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Mead Lovers Digest #1434
Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1434, 27 July 2009
From: mead-request@talisman.com
Mead Lover's Digest #1434 27 July 2009
Mead Discussion Forum
Contents:
Re: Gruit Metheglin? (MeadGuild@aol.com)
Re: MLD#1433, 23 July 2009, Gruit Meads (Arthur Torrey)
Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1433, 23 July 2009 (Paul Shouse)
gruit metheglins (Steve Thomas)
Re: Gruit Metheglin? (Wes Cochrane)
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Gruit Metheglin?
From: MeadGuild@aol.com
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:02:07 EDT
Bob _bobtull@gmail.com_ (mailto:bobtull@gmail.com) wrote:
> Been recently interested in the history of GRUIT herbal beers/meads.
> More info at http://www.gruitale.com
>
> I can across it listening to an interview with Stephen Harrod Buhner,
> author of "Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers - Secrets of Ancient
> Fermentation
>
> Have the book on order, and I believe there are some Herbal Mead recipes
> there as well.
>
> I was thinking of trying a gallon of GRUIT mead with Yarrow, Myrica
> gale and Bog Labrador Tea. Wonder if anyone has made something like it?
> ....
Never made one, but have judged Gruit Ales at a
Since you only plan on making a gallon, I suggest skip the Yarrow
(it gave me a nasty skin rash) and make one gallon each using the
Myrica Gale as the bittering agent in one and the Labrador Tea as
the bittering agent in the other.
After you see which you like, think about trying a glass of half-n-half.
If you like the end-product, consider making a 5 gal Metheglin. My first
choice would be vanilla - but then I am a sweet guy.
Please report your results here as I am always looking for unique
bittering agents for Braggots.
Best regards,
Dick
- --
Richard D. Adams, CPA (Retired)
Ellicott City, MD
------------------------------
Subject: Re: MLD#1433, 23 July 2009, Gruit Meads
From: Arthur Torrey <arthur_torrey@comcast.net>
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:14:23 -0400
On Thursday 23 July 2009 12:32:38 mead-request@talisman.com wrote:
> Subject: Gruit Metheglin?
> From: Bob <bobtull@gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:51:17 -0400
>
> Hi all,
>
> Been recently interested in the history of GRUIT herbal beers/meads.
> More info at http://www.gruitale.com
>
> I can across it listening to an interview with Stephen Harrod Buhner,
> author of "Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers - Secrets of Ancient
> Fermentation
>
> Have the book on order, and I believe there are some Herbal Mead recipes
> there as well.
I have the book, and it is a good one, well worth the purchase... It is
mostly beer oriented, but is very informative on both the brewing side and
the herbal info side.
>
> I was thinking of trying a gallon of GRUIT mead with Yarrow, Myrica gale
> and Bog Labrador Tea. Wonder if anyone has made something like it?
>
I have made such a brew for ritual purposes, go through one or two bottles a
year at Samhein... Probably a bit stronger than what you are suggesting,
but...
> My plan would be to make a tea out of ~ 1/4 oz (actually 5-6 g) of each
> herb (maybe steeping the Yarrow flower in the cooling water to avoid
> driving off the volatiles) for the Primary fermentation, and then steeping
> a muslin bag with another 1/4 oz or so in the secondary if the flavoring
> isn't too interesting after primary.
"Interesting" is a good word... I would tend to say that it might be worth
keeping the original intents of this type of brew in mind...
> Amounts based on general rule of 2 oz/ 5 gallons of beer..but it is often
> hard to determine if this is FRESH or DRIED herb which has another factor
> of about 3 for error.
>
> Also perusing Sir Kenelm Digby's Closet and seeing that every herb under
> the sun was tossed into the old Meaths, so I can't see how this can go TOO
> far wrong...heh. Famous last words...
>
> Any experiences or advice?
>
> Thanks!
> Bob
According to at least some sources, "Metheglin" is the Gaelic root word
for "Medicine" - the old records seem to suggest that one of the primary
reasons for making these brews was to preserve the "healing essences" of the
herbs in order to make them available when the fresh herb wasn't available.
Another use was "ritual purposes" such as vision seeking, etc... In both
cases taste was not a primary concern, or in some cases not at all. However
the taste of an herbal mead would probably be better than that of a tea made
with the same herbs - especially if one adopts the spirit of the medical
advice from Mary Poppins, and brews for a result on the sweeter side of the
spectrum...
IOW, I would define the product as likely to be interesting from a historical
or ritual purpose, but would not expect it to be a great general consumption
brew.
ART
--
Arthur Torrey
LPMA Operations Facilitator
Town Meeting Representative
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------------------------------
Subject: Re: Mead Lover's Digest #1433, 23 July 2009
From: Paul Shouse <paulhshouse@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:26:58 +0900
Bob-
My only advice is: Go for it!
Experimentation is how we learn, so even though I don't know the herbs
you're planning to use I can say that te results will be interesting. You
might try this, though, make your tea as planned and mix it into the amount
of water you'd use in a carboy and then taste it. A wet run, as it were...
then take a cupful of that and add a bit of honey. If it tastes good to you,
then go ahead and brew up a batch, and be sure to let us know how it turns
out.
- -Paul
> Subject: Gruit Metheglin?
> From: Bob <bobtull@gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:51:17 -0400
>
> Hi all,
>
> Been recently interested in the history of GRUIT herbal beers/meads.
> More info at http://www.gruitale.com
>
> .......
>
> I was thinking of trying a gallon of GRUIT mead with Yarrow, Myrica gale
> and
> Bog Labrador Tea. Wonder if anyone has made something like it?
>
> ......
