Lemon-Ginger Metheglin

Classification: mead, metheglin, lemon mead, ginger mead

Source: Joyce Miller (jmiller@genome.wi.mit.edu), Mead Digest #345, 9/1/94

The bread was a wierd idea I had to avoid using yeast nutrient. It certainly didn't seem to hurt!
(Brewed 9/4/93, Bottled 10/10/93).
11-01-93: Pretty drinkable, very small amount of bitterness. Should be really good in 1 month.
08-15-94: This mead won 2nd place in the Metheglin category of the 1994 Mazer Cup Competition.
This recipe was originally for 3 gallons, and it's from: Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book, Elizabethan Country House Cooking, by Hilary Spurling, Elisabeth Sifton Books-Viking Penguin, New York, 1986. ISBN 0-670-81592-6.

Elinor was the wife of Sir Richard Fettiplace of Appleton Manor in Oxfordshire, and she put her recipes in a small handwritten book in 1604.

Ingredients: (for 5 gallons)

7.1 lbs honey (2.5 qts)
5 lbs sugar
3 Tbs sliced ginger
1- tsp ground mace
1+ tsp fresh rosemary
8 large lemons
4 slices of whole-wheat bread
Vierka Mead Yeast (started)

Procedure:

Dissolve sugar & honey in water, heat, and skim. Just before the boil, add ginger, mace, rosemary, bread, the grated peel of the lemons. Peel the pith from the lemons and throw it away. Cut the lemons in half, squeeze them into the wort, breaking them up into smallish pieces. Put them in the wort, too. Pasteurize all at about 180F for 20-30 minutes. Force cool, put all into carboy, top up to 5.5 gallon-mark with pre-boiled and cooled water, if necessary. Pitch yeast starter.

Specifics:

O.G.: 1.088
F.G.: 1.026