Garlic Mead or Sage Mead?

Matrix4b · 12-10-2008, 02:15 PM

I recently heard about this and heard that garlic mead was very good. Has anyone tried this or made this? It sounds like it might not taste good but someone I talked to said it was great. Just wondering. I was thinking on doing a Sage mead but have no recipies and have not been able to find a garlic mead recipie.

tooomanycolors · 12-10-2008, 04:18 PM

hey this is a good way to get insight for a recipe...

anyway this is what I would try for garlic, 5 gallons
15# clover honey, I wouldnt use anything great for this one
water to fill to 5 gallons
8-15 garlic cloves, prepare these by cutting them lengthwise but not all the way through just think of scoring them
71B or D-47 for your yeast, just one pack

ferment this all in a primary then rack after about 3-4 months at this point your fermentation should be done, but check and do all the sciency parts. Once it is done in primary rack to secondary and remove the garlic. At this point taste it and ask yourself, does it taste like garlic? Do I like the taste? Should I add some basil? How is the sweetness?

OK on the basil one, understand I am in a boring class right now and I like basil with my garlic.

**BigKahuna** · 12-10-2008, 04:23 PM

Me thinks this is going to make a great liquid to deglaze the pan after browning chicken for Chicken Alfredo!

As for a glass of it.....Blech!

zonchar · 12-10-2008, 04:29 PM

the idea of garlic mead raised my interest and i did a quick search online in English and in Russian (I'm bi-lingual) anyhow... this is the only thing that might be interesting:

Spice Pages: Bear's Garlic (Allium ursinum, ramson)

If nothign else this makes for an interesting read.

Matrix4b · 12-10-2008, 06:30 PM

Um, Yeah that would be a LOT of garlic. I was thinking maybe one clove for a 5-6 gallon batch. Relying on everything that I heard about spices getting more potent in the alcohol extraction process. Possibly putting it in the primary even to alter the flavor a bit more. One clove or about 4 oz of chopped should be sufficient but I was just wondering if anyone tried it and can report on it as I think that Garlic is a microb killer, or an astringinte. Ak, my spelling is way off but you get my meaning.

petes · 12-10-2008, 06:36 PM

My taste buds aren't imaginative enough for this.
But, I do have a very large sage growing right next to my brew shed door and I've some idle honey, so will watch this with interest.

MattTheBlack · 11-29-2009, 12:01 AM

I always think a 1 gallon jug is perfect for experiments like this. Small batches, low cost, and if you don't like it . . . well, you feel way less guilty about tossing it out. Matrix, depending on where you are, can you get something like a Santa Cruz apple cider jug? That's what I use when I feel like fermenting something wacky that I don't want to occupy my regular brew system. I've got 4-5 of them (though rarely more than a couple in use) and if you get the right sized bung to put your airlock on they work really well.

jcobbs · 11-29-2009, 04:01 AM

As much as I like garlic, I can't imagine a garlic mead. Sage, on the other hand, sounds like it could be quite nice. I know there is such a thing as sage honey, so I imagine a sage mead would be a wonderful cooking liquid and probably nice to drink as well....

Kauai_Kahuna · 11-29-2009, 04:33 AM

I also have to say, I like garlic, but in a mead.....
Let's say ginger is about as far as I think I can go, and even then in small quantities.

Llysse · 01-12-2010, 05:11 PM

I'm not an expert on mead, by any means... but if you decide to do this, you might consider using roasted rather than raw garlic. Roasted garlic is very sweet--the starches have converted to sugars, and the flavor is much softer, smooth and buttery, even nutty. I can't exactly imagine it, but intellectually it seems like those flavors would work better with a mead.