Just wanted to share a couple of meads I started yesterday afternoon. After I finished bottling up a German Marzen Oktoberfest beer, I began cooking up the ingredients for two meads, one a Cinnamon / Apple mead, and the other a Chocolate Mead.

The ingredients for the two meads are as follows:

Cinnamon / Apple Mead

20 sticks of Cinnamon
50oz of Unfiltered, Pasturized 100% Apple Juice
2 Cups of Strong regular Luizanne Tea
5tsp of Super ferment (yeast nutrients)
1tsp Bentonite
10lbs of Clover honey
5gal of spring water
1 packet of dry Champagne yeast


Chocolate Mead

16oz. of Hersheys Unsweatened Cocoa powder
5tsp of Super ferment (yeast nutrients)
1cup of dextrose
1tsp Bentonite
10lbs of Clover Honey
5Gal of Spring water
1 packet of dry Champagne yeast.

Instructions for Cinnamon / Apple Mead:

In one gallon of water boil / steap all 20 cinnimon stick for 15 minutes (this makes the house smell wonderful BTW), remove and strain the sticks from the Cinnamon water (tea).
in 2 cups of warmed water (use a microwave) i disolved 1 tsp of bentonite. ( i am doing this to help in the clearing stages, something i do when I make regular wines, im experimienting so I will let you know how it helps if any).
I poured the disolved bentonite into 1 gal of spring water in the primary fermentor, and then added the hot cinnamon water(tea) to the primary fermentor. (about two gallons in there now). I quickly brewed up 2 cups of regular tea in the microwave, and added that to the primary fermentor. I then added 5tsp of Super ferment to the solution. And then slowly stired in the honey. I added water to the honey containers, shook them up good, to disolve the remaing honey, and poured that into the primary. Added enough of the remaining water to bring the mead to the 6 gal mark. Primary Starting Gravity was 1.080. sprinkled the champagne yeast over the top of the mead after aerating for several minutes, put on the lid and filled the airlock with vodka.

Instructions for Chocolate Mead:

In one gallon of water, I disolved, and brought to a boil the entire 16oz container of Cocoa Powder. You must be very careful when bringing this much chocolate, to a boil. Use a very large pot if you can find, to avoid boil-over!!! I had a couple of close calls. once the Chocoalte is at a low-med boil, after 15 minutes start to skim the gook off the top of the chocolate, and discard. what you want to see is a nice smooth, clear top of boiling chocolate. (not sure why, its is just what I had read in the past, so I did the same). I then put 1 gal of cool spring water into the primary fermentor. I disolved 1tsp of bentonite into 2 cups of warm water, and added that to the fermentor. I then added 5tsp. of the super ferment to the fermentor. Then carefully I poured the boiling chocolate into the fermentor. I added another gallon of water to the fermentor, and slowly stirred in the 10lbs of honey. Again I rinsed the honey containers with water to disolved the final bits and poured that into the fermentor. I topped up to the 6gal mark, and took a SG reading. It was a bit low, only 1.070, so I quickly disolved 1 cup of dextrose into 1 cup of boiling water and added that to the primary. That brought the SG up to about 1.078. I aerated the mead Must and sprinkled on the champagne yeast. put the lid on and affixed a vodka filled airlock and set both batches of mead in a corner of the livinging room.

Last night I noticed some fermentation going on with the Apple/cinnamon, and a little with the Chocolate. By this morning, the Apple/Cinnamon was not fermenting very fast, but the Chocolate was going like gangbusters. I will keep you up to date as they both progress.

Peace all.