November 2005

recipe

Sand Creek Brewing Co.’s Oscar’s Chocolate Oatmeal Stout clone

By Steve Bader

mr-wizard

Denatured Enzymes

By Ashton Lewis

mr-wizard

Mashing Enzymes

By Ashton Lewis

recipe

Wild Blossom Meadery’s Blanc de Fleur clone

By Julia Herz and David Myers

This mead is best when aged six months or more. Bottle the mead still (uncarbonated).

recipe

Redstone Meadery Vanilla Bean – Cinnamon Stick Mead Clone

By Julia Herz and David Myers

One of the traditions I started early in my meadmaking career was producing Winter Solstice Mead. Every December 21st, I make mead. For many years I would make a 10-gallon (38 L) batch leaving half of it traditional and half with either vanilla beans or vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks.  I would age it two years and then serve it at the annual Winter Solstice party from a special bottle. Serve 3-6 ounces at a time, very cold or mulled. — David Myers

recipe

Rabbit’s Foot Meadery’s Sweet Mead clone

By BYO Staff

This mead is sweet… just like you (awww).  And it’s award-winning!

recipe

Piatz’s Historic Porter

By Steve Piatz

Steve Piatz of Eagan, Minnesota won 1st place in the 1999 AHA National Homebrew Competition in the Historic/Experimental category. This beer was an attempt to create the historic, wood-aged, stale porter from the glory days of the style in London.
— Steve Piatz

recipe

Number 9 (Orange Blossom Honey Mead)

By Chris Colby

This mead is not as sweet (or alcoholic) as a sweet mead, but retains enough sweetness to round out the orange blossom honey’s characteristics. The Lalvin D-47 yeast is used by winemakers for fermenting dry or off-dry white wines. I used the “no heat” method described in Ken Schramm’s book, “The Compleat Meadmaker” (2003, Brewers Publications) and held my breath, but everything turned out fine. In the no heat method, you don’t heat the must, add sulfite or do anything to sanitize the must — you just mix up the honey and water and let ‘er rip. You can add more or less acid to suit your own taste.
– Chris Colby

recipe

Zocco’s Sweet Mead

By Paul Zocco

Paul Zocco was the 2003 National Meadmaker of the Year and 2001-2004 New England Meadmaker of the Year.

project

Build a Counter-Pressure Bottle Filler: Projects

By Reg Pope

Want to bottle sediment-free beer from your keg? With an hour of your time and $30 worth of parts, you can make your own counter-pressure bottle filler.

article

Transferring Beer

By Chris Colby

How to get your beer from here to there without the air. Learn different ways to move wort or beer in your home brewery.

article

Dealing with Diacetyl: Tips from the Pros

By BYO Staff

We butter up three professional brewers and get them to dispense knowledge on dealing with dreaded diacetyl.

project

Building a Weldless Boil Kettle or Mash Tun

By Thom Cannell

Turn a Sanke keg into a boil kettle or mash tun without picking up a welder’s torch. Our solution for converting a kicked keg into a killer piece of brewing equipment.

project

Building 3 Tiers to Beer

By Paul Zocco

Want to build your own quarter or half-barrel brewing system? We’ll take you step-by-step from stainless steel tubes to a sturdy stand for a three-vessel brewing system capable of brewing 5 to 13-gallon (19-49 L) batches of beer.

article

Mead Clone Recipes

By Julia Herz and David Myers

We present 3 great mead clone recipes from Redstone, Rabbit’s Foot and Wild Blossom meaderies. And, where to send your potential medal-winning meads.

article

Mead: From Nectar to Nirvana

By Paul Zocco

Flowers make nectar. Bees make honey…and homebrewers make mead. Or, at least they can after reading our primer on making the "nectar of the gods." Plus: sweet and semi-sweet mead recipes

article

10 Things Homebrewers Need to Try

By Chris Colby

Get your homebrew fires burning with one (or more) of our 10 things to try to expand your brewing horizons.