Thanks Serenity for the recipe, I may have a go at it, but not sure I could
bear the hangover!

Regards, Aileen

"Serenity" serenity@nospamserenitynyespam off.fslife.co.uk wrote in
message ...
Here's the recipe I found.

Strawberry Rhubarb Mead
Ingredients:
1 gallon water3 lbs. honey4 cups chopped rhubarb1 qt. strawberrys2 packets
of ale/beer yeastProcedu
Meads are not frightening things to make. Actually, they are deceptivly
easy. The only thing to keep in mind is that EVERYTHING needs sterilizing.
Wash out/off all the utensils, pots, tubing, spoons, bottles, and
containers
with a good sanitizer. B-Br te is a good commercial brand. The second rule
of mead is that anything you wash with your sanitizer needs to be very
well
rinsed afterwards with fresh water (no one likes a case of the runs, if
you
know what i mean). Keeping in mind these two rules, the est is easy:

Boil the honey with 1/2 of the water

As the honey begins to foam, skim the surface with a fine mesh strainer
until no more foam bubbles up. Make sure you get the bulk of this, but by
no
means be fanatical about it. You do have other things to do.

Mash up the strawberrys and the rhubarb chuncks and put them in the bottom
of your plastic brewing bucket. 4: Put the boiled honey in the bucket
along
with the other 1/2 gallon of water.

Let this mixture cool, as the hot honey will surely kill the yeast.

When the mix is cool (about 85 degrees or therebouts), add your yeast.
PLEASE!!! In the name of all that is good and culinary! Please dont use
bread yeast!!! This is NOT the same stuff. Dont send a bread yeast to do a
beer or ale yeast's job It WILL NOT WORK!!! At this point, cover your
bucket and put an air lock on top and put it someplace that wont be
disturbed.

When the air lock slows down to bubbling once every 30 seconds or so, your
mead is just about done. This part of the brewing process takes anywhere
from three weeks to two months depending on your climatic conditions. You
can, when you think it might e done, remove the airlock sanitize and rinse
off a straw, and put the straw through the airlock hole for a taste to see
if it's done. You will want to bottle it when the honey sweetness is all
gone.

When it comes time to bottle this wonderous elixier, sanitize a bunch of
plastic soda bottles. This will make about a gallon of mead so clean as
many
bottles and caps as necessary. Sanitize and rinse a piece of pvc tubing
(the
hose kind that you can et at your local hardware store). Now comes the fun
part. Invite your favorite person over to help you fill the bottles. You
want to get as much of the mead out as possible without getting any of the
pulp mixed in. Strain the mead through a big strain r or collender (that
has
been sanitized and rinsed) and into another bucket or pot. Take the pvc
tubing and create a vaccume type affair (you remember from sixth grade
science putting the bucket on the table and all of your bottles on the
floor... if you dont remember, e-mail me and i'll explane it.) and syphon
your mead into bottles. This really does work best with another person to
help, but it can be done with one.

Put your freshly bottled mead in the refrigerator for about a week (if you
can stand to wait that long). The result is more than worth the effort put
in. You cannot buy anything that compares to this on the market. Really.