Mead

So for Christmas last year I bought my friend a Mr. Beer brewer's kit at Target because it was $20 and I hadn't seen a system for under $50 before.

The beer - some IPA - was pretty bad, and he forgot about the system until I was daydreaming about having two carboys set up for different recipes. Well, we remembered it and decided to make 2 gal of mead with his system.

Ingredients:
Honey
Water
Champagne yeast

We boiled the water, brought it just under boiling, and then added our honey. We let that almost simmer for about half an hour (usually a bit over) to mimic pasteurization without actually boiling it to remove the flavor of the honey. We also skimmed off as much as we could of what formed over the top. Then we just cooled it out back (on a cold night in Chicago, we didn't feel like preparing an ice bath) with lids, and stuck it in the carboy. I had attempted to get a yeast colony going, but probably should have done it the day before. Oh well.

Now we're going to let it sit for about a month, bottle it, and not drink it for a very long time.