wow look at me I don't care about history get me to the instructions

It is no news that universities are used as catalysts for new beginnings in most bizarre ways. Friends, cities, lifestyles, all longstanding and honorable categories to start anew, but also somewhat all too serious.

Goofy and bizarre hobbies however, I believe are the best ambassadors of the silliness that first year dorms inspire. One such craft, as old as humankind, overlaps entirely too well with average undergraduates' pass-time.

Brewing.

If one is interested in a slow process with not too-complex steps, with a payoff in the end, this might be for you.



WARNING:

This guide is provided mainly for my friends who have seen me do it and want to also do some brewing at home.

While what is done here is not (that) dangerous, you will still produce an alcoholic product in the end.

I am assuming whoever attempts this is a responsible adult, but please do first check:

  • Local law
  • Rules for your place of residence (I can't quote Concordia dorm rules but I don't think RA's will be thrilled someone is making booze under their bed)

Where I am located (Quebec) winemaking and brewing at home is legal, but distillation and selling aren't.1

I am also not a lawyer so do with this warning what you will.

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Now that you have heeded my warning, we shall get into it.

Introduction

What we will be making over the course of the following several months is mead, arguable the oldest alcoholic drink humanity (or an accident) ever produced. The concept of any alcohol production is very simple - Some liquid with sugars is left to ferment, and during the process of that fermentation yeast (the same as with bread really) consumes this sugars, and produces alcohol.

In wine these sugar comes from grapes, in mead, which is our goal, they come from honey.

So the whole process will be happening in following steps:

  1. Preparation - a single afternoon
  2. Fermentation - 3-4 weeks
  3. Re-racking - an hour
  4. Aging - 2+ months
  5. Bottling - depending how much you made, an hour or two

Overall, pretty feasible, and honestly you aren't doing THAT much. There is however a lot of waiting, and trust in the process.

Prep

Before we start we are going to need some equipment. If possible always find the local home brewing store, almost any city will have one, for Montreal we got a few. They will have all the supplies you need, as well as good advice about anything and everything (in any situation whatever they say takes priority over any online guide).

In some order of importance, you will need to get:

  • Fermentation vessel (could be a bucket or carboy)
  • Aging vessel (preferably a carboy)
  • Airlock
  • Sanitation solution (either a liquid like Star San or in powder form like Aseptox)
  • Syphon ( it's really just a food safe pvc tube that you can get at Home Depot)
  • Wine yeast
  • Honey2
  • Wine bottles (empty (to bottle the mead when it's done))

This is the BARE minimum required. You will however be flying blind about the ABV% so you also really should get

  • Hydrometer
  • Measuring cylinder
  • Campden tablets
  • Potassium Sorbate

This will allow you to have an actual idea what strength mead you made, fully stop the fermentation, and make sure it ages properly.

Methods

Ok now we will actually start.

0. Sanitation 1. Preparation of the must

Use the cleaning product you got (follow the instructions on the label they are pretty short normally) to clean everything you got. The fermentation vessel, measuring cylinder, syphon, and the hydrometer. Also your hands please wash your hands.

1. Preparation of the must

The initial mix of water and honey, in which we begin the fermentation, is called must. If you are using a standard sized carboy it's probably 1 gallon (against everyone's wishes I sadly must use imperial units because the entire industry is still using them), you will add from 0.5 kg of honey if you want around 5% ABV and for the mead to be rather dry, up to a 1.5 kg if you want higher alcohol content and sweeter drink.

Important note, that majority of wine yeasts have a maximum tolerance of around 14-ish ABV%, so going above that ratio of honey to water won't add any more alcohol. If you would like to do more math about it I recommend a mead calculator for all your needs.

So, into your vessel you will add slightly less then a gallon of water, and honey. Mix it so it dissolves. Now begins the fun. Additions.

For a drink as old as time there are a LOT of variations. You can add fruits (frozen is best since their cell walls have already been broken, or mush them first.) to get melomel. Blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, juniper berries (yes like in Skyrim), raisins, all work great and add taste as well as distinct color to mead.

You can (and should) add spices: cinnamon sticks, clove, orange peel, black tea3, vanilla beans, ginger, and obtain what is called metheglin.

Your pantry is the brush and this bucket your canvas.

Go bananas, as they say. And truly do. Speaking again of honey, don't worry too much about the rarity of it. Yes local, unprocessed is best, but not everyone has the money to buy a kilo and a half of something like buckwheat honey (although imagine how cool it would be). 2kg bottle from Costco will get you started. Don't worry about it.

MEASUREMENT:

To know what you are actually doing, you will need to measure the gravity of your must. It's really just a fancy way of measuring density, and since we know that its a mix of water and sugar, we can very accurately estimate how much alcohol that can produce.

