Killers By Trade Publishing

Here is a bit from the new story. Enjoy...

     He honestly didn’t know whether it was a knife or a gun but before he could work it out, his adrenaline engorged body reacted. While his mind had been busy trying to work out more than 20 years of unresolved grief and anger in the span of a few seconds, his body had decided to fight. Likewise, His body, being controlled only by a pea-sized reptilian part of his brain, the part devoted to simple acts of survival, had noticed the guy had a weapon. It also remembered that Alan was still carrying the sword. In a quick, short movement, Alan whipped the tip of the sword across the man’s hand, sending what was now, very obviously a small revolver skittering across the parking lot.

     The scraggly mugger lunged toward his lost weapon and into a powerful thrust. Alan plunged the sword into the left side of his chest and then withdrew it as the shocked man rolled away with a cry, wide-eyed as he held the place where Alan had just stabbed him. Blood began to pour through his fingers as he back-pedaled and struggled again to regain his feet.

     “You…” The man was terrified. “You killed me!”

     Now Alan was terrified. He was too shocked to say anything. He had just stabbed someone and killed them. Reality came rushing back and he started to feel a sickness in his stomach. He looked at the man he stabbed. The frightened man had regained his feet and was limping down the alley, still clutching his chest with both hands. He looked at the woman. She was now brandishing the object again, this time at him. It was a can of pepper spray. She started to scream and Alan bolted back across the street. He ran through the parking lot to his car, planning at first to get in it and drive. He saw the towel that once hid the sword on the ground and picked it up. He knew at once that if he ran, everyone would know something was amiss. He looked at the sword and surprisingly, there was very little blood on it. He wiped it with the towel, then wrapped it up again and headed not to his car, but back into the lodge.

Just wanted to send a shout out and give thanks to everyone who has purchased Brew or Die! or Hard Core Tarot. Also to the long-standing Finsternis and KBT fans who have shelled out money for their music downloads when one could easily pirate them for free.

Anyone who knows me is aware that I make shit for money and only write and record for the love of the game. You guys keep tyres on my motorbike and bullets in my guns, and therefore restore my creativity.

Thanks, Arigato, Vielen Dank and Tusen tak!!

Clint

Ned K's War Diary may be moving over to Facebook. It saves me space on the home site and will allow for more interaction and comments. I've split up chapter one into 2 and added a third chapter. There is also what I call "Ned's Fact-finding Mission" (which will be an appendix to the book once it's finished) soon to be posted.

Now on Createspace and soon on amazon.com, Clint's latest book, Brew or Die! features recipes for homebrewed alcohol going back to the Finsternis days when he first learned the art of brewing. Included are mead, ale-mead, country wine, liqueurs, Apple Jack and an essay on Absinthe. Click on Brew or Die and follow the link. Don't forget to copy the coupon code so you can save 15% off the cover price!

go to www.amazon.com and Search for Hard Core Tarot or click here. Note:If you want to use the 15% discount coupon, you still have to USE THIS SITE. Just click on the Hard Core Tarot link, copy the coupon code and click on the cover image.

My next book, called "Brew or Die!" is being edited for publication as we speak. If you've ever wanted to brew your own mead, wine or make all-natural liqueurs, this book should be of great interest. For all 8 of my fans out there, the recipe to the legendary Finsternis Mead is in there as well as the ale-mead recipe similar to the one responsible for the behavior at the infamous pig show. I also include an article on absinthe and some bootlegging stories.

If you've ever wanted to be a bootlegger or just brew your own, this is it!

Clint

For $9.99 at createspace and soon at Amazon and other locations, you can now buy Hard Core Tarot, Clint's first published work. Just click on the link to the e-store. It is only $9.99+ shipping. We did our best to keep it under $10, but we gotta make some money now and then. We are also working on a PayPal option and ordering direct from KBT. If you live in the Dallas Area, you will be able to find it at independent book stores. If you come from the KBT website and enter AUPQ7RYK as a coupon code, you will get 15% off the price.

