Right, I have bought me a jar of cloves. One per litre means five in my
demijohn. It appears that my jar of cloves probably contains about two
hundred. By my calculations that means I need to make another 39 gallons
minimum.

Might need a bigger house.

<grin>

"Bob" > wrote in message
...
> "R-D-C" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Do you use the clove for flavour or to clear the mead?
>
> Strangely, it seems to do =both=. I could =swear= it seems to bind with
> fine particulate matter and precipitate it out as a brown dust. This is
> something I've become aware of over the last few years. The flavouring is
> divine; I cannot imagine drinking mead w/o cloves, it is such a perfect
> match!
> Bob<><
>>
>> "Bob" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> >
>> > "KD" > wrote in message
>> > ...
>> >> Greetings all:
>> >>
>> >> I've been in the winemaking hobby since early summer, until now just
>> > working
>> >> with kits from the store.
>> >>
>> >> This time of year, my wine supply shop offers two 'kits' of fresh
>> >> ingredients and all the yeast, etc. that you need. They had to be
>> >> pre-ordered; the options were fresh pressed apple juice for apple
>> > wine/hard
>> >> cider, as well as fresh Nova Scotia honey to make mead.
>> >>
>> >> I went the apple wine route, and it's bubbling along nicely, just
> started
>> > it
>> >> about six days ago. I do enjoy wine, so I'm quite certain I'll like an
>> > apple
>> >> one. I was tempted to purchase one of their mead 'kits' as well, but
>> >> hesitated - mostly because I don't know what it tastes like and I
> didn't
>> >> want to be stuck with 23 litres of something I didn't like. Liquor
> stores
>> >> here don't carry anything close to it for me to try.
>> >>
>> >> So, who would like to take a try at describing a basic mead?
>> >
>> > Describe mead????
>> > Ummmmm........
>> > Indescribably delicious!
>> > I generally use about 7kg for a 23 litre batch, pure clover honey;
>> > ferment til ALL bubbling in the airlock ceases (can take a year), then
>> > sulfite it with campden tablets. When the tablets are completely
>> > dissolved,
>> > and the mead is perfectly clear and still not bubbling (another couple
>> > months) I rack it into a clean carboy and add sorbate/sodium benzoate,
> and
>> > also one clove per litre. After a few months the cloves will have
> swelled
>> > up
>> > and sunk to the bottom, leaving a clear mead with a dusting of brown on
>> > the
>> > bottom of the carboy. Bottle it at this point, sit back and enjoy how
>> > clever
>> > you are! :-)
>> > My last few batches of mead have taken the following time to brew
>> > and
>> > bottle:
>> > 13 months
>> > 15 months
>> > 16 months
>> > I am working on one right now that was brewed 3/23/04, and I am
> trying
>> > to hurry it up in time for Christmas, but that is going to be hard....
>> > Wish
>> > me luck!
>> > Bob<><
>> >
>> >>
>> >> Thanks,
>> >>
>> >> KD
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
>