw fresh apple juice. It is halfway cider/mead, depending of the ratios.
It's refreshing, aids digestion and no sugar.
I don't think sugar is bad, but I don't want to eat sugar when I'm being sedentary or do nothing, I prefer to get my sugar when I'm about to workout.
Hope someone likes it.