I am in final editing stages, re-editing, actually of my book "Hard Core Tarot" which can teach you how to read tarot cards in record time. It is written from the perspective of a musician, of course. It was actually finished about 3 years ago. It got rejected by a major publisher in the final stages. Personally, I think it was because I kind of called Bullshit on Cold Readers in a roundabout way. That and I didn't want a purple book with flowers on it. Amazon has a way to self-publish now, so I'm going to put it out there. I wrote it while I was still doing a lot of readings. I'll follow up on this when it's available.

Life after Prohibition- the Lost Article

Clint Love

The Belle Époque

It was the toast of the post-French Revolution era, regaled by poets, captured by painters and inspiring the writers of classic literature. Lord Byron, Vincent Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and Mary Shelley all tasted it. Texas founding father James Bowie sipped it as he sat across the table from the pirate, Jean Lafitte in New Orleans. It inspired jealous envy in wine makers, unthinking apprehension in lawmakers and was reviled by the Temperance movement. The only thing more powerful than the controversy it inspired is the mystery that surrounds it.

It is often referred to as “the Green Fairy”, but it is a drink and it is called Absinthe. It is strong alcoholic liquor, usually 60-70% alcohol. It is distilled of six traditional herbs, most notably Fennel, Anise and Wormwood macerated in 85% grape spirits. It can be clear or red but is most widely recognized as a peridot green that turns to opalescent cloudiness (called the louche) when combined with ice-cold water.

During the Belle Époque, Everyone who was anyone could be found louching a glass of absinthe. There were over 30,000 cafés in Paris alone. In fact, these cafés were the breeding ground for the French Revolution. After the Guillotine stopped falling and cries of “Liberte’ Egalite’ Fraternite’!” had ceased to echo in the streets, a new Revolution took effect. A French country doctor’s recipe for stomach ailments somehow mutated into fragrant and cloudy green cocktail and found its way onto the tables of the cafés and into the hearts of their denizens.

Once the drink of the European and American Nouveau Elite, the wild Bohemians of the age, it disappeared into the underground for almost 100 years. If not for a few enthusiasts, bootleggers and clandestine distillers, it might have vanished entirely. Why this beverage was singled out is largely speculated, but most attribute it to a perfect storm of public misinformation, junk science and political influence.

The Controversy

It mostly centered on the use of the herb Wormwood. Its Latin name is Artemisia Absinthium, hence the name Absinthe. In medieval times, this herb was used as a detoxifier and cure for intestinal parasites, which is why it was referred to as Wormwood. It was believed by some that Wormwood caused an unnatural addiction, often called “Absinthism”, and like the “reefer” of the 1930s, reputedly made one prone to madness. This particular propaganda was popular in leaflets distributed by the Temperance Movement, who opposed alcohol of any type.

This was aggravated by a paper published by one Doctor Valentin Magnan, who stated that exposure to Wormwood caused memory loss, hallucinations and epileptic seizures. His research was poor and his writings were grossly exaggerated. The results he claimed to get from “Absinthe” were achieved by feeding test animals absurd doses of pure Wormwood extract, not absinthe. His tests were the equivalent of injecting someone with caffeine equal to 200 cups of coffee and then reporting that espresso is a type of poison. The British medical journal, the Lancet decried his study as nonsense in 1886, but it was too late to sway the court of public opinion.

Wine and Cry

Until the advent of the Green Fairy, the bars and lounges of Victorian France and Central Europe were the undisputed territory of winemakers. Suddenly the wine glasses were going silent. They were replaced by water glasses, being filled part way with the green liquor and louched with cold water. These common water glasses evolved into “absinthe glasses” and paired with special slotted spoons used to distribute the water, and sometimes sugar, formed an interesting and wildly popular ritual unique to the Green Fairy. The message was loud and clear Absinthe was in, wine was out…and wine makers were livid! In fact, they were ticked off enough to put money and support behind the Temperance Movement to try to get their new rival banned. The new alliance paid artists to depict absinthe drinkers in paintings as miserable, broke, and out of control. They spread leaflets warning of the dangers of Absinthism and Wormwood (mostly using the misinformation included in the Magnan study).

