Dark Spiced Metheglins

I've been fancying the idea of a Indian spiced mead, peppercorns, cumin, coriander, cardamon. I've found a very nice mixture of these spices roasted in seed form, then hand ground, and would do well with moderate sweetness of a medium mead. But, I have no idea what kind of amounts, or what type must/mead to introduce it into.

Per Ken Schramm in "The Complete Meadmaker", he talks about the earthy aromatic essence of the peppercorn would pair well with darker honeys, like buckwheat. I like the idea of a dark honey, but I would want something that has a much more rich, darker flavor. Like chocolate malt, or carmalized honey.

Anyone have any experience with dark meads? Or peppercorn/cumin/cardamon/coriander used in meads?

digdan said:

I've been fancying the idea of a Indian spiced mead, peppercorns, cumin, coriander, cardamon. I've found a very nice mixture of these spices roasted in seed form, then hand ground, and would do well with moderate sweetness of a medium mead.

Anyone have any experience with dark meads? Or peppercorn/cumin/cardamon/coriander used in meads?

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I've made several metheglins with the spices you list, other than cumin. Although I personally like cumin in Mexican food and salsa, I don't think I'd care for it in mead. I could be wrong and, if you like it, go for it! I've also used buckwheat as an ingredient in a number of meads and, again, I don't think I'd enjoy a mead made purely from buckwheat. I'd think that what you're proposing might be good - say in 5-10 years. It takes strong spices and dark honey quite a while to come around though, as you say, some residual sweetness should help.

Hm... that almost sounds like SummerSolstice's Chai Spiced Cyser - although, obviously, not quite. Using his proportions for a start might be an idea, though.

Edit: D'oh, got distracted and the man himself came to the thread. Disregard. ^_^

5 to 10 years is quite the wait. Has anyone tried using dark roasted malts in mead(braggot) to get the effect of a dark mead?

I've used crystal malt in mead and I found the result quite pleasant in a caramelly sort of way. There's a recipe posted for this one as well - Caramel Apple Mead.

Your the mead man Mr. Solstice

digdan said:

5 to 10 years is quite the wait. Has anyone tried using dark roasted malts in mead(braggot) to get the effect of a dark mead?

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yeah screw that...i dont think the human race will even live that long.

just take 18 pounds of table sugar and ferment it with some wyeast dry mead yeast and drink that trash a week out of the fermenter...