Walking_Target
Well-Known Member
Just asking because I can't really find a good one.
Good Beer-Strength Metheglyn Recipe?
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loveofrose
Well-Known Member
How strong is your beer?
What spices do you like?
What spices do you like?
OP
OP
Walking_Target
Well-Known Member
Ahh, I'm thinking 4-7% alcohol, some residual sweetness to balance the herbal load.
For herbs, clove, cardmom, cinnamon in the fore, maybe a hint of meadowsweet, hyssop, with a very delicate background of thyme, rosemary or sage to give final bittering. I've got a great deal of experience making strong mead (14%-22% estimated ABV) as well as a near-constant experience making beer.
Beer is easy. Wine and mead are easy; I can make several recipes for each from memory.
My difficulty is that to start from scratch, it'll take me about a year to a year and a half of 1 gallon batches to dial a rough recipe in. I'd rather get some ideas of proportions and techniques and recipe starting points to cut that time in half.
For herbs, clove, cardmom, cinnamon in the fore, maybe a hint of meadowsweet, hyssop, with a very delicate background of thyme, rosemary or sage to give final bittering. I've got a great deal of experience making strong mead (14%-22% estimated ABV) as well as a near-constant experience making beer.
Beer is easy. Wine and mead are easy; I can make several recipes for each from memory.
My difficulty is that to start from scratch, it'll take me about a year to a year and a half of 1 gallon batches to dial a rough recipe in. I'd rather get some ideas of proportions and techniques and recipe starting points to cut that time in half.
Hey walking target
I don't really recall many recipes floating out there that is quite what you are asking for. I may be wrong so I hope someone chimes in here with a killer proven recipe. What you describe I think has a lot of flavor profiles there and I just find with meads simpler is better. But that is just My opinion. Also getting a low ABV mead with residual sweetness is hard unless you pasteurize. Several of my low ABV meads even after proper stabilizing and back sweetening they still ferment down the line in the bottle. That is nice to give a little fizz but that sweetness I wanted is then gone. Here is an idea I had a while back and never got around to it fully. A Bochet metheglin!
I say a Bochet because the caramelizing process does convert some of the sugars into non-fermentable sugars when originally near 100% of the sugars are fermentable otherwise. This helps in keeping some residual sweetness without back sweetening or using nonfermentables like Splenda or lactose. A theoretical recipe may look like:
1 gallon
1.5lb honey
2 clove
1 cinnamon stick
1/2tsp cardamom powder or 3 cardamom pods
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
1 cup strong black tea
Water to one gallon
Yeast (favorite ale yeast. One of my favorites lately is London ESB 1968)
Process: mix in your honey with 3 cups of water and start to boil. Constantly stir the whole time to keep from over boiling and scorching. At the 30 min mark add in cinnamon stick. At the 1 1/2 hour mark add clove and another cup of hot water...slowly. Keep boiling another hour then remove the flame. Remove the clove and cinnamon and add hot Caramelized honey to the primary. Add in nutrients, cardamom, your 1 cup of strong black tea that should be previously brewed. Then top up with water and pitch yeast.
That recipe should provide a 7% or less ABV mead and have a little residual sweetness at around the 1.002 - 1.004 range. You should not need additional bittering in this recipe because plenty should be added with the tannins from the tea and any blackened/scorched honey. The cardamom should just add a nice floral aroma and there should be a main body of caramel/cinnamon spicyness. I came up with this idea after doing a couple braggots and another low ABV metheglin that I was not fully accepting, which all had similar methods but I found the original recipes too complex or not complex enough and I think the above is a good middle ground.
I don't really recall many recipes floating out there that is quite what you are asking for. I may be wrong so I hope someone chimes in here with a killer proven recipe. What you describe I think has a lot of flavor profiles there and I just find with meads simpler is better. But that is just My opinion. Also getting a low ABV mead with residual sweetness is hard unless you pasteurize. Several of my low ABV meads even after proper stabilizing and back sweetening they still ferment down the line in the bottle. That is nice to give a little fizz but that sweetness I wanted is then gone. Here is an idea I had a while back and never got around to it fully. A Bochet metheglin!
I say a Bochet because the caramelizing process does convert some of the sugars into non-fermentable sugars when originally near 100% of the sugars are fermentable otherwise. This helps in keeping some residual sweetness without back sweetening or using nonfermentables like Splenda or lactose. A theoretical recipe may look like:
1 gallon
1.5lb honey
2 clove
1 cinnamon stick
1/2tsp cardamom powder or 3 cardamom pods
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp yeast energizer
1 cup strong black tea
Water to one gallon
Yeast (favorite ale yeast. One of my favorites lately is London ESB 1968)
Process: mix in your honey with 3 cups of water and start to boil. Constantly stir the whole time to keep from over boiling and scorching. At the 30 min mark add in cinnamon stick. At the 1 1/2 hour mark add clove and another cup of hot water...slowly. Keep boiling another hour then remove the flame. Remove the clove and cinnamon and add hot Caramelized honey to the primary. Add in nutrients, cardamom, your 1 cup of strong black tea that should be previously brewed. Then top up with water and pitch yeast.
That recipe should provide a 7% or less ABV mead and have a little residual sweetness at around the 1.002 - 1.004 range. You should not need additional bittering in this recipe because plenty should be added with the tannins from the tea and any blackened/scorched honey. The cardamom should just add a nice floral aroma and there should be a main body of caramel/cinnamon spicyness. I came up with this idea after doing a couple braggots and another low ABV metheglin that I was not fully accepting, which all had similar methods but I found the original recipes too complex or not complex enough and I think the above is a good middle ground.
OP
OP
Walking_Target
Well-Known Member
neat idea. I have access to a kegerator and force carb. I was thinking about nottingham for US-05 for the yeast.
loveofrose
Well-Known Member
US-05 is pretty clean. Wyeast 1388 is the king though.
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