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Howling Jack: Honey Pumpkin Mead
by Aurora
This mead is the color of a ripe peach and smells like autumn leaves - perfect for a Harvest party or Sabbat.
1 sound, hard-rind pumpkin (approx. 2 quart capacity)
Paraffin wax
1 1/2 quarts of water
4 lbs. honey
2 each oranges and lemons
1 pkt. wine yeast
1 tea bag (black tea)
Prepare yeast starter.
Sterilize honey and water by boiling for 10 minutes, skimming the froth as it rises.
Remove from heat; stir in sliced citrus fruits, including skins.
Cool to room temperature; pitch yeast.
Allow to sit over night.
Prepare pumpkin by cutting off the top with a sharp knife. The top must "mate" with the bottom so cut carefully. Clean out the seeds, strings, and membranes of the pumpkin. Rinse out with water.
Pour the liquid into the pumpking, leaving an inch of air space between the liquid and the rim of the opening. Replace the top.
Prepare the paraffin/water bath: Fill a plastic bucket with hot water, melt the paraffin wax and float it on the water.
Dip the pumpkin, bottom first, into the warm paraffin until it is coated up to its lid. Once the paraffin begins to harden on the pumpkin skin, seal the lid by carefully pouring paraffin over the top, making sure to coat the seam.
Set the pumpkin in the middle of a shallow dishpan full of water to keep thirsty pickle worms at bay and place it in a dark, quiet spot.
Allow to sit for two months, then siphon off and bottle.
Note: It is probably a good idea to rack the mead into a glass fermenter, fitted with an air lock, for evaluation prior to bottling. If the fermentation is not complete and you bottle prematurely, the corks and glass may blow.
I found this recipe online... and I really want to try it, but I'm pretty new at this.. So! are there any problems anyone sees with this recipe? Or throwing whole cloves into it?
by Aurora
This mead is the color of a ripe peach and smells like autumn leaves - perfect for a Harvest party or Sabbat.
1 sound, hard-rind pumpkin (approx. 2 quart capacity)
Paraffin wax
1 1/2 quarts of water
4 lbs. honey
2 each oranges and lemons
1 pkt. wine yeast
1 tea bag (black tea)
Prepare yeast starter.
Sterilize honey and water by boiling for 10 minutes, skimming the froth as it rises.
Remove from heat; stir in sliced citrus fruits, including skins.
Cool to room temperature; pitch yeast.
Allow to sit over night.
Prepare pumpkin by cutting off the top with a sharp knife. The top must "mate" with the bottom so cut carefully. Clean out the seeds, strings, and membranes of the pumpkin. Rinse out with water.
Pour the liquid into the pumpking, leaving an inch of air space between the liquid and the rim of the opening. Replace the top.
Prepare the paraffin/water bath: Fill a plastic bucket with hot water, melt the paraffin wax and float it on the water.
Dip the pumpkin, bottom first, into the warm paraffin until it is coated up to its lid. Once the paraffin begins to harden on the pumpkin skin, seal the lid by carefully pouring paraffin over the top, making sure to coat the seam.
Set the pumpkin in the middle of a shallow dishpan full of water to keep thirsty pickle worms at bay and place it in a dark, quiet spot.
Allow to sit for two months, then siphon off and bottle.
Note: It is probably a good idea to rack the mead into a glass fermenter, fitted with an air lock, for evaluation prior to bottling. If the fermentation is not complete and you bottle prematurely, the corks and glass may blow.
I found this recipe online... and I really want to try it, but I'm pretty new at this.. So! are there any problems anyone sees with this recipe? Or throwing whole cloves into it?