> Also perusing Sir Kenelm Digby's Closet and seeing that every herb under
> the
> sun was tossed into the old Meaths, so I can't see how this can go TOO far
> wrong...heh. Famous last words...
>
> Any experiences or advice?
>
> Thanks!
> Bob
------------------------------
Subject: gruit metheglins
From: Steve Thomas <fabricus@hvi.net>
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:17:54 -0400
Greetings to all-
I have made gruit metheglins for several years now; pasted following
is an article I posted to hist-brewing digest. This recipe won first in
category (metheglin) and third overall in this past year's Meadllennium
and Valhalla competitions.
I still make this one, though there are other promising ones I'm also
pursuing--one similar to this, with the addition of a spicy basil and
palma rosa oil, one with an addition of osmanthus flowers. --ST
/Sun Nov 2 10:52:36 PST 2003/
Metheglin with bog myrtle, Labrador tea, and bee balm
Several educated palates have declared this to be an awesome product,
despite its being only three months old. The bog myrtle is commercially
available but quite expensive on this scale; it is also of indifferent
quality compared to the collected from the wild.
Design principle: a mead designed to emphasize a spicy floral character.
Base mead of clover honey targeted at 1.105 SG, 3 1/2 gallons at start
of ferment
All herbs dried; 1 1/2 ounces each of bog myrtle and Labrador tea, about
1/2 oz rose-scented bee balm
Yeast: Brewer's Resource Scottish Bitter yeast harvested from under a
barely hopped beer
Procedure:
The honey is not boiled; the water for the mead is boiled, with half
of the bog myrtle and half of the Labrador tea, for about half an hour.
Remove the steeping herbs from the heat and add the honey,yeast nutrient
for meads (Beverage People), and half of the remaining bog myrtle and
half of the remaining Labrador tea; and add half of the bee balm.
Cool, transfer to a carboy, including most of the Labrador tea and
bog myrtle, excluding most of the bee balm, and add yeast
When the primary ferment winds down to a very low level boil half a
gallon of water and steep the remaining herbs in the lidded pot until
cool enough to add to fermenter, including most of the Labrador tea and
bog myrtle, excluding most of the bee balm.
Notes:
Labrador tea is harvested in flower, in June. It is commercially
available from Taiga Herbs on the net.
Bog myrtle is harvested in fruit, in late September. Strip leaves
and fruiting structures from the shoot tips, preferentially from female
plants. The resiny coating on the fruiting structures is the most
aromatic portion; the leaves have a pleasant aromatic/tannic quality.
The bog myrtle fruits are much denser then the leaves and sort
themselves to the bottom of the pile; use this property to put more of
the leaves in the early additions, more of the seeds in the later
additions. Bog myrtle is commercially available in homebrew shops under
the Brewer's Garden label.
The bee balm is collected in early fall, primarily flowerheads and a
few associated leaves. There are many kinds of bee balm, somewhat less
than the number of mints, most inappropriate to this mead. The variety
of bee balm used is a rose scented bee balm available as plants from
Richter's Herbs, on the net, as bergamot, rose-scented. The bee balm
has a very pleasant aroma, but develops an unpleasant warming quality at
the back of the throat in a long steep. Therefore, it is best to fish
out most of the bee balm flowerheads before making transfers. The aroma
is quite volatile and extracts readily
As noted, the SG is targeted at 1.105 at start of ferment; the mead
was clearly finishing too sweet, so a fairly large volume was chosen for
the final herb addition, half a gallon. The ferment picked up again,
and now the residual sugar is about right. This makes the effective SG
about 1.092, surprisingly low to have residual sweetness. Apparently
the yeast, chosen for its scent of rose petals, is remarkably alcohol
intolerant.
To reiterate the herb additions:
in boil 1/2 hour 3/4 oz bog myrtle and 3/4 oz Labrador tea
end of boil addition 3/8 oz bog myrtle, 3/8 oz Labrador tea, 1/4
oz bee balm
end of active primary ferment addition same additions as end of
boil (3/8, 3/8, 1/4)
Various experiments can be run on the herbs as teas, to predict their
flavor profiles in the fermented product. The general principle is to
use the boil to extract tannins and other flavors well bound to the
plant structures, reserve the aromatic components for the late additions.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Gruit Metheglin?
From: Wes Cochrane <wcochran@tcq.net>
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:06:34 -0500
Bob writes:
"*Been recently interested in the history of GRUIT herbal beers/meads.
*
*More info at **http://www.gruitale.com* <http://www.gruitale.com/>
*I can across it listening to an interview with Stephen Harrod Buhner,
author
of "Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers - Secrets of Ancient Fermentation*
*Have the book on order, and I believe there are some Herbal Mead recipes
there as well.*
*I was thinking of trying a gallon of GRUIT mead with Yarrow, Myrica gale
and
Bog Labrador Tea. Wonder if anyone has made something like it?"*
I made a Guit beer using the same herbs that you are planning to use from a
recipe in the Buhner book. I added the herbs to the boil and did some "dry
herbing" as well. Several people who tasted it like it, but I find it
not-quite-unpleasant-but-close.
Tastes vary, of course, but I saw an idea on the gruitale web site that I
plan to try for my next attempt. The idea is to make tinctures - soaking
each herb in vodka (or some consumable alcohol) for a month or two - then
adding the various tinctures at bottling to suit your taste.
Your idea of making a tea would give you some control over the type and
amount of herb flavor. My experience was with beer, not mead, but you may
want to consider a one gallon first batch. In any event, I am enjoying
experimenting with herbs. Please let us know how the mead comes out.
Cheers, Wes Cochrane
------------------------------
End of Mead Lover's Digest #1434
*******************************
