Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Maw-Maw Kelli's Original Lemon Balm Mead

Supplies:


Fermenting Jar (local brew store or a large jar with stopper and fermentation air-lock)  (size will depend on how much you make)

     You can make small batches in a 1/2 gallon mason jar with a recap lid, stopper and fermentation             lock)  this is flexible! use what you have don't go buy a bunch of stuff unless you really think you         wanna do more.

Lemon Balm (Melissa Off.)  (fresh plant, you will need large amounts depending on how much you make)
Stock Pot
Apple Pie Spice or other sweet spices like cinnamon.
Local or at least Organic Wildflower Honey
Redstar (red package) wine yeast.

Book:

I made this recipes based on this book:  Sacred Herbal and Healing Beers.  By Stephen Buhner. Please support his work!  It is awesome and there are tons of other things in there besides just recipes!!

Directions:

Start with a large amount of Lemon Balm (Mellisa Off.) in a large stock pot.  Cover with filtered water and let decoct (lid off) on a low temperature until it is reduced by half.  Add some Apple pie spice and a little Cinnamon or maybe Ginger??  have fun with it! 

Pour off  liquid and recycle plant material (compost do not throw away!!!) 
Use 3 parts of the liquid to 1 part honey.  
Add your honey in (after you strained the mixture and it cools a little) and let the honey mix up well with mixture (stir, stir stir, do not heat the honey too much)
After you have mixed the honey, let cool to about 70 degrees and add yeast. (you don't have to use what I did, you can use whatever yeast you want).

Add this mixture to your fermenting vessel. make sure there is not too much head room.  
After about 30 days you can decant it (I am sure there is another word for it in the mead world) but I did not decant mine. I finished mine off int he same vessel!!  (Yes I know that is not the way...blah blah blah ...who cares)   I did not taste it until month 8.  And then I decanted it and put it in bottles.   You can do it different if you want that is fine!!  But this was very successful for me and I am still enjoying it!  :D 

Enjoy!!!  Here was the finished product!  Taste Yummy! 


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