Somewhere in the city of NY there's cheap honey.

I've never been to a Renaissance fair before, and to be honest with you i'm kind of 50/50 about it. I mean the people watching has got to be absolutely top of the line, but it would mean actually going to a Ren-fair. ANyway i bring this up because today i made mead, because why wouldn't I? Really though there's an entire chapter dedicated to it in my Strong Water's book, so it had to happen eventually.

Of course you need honey, and my mom was like: Flanders A&P is going out of business, sA-Le! And my dad was like: No, Popou knows a place where you can get really cheap honey.
Which, why does Popou know this? And more so why does my Dad know that he knows? There's just so many questions. So i was like: Hey Popou, do you know a place where i can get really cheap honey? And he was like: What are you talking about? And my dad was like: You know, that place in NY. And he was like: I forget, i'm 92 years old! (Which is how he ends every 5th sentence. Also he's only really 90, don't be fooled). Anyway apparently at some place in NYC you can buy really cheap honey, which won't be hard to find at all! But then my mom pulled out this free pass to BJ's Wholesale Club (Which, really? That's the name you settled on?) and we got like 4 pounds for $5. What a steal! That, some yeast nutrient, wine tannins (apparently you can use black tea) and champagne yeast and you're on your way:

I gave Popou a bottle of Heff-A-What! and he was like: Good taste, but less with the, uhh, bubble. Popou always tries whatever i make, and has some great criticism for it. I mean sometimes he's right, but really the man can't even boil water, and he's telling me to figure out how to under carbonate my beer? Alright Popou.

Bring everything but the champagne yeast to a simmer with water for 10 min.

Skim the foam. I'm making a Strawberry Melomel, so you also need 9 cups of those:
Put in a straining bag, and squeeze the shit out of it:
Then wash your hand because it looks like you just murdered someone. Add the honey mix, wait for it to cool, pitch the yeast. I had too much honey stuff, so i poured some in another bucket and am going to make Rhodomel which is the ancient greek drink with rose petals in it, how romantic. Anyway you don't add them until later, but i thought why not enjoy some roses for the week, and bought some today. Then i was all: Hey mom! got you these roses... And she was reading and like: That's nice honey. So obvs she wasn't listening to me, which i would have been upset about if i actually bought them for her, but with the current situation it's somewhat unjustified.
This is going to take like 6 months to be ready between primary and secondary fermenters and a lonnnnnnnnngggggg bottling process. I hate waiting. Also i don't really like honey, so it'll be interesting to see how this turns out. I might be having a mead give away, or hey! i could always sell it at the next Ren-fair! perf.

Anyway while i was waiting for the honey to cool, Harvey decided to entertain me by jumping up on the counter and being all, "What's going on over here?"


I'll just play with some dust:


And fall backwards off the counter:


She's OK guys, she's O-kay.