Beginning with this second book in the popular series "Let There be Mead!" Rob now brings his focus to the popular style of honey meads known as Melomels. Melomels are meads made using fruit or fruit blends. As you can imagine, the possibilities of this style are truly limitless. In this edition, Rob also brings us an entire section focused solely on Polish mead making techniques. This section will provide tips, explanations, and processes detailing step by step how to make your own authentic Polish Melomels with recipes provided by award winning mead makers straight from Poland. So grab your copy of "Let There be Melomels!" and Let There Be Mead!
Big Book of Mead Recipes is a first - the first in a series of recipes for mead. Like the craft home brewing world, the mead world is going crazy, and now there are proven, repeatable recipes that use modern techniques to create amazing meads. We have several book on mead making techniques, but good recipe books are not so common. So here, Rob offers you his first book, covering all the mead categories, to whet your appetite, and let you create some amazing meads. Dive into the "Big Book of Mead Recipes" and go create some liquid gold!
Since The Compleat Meadmakerwas first published, mead has continued to grow in popularity as crafted beverages have become an established part of the beverage market in America. In 2003 there were roughly 60 commercial meaderies in the US, but by 2020 this number stood at 450. Naturally, many hobbyists are also discovering the delights of making this “nectar of the gods” themselves. Thanks to the global distribution of bees and, therefore, honey, you will find mead-like drinks in virtually every corner of the world. No wonder historians recognize it as one of humankind’s oldest fermented beverages. Mead production never really ceased in Europe and Africa, but its star was eclipsed with the increasing production and distribution of wine, beer, and distilled spirits from the 1600s onward. With the rebirth of brewing and the establishment of world-class wine producing regions in the US, it is time for mead in the twenty-first century to be brought back into the limelight. Mead needs to establish a vocabulary of its own and find a place in the hearts of homebrewers and home winemakers. In The Compleat Meadmaker, veteran meadmaker Ken Schramm—one of the founders of the Mazer Cup Mead Competition, North America’s oldest mead-only competition—introduces the novice to the wonders of mead. With easy-to-follow procedures and simple recipes, he shows how you can quickly and painlessly make your own mead at home. In later chapters, Schramm introduces flavorful variations on the basic theme that lead to meads flavored with spice, fruits, grapes, and malt. The author covers the many aspects of meadmaking in a comprehensive but easy-to-read fashion, with something for novices and experienced brewers and vintners alike from basic equipment for meadmaking, creating your first must, and on through the basics of fermentation, racking, and bottling. Once the first steps have been taken Schramm goes into more detail, involving balancing for taste using acid, priming for sparkling mead, corking practices, and strategies for clarifying. He also covers aspects of fermentation, such as selecting the right yeast strain, aerating and managing the pH of your must during the critical early phase of fermentation, and adjusting nutrient levels to suit mead fermentation. The author also troubleshoots common problems and processes, such as stuck fermentations, fermentations that will not start, slow or prolonged fermentations, measuring total acidity via acid titrations, and on balancing residual sugars through sweetening, malo-lactic fermentation, increasing acidity, and drying out the mead further. The fine-tuning process does not stop after fermentation is finished. Perhaps the finest characteristic of mead is that it seems to improve with age almost indefinitely. As well as advice on how long to store it, Schramm also offers up his experience with the many different approaches to conditioning and maturing mead, focusing on the use of oak chips, blocks, and barrels to age mead on wood. As one of the oldest fermented drinks and using the oldest sweetener known to humankind, mead and honey are inextricable. Schramm delves into a brief natural history of honey production and the bees that make it possible, with fascinating insights into the profession of beekeepers. He explores sources of nectar and pollen and the benefits of honey varietals explored, with a section devoted entirely to varietal honey based on floral variety. Along the way Schramm delves into the concept of honey “vintage”, grades of honey, sugar, moisture, organic acids, mineral content, color terminology, and how you should not judge a honey’s flavor by its color. There is also a discussion of aroma compounds, absolutely essential if wishing to understand the organoleptic qualities of honey. While mead can be a charmingly simple drink to make, home meadmakers can easily indulge in a host of different flavors to make unique and delicious meads. The author provides you with an understanding of the role quality ingredients play in creating a really pleasing mead. There are several ingredients-focused chapters that look at making sack mead, melomel, cyser, pyment, hippocras, metheglin, and braggot. At the end, Schramm puts it all together in a section devoted entirely to recipes. As one of the most ancient of human beverages, mead arose in part because it was easy to make. Despite this, mead is a surprisingly complex, diverse, and romantic drink that can range from bone dry to profoundly sweet, and can be crafted to complement any type of food. With The Compleat Meadmaker, you can see just how simple, fun, and rewarding meadmaking is.