Death Knell

The final blow came with the conviction of Jean Lanfray in 1905. In a drunken rage, Lanfray killed his pregnant wife, two children and nearly killed himself. To say Lanfray was a drunk was to make a vast understatement. His normal ration of alcohol often included up to five liters of wine in a day. The morning of the killings, roughly 8 hours prior, in addition to his normal maniacal drinking schedule, Lanfray had consumed two glasses of absinthe. There was frenzy of attention and under the influence (no pun intended) of backers from the unholy alliance between the Temperance Movement and French Winemakers; judges began to put the brakes on absinthe. By 1915, the Belle Époque was over, World War I had started and Absinthe was illegal all over Europe and the United States.

The Age of Magic and Mystery

Although outlawed, Absinthe was not dead. It was still legal in the United Kingdom, Spain and parts of Eastern Europe. There were still one or two clandestine distillers in Switzerland who made a “Blanche” or “Lebleue” Absinthe, which was white, rather than green to better allow it to be more easily smuggled. In what is now the Czech Republic, “Absinth” (without the e) was being made as well, but it is argued that the Czech drinks bore no resemblance to the real thing. In Germany, there was “Hausgemacht” or homemade Absinthe, distilled in very small batches. Even in America, the bootleggers were busy, importing it when they could and experimenting when they could not.

In the 1960s and 1970s, America’s counterculture exploded with such force that it rivaled the post-French Revolution Bohemians in art, popular culture and social experimentation. Ways to expand the mind were sought after by the new underground, made illegal by the government, and then used anyway by youths who refused to be “put down by the Man”. Making it illegal, to these new rebels, was proof that it was probably fun. It was not long before talk of Green Fairies began to spread.

The attraction, of course, was the mysterious Wormwood. It was then known that the herb contained a chemical called Thujone, which gave absinthe the secondary effect, at least in some, to experience a lucid drunk rather than the usual sluggish buzz of other liquors. The makers of Clandestine Absinthes began to advertize that their absinthes contained more Thujone than others to market to the new quest for mind-expanding substances in the counterculture. Advertising “more Thujone” in absinthe was just as silly as advertising “more hops” in beer. Luckily for clandestine absinthe producers, this had no bearing on peoples’ desire to acquire it. The lack of available product and testing gave the myths power to outweigh the facts. In 1972, a government study was released that compared the thujone molecule to THC; a chemical present in Marijuana and it was sealed. Every hippie in the world now wanted Absinthe. Of course, this was disproven as few as two years later by another study, but once again, the mystique charged ahead of scientific reason. The battle cry was, “If the government banned it, it has to be groovy, man.”

Boomerang

This time disinformation and junk science brought her back into the hands of artists, musicians and other members of the new Bohemian set. On through the 1960s and 1970’s people searched the world and found the light of the Green Fairy hidden in all its obscure places.

By the 1980s, Hippies had become Yuppies and had all either “sold out” or “bought in”. Punk was dead and the shaven headed rabble had gotten jobs or gone to college, dyed their hair black and become Goths. Despite the time’s polarizing effect on youth culture, two defining forces that began in the 1980s and rose to power in the 1990s blasted the drink back from the underground and into popular culture. Those things were Gothic rock music (and its retro-Victorian culture) and the Internet (with its retro-nerd culture).

What Generation X lacked in revolutionary spirit, they made up for in their lust for entrepreneurial progress. The revolution would not be televised it would be digitized. The thirsty subculture had an eyebrow ring, a new haircut and a communication tool that could not be understood by, much less squashed by “The Man”. Where was the drink of the Gothic Novels of old and the Green Muse of painters and poets? Just one click away, that’s where. New met Old, East met West and it exploded bigger than the H-Bomb! Long gone were Rimbaud and Van Gogh but they were replaced by new names, like Johnny Depp and Marilyn Manson. Though the old Bohemians had more talent, the new Bohemians were getting paid, and they wanted the good stuff!

By the time the Millennium rolled around, there were not only clandestine distillers, but also clandestine international couriers (oft-referred as “flying monkeys”), acting at the whim of mysterious distributors, whose only face was a web page on the Internet. It was more than movie stars and wanna-be vampires now. Home-Brewing Nerds and Wine Snobs now had new territory to conquer and they were spending a lot of time and money to add “Absintheur” to their lists of nebulous credentials. Clandestine Absinthe was being consumed in record quantities in Europe and the United States.

