Sima- Scandinavian Mead To Celebrate The Coming Of Springtime

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Since hearing about Ron's success and experience making Sima, I decided to try that Scandinavian nectar myself. Seems simple enough and in discussing the process and results with him I decided to break my rule, which is to always start out as the recipe says, then next time onward adjust, given that one now has a baseline. I decided to jump ahead and increase the sugar and yeast a bit to boost the alcohol content as well as the fizz. Here we go...

Got the goods-

[Broken External Image]:http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww331/rivet/MISCELLANEOUS/Sima/TheGoods.jpg

Sliced up the lemons real thin, and pared the skin off as close as possible. The thisck white part gets tossed as it gets bitter-
[Broken External Image]:http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww331/rivet/MISCELLANEOUS/Sima/SlicingLemons.jpg

I increased the sugars from 1/2 cup each to 1 1/2 cup each-
[Broken External Image]:http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww331/rivet/MISCELLANEOUS/Sima/Sugars.jpg

Boiled 6 qts of water then mixed them in with the goods, and recombined in the big pot;
Once it cooled to about 85 degrees F I added the yeast
[Broken External Image]:http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww331/rivet/MISCELLANEOUS/Sima/YeastAdding.jpg


I used an entire pack, as opposed to the 1/8 TSP the original recipe called for-
[Broken External Image]:http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww331/rivet/MISCELLANEOUS/Sima/Yeast.jpg

Then mixed it in after about 10 minutes and left it overnight. Early this morning it was fizzing and growling and alive!
[Broken External Image]:http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww331/rivet/MISCELLANEOUS/Sima/ItsAlive.jpg

About a total of 14 hours fermenting. Then I used the strainer to scoop out all the lemons and mushed out all the juice into a bowl, before I threw them out.-
[Broken External Image]:http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww331/rivet/MISCELLANEOUS/Sima/Straining.jpg

Into 1 QT mason jars, each with 1 TSP sugar and 3 raisins-
[Broken External Image]:http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww331/rivet/MISCELLANEOUS/Sima/Filling.jpg

I originally thought of covering each of them for the 2 days of further ferment with a sandwich baggie to allow excess pressure to vent, but then realized that that is the "fizz" we want at the end I would lose, so I capped them with lids, but didn't clamp them down tight. There is enough give in there that under a lot of pressure the lid will come up a bit rather than bow up and bend.
Here we have 6 quarts of Sima. After 48 hrs they will go into the fridge for a couple weeks. Then we shall try them!
[Broken External Image]:http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/ww331/rivet/MISCELLANEOUS/Sima/6.jpg

I appreciate Ron's encouragement and leading the way in being the first to try his hand at this- and successfully, too! he jars smell great and I look forward to trying this ancient historical mead.
 
looking perfect, john! i'm glad you liked the idea enough to try it! :?:
 
Hey Rivet,

Cool post. I have a couple of questions...I have brewed in the past, and made mead too. Isn't mead traditionally fermented honey? I'm guessing this is a traditional old world way of making it? Just curious.

Also, what alcohol content are you shooting for? Do you measure the specific gravity to do this, or not that high tech?

When I brewed, it was always a point of conversation about how much alcohol each brew had...at one point, my brewing became an experiment in how much syrups, honey, malts or whatever I could dump into the brew. I will tell you that I had some reall doosies. One red beer that I brewed I nicknamed DD red, because it sure as heck would put your D**k in the dirt. ^L^

I have all of the carboys, and equipment still...I should dust it off and fire up some beverages too!
 
engineer - i am no expert at brewing, but i can answer the question about the sugar vs. honey.

in my research for this mead, i checked over half a dozen traditional recipes, meaning that hey were actually from finland. all of them called for a mixture of brown sugar and white sugar rather than honey. i even considered using turbinado i liew of both brown and white, but found no reference to this use. i did find a couple of sima recipes that used honey, but they were not in any way traditional, nor did they claim to be. like you, i assumed honey would be the "traditional" way to make it, but it seems that this isn't the case vis a vis finnish sima.

if you're interested, here's the link to the recipe as well as the research i came up with, which would be the same recipe that i used a year or so ago, and that rivet used today:

http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=171&title=sima-traditional-lemon-mead-from-finland

the great thing about sima is that it doesn't require any sophisticated equipment.
 
You know, I've made numerous batches of mead, my last being a honey raspberry mead that sat for close to 2 years before I racked it into bottles. I have never heard of doing it like this, but I must say, it looks really interesting. Is there a site or more info you could point me to? Great post *#*
 
MH -

cllick this link:

http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards...itle=sima-traditional-lemon-mead-from-finland

which contains everything i know about sima. i did google a couple of other sites, but they said basically the same thing.

this stuff is easy to make and tastes great. i definitely recommend shaving the peel as close as possible so that only the yellow part goes into the brew. also, whwn you peel the lemon, do what rivet did and get rid of all the pith possible. too much white stuff and it gets a little bitter.
 
I had been looking at making mead for quit some time. I decided to practice making cheese first. But looking at this I may try this form of it. I have a 2year old bottle from a manufacturer in Montana. I have never had it. I am waiting for a special occasion. thanks for the great post !!!!
 
Hey Rivet,

It's been a couple of weeks...any update for us? I would love to hear the results, as I am completely intrigued by this post...and I am sure other members are as well.
 
Hey Dana,

Sorry for the long time in replying. Been away for a while, busy with work and the new site. Got a promotion and have my own department now and the workload has increased tremendously- you know the deal.

The sima was amazing. It was crisp, fresh, bubbly but not as much as beer. I guess the closest thing would be "hard lemonade" but low in alcohol, maybe a 3.2% Definitely a make again brew- especially this time of year and summer. Since then I have also made a Lime Sima using Key Limes and Regular Limes. That was impressive and strange at the same time. The limey flavor went away (unfortunately. I was really looking forward to it) but it turned int grapefruit juice tasting. Yep. I think it ws the citrus from the key limes that did that. Now I LOVE grapefruit juice so it was very tasty to me. The old fashioned white-grapefruit kind, not the sweet pink-grapefruit juice you find now.

Just last night I made a batch of Orange Sima with navel oranges. They are bottled and sitting out as I type - for the required 2 days before going in the fridge.

I'll keepo you posted!
 
I have never tried anything like this, but after reading through these posts, I'm tempted to give it a whirl. It looks like something simple enough that even I could make it. #:T
 
Man....I gotta do this. Lived in England for 8 years & did plenty of Mead. Cheers! Gotta get off me bum! *#*
 
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