Tag Archives: Metheglin

Amusing, Belize, Farming, Fermentation

Jungle Farm and Resurrection Metheglin Tasting.

Munchkin.Back.ViewHi Everyone!!  We have been so busy well, with life that the grass has grown up with all the rains.  The jungle has all of a suddenly sneaked up on us and bang…we feel like we are living in the middle of the bush.  Aaarghh!!  Can’t see anything for the tall grass and humongous weeds (here in Belize, they are not mere dandelions…they grow into monster plants)!!

It is time for a big mow and tidy up.  Gnome agrees with me too.

However, we have one slight problem.  The weather is not co-operating!!  It is pouring down!!

Gnome.Siaking.Wet

So, instead of farm stuff let us move swiftly onto a metheglin tasting.  During our EasterTime madness, Gnome had made a Resurrection Metheglin with the following flavourings: liquorice root, star anise and Ligusticum wallichi, also known as Chuanxiong Rhizoma in Traditional Chinese Medicine and also as Szechuan Lovage. The star anise and liquorice root add that sweetish, unctuous and mouth-coating flavour while the Rhizoma adds a more earthy, complex and spicy aroma that has hints of fennel and celery.

Resurrection.Metheglin.Herbs
Liquorice Root, Star Anise and Szechuan Lovage.
Resurrection Metheglin.
Resurrection Metheglin.

Colour is golden yellow and effervescent; medium sized bubbles with good fizz.  Slightly cloudy.  No Head.

Smells like a lager.

The first sip is thirst-quenching when served at a cold temperature.  It is mild tasting with anise and celery-like under-tones. The herbaceous flavour is light and crisp, adding a refreshing feeling to the overall taste.  The liquorice is not detectable so for next time, we will add more of this.

Very Good!!

AvatarMunchkinSo good that Munchkin has a confession to make.  There are no more bottles left…they have been systematically guzzled down …slowly…one a day (56 bottles in total).  She just had the last one today and so felt that it was time to do a “tasting” before the Resurrection Metheglin was sadly a thing of the past.

Amusing, Belize, Fermentation

Beef Jerky and Chilli Mead.

Gnome.Surprised.No.GlassesBrewing has come to an end…boo-hoo!  After completion of the Resurrection Metheglin there was one last brew bucket to be used and alas, this is what has happened, the final fermentation:  Black Pepper Beef Jerky and Chilli Metheglin.

All Buckets have been used.
My collection of trigeminal buckets.

The idea for this unusual mead had its inception from reading an old article on Cock Ale.  Apparently, an old, parboiled cock (a rooster, you sick folk ;-P) that has been flayed, stamped in a stone mortar and put in a sack with other aromatic goodies can be steeped into ale to add just a little bit more body!  Well, with a leap of tangential thinking, derailment and frank thought disorder, I took Cock Ale and got…ta-da…Beef Jerky Mead with Chilli!

Black Pepper Seasoned Beef Jerky Ready to be Simmered.
Black Pepper Seasoned Beef Jerky Ready to be Simmered.

Extrapolating (or intrapolating or just plain guesstimating) from the original recipe of one cock for 10 gallons of ale…and making some assumptions as to the size of your average Belizean cock; and, also, considering the difference in flavour between fowl and beef…we settled on 250g of beef jerky for five gallons of mead.

This is the amount of chilli pepper we used:

Pepper for Beef Jerky Mead.
Pepper for Beef Jerky Mead.

…a nice, wild hybrid of jalapeno (sorry, no tilde) and bird pepper that turns purple before red.

I aimed for a slightly higher strength of alcohol than usual (6-7% alcohol) in order to better hold the expected heaviness from the beef and chilli; which in this case, was achieved with four and a half “quarts” of Belizean Rainforest Honey…

Belize Honey "Quarts."
Belize Honey “Quarts.”

The beef jerky was simmered with half the chilli for about an hour without the honey, making a nice and spicy beef broth.  After which, the honey was added and brought to the boil for a second before cooling and pouring into the brew bucket.  The yeast used was my standard “evolving” lager yeast.

Let’s see how it turns out!

Belize, Fermentation

Resurrection Metheglin.

Glasses.Gnome.More.ShinyAs l contemplate the Miracle of the Resurrection, like all good Catholic Gnomes do, I decided to dedicate and make a gesture in Celebration of this Time by humbly naming my latest fermentation effort:  Resurrection Metheglin.  As all mead drinkers know, a metheglin is a type of mead that has herbs and spices added to it in order to alter the taste and/or properties of the basic honey and water ferment.

In this particular case, I have used liquorice root, star anise and Ligusticum wallichi, also known as Chuanxiong Rhizoma in Traditional Chinese Medicine and also as Szechuan Lovage.  The star anise and liquorice root add that sweetish, unctuous and mouth-coating flavour while the Rhizoma adds a more earthy, complex and spicy aroma that has hints of fennel and celery.

Licorice Root, Star Anise and Ligusticum wallichi used to make this year's Resurrection Metheglin.
Liquorice Root, Star Anise and Ligusticum wallichi used to make this year’s Resurrection Metheglin.

The rest of the recipe is made with our usual Rainforest Honey and Toledo Rainwater adjusted to our (mild) preferred strength of 4-5% alcohol content, the final intention being to have a sparkling product closer in character to beer rather than champagne.  Oh yes, I’ve used the lager yeast that I have been babying along all these months in an attempt to “evolve” and adapt to our local honey and high temperature mead conditions.

May we all find some measure of Enlightenment at this time.