Steeping Grains in Mead

Hey All,

So I had an interesting thought the other day, and am not sure if I'm just plain stupid, or if this might actually be worth looking into. I was considering doing a mead, but prior to adding the honey to the water, heating it up to ~150°F and steeping 1-2lbs of specialty malt first. Has anyone tried this? If so, which malts did you use? Was thinking a dark, slightly roasty mead might be interesting, but not sure I want to spend the time or energy if someone has tried it and dumped it all down the drain.

Cheers!

Go for it. It's a style of mead known as a braggot. I don't see any reason why not to use those grains, so long as you like the style of beer they are used in (I'm not a beer drinker, so can't really help there)...

Because you'll be heating the hell out of something that doesn't need i.e. the honey.

Give it a go but just do the heating of the water and malt, then add the honey when cooled and stir well then pitch yeast.......

If you do add grains you have mashed the resulting liquid, with or without honey, should be boiled to kill any undesirable stuff from the grains. A pile of spent grain goes south quick.

To clarify a few points...I'm not sure I'd put what the OP is considering in the category of braggot, as steeping specialty grains is not really going to contribute any fermentables -- braggot implies that a significant portion of the OG is actually coming from barley or other grain source as opposed to the honey. I'd almost consider the idea more of a "barley metheglin," if you will; ie, only flavor and color is coming from the grain. Also, strictly speaking, many specialty grains (particularly the darker, roasty ones) don't need to be mashed; in fact, some recipes advocate cold steeping certain dark grains rather than mashing them. However, brewingmeister brings up a very good point -- malted barley is rich in lactobacillus, and potentially other spoilage organisms, and even if you were to cold steep the grains, I'd strongly consider boiling then cool the liquid before adding the honey and proceeding with fermentation.

Overall, though, it sounds like a pretty cool idea...hope you try it and report back...

Thanks for the feedback all! I think I'm going to give this a go in a couple weeks when time allows. I'll let you know the recipe and will try to take a few pictures as well. I'll most likely do a three gallon batch to start. Will use around a half pound to a pound of steeping malts, will bring to a 5 minute boil, will then recirculate through my counterflow chiller and will add the honey at around 100, while continuing to bring it down to pitch.

Will keep you all posted, cheers!

Jipper said:

Thanks for the feedback all! I think I'm going to give this a go in a couple weeks when time allows. I'll let you know the recipe and will try to take a few pictures as well. I'll most likely do a three gallon batch to start. Will use around a half pound to a pound of steeping malts, will bring to a 5 minute boil, will then recirculate through my counterflow chiller and will add the honey at around 100, while continuing to bring it down to pitch.

Will keep you all posted, cheers!

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I'm curious as to whether you ever got around to trying this and if so, how it turned out.

Hi there. I am also curious how it turned out. Thanks!


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apologies if I appear to have hijacked this (old) thread but I am planning on making a gallon of a very similar mead in the next few days - using meadowfoam honey (about 2.5 lbs) with about 4 oz of Special B grain and simcoe hops. My plan is to steep the grains in warm water (about 150F) for about 30 minutes then remove the grains and bring the liquid to a boil. Add 1/2 oz of Simcoe and boil 15 minutes. Cool to room temperature and mix honey. Pitch 71B yeast and add nutrient then after about 7 days add 1/2 oz of simcoe hops. Rack after about 10- 14 days and allow to age about 3 months then possibly backsweeten or carb and bottle. If there is any interest I will tell you how this is turning out.

I'm interested in how this will turn out. Keep us updated.

I'm interested too.

Same.

I just got a gallon of honey to try my hand at some mead and was thinking about doing this. I'm planning a batch of grocery store cider with some honey malt, victory malt, wheat, and oats tomorrow, so I figured it might work with mead as well.

tennesseean_87 said:

I just got a gallon of honey to try my hand at some mead and was thinking about doing this. I'm planning a batch of grocery store cider with some honey malt, victory malt, wheat, and oats tomorrow, so I figured it might work with mead as well.

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A cyser braggot?

bernardsmith said:

A cyser braggot?

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The cider I started has no honey, just honey malt. It's sorta like Graff, I guess, but just some steeping grains and no significant source of fermentables from grain.

Plain dry ciders tend to be too light and dry for my taste, so I was hoping to add some nice flavor, body, and sweetness and still be able to bottle condition. I think I'll post my results here.