Strawberry Rhubarb Mead

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 rest 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. 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. 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 be 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, 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 get at your local hardware store). 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 strainer or collander (that has been sanitized and rinsed) and into another bucket or pot. Take the pvc tubing and create a vacuum type affair (you remember from sixth grade science putting the bucket on the table and all of your bottles on the floor 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.