Once you have added all the liquids, and all the sugars, take your measuring cylinder and fill it with your must. Now take your hydrometer, and let it float in the tube. It will sink to a certain level, and you will have to write down to what marks on the side it sank.

The two measurements we are interested in are specific gravity and potential alcohol. From that you can know what is the MAXIMUM alcohol percentage your mead can be, if all the sugars are transformed4.

Write it down somewhere, it's going to be important later.

Once you are happy (or at least done doing alchemy), important step is to add yeast, mix, and close your vessel. Add water to the airlock, plug it in, and place your now fermenting must in a dark place.

2. Fermentation

Now we wait. Within few days you will see that bubbles start appearing in the airlock - it's a good sign and it means yeast is doing it's job.

Cool, now leave it. Add a reminder in 3-4 weeks for the next step and forget about it. Don't bother it, don't open it, don't check it, yeast has very little interest in accommodating your impatience.

In 3-4 weeks when you come to check on it, you will see that the amount and frequency of bubbles leaving the airlock has decreased, by a lot. That is also a good sign, and it means fermentation is slowing down; Either because yeast ran out of sugars, or the alcohol content became too high for yeast to survive. Once there are less then 1-2 bubbles per minute, you are ready to move to the next step.

3. Re-racking

Now, we have our mead in a fermented state: it's full of alcohol, but also stuff we don't want like dead yeast and bits and pieces of spices floating around.

First of all, sanitize the equipment you will use (second vessel, measuring cylinder, hydrometer, syphon).

When opening your fermentation bucket you will see a lot of sediment on the bottom. It's what we are trying to get rid of, whatever you do don't move the bucket too much to avoid agitating it. Like a gas thief you are about to syphon off the mead from the top into your aging vessel and leave all of the dead yeast.

If you are unfamiliar with functionality of a syphon, I recommend your PHYS 245 manual5 Chapter 16.5.

The idea is such: we have a liquid in container A with some height of the liquid $h$.

We also have a tube, filled! with liquid going from the container A and into the container B, with one end submerges in liquid in container A, and the other positioned at height $s$ above container B.

syphon diagram from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, By User:Tomia - Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=984348

As long as the end of the syphon is at height $s \lt h$, there will be a hydrostatic pressure pushing on the liquid, and emptying the container A into the container B.

That is how we will syphon off the mead, from the top of the fermentation vessel as not to disturb the sediment, into the aging vessel. While doing so, also fill the measuring cylinder with your mead once again, and let the hydrometer float in it. Take note of the potential alcohol level.

This is how much sugar is left in your mead after fermentation. A lot of hydrometers will have an indication how sweet/dry such level is, so you can get an idea.

You will now take the original potential alcohol level you measured from your must, and subtract this new one. What you will get is your ABV%. Remember that number, or just write it on a piece of tape you stick onto the bottles in the end.

4. Aging

Now. In theory, mead is good to drink now as is. You will however find that it is a bit lacking in appropriate for a fine drink taste. That is why alcohols are aged. It softens the alcohol taste, clears the liquid, and allows honey and fruit flavors to become more dominant. Even a few months will give a STARK difference.

To help this process go smoothly, when we fully transferred the mead into the aging vessel, we will (OPTIONALLY) add 1 crushed campden tablet for each gallon, to act as the anti-oxidizer, preventing mead from oxidising and tasting bad, and 1/2 teaspoon of potassium sorbate per gallon to fully stop the fermentation reaction.

With that done, you can close the aging carboy with a airlock again (to let leftover CO2 leave), place it once again in a dark spot, and leave it alone for few months.

5. Bottling

Now that you have waited however long your soul could bare, (2-3 months), it's time to bottle your creation.

For this the expensive way is to get a bunch of empty glass bottles, corks, and a corking machine. I can't recommend this for a first time. If you will be doing this more later there is an argument but generally, saving up wine bottles, washing them, and re-using them is both cheaper and more environmentally conscious.

Same as with the Re-racking step, sterilize the bottles, the syphon, and fill your bottles one by one. Some spilling may occur. Watch out.

Wash everything, and store it till the next time you decide to brew.

You are now a proud owner of several* bottles of home-made mead.

Sources:

Notes:

  1. If interested in more do read the Act Respecting the Société des Alcools du Québec ↩

  2. Local/unprocessed is better, final taste will be greatly affected by your choice of honey ↩

  3. In a little bag so you don't have to filter it later, or brew some first and replace some water with it ↩

  4. Generally, yeast reactions die down before that, so your final ABV% will be lower then what you measure. ↩

  5. I am not joking. Classical Mechanics by Taylor, page 681, Continuum Mechanics, or specifically chapter 16.5 Volume and Surface Forces. (there is at least a few in the undergrad study room in the department if you want to borrow for a bit) ↩