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  • METHEGLIN (how to make)

    Making Mead ------ Spices/Herbs (Metheglin)



    How to Make Metheglin (Mead)

    Metheglins are meads that have the addition of herbs and or spices. This Metheglin also includes tropical fruit and young coconut juice. All of these ingredients have been fermented together to give a blend of many flavors and aromas with very much honey presence and body. Included in this batch are: 20.5 pounds of fresh tropical fruit, dragon fruit, papaya, mangos pineapple, passion fruit, persimmons, star fruit, young juice of coconut and 17 pounds of honey. The spices included are: all in a cheese cloth tied bag- cinnamon, ginger root, cloves; nutmeg, vanilla and cardomen seeds (see mead recipe section for details). All the fruits were frozen in zip lock bags.

    Start the Metheglins batch by removing all the frozen fruits from the zip lock bags and putting them into three nylon straining bags that can be purchased at the local hardware store (they are used for paint straining bags but also work well as straining bags for fermentation). Once all the fruit and spices that I use are in the straining bags, crush a Campden tablet and mix it in some warm water then sprinkle it over the fruit. This is left to thaw overnight for approximately 12 hours.

    The honey has been previously purchased and you will use approximately 3.5 pounds of honey for each gallon of Metheglin that is made. You will need approximately 4+ pounds of fruit per gallon. This will give us very fruity Mead, well bodied with wonderful fruit aromas and honey flavor. Remember you must remove all the pith and all the pips from any fruit that you use and the pineapple requires peeling and coring before use. The spices also must be prepared, ground, sliced and peeled prior to use. In the morning after the fruits have thawed use a stainless steel potato masher to crush the fruit to release the juices and pulp inside the berries. This will require some effort as some of these fruits are quite hard. Use just enough crushing to break the skin and allow the juices to flow.

    It is time now to prepare the honey. Use ten liters of good water in a stainless steel pot and heat the water to 155 degrees F. Then slowly stir in all 17 pounds of the honey making sure that it does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Gradually let the temperature increase to 175 degrees and try to keep it in that range for approximately 30 minutes. Do not boil and at the same time skim the foam that develops on top of the heated honey and water. This foam will decrease by the time 30 minutes is over and it will be time to turn off the heat. Be very careful with this hot liquid if it is spilled onto skin it burns quickly – hard to wash the sticky stuff off. Ladle the honey water mixture from the stainless steel pot into the primary fermenter pouring the hot liquid over the fruit and stirring to mix the juices and color from the berries through the honey water mixture. After mixing around half the mixture from the stainless pot you will now be able to carry the primary fermenter and remaining mixture to the fermentation room area (I only have the one stove in the kitchen so the heating has to be undertaken there – the fermentation room is elsewhere). Mix in the remainder of the honey water then let the hot honey/water mixture mingle with the fruit in the primary fermenter until the temperature gets below 100 degrees F. It is now time to pour in and stir the remainder of the water (15 liters – couple of liters extra for top ups) into the primary fermenter. Now the additives are stirred in: bentonite slurry, Pectic enzyme, 2 campden tablets crushed and the tartaric acid. Stir this entire in well and allow to rest overnight (12 hours). In the morning the mixture is stirred and the yeast nutrient and yeast energizer are added and stirred in and allowed to rest for another 12 hours.
    The mixture should now be at room temperature – 65-70 degrees F. This is the time in the process to test the pH. The pH should be between 3.0 and 3.55. If the must is below 3.0 it will be tart; musts above 3.55 will be readily infected by bacteria, easily oxidized and hard to maintain sulphite protection. If we start the pH below 3.55 the pH is likely to decrease during fermentation and that is great, if however we start the pH above 3.55 the pH is likely to increase and that is not what we want. In both cases the titratable acid will likely decrease during fermentation. So here’s the word start the red meads at approximately 3.2-3.4 pH and the light colored meads at 3.1-3.3 ideal or for sure within the 3.0- 3.55 – do not go below or above these pH numbers. In my opinion if the fermentation is started at too high or too low a pH the must will be headed for problems – stuck fermentation or bacterial attack. Others however use higher pH numbers to start and different process. The above works for me each to their own. If you have to lower the pH add more tartaric acid, if you have to increase pH add potassium carbonate solution (see table guidelines for amounts of these to add).
    When we have reached the correct pH level we can rehydrate the two 5 gram packages of yeast and pitch it into the mixture do not stir at this point. We can also make a starter solution with orange juice if that is a preference. There it is the fermentation should be noticeable within 24 hours. As mentioned a room temperature of 65-70 degrees F does very well. If the fermentation temperature goes above 75 degrees then we must try and find a cooler location or cool the must to the 70 degree F area; ice bath, cold towels cooler room. Fermentation will be very strong for the first 4 days. After the 4 days and when the fermentation starts to slow slightly it is time to introduce the booster nutrients and energizer at one half or less of the original addition. The mead is also stirred 2 twice daily and the straining bags with the fruit squished against the side of the primary fermenter with a long handle spoon.
    Depending on the oak that we use: the sawdust kind can be put in the primary in a nylon bag or paper coffee filters during the first 4 days of fermentation and then removed squeezed and discarded. The medium toasted oak chips can be used in the secondary part of the alcohol fermentation procedure; the medium toasted oak cubes can be used after the clearing/fining process for two or three months during the bulk ageing stage. Your taste rules here. Also there is always the oak barrel.

    The primary fermentation process will take (if all goes well) from 7 to 10 days the Specific gravity (SG) should now be at 1.020-1.030 and it is time to rack the must into a glass carboy and attach an air lock. This secondary part of the alcohol fermentation should take from 14 to 21 days. The SG at this point will be 1.000 or less and there will be some clearing noticeable and a great reduction in the fermentation process. It is now time to rack the young Mead to the cleaned and sterilized primary fermenter. When the young mead has been racked add 2 crushed campden tablets and stir gently. Degassing time now and since I have the young mead back in the primary fermenter I use my high speed electric drill and mixer attachment it will only take approximately to give it a good mix to get rid of the excess C02. Be careful not to long, we do not want any oxidation to take place. After the degas stage the fining agent will be introduced and mixed in gently. See the degas description in another section of this tutorial. It is indicated there a couple of different fining agents, one for the red colored meads and another for the clear colored meads. When this has been mixed in well (red colored mead) the young mead can be racked back into a clean sterilized glass carboy and an air lock attached. If it is a clear mead that you are doing use the bentonite and Sparkeloid method; the bentonite will have to be mixed in a slurry and poured and mixed in the carboy and the Sparkeloid heated and boiled on the stove according to instructions on the package and poured through a funnel while still hot into the glass carboy and young mead and stirred in gently. If you have a vacuum pump and system the degas process will be done in the glass carboy secondary fermenter. The carboy can now be put into the cool ageing room (area) and allowed to clear for approximately 3 weeks to one month. When it is all cleared the young clear mead is racked to another clean and sterilized carboy an air lock attached and back into the cool storage area for 2 months to 6 months. If the mead is not completely clear you may have to rack one or two more times. You want the mead to be completely clear before bottling. When it is clear bottle and age for another 6 months. I have a few bottles during this bottle ageing period and it is darn good but it gets better the longer you can wait.

    This is the basic procedure that can be used to make all meads. See the tables section and mead recipe section for further details. CHEERS - Metheglin is delicious it is great as a drink but also for cooking in the crock pot or basting meats.





    Tropical Fruit/Coconut Spice - Metheglin - photo 1 and 2 cleared after fining; photo 3 before fining.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by StockeyDAW; 18-02-2008, 10:24 PM.
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