notbob wrote:
> On 2009-05-20, blake murphy > wrote:
>> On Wed, 20 May 2009 06:47:41 -0700 (PDT), Cindy Hamilton wrote:
>>
>>> On May 19, 5:47 pm, George Shirley > wrote:
>>>> What's the worse beer you've ever run through your kidneys?
>>> Homebrew. I used to belong to the Society for Creative Anachronism,
>>> and I've tasted enough vile homebrew to drown a Clydesdale.
>>>
>>> Cindy Hamilton
>> but is home-made mead any better?
>
> Oh Hell yes!!
>
> My brewing mentor also does mead, some of it 5 yrs old. Having tried a
> commercial mead a couple decades back, I thought the stuff was pretty much
> crap. Then, I tasted my mentor's homebrewed meads and his black/raspberry
> melomels (fruit added mead). To die for! Like home brewed beer, and as we
> all know, just like food, the key is the ingredients. You buy those "kits"
> with the packets of crap and you're gonna get crap. Use the best honey,
> grains, yeast, water, etc, and you get great beer/mead.
>
> I know that homebrewing was a pretty dismal proposition 30-40 yrs ago, but
> now it's serious stuff. The whole renaissance in US beers is due to the
> grass roots microbrewery industry which grew, almost to a brand, from home
> brewing. I've been to more than one microbrewery that has the same 5 gal
> homebrewing system, which anyone can buy, to develop a new beer offering
> before they ramp up to brew it commercially.
>
> If you can bake a better quiche than Nancy's ....I sure as Hell can!.... you
> can brew a better beer than Bud.
>
> nb


I have some crabapples in the freezer; sour and dark red all the way to
the core. I was planning to make jelly with them someday, but we don't
eat much jelly and still have crabapple and mayhaw jellies left from
several years ago.

So I been thinkin' about making cyser with them. (mead with apples
added.) The freezing/thawing should help them release their juice. Do
I need to do anything about all that pectin? And do I add them to the
fermenter raw or should I cook them first? I want the end product to
have a nice rosy color; it would be nice if it was clear instead of
cloudy or hazy.

Bob