Third time's the charm - Root Beer mead

[Ty520]

After 3 attempts, I'm finally happy with my Root Beer mead recipe. the rich, bold color was also a pleasant surprise, as well.

Definitely going to make this one again - almost like drinking a hard soda (but not quite as sweet)

 

[dmw_chef]

I mean, you can't just not supply your ingredients and process.

 

[Ty520]

Oh, I suppose... ;-)

Batch size: 1 gallon

Ingredients:

• 36 oz Orange Blossom honey
• 16 oz Avocado honey
• 12 oz brown sugar
• 1 gallon water
• D47 yeast
• 12 tbs sarsparilla root
• 3 tbs birch bark
• 0.75 tbs wintergreen
• 3 tsp ginger root
• 3 tsp licorice root
• 1 clove
• ½ cinnamon stick
• ½ star anise
• 2 vanilla beans
• 0.5 ounces med toast american oak
• Go-ferm
• Fermaid O
• 0.25 tsp potassium sorbate
• 0.25 tsp potassium metabisulfite

Method:

• Bring water (minus 4 oz for yeast rehydration) to a simmer. Add spices (sans vanilla) in a brew sock and simmer for 20 minutes, then remove from heat and steep for 1 hour.
• Rehydrate yeast w/ go ferm and pitch per instructions.
• Add tea, honey and brown sugar to primary vessel. Stir vigorously to dissolve honey and sugar and oxygenate.
• Pitch yeast once must has reached acceptable temperatures
• Degas twice daily for 5 days
• Add fermaid o per tosna protocol
• Rack at 2 months
• Add K sorbate and K meta to stabilize
• Add vanilla beans, split lengthwise
• Rack at 4 months, pull vanilla, add oak
• Pull oak at 5 months
• Rack again at 7 months
• Bottle at 10 months

 

[BernardSmith]

Wow! THAT is a high gravity must: the sugar will add 30 points of gravity and the honey has about 35 points per lb and 52 oz is 3.25 lbs ) so this starts at 1.144 . That is about 18-19% ABV - although I suspect that the D47 will give up the ghost before all the sugar is converted - so perhaps a final gravity of about 25 -30 points of sweetness and so a "beer" of about 15% ABV

 

[Ty520]

Wow! THAT is a high gravity must: the sugar will add 30 points of gravity and the honey has about 35 points per lb and 52 oz is 3.25 lbs ) so this starts at 1.144 . That is about 18-19% ABV - although I suspect that the D47 will give up the ghost before all the sugar is converted - so perhaps a final gravity of about 25 -30 points of sweetness and so a "beer" of about 15% ABV

yes - however i found that the bittering agents are also very potent and require the sweetness for balance. My first experimental micro batch was very dry at 0.99, and it just tasted like a muddy vegetal mess - like licking the bottom of a lawnmower - the spices just blurred together, and the ingredients were undiscernible; the second run came in at 1010, but also unpleasantly vegetal and bitter. I find that sweetness is essential to lifting up herbs and spices and actually making them distinctive.

In the end, I actually just made very basic modifications to my grandfather's traditional root beer soda recipe and reverse calc'd the sugars so that the FG would be almost equivalent, but a bit drier ( say, like Barq's rather than A&W)

 

[franc1969]

So what is your final gravity? and not sparkling or carbonated, correct?

 

[Ty520]

So what is your final gravity? and not sparkling or carbonated, correct?

It is not carbonated/sparkling (but i would force carbonate next time)

It clocked in at 1030 FG, 16.5% abv.

 

[Ty520]

Wow! THAT is a high gravity must: the sugar will add 30 points of gravity and the honey has about 35 points per lb and 52 oz is 3.25 lbs ) so this starts at 1.144 . That is about 18-19% ABV - although I suspect that the D47 will give up the ghost before all the sugar is converted - so perhaps a final gravity of about 25 -30 points of sweetness and so a "beer" of about 15% ABV

the sugar is actually 47 points per pound, so the OG was 1.152 ish if i recall - I was definitely pushing close to boundaries. The yeast gave up at 16.5% abv w/ an FG of 1030

 

[BernardSmith]

I stand corrected - although I meant to write 40 points per pound from the sugar. Forty-seven is more than I imagined.

 

[Ty520]

I stand corrected - although I meant to write 40 points per pound from the sugar. Forty-seven is more than I imagined.

An easy general rule of thumb is to take the sugar content as a percentage, then divide by half to get the gravity points per pound per gallon ( you do have to accommodate for non fermentables and impurities which will knock it down a couple points though). Brown sugar is only 94% pure because of the molasses. So 94/2 = 47.

 

[dmw_chef]

This calculator makes it easy to calculate gravity for multi sugar musts:

http://meadcalc.freevar.com/

 

[papabearRN]

Was the Ginger root fresh or dried?

