MEAD BOTTLING!

HOLY CRAP! I've been busy. Some crazy roommate convinced me to audition for Nightmare Vermont, VT's premier theatrical interactive haunted house extravaganza! It's made up of an all volunteer cast, stage crew, directors and managers, and it benefits the South Burlington Rotary. Seriously, check it out. It's not just your boring old spook shack with guys dressed in black jumping out and going "boo!" It's a full production - a scripted storyline with awesome actors, and professional stage lighting, effects, and combat!

Anyhoo! That's my excuse for not posting my MEAD BOTTLING pictures! Mike and Amanda's wedding was AMAZING! There were so many good foods and drinks! My mead got to sit in the same tent as brews from American Flatbread! They cooked a WHOLE FREAKIN' PIG! The Starline Rhythm Boys provided the music! HOW MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS AND CAPITAL LETTERS CAN I USE TO CONVINCE YOU OF THE EVENT'S AWESOMENESS-NESS?! MANY!!

Ok, taking a breath. FIRST. Sanitize and Sterilize EVERYTHING. I find a wipe down of vinegar, then after a few minutes hydrogen peroxide for all the counter surfaces that anything will come in contact with makes for really cheap sanitization and sterilization (Fun note, kids: they're not the same thing).

S&S your tools! I find having some extra vessels on hand for mixing up S&S fluid helps. They also make for good fermentation vessels. Thanks, Carlo!

S&S those dirty, dirty bottles! This took so much longer than I thought. That's 48 standard 750ml wine bottles there that my mom got me for my birthday. ^ _^

See, filthy little beggars they are. Let the S&S solution sit in them for a good few hours.

Guess what? More S&S! For the corks: brought 2 crushed up campden tablets (that's a tiny eeny bit of potassium/sodium metabisulphate) and 1gal of water to a boil. Turned off the heat, let the concoction stop bubbling, then let the corks go for a swim!

Take a plate and something heavy to weigh the corks down so they're fully submerged in the S&S liquid. I had to get the amount of water in that bowl just right and carefully balanced. I spilled water all over the kitchen the first time as the corks tipped it over. Let them also sit for several hours.

Holy crap, it's time to do this. At this point I put the camera down and spent the next several hours racking the mead in to bottles, learning how to use my beefcake corker (also an awesome birthday present!), and generally making a sticky mess...

I paused in between some bottles so you could see the pretty colors of the blueberry. I'd rinse out the scrap of cotton fabric I was using as a filter every now and then, and then after dipping it in the one step S&S it would turn a pretty dark blue...Weird.

Silly me didn't take any pictures of all the bottles! It was an impressive sight. My "mead nursery" (aka the space under my stairwell lined with garbage bags) was PACKED!