Mead Lovers Digest #1433

Published in

· 8 months ago

Subject: Mead Lover's Digest #1433, 23 July 2009 
From: mead-request@talisman.com 

Mead Lover's Digest #1433                                  23 July 2009 

                      Mead Discussion Forum 

Contents: 
  Gruit Metheglin? (Bob) 

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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 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? 

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. 

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 

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End of Mead Lover's Digest #1433 
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