A complete, practical, and entertaining guide to using the best ingredients and minimal equipment to create flavorful brews—including wildcrafted meads, bragots, t’ej, grog, honey beers, and more! "A great guide . . . full of practical information and fascinating lore."—Sandor Ellix Katz, author of The Art of Fermentation Ancient societies brewed flavorful and healing meads, ales, and wines for millennia using only intuition, storytelling, and knowledge passed down through generations―no fancy, expensive equipment or degrees in chemistry needed. In Make Mead Like a Viking, homesteader, fermentation enthusiast, and self-described “Appalachian Yeti Viking” Jereme Zimmerman summons the bryggjemann of the ancient Norse to demonstrate how homebrewing mead―arguably the world’s oldest fermented alcoholic beverage―can be not only uncomplicated but fun. Inside, readers will learn techniques for brewing: Sweet, semi-sweet, and dry meads Melomels (fruit meads) Metheglins (spiced meads) Ethiopian t’ej (honey wine) Flower and herbal meads Bragots Honey beers Country wines Viking grog And there's more for aspiring Vikings to explore, including: The importance of local and unpasteurized honey for both flavor and health benefits What modern homebrewing practices, materials, and chemicals work—but aren’t necessary How to grow and harvest herbs and collect wild botanicals for use in healing, nutritious, and magical meads, beers, and wines How to use botanicals other than hops for flavoring and preserving mead, ancient ales, and gruits The rituals, mysticism, and communion with nature that were integral components of ancient brewing Whether you’ve been intimidated by modern homebrewing’s cost or seeming complexity in the past or are boldly looking to expand your current brewing and fermentation practices, Zimmerman’s welcoming style and spirit will usher you into exciting new territory. Grounded in history and mythology, but―like Odin’s ever-seeking eye―focusing continually on the future of self-sufficient food culture, Make Mead Like a Viking is a practical and entertaining guide for the ages. "Adventurous mead makers or brewers who want to move beyond the basics will find plenty to savor here."—Library Journal
Make extraordinary homemade wines from everything but grapes! In this refreshingly unique take on winemaking, Patti Vargas and Rich Gulling offer 125 recipes for unusual wines made from herbs, fruits, flowers, and honey. Learn to use ingredients from your farmers’ market, grocery store, or even your own backyard to make deliciously fermented drinks. Lemon-Thyme Metheglin, Rose Hip Melomel, and Pineapple-Orange Delight are just the beginning of an unexplored world of delightfully natural wild wines. Cheers!
Think You Can't Can? Think Again... The craft of canning has undergone a renaissance, attracting celebrity chefs, home cooks, and backyard gardeners alike. Canned and pickled foods have become a cornerstone of the artisanal food movement, providing an opportunity to savor seasonal foods long after harvest and to create bold new flavors. Tart and Sweet by Kelly Geary and Jessie Knadler is the essential canning manual for the 21st century, providing a modern tutorial on small-batch canning accompanied by easy-to-follow photos and instructions as well as more than 101 sweet and savory recipes for preserved fruits and pickled vegetables, including jams, chutneys, marmalades, syrups, relishes, sauces, and salsas. With traditional favorites like canned peaches and bread-and-butter pickles as well as more inventive flavor combinations such as kumquat marmalade and pickled ramps, Tart and Sweet offers endless possibilities for creative preserving. In addition, you'll find recipes and inspiration for using your canned goods in delicious and unique ways, from cocktails to cakes. Whether you're assembling a plate of pickled hors d'oeuvres, baking with fresh apple butter, or gifting jars of blueberry jam in December, you'll find countless uses for your homemade preserves.
