Ginger mead recipe

[bolepa]

Hi everyone! I decided to this thread in hope to find a good ginger mead recipe. Not the best one but a good one.... Yes, I spent some time on this forum, I Googled it but couldn't find any recipe I like.
Almost all recipes I found are differ on amount of ginger per gallon of must and other ingredients...
I am planning to make 4 gallons of ginger mead with 12 pounds of honey. I didn't decide yest on what yest I should use: Lalvin 1118, Lalvin 1116 or 71B... Expect OG 1,120 or 1.115 - not less... Half pound of ginger (per gallon of must) along with pectic enzymes to be added to secondary fermentation. Not sure how much lemon juice and lemon zest to add... Ferment till SG is 1.000 (hopefully) which should give me around 15 ABV. I am planning to force carbonate mead in 3-4 month....
I am lookin forward for your suggestions and advices. Please let me know if I missed something. Thank you all!

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Hi everyone! I decided to this thread in hope to find a good ginger mead recipe. Not the best one but a good one.... Yes, I spent some time on this forum, I Googled it but couldn't find any recipe I like.
Almost all recipes I found are differ on amount of ginger per gallon of must and other ingredients...
I am planning to make 4 gallons of ginger mead with 12 pounds of honey. I didn't decide yest on what yest I should use: Lalvin 1118, Lalvin 1116 or 71B... Expect OG 1,120 or 1.115 - not less... Half pound of ginger (per gallon of must) along with pectic enzymes to be added to secondary fermentation. Not sure how much lemon juice and lemon zest to add... Ferment till SG is 1.000 (hopefully) which should give me around 15 ABV. I am planning to force carbonate mead in 3-4 month....
I am lookin forward for your suggestions and advices. Please let me know if I missed something. Thank you all!

1118 or 71B will work fine, can't say I've ever tried 1116, combine your honey and water then aerate thoroughly and add your yeast. After a day or two of active fermentation add your ginger or wait for it to finish and use it in secondary with the lemon ingredients. Juice will add acid and zest will add more aroma, both are useful depending on what you want. You have the basics of a recipe already so if your only question is how much lemon, zest in primary start with half a lemon then more in secondary if you prefer. Juice I add in a glass sample after primary is done and calculate from there how much to add to my batch.

 

[Rish]

I haven't made ginger mead and I don't know why not! When I make ginger beer, I use (per gallon) 8 oz fresh ginger root, zest of 1 lemon, juice of 1/2 lemon. I add the ginger and some water in a blender, whiz it up, bring it to 180°F, remove from heat and let it seep for 45 minutes then strain out the solids to make a ginger tea. I think this would make a good base to add honey to for your ginger mead.

I use Red Star Premier Classique yeast.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[bolepa]

Kyzaboy89 and Rish, Thank you very much for your respond which just confirmed that I am on right track.... I am planning to start within one/two weeks and will update you with the progress.... Thank you again!

 

[Kyzaboy89]

Kyzaboy89 and Rish, Thank you very much for your respond which just confirmed that I am on right track.... I am planning to start within one/two weeks and will update you with the progress.... Thank you again!

As you can see there's a few basic ways to take things and it's good to see you have researched for yourself. Not liking how other recipes look is an indicator that what you envision is specific to you and your creativity, good to have and hold on to that vision until you can produce it and enjoy your work. Hope it works out for you whatever you decide, cheers.

 

[MightyMosin]

12 pounds of honey for a 4 gallon batch will get you ~ 1.108 OG or about 14% ABV.
I don't know what level of sugar that ginger adds, so I didn't even try and factor that into that total OG.

While I do enjoy the higher ABV meads, I'm not a fan of the aging time and that will often keep me in the 10-12% range. For doing a mead in the 15% range I will stress that you need proper nutrients and you absolutely want the healthiest yeast colony you can pitch.

Your yeast will need plenty of O2 before you pitch your yeast and another dose as 12-18 hours after yeast pitch. If you can time manage it, added O2 at 12 and 24 hours will help your yeast a lot. Pure O2 through a .5 micron stone would be best., for about 2-3 minutes Alternately, I would take an electric air pump with inline air filter through a .5 micron stone (about 45 minutes time). If those aren't options, a wine whip in a drill and a lot of whipping that must up to get as much O2 in there as possible.

 

[bolepa]

As you can see there's a few basic ways to take things and it's good to see you have researched for yourself. Not liking how other recipes look is an indicator that what you envision is specific to you and your creativity, good to have and hold on to that vision until you can produce it and enjoy your work. Hope it works out for you whatever you decide, cheers.

Thank you, Kyzaboy89! I hope it works too...

If you can time manage it, added O2 at 12 and 24 hours will help your yeast a lot. Pure O2 through a .5 micron stone would be best., for about 2-3 minutes Alternately, I would take an electric air pump with inline air filter through a .5 micron stone (about 45 minutes time). If those aren't options, a wine whip in a drill and a lot of whipping that must up to get as much O2 in there as possible.

Thank you MightyMosin! I appreciate your comment. Talkin about aeration the must: I read about this but by waterer reason never came to conclusion to buy one. Maybe because usually I do it with help of stirrer attached to my drill... Now I am thinking to buy aeration pump and a 0.5 micron diffusion stone but cannot find it as a set online: they sell only 2 micron stone with the pump. Any suggestion will be much appreciated...
Thank you again!

 

[D the Catastrophist]

I have a gallon of ginger mead bulk aging at the moment.
Recipe was pretty simple:
.5 lb ginger root, not peeled, sliced into thin strips
1 gallon water.
3 lbs honey.
1 crushed campden tablet.
1/8 tsp fermaid
1 packet D47 yeast.

Directions:
Add half the water and ginger root to a pot, bring to rolling boil for five minutes. Turn off heat and add honey, stirring to dissolve. Add campden and fermaid, stir to dissolve as well. Once thoroughly mixed transfer to primary, add remaining water and check temp. Pitch yeast when cooled to the recommended temp on yeast packet. Stir yeast in.
Agitate morning and night, add additional fermaid if needed.

After 2 weeks, I racked off the lees but kept on the ginger for another two weeks. Remove once the ginger flavor is at a level you like.