Visit the Dungeon

I still have no gaming-related stuff to show, as I currently work a lot trying to earn an extra month's worth of wages before Christmas, have little to no time for gaming, and thus not much motivation for getting stuck in with the minis.

I managed to get another batch of mead bottled, though, and the wine racks in the basement are all but full, now!

I expect my current stash to last well into 2018, but if it should drain away too quickly, I have another two demi-johns almost ready for bottling (and the recently started brew is blobbing away in the kitchen).

Labels

With the labels printed and applied, this batch is finally completely done. The text centering is off, I know, it looked right on the screen; I suspect my printer is shite...

Full Throttle!

I poured 1st half of the brew into the fermenting container with the yeast-starter this morning, and after just a few hours, things seem to speed up already. (I should have somehow turned the video 90 degrees, I know, but I have no idea how it is done, if possible at all)

The Show Must Go On...

And, hence I am preparing the yeast-starter for my next batch of mead. It now has to cool to below 35 Centigrades before I add the yeast. This evening I shall prepare the first half of the honey/water mix so that it can cool over night, and I can pour it into a plastic fermenting container with the yeast-starter. If everything goes to plan, the fermenting process should be complete around Christmas, and I can then siphon the mead onto a glass demi-john for settling.

Another 34 Bottles of Mead.

My hard toil cleaning the bottles finally paid off, and Friday I could finish off my ninth batch of mead by corking 34 bottles for the cellar.

All that remains for me to do is cleaning up the bottles, and printing and applying some labels.

Very soon, I am going to start up another brew (#13), and then slowly begin to prepare another batch of bottles (I still have three more demi-johns/carboys containing about 25 liters each sitting in the basement, awaiting getting bottled).

Time-consuming as it is, brewing mead still feels so rewarding when another brew has been completed and is ready for enjoying!

Cleaning Bottles...

Well, I realized that the batches of mead in the basement have been ready for bottling for a while, so I set about getting ready for the first one.

I already cleaned these bottles, but they had been sitting on the bottle-tree for a long time, and when it comes to sanitary precautions, 'better safe than sorry' seems to be the prudent course of action.

Of cause I carried the mead up from the basement well in advance to make sure that any stirred up sediments have time to settle before I bottle the brew.

I expect to have all the bottles needed for this batch ready tomorrow (cleaning them with the bottlebrush does not take a lot of time, but rinsing them does), and if I am done cleaning before noon, I may well get the brew siphoned onto the bottles, too.

The Brew That Did Go On And On...

...has finally been bottled. I probably could have done so a month or more ago, but the lawn cobblestone edge project took too much of my time back then.

31 bottles of Huscarl Mead just need labels, and then they can go into the basement for storage.

Of course, I also have to let the corks settle in, before I put the bottles in a wine rack down there.

In addidition to the 31 bottles, I have half a bottle left over which I have just closed with an old cork and am going to leave in the kitchen. And then there is the leftovers from the demi-john, which are being filtered as I write this.

The Brew that Just Went On and On...

Fifteen months ago, I put this batch of mead aside in the basement for long-time settling. About a moth ago, I carried it up into the kitchen, getting ready for bottling it - and then the fermentation process started up again!

Somehow, the yeast I thought long dead seems to have survived (at least some of it), and during the past month, the airlock has been blobbing away.

Now, the process has finally almost ceased. and I figured it wise to separate the mead from the sediments, siphoning it into a cleanr demi-john.

As you can see in the picture, I did so this afternoon - and the process left some residues that I filtered to get somewhere near half a bottle of mead, of which I am enjoying a glass as I write.

My de-carbonizer 'whip' needed a go in the dishwasher, so I am not going to get the last bubbles out of the brew until tomorrow - and then the batch is going into the basement for another month of settling, before I tap it into bottles.

The Mead Saga Continues...

...and this time I used port yeast, which gives a rich flavour, but also a slightly more dry mead, if my tongue does not deceive me.

The first picture is of the siphoning process, where I move the brew from the fermenting tank to the glass demijohn for a year of clearing (and aging), before it is poured into bottles.

The four filled bottles to the left are just my 'spill insurance', as I want to make sure that none of the brew spills over, if the demijohn should not be able to contain all of the mead, so I siphon some of the brew into bottles before leaving the process to itself.

As it turned out, all but half a liter fitted in the demijohn, so after 'decarbonising', I could set the brew aside, and go about tasting the stuff.

As always, I also filtered the dregs through coffee filters, as it contains a lot of nice taste when filtered properly.

I really should get another batch started up, but I have to bottle a batch that has been aging since April 1st, last year, so I think I'd rather get that done, first.

Not that I could not just let it rest a while longer, aging only improves the result, and I have plenty of bottled mead stored in the racks, but, well, it will be nice to get that task out of the way.

This is all from my personal brewery, for now.

Cheers!

Yo-ho-hoh!

Been busy bottling another batch of mead today.

The samples promised a rich savoury brew, and I am going to let this batch mature until Christmas, before opening the first bottle.

