I'm only a few weeks into really being interested in mead. A few years ago a friend and I made a JAOM, and at that time I was less interested in the hows and whys and more interested in the sweet alcohol!
Well now much has changed and I have started to make mead with interest and passion not just the desire to get buzzed on a homemade drink.
That being said I still have little idea what I'm doing and am probably a little headstrong in thinking I can do things my own way and not follow others. But I have learned a great deal from this site and its members and hope to learn more.
I currently have three batches going. All 1 gallon each.
A Traditional mead that is just starting to clear in secondary.
A Cyser (that I probably messed up on due to diving in without listening) that I just racked to secondary. Very dry!!!! but after my crude attempt at backsweetening should be enjoyable.
and a Strawberry Melomel which I just racked off the fruit today!
I also had a coworker (who knows nothing of homebrewing) suggest a gingerbread mead for Christmas. SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!!
So I came to this site and searched for a recipe! To my surprise when you search "Gingerbread" there are only ten results. (I guess one more with this thread). What I found was slightly discouraging. One thread was someone who also suggested a gingerbread mead but was pretty much told to forget it because of the molasses. The rest of the threads mentioned gingerbread in relation to the holidays not as a mead recipe, or one in which the recipe didn't sound like gingerbread at all.
There was one however, a Christmas Recipe Contest, in which the winner was Angus' Christmas Gingerbread House Mead. His recipe includes molasses and the rest of what gives gingerbread its taste: ginger, cloves, allspice, cinnamon. However he included fruit flavors to mimic the candies on a gingerbread house. I would like to do a straight gingerbread mead... no candies, no frosting just the cookie!
That being said his recipe (for the dough part) is a little different than what I'm thinking. I made a "tea" with honey, molasses, ginger and cloves. In 8 ounces of water I put 1TBSP of molasses, 1/8 tsp of ginger and 1/8 tsp of cloves and for whatever dumb reason 1 TBSP of honey (I really have no idea why that amount... probably because the TBSP was already out????) but it tasted reminiscent of gingerbread but I would like it sweeter, which would happen with more honey.
So I did the calculations to scale it up to 1 Gallon... it came out to 1 cup of molasses, 2 tsp of ginger and cloves each, and (for again no good reason) figured on 3lbs of honey and I figured I'd use cinnamon sticks in the secondary to taste. (I also am playing with the idea of adding lactose for some "creaminess") On the spices this is comparable (little different) to Angus' recipe (scaled down from 6 gal). However for his original 6 Gal recipe he uses 1 cup of molasses which is what I was thinking to use on 1 Gal.
So I guess my problem is this... Should I scale back the molasses or was he using less molasses because of all the other ingredients? Like I said before I'm pretty headstrong and my gut reaction is to continue with my plan and think of it as an experiment and hope for the best.
Input would be greatly appreciated. No matter what I decide I will make a Meadlog when I finally start, so I can let everyone know if it fails or not.
Well now much has changed and I have started to make mead with interest and passion not just the desire to get buzzed on a homemade drink.
That being said I still have little idea what I'm doing and am probably a little headstrong in thinking I can do things my own way and not follow others. But I have learned a great deal from this site and its members and hope to learn more.
I currently have three batches going. All 1 gallon each.
A Traditional mead that is just starting to clear in secondary.
A Cyser (that I probably messed up on due to diving in without listening) that I just racked to secondary. Very dry!!!! but after my crude attempt at backsweetening should be enjoyable.
and a Strawberry Melomel which I just racked off the fruit today!
I also had a coworker (who knows nothing of homebrewing) suggest a gingerbread mead for Christmas. SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!!
So I came to this site and searched for a recipe! To my surprise when you search "Gingerbread" there are only ten results. (I guess one more with this thread). What I found was slightly discouraging. One thread was someone who also suggested a gingerbread mead but was pretty much told to forget it because of the molasses. The rest of the threads mentioned gingerbread in relation to the holidays not as a mead recipe, or one in which the recipe didn't sound like gingerbread at all.
There was one however, a Christmas Recipe Contest, in which the winner was Angus' Christmas Gingerbread House Mead. His recipe includes molasses and the rest of what gives gingerbread its taste: ginger, cloves, allspice, cinnamon. However he included fruit flavors to mimic the candies on a gingerbread house. I would like to do a straight gingerbread mead... no candies, no frosting just the cookie!
That being said his recipe (for the dough part) is a little different than what I'm thinking. I made a "tea" with honey, molasses, ginger and cloves. In 8 ounces of water I put 1TBSP of molasses, 1/8 tsp of ginger and 1/8 tsp of cloves and for whatever dumb reason 1 TBSP of honey (I really have no idea why that amount... probably because the TBSP was already out????) but it tasted reminiscent of gingerbread but I would like it sweeter, which would happen with more honey.
So I did the calculations to scale it up to 1 Gallon... it came out to 1 cup of molasses, 2 tsp of ginger and cloves each, and (for again no good reason) figured on 3lbs of honey and I figured I'd use cinnamon sticks in the secondary to taste. (I also am playing with the idea of adding lactose for some "creaminess") On the spices this is comparable (little different) to Angus' recipe (scaled down from 6 gal). However for his original 6 Gal recipe he uses 1 cup of molasses which is what I was thinking to use on 1 Gal.
So I guess my problem is this... Should I scale back the molasses or was he using less molasses because of all the other ingredients? Like I said before I'm pretty headstrong and my gut reaction is to continue with my plan and think of it as an experiment and hope for the best.
Input would be greatly appreciated. No matter what I decide I will make a Meadlog when I finally start, so I can let everyone know if it fails or not.
