Strawberry Honey Mead....Finally!!!!

For a couple of years now I've tried to attempt a Strawberry Honey Mead with no success.  There was always something wrong or something didn't work out the way I had planned for it to work.  The first time I tried, strawberries were not in season and I didn't want to attempt it if the berries weren't the best quality.  The second time I attempted to make the Strawberry Honey Mead, I grabbed a small package of strawberries and cooked the fruit down into a syrup like paste and put that into tea bags to put into the mead.  The result was a normal Honey Mead with absolutely no strawberry flavor or color at all.  The cooked strawberries jellied and never allowed the water/yeast to do anything with it.  After that attempt I asked my local HBS for advice and told the owner what happened.  After she stopped chuckling she said to get any flavor or color out of the fruit when making mead you need to add equal to twice the amount of honey used for your batch size and you only need to cut the fruit, no boiling, cooking, or in anyway mess with the natural properties of the fruit.  I always use the #of gallons = lbs. of honey method so that meant I needed 5-10 lbs of strawberries.
       Four successful batches of fruity mead later, (...Grape Honey Mead, Pear Honey Mead, Mango Honey Mead, and a small test batch of Kiwi Honey Mead.......and yes "we" sliced 10 lbs of grapes...lol) I was ready for another go at the infamous Strawberry Honey Mead.  As a bonus my Beautiful Wife Heather found boxes of fresh Florida Strawberries at a great price and bought me 10 lbs the other day, and brought home 5 lbs of honey as well.
     Attempt #3 was underway, course this time I'm documenting it so if it goes wrong again someone can tell me why.........lets begin......

First gather all your ingredients...

I like to use the cheap bread yeast.  They come in packs of three pretty cheap which means to packs makes three batches of mead.  Second ensure all your equipment is clean and sanitized.

Next I like to add the honey to the bucket.

Because I will be adding warm water to increase the volume as well as help get the yeast rehydrated and going again, I add warm water to the containers of honey to get every last bit of honey out.  Next start chopping up the strawberries.  I just used a regular knife but if you have a sturdy mushroom/egg slicer they work nicely.

Make sure to cut away the stems and leaves and don't add them to the mixture.  They may have some unwanted creepy crawlies you don't want in your mead.  But add the sliced strawberries to your honey.

Once all 10 lbs of strawberries have been chopped and added, fill the bucket with warm water ensuring to leave enough room for yeast suds/head at the top of your bucket.  Then you will need to toss the yeast onto the strawberries/honey/water. 

Two of the three packets is what I use.  Some like to stir it in like I do while others just leave it on top, your choice.  Just remember if you stir, sanitize the spoon first.  Next place the lid on tight and add vodka to your bubbler/airlock.

Only thing left to do is place it in a cool place where it won't be disturbed.  My last house had a perfect closet under the stairs I would use but this new place only has room in the garage.

Five months from now I will be able to open the mead and bottle it.  Once the sediments in the mead settle and the mead clears, it's ready to drink.  Enjoy!

The Wild Wild West...........

If you have ever been a Sheriff in an old, lawless western town, then you know exactly what I'm going through here. Some of you know where I am and others don't but the important part is knowing that I absolutely hate it here and need to be back home.

My job is simple. Matter of fact most every other career field in the Air Force thinks we are knuckle dragging idiots but facts are we are the only ones given a gun and entrusted to make the hard decisions on when to use it. Back to what I was saying, my job is simple. I enforce laws and regulations. When a cop pulls you over and tells you you were speeding, for the most part you know exactly where it was he caught you and that he should have been clocking you about 5 miles before that because you were speeding even more back there. I do the same thing, only when I tell someone that they are in the wrong, they believe whole hearted that I am wrong. They also believe that they can throw any officer rank and name at me and think I'll crap my pants and just let them do what they want to do. Fact is, I don't give a flying F*@&!!!!

That's my life right now. I had to respond to a call from the tower (Who think we are at their beckon call by the way) about an aircraft moving spots on the flight line. They wanted me to make contact with the individuals, who's aircraft it was, and scold them for not letting the tower know that they were moving the thing 20 feet. I still don't know why. Fast forward about 3 days........whooooosh........I get a call from one of my guys who is very good about doing his job. He tells me that some guy will not and actually refused to get out and do a FOD check before entering the flight line. For those that don't know, FOD is Foreign Objects and Debris, or in other words, rocks stuck in your tires that can get sucked into the intake of an aircraft and ruin it. So its my job to show up, scold the individual who is being dumb, thank my troops for doing their jobs and then try not to pull all my hair out because I've been reduced to Rock Police. And get crap from people about it.

If you were to put up a sign that says Do Not Cross This Gap In The Pavement......Lava Will Kill You If You Do, in the Air Force there would be charred bodies lying about and one cop sitting at the edge trying to stop other from crossing the gap. And every last one of them would say, "But I have to go this way, I go this way everyday, for years now!" An out and out lie I know, but for some reason they still do it. I talked to a Lt. Col the other day who wanted to bring a vehicle onto the flightline, I asked where his vehicle pass was that allowed him to drive it on the flightline.

He says, "To be honest i just stole this vehicle and I have no clue if there is a pass,"

"Kudos for the honesty there Col. but I can't let you on without a pass," was my reply.

He then says," But I'm just going right there, its not really that far onto the flightline"

so I say, "Well sir, park the vehicle right over here on the outside of the flightline and walk."

He says, "Are you really going to make me walk," and maneuvered to show me his rank yet again.

And I say, "But sir, its just right there, i mean its not even that far onto the flightline."

He drove away and didn't even come onto the flightline at all. Baby.

This is the crap i have to deal with on a daily basis. Everyone is special and deserves special treatment and anything me or my co-workers say isn't important and doesn't matter. Kinda makes me feel like I don't need to be here.....I'm done playing I wanna go home now.....

till later

It Begins......

First of all, I would like to apologize for spelling and most likely grammar errors in the previous post. I'm not perfect and even though 'patients' was spelled correctly, I meant to write 'patience' as in, 'calm while waiting' or something to that effect.

Anyway moving on.....

The journey has begun. While I can't tell exactly where I'm going or how long I'm going to be there, I can give ya'll some general stuff that gives you a good idea. First, I'm in the Air Force, and its time for me to go overseas and do what it is we were trained to do. Which of course in my case means ride around in my vehicle and either guard planes or pull people over and write tickets. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be writing tickets this go-around. I made the long flight from Anchorage, Alaska to Baltimore yesterday and it wore me out. Last night was spent waking up every 5 to 10 minutes thinking I was going to miss my alarm and not make it to the airport. I'm a nervous traveler as it is, and having to leave my Beautiful wife Heather and two precious little girls Rose and Brooke isn't making it any easier. I've grown accustom to spending time with my wife and not having to be away from her and I've never been away from the girls for longer than 3 weeks, so this is going to be tough. I sit now at the USO lounge in the airport trying to help the time pass by adding my second blog entry.

Before I go I would like to say....er...write a little prayer....

Dear Lord, protect all those I Love and care about back here in the States. Be with them and watch over them while I'm away. Be with me also Lord God and keep me safe to return soon to my family. AMEN.