For the last two or three years Rollo (Matt the Nalbinder) has been bribing me, taunting me and basically doling his meade out like crack. "First hit is free" as they say, but then he expects me to learn how to make it myself! Damn SCA people always trying to teach me shit. Just gimme the booze! (BIG grin!) Well as we began this new lesson I discovered there is lots of hydrokepoplating and scientific measuring and specific gravities-- stuff that is NOT conducive to my left brain ways. I handed this one off to Pete. He seems to be doing pretty good with the sausage. The boys let me smash up the spice stuff; that was fun. We used fresh ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Here's what it looked like after I was finished hammering the nutmeg to death.
Again we need smello-vision. We boiled water and honey and ate olives and salami. Then we waited and waited and waited, we made kafta pita sandwiches and waited some more. We watched What's eating Gilbert Grape? and waited some more, Not a really exciting process this vinting thing...we need the hotwort 
to cool to between 70F and 80F. This morning it was only 79. So when Petey gets back from his doctor class this morning he can add the yeast. Special test tube yeast...oohhStay tuned for updates on the meading.
