Rosamel or Melomel?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Would you consider this a Melomel or a Roseamel?

  • Yes

  • No


Results are only viewable after voting.

2ndGenBrewer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2009
Messages
153
Reaction score
3
Location
Denver
Hello fellow brewers! I just topped off my first 5 gallon batch of mead to bulk age and not quite sure how to categorize it. (I done about six 1 gallon batches so far)

Here is the recipe:

4 gallons water
1 lb of dried Rose hips
1 tbsp of lemon juice
1/2 oz of Irish moss
1 tsp of LD Carlson yeast nutrient
Lavin 71B-1122
15 lb of Ambrosia clover honey (from the west slope of Colorado)


I boiled the rose hips for about 30 minutes, removed from the heat and added the honey and boiled Irish moss. Once it cooled to room temp I added the lemon juice, nutrient and hydrated yeast.

That was back at the end of Feb. Since then the primary fermented out and I racked it into a glass carboy. It still has a "fire water" flavor but turned out nice and dry and gets more floral notes every day.

My main question is that technically rose hips are the fruit from a rose bush, but in this case there is clear floral notes to the mead along with a "tangy" flavor. Is this a rhodomel or melomel? Or is it in between?

Otherwise I would just appreciate all of your opinions! (And yes I know I use out dated methods of brewing like Irish moss and lemon juice it just how I was taught! lol!)

Rock on fellow brewers! :rockin:
 
Thanks for the correction Yan... I rarely hear of any one doing a "rhodomel" and find that recipes are not exactly abundant.

"Metheglin — Metheglin starts with traditional mead but has herbs and/or spices added. Some of the most common metheglins are ginger, tea, orange peel, nutmeg, coriander, cinnamon, cloves or vanilla. Its name indicates that many metheglins were originally employed as folk medicines. The Welsh word for mead is medd, and the word "metheglin" derives from meddyglyn, a compound of meddyg, "healing" + llyn, "liquor."
-Wikipedia

Hmmm... I guess I could see how it might be considered a metheglin GF. So you think rose hips are more of an herb then a fruit? I'm not aware of the "folk" healing or herbalist properties of rose hips?

Thanks for the posts so far! I learn something new every time I read a thread!
 
Hmmm... I guess I could see how it might be considered a metheglin GF. So you think rose hips are more of an herb then a fruit? I'm not aware of the "folk" healing or herbalist properties of rose hips?

Well, rosehips are a fruit, botanically speaking, and they have a fruity, acidic flavour. In folk medicine, they were often used as a tea in the winter to treat colds, since they are very high in vitamin C, and for this reason too they were important in combating scurvy in earlier times, when fresh fruit and vegetables weren't available in the winter.
 
"And technically, if using rose hips, which are the fruit and not the petals, it really is a melomel in this case, right?" -MedsenFey

That what I was thinking, but with Yen's explanation of the traditional use of rose hips it might also be considered a metheglin. (That is if the vitamin C is still high in the mead) :confused:
 
The vitamin C content in rose hips drops dramatically with drying, and also tends to drop as they ripen.
 
Bingo!

And technically, if using rose hips, which are the fruit and not the petals, it really is a melomel in this case, right?

That's correct. I was at a competition last weekend & Steve Piatz was talking about this VERY subject, of all things.

Mead with rose petals = rhodomel
Mead with rose hips = melomel
 
Mead with rose petals = rhodomel
Mead with rose hips = melomel

This is one of those strange cases of nomenclature that doesn't quite follow the rules. You'll see recipes using rose petals or rose hips labeled as rhodomels. In theory, the rose hips, being a fruit, really should be classified as a rhodomel. On the other hand, the rose petals should fall into the category of metheglyn and should be called something like rhodoglyn, or rhodometh, but don't hold your breath waiting for that change to happen. :rolleyes:
 
Here is my Rose Hip mead month 2 1/2

RoseHip.JPG
 
Back
Top