Simple Mead in a Hot Climate

[DonMoleon]

Thanks for the suggestion of building an insulated box. Unfortunately I am not much of a DIY guy, and my busy schedule wouldn't permit me to build one anyway...

The best (easiest) option I have is probably this electric cooling box:

http://www.ibrew.com.sg/chiller.asp

It's made by a company in Singapore, the same company that is my (geographically) closest source for all other brewing equipment / ingredients. It's not the handsomest looking contraption, but I think it would do the trick (as long as I don't ever need to go cooler than 70F). It's quite expensive for such a simple setup though (about US$194), and I'm sure I'll have to pay an additional 50% or so in import taxes when it arrives in Thailand, plus a lot for international shipping.

Staying more on topic, anyone have some suggestions for a good fruit to add to my mead? I've noticed a recent thread about mango mead, and there is certainly no shortage of mangos here. There are also lots of other tropical fruits here that I have easy access to (passion fruit, dragon fruit, etc.)

[DonMoleon]

I just thought of the fact that my beer will be fermenting and then bottle conditioning for a little over 3 more weeks, so if I'm going to try this little experiment I need to do it now while I still have a dedicated A/C running full-time (about 68F). I don't plan on brewing up my next batch of beer for a few months, so I may as well do this now...

I'm going to the store shortly and picking up the ingredients. I'm going to try 2 kilos (4.4 lbs) of honey per gallon and probably just experiment with two seperate 1 gallon batches, one with passion fruit and the other with over-ripe sweet mango. My plans may change by the time I get to the store though. There's a couple bakeries on my way to the store as well, so I'll pop in and ask them for a little yeast. If that fails then I'll just grab the bottled yeast at the store.

More to come...

[mike____]

Staying more on topic, anyone have some suggestions for a good fruit to add to my mead? I've noticed a recent thread about mango mead, and there is certainly no shortage of mangos here. There are also lots of other tropical fruits here that I have easy access to (passion fruit, dragon fruit, etc.)

Durian?

[DonMoleon]

Staying more on topic, anyone have some suggestions for a good fruit to add to my mead? I've noticed a recent thread about mango mead, and there is certainly no shortage of mangos here. There are also lots of other tropical fruits here that I have easy access to (passion fruit, dragon fruit, etc.)

Durian?

Only if I want to make the smelliest mead EVER....

[Ozwald]

Thanks for the suggestion of building an insulated box. Unfortunately I am not much of a DIY guy, and my busy schedule wouldn't permit me to build one anyway...

Most places will make the cuts for you. After that it's just the matter of a couple screws, a dab of glue here & there, done. I've got a pretty open schedule, but I do a lot of projects so many only get a couple minutes here & there (my mash paddle is going to take months even though it's really only a few hours of work overall). If you can't, you can't, but I'm pretty sure a 1 armed blind guy could slap something effective together. Doesn't need to be pretty If it wasn't so expensive to ship over there, I'd even volunteer to create an Ikea-style kit for you - open the box, put in a couple screws & done. That's my best suggestion, I hope you get something working so you can at least get some clean ferments.

[spiderwrangler]

Most places will make the cuts for you.

Do they have Home Depots in the jungle?

[Ozwald]

Most places will make the cuts for you.

Do they have Home Depots in the jungle?

For the people's sake, I hope not. I've heard as long as your answer is an even number to the 2+2 question on the application, you're guaranteed a management position.

[DonMoleon]

Most places will make the cuts for you.

Do they have Home Depots in the jungle?

Yeah, we have a similar stores called "Home Pro" all over the city.

I'm just going to let you guys know now though that the DIY fermenting box is not going to happen. I simply don't have the space and can't keep an A/C running all time for it, no matter how low the power setting is. It would be great if my house had a basement, that would probably solve both my space and temperature problems. Unfortunately Thai homes don't have basements because of the high risk of flooding...

In regards to my mead recipe, I went out and bought all the ingredients last night. I am going to brew up 1 gallon with a dozen mangosteen fruit and 1 gallon with a dozen small clementine-ish oranges. I will be using 4 lbs of honey for each, and splitting half of the fruit up for the primary and the other half for the secondary (thanks SW). I struck out on fresh yeast at the bakery, so I just got a regular bottle of baker's yeast at the grocery store, plus a box of raisins to help the yeast get going.

I'm brewing this evening. I'll let you guys know how it goes...