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Oregon
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Re: Howling Jack Mead
Mon, August 31, 2009 - 6:02 PMI'd avoid the whole "ferment in the pumpkin" path entirely, much much too much of a possibility of contamination for my taste
a small pumpkin, cleaned, peeled and possibly roasted (mmmm, roasted.....), cut into small cubes and maybe a cup or two added to the primary fermenter would be safer, and probably carry a nicer flavor, raw pumpkin is a bit funky if you ask me
I prefer to add some stronger spices in the cup instead of in the brew, cloves and cinnamon (and cassia) are a bit strong to let sit in the batch too long, so I tend to mull when I want to add certain flavors, or put them in a teabag and let people spice their own cup during serving
you can always serve it in a pumpkin, its a nice touch, but hardly what I'd use for a fermenter....
that and how does it keep from exploding?
I have a strange feeling this recipe was written, but never actually made by the author in the manner described, fermentation has that whole "yeast generate voluminous amounts of CO2" thing going, you can't do it in a sealed container
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Re: Howling Jack Mead
Tue, September 1, 2009 - 3:33 PMFerment in the pumpkin?
That sounds positively disgusting.
It's bad enough that honey tends to produce nasty hangovers but doing it in a vegetable is just nuts.
Brew in Glass, Stainless Steel, or if the wort is not too base or acid you can brew in copper or Aluminum
Do not brew your drink in a vegetable. -
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Re: Howling Jack Mead
Wed, September 2, 2009 - 9:24 AMAh, the joys of noobness lol. Thanks for giving me heads up. -
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Re: Howling Jack Mead
Wed, September 2, 2009 - 10:17 AMYour attention may have saved your life.
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Re: Howling Jack Mead
Wed, September 2, 2009 - 10:57 AMor at the least, saved you from having to cleanup exploded pumpkin -
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Re: Howling Jack Mead
Thu, September 3, 2009 - 11:25 AMWhen I read things like that (unregulated, non sanitary, fermentation) my mind drifts off to that guy who opened his fridge one day and up his nose went a spore of some bizarre fungus that quite literally ate his face off.
Mucor. A bread mold it is almost always fatal
www.youtube.com/watch
Around 2:09 in the video is the guys face
www.mould.ph/mucor_mould.htm
Mucor is a common indoor mold
Common?
that's what this says: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...ores.jpg
And then thrre is this:
"Mucor has world-wide distribution and is often found in hay, stored seeds, horse manure and house dust, regardless of geographical location. It is also frequently found in air samples from indoor environments. Accumulated dust in HVAC systems and poorly maintained carpeting may contain high concentrations of Mucor spores. One study of the most frequent molds found in house dust in samples of homes found Mucor in 98% of the samples from homes in Denmark and 31% of the samples in homes in Canada. Heavy exposure to the spores of Mucor can cause extrinsic allergic alveolitis, a type 3 (IgG) allergic response. It is generally associated with occupational exposure to wood chips and sawdust. The symptoms, which occur 6-8 hours after exposure include: elevated temperature, flu-like symptoms, general malaise, difficulty breathing and later asthma. Eliminating exposure before the onset of pulmonary fibrosis usually leads to a return to a normal, healthy state. Mucor is also a rare opportunistic pathogen, attacking individuals with significantly compromised immune systems, metabolic acidosis, uncontrolled diabetes, starvation, severe trauma or other forms of debilitation."
www.allergyconsumerreview.com/mol...html
Which all cause me to ask: Why aren't we all dead from it?
Apparently the word Mucor refers to a family of molds.
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Re: Howling Jack Mead
Thu, September 3, 2009 - 11:42 AMyeah, pin molds, pretty big family
I tend to treat strange one off incidents like that guy's face the same as e. coli, 99.9% of the time its completely harmless (naturally exists in your gut for instance), but there's always the strange intersection of a person's biology and a microbes that don't quite get along
and poof your dead -
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Re: Howling Jack Mead
Thu, September 3, 2009 - 6:27 PMwell, there's always wearing kleenex boxes on your feet and living in a clean room -
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Re: Howling Jack Mead
Thu, September 3, 2009 - 8:01 PMwait, doesn't everyone wear Kleenex boxes on their feet? -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: Howling Jack Mead
Sun, September 6, 2009 - 1:54 PMIt's a charming fashion statement
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