spirits ginger mead recipe

This is my blue ribbon winning recipe:

Aphrodite's Kiss & candied ginger

1 gallon (about 12 lbs) dark honey (from a local beekeeper-strained, but unfiltered and unpasteurized if you can get it that way)

5 pounds very fresh ginger (sorry, Aussies, dont know the metric conversion)

4 gallons of spring water

Lalvin champagne yeast (used to be K1-1114)

raw sugar of some type- the most natural you can get

you will also need:

a food dehydrator

waxed paper

cooling racks


Peel the ginger (or not) and slice it very thin. I only had a two or three gallon pot to cook in, so I put a gallon or two of water in the pot and the gallon of honey, stirred it well to mix and brought it gently to a simmer, stirring all the while to keep the honey from carmelizing on the bottom. add all the ginger and simmer gently for an hour or two, stirring very frequently. If the mixture foams during this process, DO NOT SKIM OFF THE FOAM. Stir it in! Most meadmakers I know are surprised I do this, but they are also surprised at how amazingly clear and delicious my mead is. I think the foam contains necessary proteins, and I dont add any nutrients to my mead.

When the ginger has become translucent, (it takes at least an hour, maybe two) and cuts with the edge of a fork, skim out all the ginger slices, roll them in the natural sugar and put them on the cooling racks that are placed over the sheets of wax paper on the counter.

cool the must as quickly as possible. Bring the remaining water to 170F for twenty minutes.

when the ginger slices are done dripping honey and sugar (mostly) put them in the food dehydrator-proceed with these as you would for candied orange peels.

scrape the honey and sugar off of the wax paper and stir it into your must. put all of that into your primary fermenter with the yeast according to the instructions on the package. you know how to proceed from primary fermentation to secondary I assume! when you judge that secondary fermentation is over, (at 70F about three months, maybe more) rack into another carboy with an airlock. keep this at 70-75 F if at all possible. check it every month or so, for clearing. (it may do a third stage fermentation) It will clear in a remarkable line, and you will be able to see the clearing progress from top down until it reaches the bottom. With any luck you will be able to bottle on the anniversary of the day you brewed it(and start another batch!). Then, oh so very carefully, rack the clear mead off of the yeast into a clean carboy, and bottle from there. I would then store the bottled mead for at least a year before opening. This mead won a contest when it was about 4 years in the bottle-though it had previously received a blue ribbon at only 2 years in the bottle.

I was told at about seven years that it went very nicely with a romantic weekend and chocolate covered strawberries! (thats better than a ribbon):onfire:
 
5 pounds is 2272 grams Celeste ;) There are 2.2 pounds to a kilo.

Thanks for the recipe, i will try this when i can find some nice honey. :)
 
P.S. This makes a very dry mead of high alcohol content. Most people refer to it as "hot". I like it that way, but some dont. I have not been able to perfect backsweetening. If you want it sweet, give it a shot. If you start with more honey it will be sweeter, but it wont ferment out to as high an alcohol content-and may not clear well.

Let me know how you did that and how it works for you.
 
No worries Celeste i will. It will be the end of the month when i have the funds to start playing :D
 
Thanks for the recipe, Celeste. I've always skimmed the gross foam (reminds me of mucus) but I'll try stirring it in next time.

I"ve made a few ginger meads and really like them. One of my favorites is a bit lighter and reminds me of a cross between champagne and ginger ale (I even carbonate it) with around 7-9% alcohol. Basic recipe for 5 gallons is as follows--all quantities are estimates and can be adjusted to taste:

7# honey
2# sugar
fresh grated ginger root (I've used anywhere b/n 2-6 oz)
citric acid (tsp or so)
yeast nutrient
champagne yeast
 
I've just used the standard stuff that I use in some homebrew beers. Here's the description I found on a google search.

"Yeast Nutrient is a mixture diammonium phosphate and food-grade urea that nourishes yeast, ensuring that it remains healthy throughout fermentation."
 
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