The Resurrection of the Green Fairy

In 2005 The European Union did the math, realized how many Euros they were losing in tax money and lifted the near century old ban on Absinthe. Governments did not have the money or manpower to fight the Green Tide anyway. The Flying Monkeys were in full force and the natives were restless in America. The EU knew thirsty Americans could generate a lot of Euros! So could a few people in America. In 2006, armed with science, a ton of money and an intrepid lawyer, a Texas liquor distributor went to Washington DC and made the case for the embattled Green Fairy. He had proof that the amount of Thujone in even the pre-ban Absinthes was not harmful and that the drink was only dangerous to the effect that any other hard alcohol was. For once, the science was real and the court of public opinion was open to new arguments.

As it turned out, the only real problems with America and Absinthe were the TTB’s refusal to allow the use of the word “Absinthe” on liquor bottles and the FDA’s prohibition of the importation and sale of any beverage containing more than 10 parts per million (mg/L) Thujone. Thujone was not scheduled as a dangerous drug, but listed as a poisonous food additive! All drinks sold in the United States had to be “thujone free”, with a margin of error of 10 mg/L, since amounts that small were considered insignificant and inaccurate for testing. As it turns out, almost every Absinthe ever produced would have been legal to import, barring the use of the word “Absinthe” on the label (which the TTB erroneously considered “drug lingo” and Absinthe distillers refused to do without). The Texan and the Lawyer finally got the TTB to compromise, by allowing the word “Absinthe” to be used as long as it was in a smaller print size than the brand name on the bottle’s label. Silly? Yes, but it did the job.

In 2007, Americans got an opportunity to do something they had been unable to do for nearly a hundred years-Enjoy a glass of Absinthe. As of this writing there are more than 5 brands, both Blanche and “Verte” (green) absinthes that have submitted to the FDA testing and label changes in order to reap the rewards of American liquor-drinking dollars. There are even American distillers getting into the game and weighing in with some Absinthes that are holding their own against their European cousins. Is a new Belle Époque upon us? One can only wait with ears open for the dripping sound of the Absinthe fountains and visions of Green Fairies!

Absinthe Facts:

• • Absinthe is strong liquor, stronger than most whiskey or vodka. Ordinary Bourbon Whiskey is 40-45% Alcohol. Absinthe is 60-70%.
• • Absinthe is designed to be mixed with water, not neat or as a shot. It is when the cold water is added that Absinthe releases its beautiful aroma and complex flavors.
• • Absinthe is not any more (or less) dangerous than any other hard alcohol. Failing to pre-judge its high alcohol volume and drinking too much too quickly is the usual cause of Absinthe-related problems.
• • The amount of Thujone in the common herb Sage is greater than in an equivalent amount of Wormwood.
• • Quality of Absinthe is judged on color, aroma, louche, mouth feel, and finish. Thujone content is not a determinant of whether Absinthe is good.
• Absinthe Myths
• • Absinthe will “get you high” or “make you trip”. Absinthe is nothing more than strong liquor. Some Absinthes do contain an alkaloid called Thujone that is reputed to cause a temporary secondary effect, often perceived as lucidity in people who are sensitive to it. Like any strong alcohol, it will wreck your world if you over-imbibe.
• • Absinthe causes insanity, Alzheimer’s disease or Epileptic fits. There has been no scientific connection between the consumption of Absinthe and these issues. People who have attempted to “get high” by drinking large amounts of pure Wormwood extract have caused themselves to become violently ill.
• • You can make Absinthe yourself by steeping the relevant herbs in grain alcohol. Although there have been drinks made of steeped herbs, they are not true Absinthe. Absinthe is made by macerating the herbs in 85% grape distillate and distilled to fine liquor. Homemade steeped versions taste foul, do not louche and might make you sick if you do not know what you are doing. Leave it to the professionals. Besides, you can buy the real thing for less than it would cost to make a weird science experiment.
• • The “Absinthe ritual” involves opium and/or lighting a sugar cube on fire. The ritual of placing a sugar cube on an absinthe spoon, saturating it in absinthe (or some other substance) and lighting it, has little history before its appearance in Hollywood movies. It is believed to have evolved from the use of sugar in the bitter Czech “Absinth” and fire rituals from other cocktails.

