Im going to let you in on a secret viking recipe, one that has been handed down from my forefathers and generations before me has, naw just kidding. I actually improvised this home-brew... 😀 And It was so delicious I had to share it with the world. And it's not really "pure mead", but taste more like a cross-breed between beer, mead & champagne, and it packs quite a "Yule-punch", so to speak...
Ingredients:
- Muslin-bag (a fine mesh bag)
- A jar/bottle of barley malt
- A jar of honey, add as much as you can afford, "The more the merrier".
- If you can't afford honey just substitute with sugar or mix em up 50/50. But you will need about 70 oz/ 2 kg honey or sugar for this recipe.
- Dried hops a few handfuls, or other non-toxic dried wildflowers.
- A barrel, I used a small plastic bucket with a lid, (4 gallon/15 l).
- "Champagne yeast". I used "Mangrove Jack's" SN9 Premium wine yeast.
- Good clean water and a fairly warm and clean brewing space.
- Air-lock (looks like a funky little tube you fill it with water and it acts as a vent for the C02).
Instructions:
- Mix the malt and the honey/sugar with some water in a pot on low temperature.
- Pour all the needed water in to the barrel with the sugar-honey-malt mix.
- Mix only a tea-spoon of the yeast powder into a cup of lukewarm water, then after 10 minutes mix it in with the rest of the fluid in the barrel.
- Fill the muslin-bag with the hops or dried flowers for flavoring. Throw it in there with the rest of the stuff and drench it properly like a big tea-bag.
- make a hole in the lid for the barrel/bucket stick the air-lock in there, put some water in the air lock...
- I brewed this under tropical conditions so the whole process went fast 3 weeks and it was drinkable straight from the barrel...
- If you have time and energy you can bottle this up, plastic soda bottles will do fine, add a pinch of sugar to each bottle if you like it sparkling...It should be sparkling in a couple of days, but be a bit careful with this process cause you can get to much CO2 build up in the bottle and then you'll have a foam-party instead of a drink...
- I would just skip the bottling process and serve it at room temperature straight from the barrel viking-style, (after about 3-4 weeks), just watch out for the "gunky sediment" in the bottom of the barrel...😂
- I don't think the vikings used air-locks so, you can skip the air-lock, but then it might just turn into vinegar from oxidation/being exposed to air. Not nice to drink, trust me... 🤢
Image source: wikipedia:"Air-lock", photo by: http://www.simonrumble.com
Sources: https://mangrovejacks.com/products/sn9-wine-yeast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead Top photo source: @friendly-fenix