To the right I am filtering the residue from siphoning the brew onto bottles, and the resulting, not quite clear brew, tastes really good, with hints of beer/yeast because of the sediment.

Couple of days off, now, hopefully time to do some updates 'round here, too...

Busy Kitchen!

After a lot of gardening this weekend, on a rainy Pentecost Monday, attention must be turned to indoor activities.

I am boiling honey and water for mead, while my wife and Lea are making chocolate chip banana icecream.

Yesterday, they made strawberry icecream from frozen strawberries we have had in our freezer since last summer, so they have to be used, before the strawberry bed is again yielding kilo upon kilo of that red delicacy!

More Mead, Coming Up!

About 1½ week ago, I was cleaning a glass wine fermentation container (I simply cannot find a proper English translation for it), while at the same time cleaning some bottles.

BAD idea!

I tipped over a bottle with my elbow, and in fell directly on top of the container, resulting in much misery.

It was not a complete disaster, as I had two unused containers in store, but, never the less, I decided to have a look at the interweb to see if I could find some cheap second hand ones.

And just a couple of days later, I found an offer of
seven containdrs at DKK 75 each (many wanted up to DKK 200 for used ones, which is more than I am willing to pay).

I immediately responded to the ad, and was lucky to be the first person intersted.

As it turned out, the guy selling them has a wife who is a beekeeper, and I was able to negociate a sweet deal regarding honey (effective from the first batch this spring).

I stored the seven new containers in the attic, and went about my business, readyieng another container for tha next batch of mead to be stored a full year before being bottled.

Below is a pic of the siphoning ikn process.

The first time I did this, some of the mead overflowed (the class container cannot hols quite as much as afull plastic container, it seems), so this time, before filling the glass container, I siphoned some mead into bottles to prevent spillage.

When the plastic container was empty, I poured the content of most of the bottles into the galss container as well, bus as it turned out, I had a full bottle's worth of mead in excess, which I shall have to consume (oh, the sacrifices one must make!).

I have had a batch fermenting for 3 weeks now, and I set about starting another batch yesterday, making the yeast-starter.

This morning, I started boiling hte first half of the brew, and I have just now removed the pots from the stove.

As you can see below, no mead-brewing without enjoying a glass of the liquid gold!

The mead I am consuming today is the excess from siphoning as described above, and although is hasn't had time to mature, it tastes very fine, indeed.

I am going to designate the mead I mature for a year as 'Huskarle-mead', as it will be the best mead I can make with common baking yeast.


When I have the first 4 or 5 batches of Huskarle-mead maturing in glass containers, I shall start experimenting with other types of yeast; I have found a vendor of brewing gear that sells various types of yeast that should give a higher alcohol-percentage, and I am curious as to how that influences taste.

That is all from Argonor's Mead Brewery for now!

I hope I have not bored the hell out of all my readers with this, but as the motto of Attic Attack is 'Mead and Dice!', I think my endeavours in bringing this sacred beverage to the gaming tables are well worth recording!

Toiling Along...

I have not been updating a lot lately, mainly because I'm working night shift and have not had much energy for doing stuff late in the evening before going to work.

I have been preparing a lot of second-hand wine bottles for a batch of mead that is ready for bottling.

Each and every one had the labels and collar removed before being washed in very hot water an dish-washing liquid, and the rinsed thoroughly with clean water.

A lot of work, but as new bottles are a bit more than £1 a piece, I save quite a few quid by collecting and cleaning used bottles.

I have a couple of days off, so expect an update on gaming stuff soonish!

Odin Would be Pleased...

For the first time, I am putting a batch of mead on a glass container for storing it to settle for a year before bottling.

Until now, I have only let the brew settle for 1-2 months in a plastic container, because I have been told that oxygene can shift through the plastic, ruining the taste of the mead.

I should get rubber caps for the glass containers one of the next days, and in the meantime I have covered the mouth of the container with plastic secured with a rubber band.

I am also filtering the sediment from the bottom of the fermentation container - the filtered mead is very rich in flavour, and deserves to be enjoyed instead of discarded, and is the brewmaster's prerogative ;o).

It is a slow process, though, as the dead yeast is clogging up the coffee flter I am using - but I guess I shall be able to enjoy a glass of the golden liquid around noon today.

Storing mead for a year sets a new milestone for me as a home-brewer, and I really hope that it is worth the wait - word has that the flavour should become much richer, and that storing the mead for another year on botlles even more so.

I shall need a few more glass containers (I have four at the moment) if I am to have a steady production of stored mead, though, I guess six to eight may suffice, as I am still going to bottle every other brew after a short settling period, to have something for consumption and gifts.

That is all from Argonor's Brewery for this time.

Cheers!

Mead - The Next Level!

I have been acquiring a few glass fermentation containers over the summer, and now the time has come for using the first of them.

Ideally, mead should be stored for at least a year before bottling, to let the brew settle, and the taste get richer.

Up until now I haven't done this, as I didn't have the proper means of storage - plastic containers let the brew 'breathe', which can ruin the result, and thus I needed to get some good old-fashioned glass containers.

