New to mead, need a little guidance
- Thread starter Jeepninja
- Start date
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I'm sure I've put some in JAO but never tasted it in the finished product... but I was more thinking along the lines of my pumpkin creations and my other spice experiments over the years... Sorry for hijacking your thread, Jeepninja.
I used a whole nutmeg and 1 cinammon stick both hammered into bits in 1 gallon traditional and there really dominant flavours at the moment after about 6 months.
By all means feel free... these little nuances and differences in recipe variations are exactly what I am looking for.
I'm talking with the honey guy next week on pricing.
Not trying to be facetious, but won't 10 cloves in a 3-4 gallon batch turn the mead into a delicious local anesthetic?
That totally depends on whether you like cloves in the first place, and how fresh they are. I could safely use 10 of my cloves in a 1-gallon JAO because they're so old they don't have much oomph left. If you wanted the clove flavour to be up front, I don't think 3 cloves per gallon would overdo it, but if you want just a very subtle hint of clove, 1 or 2 per gallon should be fine, the original JAO recipe calls for 2 in a gallon. Anyone ever manage anaesthetic before? I'd think it would take more than ten cloves in a single gallon. I think I remember someone who liked cloves being happy but not numb from using 20 or 30 cloves in a gallon.
I also remember someone posting that 5 cloves in a gallon gave them an anesthetic feel
Maybe theirs was just fresher
For my Pear Nutmeg I didn't grate, I just smashed it roughly a couple of times. Crushed made it easier to remove for me. Ofcourse, that may be why it was a little overpowering with a 5 gal batch and 13 pounds of pears, pureed, frozen, thawed, pectic enzyimes and run through a screen after blending again. And the pear was in the forefront in the first 6 months after aging then the nutmeg came to the fore with a vengence. I like nutmeg so it wasn't a big deal. Just lost most of the yummy pear flavor.
Also, used a whole nutmeg in a pumpkin spice mead and the nutmeg and cinnamon (4 sticks about 2 inches) dominated the pumpkin and made it cry for mercy.
So based on that, 1/2 or 1/4 for subtle of freashly crushed nutmeg in a 5-6 gal batch for me is plenty good enough.
I have also found that for a good vanilla, I need more than 6 beans in the secondary. I think that the next time I do a vanilla I will do 10 or 12 beans, split and scraped into a muslin bag in the secondary.
Jury still out on almonds. Also, I made some hazlenut extract from 1 cup of chopped and toasted hazelnut that I am planing on in a Pumpkin Hazelnut. I may just get another cup and make more for the batch, I don't think that I extracted enough out of the chopped, toasted hazelnut.
I plan on experimenting with some nut flavors and mixing it into my mead from homemade extract rather than the nuts in the mead. Should be better and take less of the nut to do. I noticed not many people use nuts in their mead. Mostly the excuse is that the different nuts are too oily. Hmm.
That's what I got going on a little.
Spices are a bit hard to judge for me.
Matrix
