Ooh, I have a jar of what was unripened honey (pulled out out of a beehive before ready-- which happens sometimes) and it's fermenting itself into alcohol. Natural yeasts apparently are converting it into mead. Wonder how it tastes. š¤ #beekeeping#mead
@pmonks Smart move. We once had canned beets do the same thing (bubbled out of the bottles months after canning) and I didn't even open them, they went straight to the trash in a plastic bag.
Yum. Fresh raspberries. I donāt get them often because they donāt last. I should get them more often. Hm. Raspberry mead? It would have to be a small batch or Iāll go broke buying raspberries.
@wannabemystiker Ah, sorry, that's right, it's a blackberry mead (misremembered that). Very different color than yours!!! No idea on the taste (yet)... still letting it age.
It was frustrating for me to talk about different kinds of #mead using their English name when speaking in French, so I decided to progressively translate them.
The first on my list was cyser. I went back to its Latin root sīcera and evolved it back to Modern French.
French speakers, say hello to the word cicĆØre!
Next on my list are metheglin, bochet, and pyment.
@phundrak I've never heard of braggot, bochet, or pyment.
Mead and Beer are very old, Wine later and quite old. I researched a lot about food and drink in Ireland 2,500 years ago and the Mediterranean generally (inc earlier & later). Because trade was often by sea (Cornwall & Cork jointly exporting tin and copper for bronze), jars of food and drink (olives & wine) imported to Ireland as well as the gold payment.
Greek writer: "They call themselves Keltoi"
@phundrak Meall in Irish is often translated 'pleasant', but in old Irish was honey. The 'gh' of Magh (plain) became soft hence Moy in anglicised place names, but still harder in lough (English lake).
So legendary Magh Meall is 'plain [of] honey' not pleasant plain. c.f. Israel 'land of milk and honey', though goat milk and possibly date honey (which is not from crushing dates).
Middle Ages is maybe only an hour ago vs the first villages making beer and mead are thought of as a day ago?
Today, I started a gallon (3.8 l) batch of brombƦr mjĆød and a gallon batch of solbƦr mjĆød.
For each batch, I used 1.36 kg of honey, 25 g of raisins, 4.2 l of water, and a 5 g packet of Lalvin D-47 yeast. For the fruit, I used 1.4 kg of brombƦr and 290 g of solbƦr (I would have liked to use more solbƦr but that's all I could harvest).
In about a week or so, I will strain and rack these into glass jugs and let them continue to ferment.