I like juniper berries in my beer, and I like herbal teas made from meadowsweet and hibiscus (never tried yarrow before but it smells good), so I thought I'd try the mead located here https://www.norsetradesman.com/blogs/news/fill-your-horn-with-this-viking-era-mead (5 gallon). First, I note that there are several scaling math errors there that concerned me (dried juniper berry amounts and weight of honey being the two major ones), so I corrected for those. It says to add the herbs and juniper berries when you add the yeast, or after the must starts fermenting if you're going the wild method (I am), so when I started getting active fermentation, I added the berries and herbs and stirred them in. The website says to leave them in overnight, but this seems like too short of a time to obtain much of a flavor profile from them. Furthermore, racking to secondary right after fermentation becomes active seems too early and that I would deprive the must of vital yeast if I did so. So, should I just leave the stuff in there for a week or so before racking it off to secondary, or should I filter out the ingredients via the funnel/cheesecloth method tomorrow, or should I just rack it off to secondary early?
First Mead - How Long to Leave Herbs/Spices
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I have no idea how potent the herbs and berries are that you're using, but anything that powerful I'd be putting in secondary after the mead is done fermenting. How can you judge flavor of a mead after only a day?
FWIW even with cloves, which are potent little buggers, I let them sit in primary until I rack the mead typically 3 weeks or so.
FWIW even with cloves, which are potent little buggers, I let them sit in primary until I rack the mead typically 3 weeks or so.
bernardsmith
Well-Known Member
Unless you are making a tea from the herbs or spices in which case you are essentially using that tea to mix with the honey when it cools to yeast appropriate temperature, I would add any spices or herbs to the secondary. The alcohol in the mead then extracts flavors more effectively than water (must) at room temperature does. Moreover, active fermentation will most likely blow off much of the most volatile flavor and aroma molecules so you tend to have a more bland flavor profile when you add spices and herbs with the yeast.
Unfortunately, most self -published "recipes" don't seem to go through the same trials that publishers demand of folk who submit cookbooks for publication so yer pays yer money and yer takes yer chance.
Unfortunately, most self -published "recipes" don't seem to go through the same trials that publishers demand of folk who submit cookbooks for publication so yer pays yer money and yer takes yer chance.
loveofrose
Well-Known Member
If you want a tried and true Viking mead, use this recipe: https://denardbrewing.com/blog/post/gruit-bomm/
I always have this one on tap.
I find it extremely unlikely Vikings would have hibiscus or hawthorn, but we are all guessing a bit here.
I always have this one on tap.
I find it extremely unlikely Vikings would have hibiscus or hawthorn, but we are all guessing a bit here.
Common hawthorn (C. monogyna) is native to europe and found across scandinavia, as well as a number of other places the vikings were known to have visited. That one at least doesn't seem like much of a stretch.