Note the stainless chain in there; a good method for cleaning the inside of a glass container is to slide a chain around the inside; it rubs off most dirt that may stick to the surface.

The next brew that finishes fermenting (can happen any day soon) is going in this container, which will be sealed with some plastic for starters (allowing carbondioxide to escape, should the fermenting process have not stopped completely), later with a rubber cap of some sorts.

From now on, I shall store every second brew this way (until all four containers I've got are in use), hopefully giving me some nice results.

Mead Rack

Finally got my wine rack for storing mead bottles assembled. Had to pre-measure and drill some holes in the racks, as there was nothing to show, where to put the screws.

But now I have storage space for the next couple of batches.

As you can see, my second batch is happily bubbling away to the right, and I have started up the yeast culture for the third, for which I'll boil the first half tomorrow.

Soon I'll order another couple of fermentation containers, and then start up the next brew.

I should be able to keep up a steady supply for school reunions, Attic Attack, and overall consumption, when I have 5 or 6 containers, starting up a new brew every 2-3 months. The biggest problem will be to procure enough used bottles, but if everything else fails, I can always buy some.

Sumthin's Cookin'...

I am preparing the second half of my second brew, while I'm enyoying a small glass of the first. Mead is a drink for gods!

10 liters of water, each with a bit less than 3 kg honey, and an extra pot with water to fill up the fermentation tank, should the honeywater not be quite enough.

A fourtnight ago, I made a yeast culture the evening before I boiled the first half of the brew, and it has been bubbling away ever since.

Almost boiling...

Waiting for the rest.

Producing mead is a very easy process, you just have to have the patience (which can be hard, when you've first tasted the results).

Some day, I'll get my recipe translated and put up here, somewhere, for any interested parties to try out as they wish.

Happy Birthday to Me...

This cake, as decorated by my eldest daughter, tells its own tale of ageing...

Fortunately, I have plenty of homebrewed mead to make the day bearable ;o)

My daughters also baked chocolate muffins for coffee, so we had plenty of stuff to eat when I returned from 8 hours of work.

My youngest daughter had sewn me a felt spectacle case for my reading (or painting) glasses, while the eldest had bought me another assortment box for my X-Wing and Attack Wing stuff.

My wife gave me 3 t-shirts, and this assortment of SAGA minis.

• Brodir of Man
• Ragnar Lothbrok
• Maredudd ab Owain (shouldn't that be 'ap'??)
• Harald Hardrada
• Hereward the Wake
• Alfred the Great
• Anglo-Danish Huscarls (axes)

My in-laws gave me this, to store these



















When it has been assembled like this:

This coming weekend I'll be brewing the second half of my 2nd batch of mead, and visiting an exhibition at Nyborg Castle showing one of the world's largest private collections of LotR Trilogy movie paraphernalia with the kids, so I won't have much time for assembly, but there'll be other occations for that!

2014-02-01, Non-Gaming Weekend: Saturday.

2/3 of the day I was busy cleaning/desinfecting bottles, and filling and corking them. 30 bottles of fluid gold + some ½ bottle or so from which I filtered the precipitate.

Happy days!

Slow Weekend.

Yesterday, I spent some time painting and almost finishing 2 zeds, but the entire afternoon I was in Odense with my youngest daughter, buying a lot of stuff I need for both hobby- and other purposes.

I got a can of spray varnish for when I start paointing my first DreadBall team (soon, I hope), and a can of Army Painter brown spray primer for my Mantic zeds + some deck boxes for my Star Trek: Attack Wing cards, and my Pulp Alley cards (the PA cards come in a clear acrylic box, but I want to put the cards in card sleeves, and they don't fit in there).

I also got a vice for my workshop in the garage, and some pieces for putting up light in the garage attic I didn't get last time - and some stuff not interesting in this context.

Today, I spent the morning in the garden with my eldest daughter, moving a lot of wood to the 'driveway' in front of the shed, where I cut up firewood.

This afternoon I had to make another trip to Odense, as yesterday I forgot a bag with a shining new pajama in a store. I also tried to get some machine screws for attaching my new vice to the workshop desk, but it proved impossible to get some in the right thickness that are the right length. Instead I bought a 1 m. threaded rod the right thickness, and some washers and nuts - I then have to saw appropriate pieces from the rod, and use those instead of screws.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on preparations for bottling my first batch of home-brewed mead.

I removed front and back labels from 37 wine bottles, and a single Bailey's bottle:

During the coming week I'll remove the tin foils from the bottlenecks, and though I probably have enough bottles for 25 liters of mead (36 bottles containing .70 liter should do the trick), I have another batch of bottles to prepare:

The weather forecast talks about lots of blowing snow tomorrow, so this evening I'll have to cover my stuff in the garage attic with the tarpaulins I bought some weeks ago.

The handball European Championship ended with an embarassing defeat against France in the finals, so I should have more time for getting some painting done, and updating this little blog from tomorrow on...