Ethiopian Mead Tej/Bierz

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5mooth0perator

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I recently made a variation on Bierz. I have an Ethiopian store near me, and they sell these ingredients to make Tej which is an Ethiopian mead. They use a plant called Buckthorn for a bittering agent. They also sell a thing that sed "fermentillis" on the label, I asked the clerk, and he said that was starter. It turns out there is a low alcohol version of Tej called Bierz. So I tried making something like that. I basically boiled the buckthorn, dissolved honey let it cool and added the ferment then spunded.

I opened one after two weeks, and there was a distinct sulfury smell. I waited a couple more weeks, and the sulfur smell away even in a closed bottle. The drink was a delightfully refreshing beverage. Tasted almost like a 7up, fruity/floral and slightly acidic like a 7up, though it had a bit of honey after taste. But after a while I realized the honey after taste was at least in part that butter popcorn flavor, diacetyl. After looking around on the internet I am guessing diacetyl is not actually a defect in meads.

Any ideas what might be in the starter? My guess is it has some souring bacteria, and that they are actually trying to induce the yeast to produce that honey/butter popcorn flavor with the buck thorn.

I think it is interesting, that stories of Mayan mead making always talks about how their mead reeked during fermentation, is the sulfur smell a mead thing?
 
Sulfur smell is indicative of a lack of free nitrogen. Adding a nutrient schedule will seriously up the quality of your mead.

I love T’ej. I always have it on tap. I’ve never had any sulfur smells with my nutrient protocol.

Here is how I do it: https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/Perfect-tej/

I think I saw that recipe, I wanted to use the traditional starter. Yours is probably more like Bierz also, T'ej is supposedly a wine.

That makes sense, about the Nitrogen, and that may be what the Ethiopian starter is about, the clerk says it has malt and other things in it. Might have some yeast nutrient in it. Maybe if I just add more of that, I think that was one of the ingredients I didn't quite understand the quantities, so I just added about as much as I do of yeast.

Fortunately its really easy to make small batches, because there is no mashing or anything.
 
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