Smoked Mead

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Ragnaroker

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Hello all. I am pretty new to the mead brewing community, but after a few simple mead batches, I am ready to start experimenting. I want to do a 1 gallon batch of smoked mead, with the ultimate goal of having a mead that mirrors a lot of the flavors found in Islay single malt scotches such as Laphroaig. I have a recipe in my head, but am not sure how viable it would be.

I want to steep some peated malt in the water I will be using for the mead to impart some peaty/smoky flavor. I was then going to cold smoke my honey over peat before combining in the peated water. I was thinking of tossing in a vanilla bean during secondary fermentation, and rack onto oak chips for a few weeks. I dont know how well honey takes in smoke (I would assume pretty well). I do not want to completely overpower the honey, but I do like bold, smokey flavors. Would this method be a feasible option? Does it need something bitter to counteract the sweet/smokey? Am I completely mad?
 
You may want to start with soaking some oak chips in your scotch, then adding those chips to a 1 gallon mead batch, to see where you get.

I know with Rauchbeers and such, having a beer end up like drinking a campfire are a very real reality. And that is with a heavy malt and hop backbone.

You'll want to be very careful not to overdo anything.

Welcome to Homebrew Talk!
 
You may want to start with soaking some oak chips in your scotch, then adding those chips to a 1 gallon mead batch, to see where you get.

I know with Rauchbeers and such, having a beer end up like drinking a campfire are a very real reality. And that is with a heavy malt and hop backbone.

You'll want to be very careful not to overdo anything.

Welcome to Homebrew Talk!

Thanks!

Yeah, I definitely do not want to overdo it....this is more of an experimental batch. I absolutely LOVE rauchbiers. Those are made with smoked malts (usually beechwood smoked I believe). I really want to get some nice peaty flavors into the mead to mimic scotch. Soaking the chips in scotch is a good call (will sterilize them too). Im thinking maybe I will skip seeping the peated malt in the water, but I really want to try cold smoking the honey. Ive never heard of anyone doing that, so I guess it's unexplored territory. I cant find any recipes online where this method is used. I figure if the finally batch is too smokey, I can always cut it with some simple mead to tone those flavors down.
 
Good Call on cutting it if you need to. Let me know how smoking the honey goes.

Will do. Im going to attempt this in a few weeks, so I will post an update.

Im curious to see what smoked honey tastes like on its own. Im going to try some on toast. Who knows, maybe this will lead to a condiment revolution :ban:
 
I don't think that you need to smoke the honey.

Just use heavy toast oak. The heavy toast looks a lot like blackend char but it's worth it. It will add a nice smoky flavor but it will be more subtle.

If you smoke the honey you will end up with more of a Bochett flavor, not exactly what you are looking for. With how much smokyness you want in it, I would recomend the oak in the primary and secondary but on the secondary wait until it's close to bottling clearness for the oaking. They also smell Liquid Smoke. Not sure if you should do all three. Also you may think about using some pepers, Like Hatch chilli. Smoked longer than usual and put only a little in the secondary. I think that some experimentation is what's needed here.

Matrix
 
I've been thinking about something simillar... Except using some Russian Caravan Tea to provide the smoke. It's a blend of Lapsang Suchong (I'm almost positive I screwed up that spelling), which is a heavily smoked tea...
The Russian Caravan tea is a little milder.
That's about as far as my thought process has gotten, though...

I'm gonna go have a cup of tea with honey and think about it some more... :D
 
I've been thinking about something simillar... Except using some Russian Caravan Tea to provide the smoke. It's a blend of Lapsang Suchong (I'm almost positive I screwed up that spelling), which is a heavily smoked tea...
The Russian Caravan tea is a little milder.
That's about as far as my thought process has gotten, though...

I'm gonna go have a cup of tea with honey and think about it some more... :D

That sounds interesting. Any specific place you buy that tea? Ive never heard of it, but it sounds pretty good.
 
For the Russian Caravan tea, I got a pound of loose leaf from;
http://www.englishteastore.com/1mt-cnrc.html
I think they also carry the stronger Lapsang Suchong.
I originally found the Russian Caravan tea at the local hippie health food store, in traditional tea bags, loved it, and went looking for loose leaf.
 
I ended up smoking my honey with peat. When racking to secondary, it smelled INCREDIBLE. I wasnt sure how well the honey would pick up the smoke, but it sure did the job. I racked it onto some medium toast oak chips, a vanilla bean and a few orange slices. Its just starting to clear up, and came in at around 16%. I will bottle it in a couple of months a try it in the Winter.
 
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