 

[Ty520]

Dried

 

[papabearRN]

Thank you!

 

[Jim Welch]

@Ty520 How much of the honey flavor comes through? I made a mead with coffee clossom honey based on your coffee lactose mead recipe and still have quite a bit of that. Do you think the coffee blossom honey would work here? Also, what was the must temperature range during fermentation?

 

[hounddawg]

Oh, I suppose... ;-)

Batch size: 1 gallon

Ingredients:

• 36 oz Orange Blossom honey
• 16 oz Avocado honey
• 12 oz brown sugar
• 1 gallon water
• D47 yeast
• 12 tbs sarsparilla root
• 3 tbs birch bark
• 0.75 tbs wintergreen
• 3 tsp ginger root
• 3 tsp licorice root
• 1 clove
• ½ cinnamon stick
• ½ star anise
• 2 vanilla beans
• 0.5 ounces med toast american oak
• Go-ferm
• Fermaid O
• 0.25 tsp potassium sorbate
• 0.25 tsp potassium metabisulfite

Method:

• Bring water (minus 4 oz for yeast rehydration) to a simmer. Add spices (sans vanilla) in a brew sock and simmer for 20 minutes, then remove from heat and steep for 1 hour.
• Rehydrate yeast w/ go ferm and pitch per instructions.
• Add tea, honey and brown sugar to primary vessel. Stir vigorously to dissolve honey and sugar and oxygenate.
• Pitch yeast once must has reached acceptable temperatures
• Degas twice daily for 5 days
• Add fermaid o per tosna protocol
• Rack at 2 months
• Add K sorbate and K meta to stabilize
• Add vanilla beans, split lengthwise
• Rack at 4 months, pull vanilla, add oak
• Pull oak at 5 months
• Rack again at 7 months
• Bottle at 10 months

nice, i make sa

Oh, I suppose... ;-)

Batch size: 1 gallon

Ingredients:

• 36 oz Orange Blossom honey
• 16 oz Avocado honey
• 12 oz brown sugar
• 1 gallon water
• D47 yeast
• 12 tbs sarsparilla root
• 3 tbs birch bark
• 0.75 tbs wintergreen
• 3 tsp ginger root
• 3 tsp licorice root
• 1 clove
• ½ cinnamon stick
• ½ star anise
• 2 vanilla beans
• 0.5 ounces med toast american oak
• Go-ferm
• Fermaid O
• 0.25 tsp potassium sorbate
• 0.25 tsp potassium metabisulfite

Method:

• Bring water (minus 4 oz for yeast rehydration) to a simmer. Add spices (sans vanilla) in a brew sock and simmer for 20 minutes, then remove from heat and steep for 1 hour.
• Rehydrate yeast w/ go ferm and pitch per instructions.
• Add tea, honey and brown sugar to primary vessel. Stir vigorously to dissolve honey and sugar and oxygenate.
• Pitch yeast once must has reached acceptable good
• Degas twice daily for 5 days
• Add fermaid o per tosna protocol
• Rack at 2 months
• Add K sorbate and K meta to stabilize
• Add vanilla beans, split lengthwise
• Rack at 4 months, pull vanilla, add oak
• Pull oak at 5 months
• Rack again at 7 months
• Bottle at 10 months

i make sasperrilia tea/soda most years , seen many a recipe, but yours looks awfully good
Dawg ,

 

[Ty520]

@Ty520 How much of the honey flavor comes through? I made a mead with coffee clossom honey based on your coffee lactose mead recipe and still have quite a bit of that. Do you think the coffee blossom honey would work here? Also, what was the must temperature range during fermentation?

Yes I think the coffee blossom honey would work well.

It would have been about 72 degrees

 

[Jim Welch]

Yes I think the coffee blossom honey would work well.

It would have been about 72 degrees

Thanks for that. Where did you source the sasparilla root, birch bark, wintergreen, dried ginger root, and licorice root? I've looked and it seems there are multiple species of plants going by at least some these common names and I want to make sure I get the right type. Would like to find a one stop shop to buy all of these at if possible. The rest of the spice ingredients I either have or can get locally.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Ty520]

Thanks for that. Where did you source the sasparilla root, birch bark, wintergreen, dried ginger root, and licorice root? I've looked and it seems there are multiple species of plants going by at least some these common names and I want to make sure I get the right type. Would like to find a one stop shop to buy all of these at if possible. The rest of the spice ingredients I either have or can get locally.
Thanks in advance.

I got all the ingredients at Mountain Rose Herbs. Many come in various sizes ranging from ground powder to large whole pieces - make sure to get the smaller pieces, but not ground.

 

[Jim Welch]

@Ty520 Thank you