How it is pronounced-

Most Americans say AB (rhymes with blab)-Synth (as in Synthesizer). No one will think you are stupid for saying it that way. In the traditional French, it is more like Ob- (kind of like you would use in the word “observe”) saanth- (like if you were going to say “Croissant” but with a diphthong on the end). That is the best I can do as a non French-speaking Texan. Need a better explanation, ask a Frenchman.

Will I like Absinthe?

If you like the taste of herbal liquors like Pernod (Originally an Absinthe distiller), Chartreuse, Herbsaint, or Ouzo, you will probably enjoy Absinthe even more. If you hate those things, it may be a tough decision. If you have never heard of any of those, you need to get out more. Because of the anise and fennel present, Absinthe has a smell common with what we recognize as licorice. It does not taste like black licorice, though. You can hate black licorice and still like Absinthe.

Where do I find Absinthe?

7 Lucid Absinthe the first Verte legally available to Americans in 2007

Popular brands like Kübler (a Blanche) and Lucid (a Verte) are available in liquor stores and by the glass in some bars, like Pirates Alley Café in New Orleans. There is even an Absinthe Lounge in Dallas, Texas. If you go to the liquor store and they look at you all crazy, or try to sell you “Absente” (a fake), try going online. One of the first places to sell legal Absinthe in the U.S. was www.drinkupny.com and they will ship anywhere.

How much does Absinthe Cost?

A bottle of Absinthe can be bought for $53 U.S. and up. If you think that is high, keep in mind that Absinthe is fine liquor. It is not in the same family of the cheap booze that your local bar serves on $2 you-call-it night. If you were to take an interest in fine Single-Malt Scotch, you could end up a lot deeper in the hole. If you are still unsure, hit a bar that has it by the glass and try it before you pony up. Vintage (pre-ban) Absinthes can go for thousands a bottle. That is too rich for my blood, but more power to you if you can get it.

How to choose an Absinthe-

• • Avoid anything spelled “Absinth” (no E) or “Absente”. These probably are not real Absinthe. Spelling matters!
• • Make sure it contains Grande Wormwood (Artemesia Absinthium). True Absinthes will proudly display this fact.
• • Avoid Absinthes made with food coloring, or having sprigs of wormwood or other plants in the bottle. True Absinthe will be naturally green (or clear) and pleasantly so. It will not be fluorescent green from food dye.
• • Avoid things like “Wormwood Bitters” and “Versinthe”. They are nasty and not real Absinthe.
• • Avoid anything from the Czech Republic; it will probably taste like (and may be made of) window cleaner. The debate is pretty hot over whether most of this stuff can even be called absinthe at all.
• • Do not go by price; go for reputation among enthusiasts-The phony stuff can be as expensive as the good stuff.
• • Do not fall for “Based on an original recipe”. All of it is. It just depends on how strictly to which the recipe was adhered how good the Absinthe is.
• • Do some research. Find enthusiasts in your area or online. Absintheurs like to get the word out about which selections are good and bad. They will also help you find an online resource to order it legally if your local liquor store does not stock the brand you want. Avoid sites that focus on hype or the secondary effects of Thujone, rather than quality and taste. A good resource is “The Wormwood Society” at www.wormwoodsociety.org

How to Do the Absinthe Ritual

• • You will need a few things, an Absinthe glass and spoon and a fountain or decanter of ice-cold water. You may also want sugar cubes but that is a matter of taste. The spoon and glass can be bought together in some places for under $20 and they add a lot, so go ahead and spring for it!
• • Pour some Absinthe (1 to 1-1/2 ounces) in a glass. Absinthe glasses have a reservoir or demarcation built in to show you how full to pour the Absinthe. They are plentiful, but you can use a wine or similarly shaped water glass and measure it out.
• • Place a slotted absinthe spoon over the mouth of the glass. You can use any slotted spoon or even a fork in a pinch.
• • If desired, place a sugar cube in the spoon. Not all people like the extra sugar; it is purely a taste issue.
• • SLOWLY drip ice-cold spring water over the spoon (and sugar cube if added) into the glass. Smell the aroma as it fills the room and watch the louche appear.
• • Fill 3-5 parts water to 1 part absinthe to taste. If there is any of the sugar cube left, drop it in and give it a brief stir once the louche is complete.
• • Sip slowly and wait for the fairies.
• • Don’t drive. Anywhere. Period. You won’t want to anyway.
• • Don’t call your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend. Trust me, they will not understand.