Home Brewing Just Got Easier and More Exciting with 1-Gallon Recipes Amber Shehan makes home brewing a breeze for beginners and experts alike with smaller 1-gallon (3.8-L) recipes that reduce the time, money and energy needed to create delicious brews all year long. Enjoy the nuanced flavors of homebrews like tart Orange-Hibiscus Cider, palate-cleansing Peppermint Wine or soothing Vanilla Bean and Chamomile Mead. As an herbalist, Amber showcases her knowledge of culinary and medicinal herbs, wildflowers and plants in this incredible collection of deliciously infused brews that are both intoxicating and tonic. Rosemary and Clementine Mead is the perfect refresher for a warm summer evening and Spiced Pomegranate Wine will warm you right up on the coldest of winter days. With inventive, potent recipes and all the brewing know-how you need to get started or build your skills, Artisanal Small-Batch Brewing is your go-to guide for creating memorable brews beloved by all.
"if your vessell houlde Ten Gallons put in a Bout 5 Races of Ginger the out sides Paired a Way 2 Nuttmege and a Grote worth of Cinnamon A little mace a few Cloves ... and you must make it at Miclemas And not to be Drunk Tell Lent" Wellcome Mead presents 105 historical mead recipes and their variants (29 additional recipes). Each of the recipes has been drawn from 17th and early 18th century English household receipt books held by the Wellcome Library in London. Although the recipes are drawn from a focused time and geography, they showcase the breadth and complexity of historical mead recipes. After a brief discussion of the source documents, Wellcome Mead focuses on understanding the original recipes within the context of their historical world and developing useable modern interpretations for them. Equipment, and methods used to produce the original recipes are detailed and discussed as well as each of the over 100 different ingredients. Changes in mead recipes over time are addressed with reference to historical factors driving that change. Mead styles represented include plain mead, metheglins (spices herbs, and flowers), fruited meads (melomels), citrus meads, and braggots. Multiple options are presented to bring recipes forward for modern use, and specific recipe interpretations are given for each of the historical recipes. Recipe interpretations are suitable for both those interested in using history as inspiration for more modern efforts and those focused on historical re-creation. The book is intended for mazers familiar with basic mead making. PART I: Historical Mead Making Introduction Recipes in Context Old Recipes into Modern Mead Making Ingredients Selected Recipes PART II: The Recipes Plain Meads Meads with Added Sugars Cirtus Meads Flower Forward Meads Spice Focused Meads Non-Spice (Herb) Focused Meads Multiple Flavors Complex Meads Braggots Miscellaneous Meads
Port and sherries, whites, reds, roses and melomels—make your own wine without owning a vineyard! If you can follow a simple recipe, you can create delectable table wines in your own home. It's fun, it's easy-and the results will delightfully complement your favorite meals and provide unparalleled pleasure by the glass when friends come calling. You don't have tore-create Bordeaux in your basement to be a successful home vintner-you can make raisin wine and drink it like sherry, or use it to accent your Chinese cooking. Raspberry or apricot wine lend themselves to delicious desserts. And if you are interested in more exotic concoctions, rhubarb champagne is the ultimate treat. The Joy of Home Winemaking is your comprehensive guide to: the most up-to-date techniques and equipment readily available and affordable ingredients and materials aging, bottling, racking, blending, and experimenting dozens of original recipes for great-tasting fruit wines, spice wines, herb wines, sparkling wines, sherries, liqueurs even homemade soda pop! a sparkling brief history of winemaking helpful illustrations and glossary an extensive mail-order resource section Whether you prefer your wine dry of slightly sweet, The Joy of Home Winemaking has all the information you need to go from casual connoisseur to expert home vintner in no time.
