Recipe Specifics

• Style: 26A Metheglin (spiced mead)
• Batch Size (Gal): 6.00 (for 5 bottled)
• Anticipated OG: 1.050
• Anticipated ABV: 5.5%
• Anticipated SRM: 2 (very light)
• Anticipated IBU: 0 (no hops)

Honey

I didn’t track the amount of honey added. Rather, I used the “scrap” honey + 6 gallons of water and then added a few cups of honey to bring the OG up to 1.050. Details below…

Water

Regular Portland tap water. No additions.

Ferment

Red Star “Pasteur Red” dry yeast and a long, cool ferment cool at 60ish.

Jasmine

No hops were used, but a month into the fermentation we racked the mead and added some bags of “premium” Jasmine green tea. After tasting the mead a month later, we decided to add more. A total of 10 bags were added to the carboy for about 5 months.

Brew Day

We started keeping bees in 2013. Since we don’t have an extractor, the comb is crushed and the honey is strained from the wax. This leaves you with a pile of sticky wax that you can throw in the oven to separate further. However, this final honey tends to darker and generally not as pretty. We decided to use this to make some mead.

I was surprised how much honey separated from the wax. We added 6 gallons of cool tap water resulting in an OG around 1.040. A bit more honey was added to bring it up to 1.050.

This recipe was based on the Rogue Farms 19 Original Colonies mead. It is a low alcohol mead (hydromel), which is infused with Jasmine tea and carbonated. We had previously sampled it at the Newport brewery and found it incredibly refreshing.

Here’s the basic schedule:

• Early November: Honey and water mixed. Campden for 24 hours. Yeast added.
• Late November: Racked to 2nd carboy. 5 bags of tea added.
• January: Sampled. 5 more teabags added.
• Late march: Moved to corny for carbonation.
• June: Ready to drink!

Based on the rogue 13 original

10 teabags for a few months.