Sack Mead

Classification: mead, metheglin

Source: Kevin Karplus (karplus@ararat.ucsc.edu) Issue #538, 11/16/90

Sweet, smooth, potent. A dessert wine. This is perhaps the best of my 20 or more batches of mead.

Ingredients: (for 3.7 gallons)

3 gallons, water
16 pounds, honey
1/4 cup, keemun tea
1/4 cup, oolong tea
2 teaspoons, cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon, whole anise seed
18 clusters, cardamom, crushed
20 allspice, crushed
1 inch, galingale root, crushed
yeast
unflavored gelatin (fining)

Procedure:

Boil water, adding tea and spices. Remove from heat and stir in honey. (Some mead makers boil the honey, skimming the scum as it forms). Cover boiled water, and set aside to cool (this usually takes a long time, so start on the next step). Make a yeast starter solution by boiling a cup of water and a tablespoon or two of honey. Add starter to cooled liquid. Cover and ferment using blow tube or fermentation lock. Rack two or three times to get rid of sediment.

This recipe took about 6-1/2 months from brewing to bottling. First rack took place 15 days after brewing. 2nd rack 3 weeks later. 3rd rack 3 months later. Gelatin added 1 month later. Bottled about 2--1/2 months later. Yield 3.7 gallons.