Adding herbs/spices to 2ndary

[ErinRae]

I have a 3 gallon of wildflower mead and am thinking of splitting it 3 ways:

1) pure wildflower mead

2) vanilla mead - was gonna drop a vanilla bean in and let it soak for awhile.
The honey did taste pretty floral so not sure how that will go with vanilla.

3) hibiscus or rose hip - first methlygyn

My questions are for the 3rd gallon

1) which flavour infuses better....I'll prob have to use tea bags - if someone can describe the taste that would be great!

2) can I just drop the tea bags in 2ndary or do I have to steep them and add the water. If so why do I have to steep them? Asking because my carboy has no headspace...very little room for additions.

3) how many bags and how long is typical for 1 gallon

Thanks, all info appreciated

 

[Yohef]

Personally I find Vanilla to taste good with many flavors/varieties of Mead. For that I myself, for a 1 gal. batch, would only use a 1-1.5 inch section of Vanilla bean and split it. It wont have to stay in there long to impart a nice flavor, I find 5-7 days depending on the how vigorous the secondary and how broken up the bean is. As for the hibiscus and rose hip I am not to familiar with those but I would put it in Moslin tea bag(s), tie it off, and just drop it in.

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

You' don't need to brew the tea prior to dropping bags in. The tea will extract slowly over time. You only need to steep the tea in hotter water to drink it faster because heat accelerates the extraction process (but extracts more bitter tannins)

 

[ErinRae]

Thanks for the info!

Yohef for the vanilla batch the mead has been aging for 4-5 months and has been done fermenting for quite some time. I definitely won't add more the one stick of vanilla! Maybe I'll do 1/2 a stick split. I want the flavor to last a few years!

Marsh my hope was that I could just drop the bags in which it sounds like I can. To flavor one gallon maybe ill start with 4 bags and leave them in a for a couple weeks. Hopefully thats not too many

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Marsh my hope was that I could just drop the bags in which it sounds like I can. To flavor one gallon maybe ill start with 4 bags and leave them in a for a couple weeks. Hopefully thats not too many

Mead102: You can always add more, but can't take away what you've added