Sources for Article-Clint’s own bad self and the Wormwood Society

Viking Mead: The Legendary ?Finsternis Brew?

By Clint Love

The Legendary Finsternis Brew came about around the year 1999 when I played for a Death Metal band called ?Finsternis?; which is German for darkness, gloom or obscurity. Atypical of the average American death metal band, Finsternis sang about Epic wars, Vikings, pirates and subjects that are more rustic than your usual metal fare. We dressed in Dark Age apparel and drank our ale from horns, Viking style. The brother of our lead singer, a guy named Bill had showed us how to brew mead, a fitting drink for our theme. It is the oldest known brewed alcoholic beverage and one of the few that actually occurs in nature. It was favored by the Norse who viewed it as magickal and sacred to the Aesir, the Viking Gods. Indeed, our mead became more famous than our music, as fans flocked around to quaff mead from our drinking horn. A fan of the band, which had heard of the drink but did not know anything of mead, coined the term ?Finsternis Brew?. At a show, he asked me ?Do you still have any of that Finsternis Brew you were drinking at the last show?? Naturally, we did and the name stuck. Even after Finsternis, I continued to brew the nectar of the Gods and though I did some experimenting here and there, the recipe I use now is still pretty close to that of Bill the Viking, as it was passed down in the name of making a better heavy metal show.

You will need Cleaning Supplies:

? ?Scrubbing Bubbles? or similar surface cleaner (find one that is a cleaner and a disinfectant)

? Bleach

? Bottle brushes for .750l bottles and for 5 gallon bottles (carboy)

? Sodium metabisulfite or Campden tablets

? Dawn or similar dish soap

? Lysol or similar disinfectant spray

? Towels to scrub and dry

? Hospital type dust masks (optional)

? Hand sanitizer or germicidal cloths

Failed batches of brew are due to improper sanitation 90% of the time. Complete sterilization is often impossible but good cleaning and sanitation will put the odds in your favor. Other useful stuff would include stainless steel sinks with a sprayer and a dishwasher with heat dry for your bottles. First and foremost, CLEAN EVERYTHING and then hose it with Lysol to avoid risk of contamination. You will want to clean and then sanitize the entire area where you will be brewing. You will want your body to be clean as well. If you are sick and there is the threat of germs, wait until you are well and not contagious. Wash your hands, mouth or any other body part exposed to your mead. I also make sure there are no fans or vacuum cleaners running nearby, or anything else that throws particles into the air. Spores, mold, mites and other contaminants land onto your equipment and cause contamination. Throw the dog or cat out too. My dog will lick some of any beverage it can reach. I am not sure what dog breath would do to mead, and I do not want to know.

These are your basic Brewing Supplies:

•  2- 5 gal glass bottles (carboys), these are your fermenters and are available at most brew supply shops for $15 to $20.
•  2- 1 qt glass milk bottles with caps, used for yeast starters and storing goo (more on that later)
•  24- .750l wine bottles: they must be the cork type and made of glass. I trade a local wine bar a bottle of the Finsternis brew for two cases of used bottles, even swap! Then I take them home peel off the labels, clean and sanitize them. You can buy them but you will spend a lot of money. Better to call around and do some wheelin? and dealin?.
•  2 universal stoppers with hole for airlock
•  Two bubble type airlocks. These let out the CO2 produced by the yeast without allowing contaminants in. I also time the bubbles to monitor progress.
•  1 racking crane (L-shaped hard plastic tube with a diverter on the long end)
•  5 feet of plastic tubing (must be able to fit snug over crane) The crane and tube are for siphoning.
•  Two Large pots for boiling water 2-gallon pots are about right.
•  Large funnel
•  5- 1 gal pitchers (optional): used for bottling.
•  Corker: a floor corker is the best. Corkers you find at brew supply shops for $20 and up.
•  24 #9x1-3/4? straight wine corks, enough for two cases.
•  Steamer basket (cooking type, optional): for steaming corks
•  Cooking Thermometer, the longer the better and should tolerate more than boiling temperature.

