T'ej - Ethiopian wine

Started a batch of t'ej on 12/30 using
40 oz of clover honey
1 gallon of local spring water. (my fermenter is a 3 gallon carboy. My goal is to have enough t'ej to fill a gallon carboy after I rack with about a pint or so of excess t'ej that I can refrigerate and use to top up the carboy).
8 oz of kitel (gesho leaves - powdered - I prefer crushed leaves but these are the only ones I could find)
4 oz of inchet (gesho twigs)
and a starter from a bottle of t'ej (about 1/4 C from the bottom of the bottle mixed with about 2 oz of clover honey dissolved in about 1/2 pt of water to which I added about 1/8 t of nutrient. The starter was kept in a beaker (with bung and airlock for about 2 .5 days. I don't have a stir plate so I agitated the jar a few times a day).

I warm the honey in its jar in a pot of hot water to increase its viscosity and pour small batches into a sanitized blender into which I have added a volume of water and whip the honey and water together to aerate then pour this aerated honey water mix into the fermenter.

Added 1 t of nutrient and 1/2 t energizer

Activity was very slow until this morning when it is clear that the fermentation has taken off.

I have made t'ej a few times and while traditionally this is bottled and drunk before the mead is absolutely clear and indeed fully fermented I treat this like any mead and allow it to age several months. Already thinking about my next batch - which I think will use orange blossom honey.

Sound like a fun project.

It will be interesting to see how that turns out.

Any pics? I love mead. This sounds very cool.

My camera is so internet /sharing unfriendly... Drives me up the wall... Sorry I never took any pictures of the process but I bottled 5 bottles Wednesday. The taste is less intense than the last version I made where I pitched 71B. I don't know for sure what yeast would have been in the bottle I used as my starter. I suspect that this might have been the yeasts that would have been on the gesho... Certainly a lighter flavor and a little unlike more traditionally made t'ej, mine tends to be clear - albeit with a bronze-like color.

I will try to get a shot of the bottles this evening...

Where did you learn about this wine/mead? This is interesting to me, since I know a few first-generation Ethiopian immigrants who have taken me to authentic Ethiopian restaurant around Dallas. What are 'gesho' leaves and twigs, and where can you buy them? And are there any wine stores that stock "T'ej"?

Austin said:

Any pics? I love mead. This sounds very cool.

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My computer is telling me that it cannot open the jpg image from my camera. But somehow it can open any other jpg on the planet. GRRRRRRR... Sorry

Bartman said:

Where did you learn about this wine/mead? This is interesting to me, since I know a few first-generation Ethiopian immigrants who have taken me to authentic Ethiopian restaurant around Dallas. What are 'gesho' leaves and twigs, and where can you buy them? And are there any wine stores that stock "T'ej"?

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I first learnt about t'ej from Harry Kloman's page
http://www.pitt.edu/~kloman/tej.html

but I adapted his recipe and technique based on the work of a wine maker (on this forum I think) called Saramc

Brundo (sells on Amazon) sells the gesho twigs and used to sell the leaves but today Morebeer sells the ground up leaves (I prefer the leaves but c'est la guerre). Gesho is a plant - called , I think, Buckthorn, which is native to Ethiopia and which used a little like hops. The twigs are supposed to contain enough yeast to ferment the honey.
I do believe that t'ej is found in wine stores and when my wife and I were visiting the Finger Lakes I found one winery that made a t'ej but I don't offhand recall the name of that winery...
But you might try the following list of meaderies.
http://www.meadmakers.org/styles.htm

The few times I have made t'ej before this batch I have used 71B to ferment the honey as I have no idea under what conditions the gesho twigs are shipped (they are sealed in 4 oz bags but the package may be subject to extremes of heat)

Any news about this t'ej mead now that it's 6 months or so old?

I think it very drinkable - nice balance between inherent sweetness of the honey and the bitterness that comes from the gesho. Nice golden color. Very bright, but still dropping some sediment.

The carboy on the left is filled with T'ella - an Ethiopian beer made with the gesho leaves. Should be ready to bottle tomorrow evening.

Bernard,
Did you tell me that you did use a clearing agent or just use time? Looks very good. I need to get some gesho ordered as I have everything else ready to go.

I generally just use time and with traditional wines like t'ej I try to use the same ingredients although I may use generally accepted wine making processes and practices. So no fining or clearing agents..Traditionally made t'ej - at least the ones I have tried tend to be very hazy but they tend to be bottled fairly soon after the fermentation has started. I wait until the wine is clear and with all honey wines I generally find that the mead clears very bright in a few months with no assistance from me. In this case the t'ej was racked from the gesho leaves after a week or so of pitching the yeast

Bernard,
I looked through our conversations and didn't see where you added any kmeta along the way, is that correct?
And when you backsweetened yours, I assume by "stabilizing" you mean sorbate? or sorbate and kmeta?

I just ordered some gesho this morning from Brundo's website. Very expensive for a package of twigs.

I don't back sweeten t'ej, so I don't stabilize (I don't add K-meta* and K-sorbate) . I think the recipes online all suggest bottling and chilling while the yeast is still actively fermenting so traditionally it may be sweeter than dry. I prefer a drier to a sweeter wine and I generally think most honey wines have an inherent sweetness to them (as long as the acidity is not too high) Moreover, in Ethiopia t'ej, I believe, is made for an event and made to be drunk there and then - not stored, whereas here, you and I would make the mead and perhaps crack open a bottle when the feeling takes us so I won't bottle until I am pretty certain that there is no sugar left for the yeast.
* I also don't "add" K-meta when I bottle t'ej although I do use K-meta to sanitize the bottles and the bottling bucket and in this case I don't worry if there are a few drops ( a few ) of the solution in the bottle when I fill them.
As for the price of those twigs.. I agree but I recast them as "hops" and hops are not any less expensive - and you need to store them in a freezer and that means there is an additional cost - the energy used.

BernardSmith said:

and you need to store them in a freezer and that means there is an additional cost - the energy used.

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Are you talking about the gesho I receive, it needs to be stored in a freezer, prior to use?

No no no... I was referring to regular beer hops. Gesho is used like a hop but the twigs are very "stable" as are the leaves - My point was that beer hops cost about $2.50 an ounce AND you need to store THEMunder very low temperatures. Gesho stems costs about $7 for 4 oz and the leaves (kitel) cost about $4 for 4 oz and you can store them in a drawer...

Thank you for the clarification.