The Drinking Goat’s first beverage: mostly straight up mead

Vikings are under appreciated. If you’re honest, when you think of a viking you think of a giant smelly oaf with an undersized brain and an oversized sword. However, vikings were clever. For example, they switched the names of Greenland and Iceland to trick other folk into avoiding the better island. Apparently they wanted the tectonically active island all to themselves!

In addition to being clever the old Norsemen also had quite the palate. That is to say, anthropologists credit them with the invention of the oldest alcoholic beverage on record. Smelly and oafish? Maybe. But only because they were the first guys to get a buzz. Their invention is now commonly referred to as “mead” or “honey wine.”

On December 19th, the Drinking Goat crew bottled and corked 22 bottles of our mead.

“Must” recipe:

10 lbs of local (wheaton, il) honey
1 can of riesling concentrated grape juice
5 gallons of fresh water (non-chlorinated!)
1 packet of Red Star’s Côte des Blancs Wine Yeast
5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient

This mead’s primary fermentation began somewhere around the end of February last year (2009). After 3 separate rackings that took close to 9 months total, to get our mead off of its lees, it will age in bottle until the beginning of May. Just in time for graduation.

Hydrometer readings show our mead to be around 14% alcohol by volume.

Vocabulary:

must (n.): the liquid (or juice, if you’re into that sort of thing) that is formed when you first mix all of your ingredients together. basically, it’s the unfermented and therefore non-alcoholic form of your mead, beer, wine, cider, etc.

yeast nutrient (n.): a powder of diammonium phosphate and...this is actually gross...urea (apparently it’s “food-grade,” but come on, that aint foolin’ anyone). this is added to nourish the yeast and ensure they stay healthy and able to complete their very important mission (turning sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide).

primary fermentation (umm...adjective?): when the yeast is added (or “pitched”) into the must and allowed to eat as much sugar as it can before the alcohol it creates kills it. vicious, we know.

lees (n.): the nasty residue left at the bottom of your must after it has been allowed to sit and settle out. in our mead the lees consist mostly of random bee parts, wax, pollen, and dead yeast.

racking (a sweet verb.): the process of siphoning the clear liquid of the must from one container to another, where it is given more time to sit, settle, and clear.

hydrometer (n.): a handy tool that measures the specific gravity of your beverage before and after fermentation, which allows one to determine the final beverage’s alcohol content. neat huh? we thought so too. that’s why we bought one.


above: the fake-Frenchman and the real-Frenchman siphon the mead from its carboy into the bottles


above: the fake-Frenchman and the beautiful Swiss lady use a very fancy hand corker to seal up the bottles


above: the fake-Frenchman samples the final product straight from the carboy

The Drinking Goat would like to thank the folks at Chicagoland Winemakers Inc., our go to homebrewing supplier.

Stay tuned to the Drinking Goat as we wait out the winter developing two new mead recipes, brewing a stout, and bottling our ultra dry red wine.