Sanitize all your stuff with hot water mixed with 1tsp sodium metabisulfite per gallon. If items such as bottles are dirty or used, clean with soap and water first. add 1 capful of bleach per gallon of soapy water. Make sure all you rinse all bleach away before sanitizing with the water/sulfite solution or the fumes may kill you.

You will need the Brew Ingredients:

•  15lb of Honey: Honey is expensive. Get it wherever you can get it the cheapest. Avoid honey that is pasteurized. Raw honey straight from the farm is best. Filtered honey is OK though and actually yields less waste. I use a blended, filtered honey that I buy from Sam?s club and I have taken the Pepsi challenge with other brewers who buy theirs raw from beekeepers and still come out on top.
•  Five gal water: I use the purified spring water that comes in 2-1/2 gallon jugs. Tap water is a no-no, too much garbage in there, unless you have restaurant quality filtration. I have heard of people using distilled water, but I do not recommend it.
•  Yeast energizer (optional): This is powdered nutrients and vitamins for yeast. You can find it at any brew supply. Your mead will brew ferment faster if you use it and you can add it if your fermentation becomes stuck.
•  Zest of two lemons (not the meat) in 1 cup strong tea (use a family size tea bag in 1 cup hot water with lemon zest steeping in it) this provides acid and tannin blend to aid yeast activity. Cut up the lemon peels small or they may swell and become stuck in the carboy during the first fermentation.
•  One packet (5g) Lalvin EC-1118 champagne yeast: Other yeasts are available, but I like this one. It brews to 18% alcohol and very hardy. Works best in temperatures 60-77 degrees F and survives in up to 95 degrees.

Start by heating 2-1/2 to 3 gallons of water on the stove. It does not have to boil, just get hot enough to liquefy the honey. You can also heat up your honey by setting the bottles in a sink full of hot water.

Yeast Starter

Add 1 pint of hot water to a quart bottle, mix in some of the honey and lemon/tea blend. Add 1/2tsp yeast energizer. When temperature drops to 90 degrees F add the whole packet of yeast and close with a stopper and bubble lock. While you wait for the yeast to wake up you can work on the must (that is the stuff to which you add the yeast in order to make wine). Some people say you should wait about a day. With the EC-1118 yeast, it is normally ready to go in less than 30 minutes.

Some people eliminate this step entirely in mead and wine and the jury is still out on whether you should make a starter and hydrate the powdered yeast, or just pour the dry powder on top of the must and let ?er go.

Must

Pour all 15 lbs of honey into the carboy. Add the rest of the hot water and shake or stir until all the honey dissolves and blends with the water. Add the rest of the lemon/tea mix including rinds and 2 tsp of yeast energizer. When temperature is below 90 degrees, you can pitch the yeast (add it to the must).

You will know when the yeast starter is ready because the bubble lock will be bubbling like crazy. There will also be some foam on top of the mixture. Bubbles in the bubble lock mean the yeast is awake and doing what it does best. All yeast wants to do is eat sugar and make more yeast. The yeast gobbles up sugar, gets big and fat and then buds or splits into two yeast cells. The waste products are alcohol (our favorite) and Carbon Dioxide, which bubbles out of the jar or bottle by way of the bubble lock. More bubbles=more yeast working.

?Pitch? the yeast, which means dumping the whole mess into the carboy. Then cap it off with a stopper and bubble lock. If you elected not to make a starter, just pour the dry yeast powder into the carboy and add the bubble lock.

Top it off with the rest of the water; you may not use it all. Make sure and leave some space at the top of the carboy to allow for any foam that may arise. Lalvin EC-1118 Champagne yeast usually will not have mote than an inch of foam at any time though. Other yeasts, such as Montrachet and some ale yeasts, may cause foam to blast out the bubble lock if you do not leave enough room.

Wort

What you have now is wort. In a few hours, the yeast will colonize and get to work, gobbling sugar, getting fat and making alcohol. You want to keep your wort in a dark place with temp between 65 and 75 degrees F. EC-1118 will survive up to 95 deg, but too low or too high will cause sluggish or incomplete fermentation and even funny smells or tastes in your mead.

