Brewing, the “official” start

I finally followed through on something I’ve investigated several times over the past few months and made an investment in some basic brewing supplies.  I’ve had a batch of honey wheat with a portion of jalapeno ale fermenting in my basement for just over five and a half months now in a borrowed carboy.  It’s still bubbling a little, but I’d really like to get it off the yeast cake and see if I can get it bottled yet this year.

Given the need for a secondary fermenter to rack off to, in combination with having had the opportunity to sample a mead at the event where I received the aforementioned honey wheat jalapeno wort, a longstanding fascination with mead, and the rumor of a local informational session on mead production, I ordered a starter kit and some miscellany from Midwest Supply and took advantage of a buy-one-get-one deal on PET carboys at Northern Brewers.

I’ve also been doing a little reading on meadmaking this evening and wanted to keep track of a few notes from my initial reading, in order to perhaps be a little bit prepared for the upcoming meadmaking session.

• Mead yeast – Lalvin D-47
  • Plus yeast nutrient and yeast energizer
• 12-20 lbs honey for a five gallon run of mead
• http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead/ – site with a number of good mead related posts and some interesting links.