Proof Reads

 By Caleb Malcom

Misadventures in mead-making

Mankind for all of our known history has loved alcohol. We have consumed it in any form that we can and majority of people greatly enjoy its consumption. For some it can be also very pleasurable in making your own. It also can become messy and highly entertaining to create your own alcohol.

I am an amateur wine and mead maker. It is an entertaining hobby to have, yet sometimes it can be messy, tedious, and explosive. I had read many times about various mistakes and accidents people have had and tried my best to learn from these mishaps. Yet sometimes I get a little impatient.

My focus is meads. Now there are as many kinds, maybe more, of meads as there are of wines and beers combined. You can see some of the varieties at Wikipedia. I was attempting my first braggot. The basic braggot is honey, water, and malt. The malt can be extract, malted grains, or malt powder. I was using the malt powder.

I did my research before I started and read about others mistakes. I prepped my batch pitched the yeast, but did not put an airlock on it at first. Instead I rubber banded, a very fine mesh cloth double layered, over the opening. This I let rest for a couple of days before putting the stopper and airlock on the carboy. I remember I put the airlock on right before I went to work.

The same day on my way to work I was involved in a car wreck that destroyed my car. Wasn’t my fault but it was the first wreck I had ever been in and shook me up a lot. My girlfriend picked me up and I didn’t go to work that day. We went out for breakfast and a movie instead. I believe we went to see Book of Eli.

After that she took me back to my place. As soon as we stepped in the apartment I was hit with an overwhelming smell of fermentation. I immediately went to the bathroom. (You see I had the presence of mind to stick the batch in the bathroom just in case there were issues.) I stepped in and had to stand there shaking my head. It had exploded coating the ceiling, walls, and mirror.

The floor was clean of the mess thanks to my two dogs.

You see using malt powder you have to be careful. There are certain solids that the yeast cannot break down in the fermentation process. These solids get pushed up. Well I thought I had made it past the most aggressive part of that. I was wrong. The solids were pushed up until they clogged the airlock. At this point it built up gases. Enough pressure built that it blew off the airlock, which from the looks of everything had hit the ceiling, and coated everything in the must.

So if you go out to make your own, make sure to be careful. You never know what kind of mess you’ll have to clean up later.