The Wait

Most of the actual fermentation will take place in the first six weeks. You will see many bubbles coming from the airlock and sediment on the bottom of the carboy. Fast bubbling would be one bubble per second or less. Slow bubbling is one bubble every several minutes. If fermentation has stopped, the water will sit at the bottom of the airlock and there will be no bubbles at all. If you used EC-1118 and a healthy dose of yeast energizer, you will see some fast bubbling for a while. If fermentation slows too much or stops in the first month, add yeast energizer and another packet of yeast. After six weeks is up, it is time to rack your mead. Fermentation may have slowed (not always though) and an inch or so of sediment will be present on the bottom of the carboy.

The Rack

Racking simply means siphoning mead from one fermenter into another. Your fermenters are the glass carboys. There are other types of fermenters, including plastic pails, but I like glass for the visibility and ease of sanitation. First, clean and sanitize the entire area, just as you did in the beginning. Sanitize your second carboy as well as your racking crane and tubing. The carboy with the wort should sit up high and the empty one down low. Place crane into wort with tube fixed. Create suction on the tube until liquid begins to flow through and put end of tube into clean bottle. You can buy hand pumps for this but I just make sure my mouth is clean and suck the wort through the tube. I usually get a free taste this way. I do not worry about contaminating the wort because by this time the alcohol is high enough to prevent it. As I said before, though, I make sure my mouth is clean and I am not fighting any sort of sickness. Gravity will do the rest. The diverter on the bottom of the racking crane will allow the refined liquid to enter the tube, leaving the sediment on the bottom.

Goo

Save the sediment in one of the plastic milk bottles, cap it and store it in the refrigerator. There is live yeast as well as useful nutrients in there that you can add to future batches for a consistent flavor and faster fermenting. I refer to this stuff as Goo.

Cap the newly filled carboy with a stopper and bubble lock and store just as before.

Clean the old carboy with bleach, soap and your bottlebrush and store it away. Make sure and wash/sanitize all equipment.

The Wait Part 2

You will rack the mead every 4 weeks until there is no activity (bubble lock is not releasing gas) and the mead clears. You do not have to save any more goo, just throw it out. Until now you have not been able to see through the thick, gold covered wort but when it clears you can look right through it and see your hand on the other side of the bottle. This could happen in 2 months or six, you never know. At that time, you should bottle your mead. You can continue to age it in the carboy if you want. Mead is hearty stuff, but it will become dry tasting more than likely. I like it sweet, so I bottle it up. I know a guy who found a carboy full of mead in the back of his garage that he forgot about for five years. He drank it and it tasted great!

Bottling

Thoroughly wash and sanitize all bottles. Hose down your area and your corker with Lysol. Get out your 1-gallon pitchers and sanitize them as well. This time instead of racking into another carboy, you will rack into the pitchers. You can siphon directly into the bottles but it is somewhat messy. I also recommend the pitchers because decanting helps eliminate Carbon Dioxide in the mead, which will make it less likely your corked bottle will turn into a grenade in storage. There are stirrers you can buy for carboys, even ones that attach to a power drill, but I choose to decant instead. I will leave you to experiment on your own with different methods.

Soak the corks for a few minutes in sanitized water to moisten. Moistening will help you get them into the bottles easier. Do not soak them for too long or boil them because it will weaken the cork.

Fill the bottles with mead using the pitchers and a funnel. Leave 2? of air in the neck for cork space. Then use your corker and #9x1-3/4 straight corks to seal the bottles. There are also spouts you can purchase to pour directly from the carboy into the bottles with less mess.

Store bottles in a cool dark place and on their sides so that corks stay moist. Mead can keep anywhere from a few months to a few years.

Drinking

Mead is best drunk from a horn, but any glass will do. Mead makes a great gift and when people try yours, they will want to know more about it. In the Finsternis days, I tried Bill?s mead and wanted immediately to learn how to brew the stuff. Since then, I have taught others whenever they wanted to learn how. To brew you have to be one half scientist and one half artist. Enjoy and Skal!