Metheglin Wines, Sherries, and/or Meads
- 3 1/2 lbs Orange Blossom Honey
- 3/4 oz. Herbs de Provence
- warm water to one gallon
- 1 level teaspoon mead yeast nutrient or wine yeast nutrient
- 2 level teaspoons acid blend
- 1/8 tsp grape tannin
- White Labs WLP720 Sweet Mead or Lalvin 71B-1122 Yeast
Tie herbs in piece of nylon with sanitized glass marble and toss into primary. Add honey
to warm water and stir until dissolved. Add nutrient and acid blend and stir some more.
Sprinkle grape tannin on bottom of primary and pour honey/water in primary. Cover primary
and allow water to cool to room temperature. Add yeast in an activated starter solution and
cover primary with sanitized cloth. Stir twice daily until specific gravity drops to 1.030.
Remove bag of herbs and transfer to one-gallon secondary. Top up if needed and affix airlock.
Wait until fermentation stops, rack, top up, and fit airlock. Repeat and two months. Mead
should be clear, but if not wait another two months and rack again. Stabilize with potassium
sorbate and finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet. Wait 30 days and bottle. Age at
least six months. Longer is probably better. Flavor is complex. [Author’s own recipe]
- 5 lbs fancy clover honey
- 2-1/4 lbs fancy orange blossom honey
- 15 teabags Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile herbal tea
- 2-1/2 gallons water
- 2 tsps ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground allspice
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 3 finely crushed and dissolved Campden tablet
- 2-1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
- 2-1/4 tsp yeast energizer
- 1 sachet, mead or any Champagne yeast
Boil water. Meanwhile, tie teabags together and drop in water. Tie spices in a
closely woven jelly bag (or in 6-inch square of finely woven muslin) and add to water.
When water boils, remove from heat and stir in honey (you can boil the honey in the
water, skimming off the surface scum as it forms, but I did not do this). Transfer to
primary, stir in yeast nutrients and energizer, cover, and set aside overnight to
cool. Meanwhile, prepare a yeast starter solution (1 cup water, 1 tablespoon honey,
pinch of yeast energizer, sachet of wine yeast). When must is cooled, remove teabags
and spices and add yeast starter solution to must. Cover and stir daily for about 10
days. Skim off any scum that rises from the must and transfer to secondary. Do not
top up yet, but do affix an airlock. Rack, add finely crushed and dissolved Campden
tablets, top up and reattach airlock after 30 days. Repeat racking (without adding
additional Campden) 2-3 more times at 30-day intervals until no new sediment is
dropped. Bulk age 4-6 months, bottle, and age an additional 6 months. {Author’s own
recipe]