Source: Sir Kenelme Digbie, updated by Michael Tighe
Mead Lover's Digest #211, 21 September, 1993
Ingredients:
- 10 lbs honey
- Citrus peel (about ¾ the skin of one orange)
- Sliced ginger (about the size of a thumb)
- Yeast
Directions:
- Make a basic mead with 2 lbs of honey per gallon. Use a clover honey or a light wildflower honey for this recipe. Just before taking the must off the boil, add a small amount of sliced ginger (about the size of one's thumb for a 5-gallon batch) and then add the thinnest peel of orange skin (about ¾ of the skin of the orange). Be careful not to get the white pith of the skin—it leaves a bitter/soapy aftertaste.
- Let it cool naturally about ¾ hour (longer for larger batches) and then remove the ginger and orange peel. Put in a carboy to cool, then add yeast and let it go for three to six weeks (I usually let it go till it starts to clear). Bottle, let sit for another week or two (to charge the bottles) and then chill and serve.
Notes:
I've made this with lemon peel or grapefruit peel instead of orange peel, and all taste great! If you use orange blossom honey, use orange peel rather than some other citrus fruit—it really enhances the flavor! Grapefruit is the strongest flavor, and the most likely to be bitter/harsh, so use less of it than for orange or lemon. Leave some of the ginger and the skin in the must during fermentation for stronger flavor.
Use less ginger and less citrus skin for the first batches, and then increase the amounts till you get the exact flavor you want. (One friend used a pound of ginger per gallon! And he liked it!)
The slow-cool method (rather than using a chiller) is supposed to be part of what makes the flavor great.
I prefer mead yeasts if possible, but champagne or general purpose wine yeast works fine. This should create a slightly sweet mead with an alcohol content of three or four percent.
Dave's Notes:
Clayton Cone from Lallemand got asked about putting orange (or other citrus zest) into mead, and he pointed out that The substance involved is d-limonine, one of the oils present in orange peel. It kills micro-organisms. Including yeast. The zest of one citrus fruit per liter of must is definitely enough to kill yeast.
After much discussion on the Mead Lover's Digest, we figured that best practice was to add the citrus zest late in fermentation (you can freeze it after you take it off the fruit when initially making your mead), when you've reached the point of not being certain if the fermentation is complete or not. But if you are looking to bottle-carbonate, be aware that a lot of zest may prevent the yeast from carbonating the mead in the bottles, and you may end up with a sweet mead, rather than a bubbly one.
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Float like a butterfly, Sting like a bee
Source: Microburst Brewery (Forrest Cook and Jon Corbet)
Mead Lover's Digest #123, 1 May, 1993
Ingredients (for 7 gallons):
- 9 lbs of mesquite honey from Tempe, AZ
- 2 tbsp gypsum to harden up the water a bit
- 4-ounce bottle of Madagascar vanilla extract
Directions:
- Vanilla extract added after the must cooled.
- The unfermented beverage tasted great, it's been bubbling away for over a month. I don't know how many vanilla beans are in one bottle, but I've heard that they are rather potent.
Notes:
The inspiration for this recipe came from a mead that was poured at the Beer and Steer, a large outdoor homebrewers party held in Colorado occasionally.
As this mead has aged, the vanilla flavor has become more pronounced. For the next batch, we will probably increase the vanilla extract to 6 oz. At nine months the flavor is still improving, I project that it will be incredible at eighteen months—if there is any left.
Dave's Notes:
I made a mead based on this recipe, except I went nuts with the vanilla. I had a 16 oz bottle of Mexican vanilla extract, and I put in the whole thing. I don't think it was too much vanilla, and most people agreed. The other major change was that I used a real dark “wildflower blend” of honey, which balanced the strong vanilla flavor nicely.
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Source: John (The Coyote) Wyllie
Mead Lover's Digest #214, 24 September, 1993
Ingredients:
- 7 lb Clover Honey
- 6 (medium) grapefruit
- 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
- Dash of acid blend
- ½ oz cascade hops (used as finishing hops)
- 1 tbsp pectic enzyme
- 1 tbsp sparkalloid
- Champagne yeast
Directions:
- Mix honey into a couple gallons heated water.
- Bring to a boil.
- Skim scum.
- Grate peel from grapefruits and juice them.
- Add peel, hops and acid blend to boil.
- Add juice when heat goes off.
- Cool by adding cold water.
- Pitch yeast.
- Ferment for a month.
- Rack to secondary.
- Add pectic enzyme and sparkalloid.
- Ferment until done
- Rack again, and bottle with ¾ cup corn sugar.
Notes:
It was a grapefruit melomel mead brewed in Feb, `92. I didn't take gravity readings, but it was a pretty light mead. It was bottled maybe two or three months later. After a month or two in the bottle it had carbonated, but smelled like vomit. Had a sour citrusy aftertaste. Not pleasant.
I put it away for a long time, and a year later it was clear, sparkling, and smelled nicely citrus. The pukey smell had cleared. It did taste like grapefruit, but more gently so. It may have been a bit too acid. A nice champagne-like presentation. You could even make raisin submarines in it. (If you've never tried this, drop a wrinkly raisin in a glass of clear sparkly mead, and be amazed!!! Fun for the whole family! Up and down!) The take-home lesson here was: age is a good thing. Be patient! Some meads are very harsh young, but can age beautifully, and become quite enjoyable.
Dave's Notes:
See also my notes from the Citrus Mead in which I discuss how citrus zest can kill yeast and stop a fermentation.
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Source: Guy McConnell
Ingredients:
- 6 lb clover honey
- 1 lb orange blossom honey
- 1.5 lb corn sugar
- 2 oz fresh, minced ginger root
- 3 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 tsp yeast extract
- 1 gal fresh blueberries
- 2 lemons, halved
- Wyeast #1214 Belgian Ale Yeast
- 0.5 cup orange blossom honey (bottling)
Directions:
- Put honey, corn sugar, and yeast extract in brewpot with water.
- Simmer for 10 minutes, skimming foam with kitchen strainer.
- Add ginger root and simmer for 10 more minutes without skimming.
- Remove from heat, squeeze in lemons, and throw into brewpot.
- Cover and let stand for 15 minutes.
- Strain out lemon halves and ginger.
- Add blueberries, chill, pour mixture (blueberries and all) into primary fermenter, and pitch yeast.
- After 7 days, rack off of fruit into secondary and age for one to two months.
- When fermentation is complete, prepare a `tea' by simmering cinnamon and honey in water for 15 minutes in a covered pot.
- Cool, add to bottling bucket, and quietly siphon in must.
- Bottle and age for a couple of months or so.
Notes:
This makes a nice, light, sparkling beverage that is a brilliantly clear rose-purple color. The flavor is of blueberries kissed with cinnamon. A wonderful change of pace for a summer drink at about 5% alcohol by weight.
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