First "In the Brew"

Well guys and gals! Here is my first brew:

Initial Ingredients

2 Lbs Raw, Filtered, Wild Honey
45 Blueberries (Frozen, Unsweetened)
1 tsp Bread yeast
Aprox. 1 gallon of water (tap is fine, distilled, but PLEASE no dirty gross water!)

Yield:

Approx. 1 gallon

Process

I used the pasteurization method here and I found it was a heck of a lot easier than that boil method. I will go into the details of each method later but suffice to say pasteurizing was a whole lot easier.

Put the blueberries into the one gallon carboy.
Bring 1 quart of water to 140 degrees F. Then lower the heat on the stove.
SLOWLY pour honey into water stirring fast enough as you pour to keep the honey moving. This honey is a very delicate and can burn easily. When I say SLOWLY I mean SLOWLY if you have to stop pouring and stir and then start pouring again that is OK.
Once all the honey is poured in bring the heat on the stove back up and continue stirring. Get the honey/water(now called "must") up to 145 degrees F. Keep it at this temperature for 8 minutes. Remove the must from the heat and allow to cool.
Put 1 quart of cold water onto the blueberries in the carboy. Once the must is about 100 degrees you can add it into the carboy.
Here comes the fun part! Place your stopper into the top of your carboy. Then shake like crazy for 5 minutes. Careful that you don't spill any must. This will aerate the must and give the yeast the O2 they will need to survive the fermentation process. Now we wait until the must hits 75 degrees. Once that temperature is hit you can go ahead and pitch the yeast. MAKE sure that the yeast have been brought up to room temperature so you don't thermal shock them to death. Now put that carboy in a dark place/trash bag to keep out the light and wait.....

More on this brew as it finishes.....

Phisto