For your help I have included links in red for not so commonly used equipment or ingredients that require special attention. This is not your standard recipe, this is a recipe for mead it is a ancient form of wine that is produced from fermenting honey.
In other words this is a Alcoholic drink and depending on your region and country it may or may not be against the law to produce it according to your situation. I have also added pictures and added information to assist you, but this is in no way a complete guide on wine making I will include a few links at the bottom with added materiel.
Ingredients
15 – 25 lbs honey ( Raw Honey is recommended but not required )
5 gallons purified water
4 oz chopped raisins
5 grams Pasteur Champagne Yeast
Equipment
Wooden or Bamboo Spoon
Ladle
Racking Cane
Fill the stock pot 3/4 full with water and turn the heat to low, slowly heat the water without ever boiling it and keeping it at ” comfortable to the touch” heat.
Slowly dissolve and incorporate all the honey into the water, then remove from heat and let it completely cool.
Grab a small bowl and dilute 1 table spoon of honey into 3 tablespoons of water, then pitch the yeast into the bowl and let it sit till it gets a nice foam on top. This will be your yeast starter.
Chop the raisins then take 1 cup of water into a saucepan and place the raisins into it, bring to a boil then remove from the heat. the goal is quickly blanching the raisins and rehydrating them, let them sit for 3 minutes then drain the water and set them to the side to cool.
Once the honey water is cooled you will need to use the ladle and the funnel to transfer the honey water into the carboy, then fill the carboy up with the rest of the water to leaving breathing room as shown below.
once the water is transferred into the carboy, dump the raisins into the water and you will need to pitch the starter into the carboy. try to be as careful as you can to get as much into the honey and water and not as much on the sides of the carboy.
Place the airlock on top of the carboy cooking it. Put the airlock together and then fill it about a quarter full of water.
the carboy will be very heavy and it is not recommended to move it once it is full so be sure this is where you want to keep it. sun light is your enemy here, cold drafts and inconsistent temperature is also your enemy. This will brew for 2-6 months depending on the conditions and the quality of your honey.
Once the yeast becomes active usually after about 24 hours it will look like this.
Once the yeast has started to finish you will start to notice it dropping to the bottom and forming a cake.
The cake is just the first sign it is coming to a end. you will also need to watch the airlock which will bubble from excess gas in the carboy as it brews. If you no longer see bubbles and the cake is at the bottom of the carboy, you will want to watch as the mead clears.
Clearing the mead simply means the yeast has died and fallen to the bottom it is no longer active. you will need to transfer the mead to a secondary carboy and let it sit for a couple more weeks once the mead has cleared, to make sure any remaining yeast fall to the bottom before you can bottle it or back sweeten it.
The mead will finish dry, meaning it is not going to be sweet. so before you bottle it you will want to dissolve 2lbs honey into the mead according to taste. All mead gets better with age, the traditional bottle time is let it sit in the bottle in a dark cool area for 6 – 12 months. but you can drink it once it clears.
Bottling the mead is pretty self explanatory and this is where the racking cane comes in play. as well as transferring to a secondary carboy, there are many different types but the goal is all the same. you want to limit how much air touches the mead.
Cheers !
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