GreyCranium
Member
Hi, i am on the hunt for Old Viking mead recipes and was hoping someone in the community could help me out. This is for my first mead, which i would fully document how it went once i brewed it.
Looking for Viking mead recipes
- Thread starter GreyCranium
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Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
Have you read "The Compleat Meadmaker" By Ken Schramm? It would be a good place to start if you're thinking about getting into mead making.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381802/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381802/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
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fatbloke
Well-Known Member
There are no such recipe's of any accuracy. Think about how much genuine documentation there is for that time ?
Virtually non-existent.........
Your best bet is likely to be to work out the most likely ingredients used (or not as is the most likely the case i.e. herbs but no spices etc)....
Then go from there.
Oh and for yeast ? Bread yeast is likely to be most authentic.......vikings etc weren't known for their wine making skills were they......
Virtually non-existent.........
Your best bet is likely to be to work out the most likely ingredients used (or not as is the most likely the case i.e. herbs but no spices etc)....
Then go from there.
Oh and for yeast ? Bread yeast is likely to be most authentic.......vikings etc weren't known for their wine making skills were they......
This may not be 100% accurate.
From: http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/drink.shtml
The yeast used in the Voss area has been handed down generation to generation and Rivenes thinks it may date back to Viking times. The farmer-brewers in Norseland start fermentation with a "totem stick" that carries yeast cells from one brew to the next.
The beer brewed by Svein Rivenes was, according to Michael Jackson, around nine or ten per cent alcohol and had a rich malt character, with a syrupy body, a pronounced juniper character and was clean and appetizing. Jackson brought a sample of the yeast back to Britain... The Viking yeast was classified as a traditional ale yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but was different in several ways to a modern ale yeast. It had different taste characteristics. It was multi-strain whereas most modern ale yeasts are single or two-strain. Modern yeasts have been carefully cultured to attack different types of sugar in the wort and, where a beer is cask conditioned, to encourage a powerful secondary fermentation...
If we're going to make sweeping suppositions, I'd say they would have used this totem stick to start all alcoholic fermentation. Including wine. They weren't exactly known for their baking skills either.
BerserkerBrewer
Member
first locate a monastery, then with a band of fellow norsemen, go viking.
kill and pillage, and of course, free them of their mead, return to norway and drink heartedly.
if the barrels are small, refill half drunk ale barrels, they were always bigger, with a small barrel of mead, and hence , you have braggot.
joking aside.
the vikings, did brew barley ales, and traded their wares for mead as well as stealing it. but didnt make much mead , honey was a source of sweetness they used for cooking. and cold climates didnt help the bees.
before anyone disagrees, have a masters in nordic culture and history, and studied in oslo for 3 years.
kill and pillage, and of course, free them of their mead, return to norway and drink heartedly.
if the barrels are small, refill half drunk ale barrels, they were always bigger, with a small barrel of mead, and hence , you have braggot.
joking aside.
the vikings, did brew barley ales, and traded their wares for mead as well as stealing it. but didnt make much mead , honey was a source of sweetness they used for cooking. and cold climates didnt help the bees.
before anyone disagrees, have a masters in nordic culture and history, and studied in oslo for 3 years.
fatbloke
Well-Known Member
My point exactly. Most of the stuff that purports to be genuine is just victorian fantasy (and bloody Hollywood for that matter).
Hence, making a base traditional, stabilising and then secondary flavouring but with the few herb type flavour known to have been used then, and finish off by sweetening. At least that'd be a nod toward some attempt at the original idea/concept........
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GreyCranium
Member
Im a little disapointed to hear that there isnt much documentation on viking mead but Im going to look into the herbs
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GreyCranium
Member
thanks for your reply, very helpful
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GreyCranium
Member
Just found this recipe on google, its the closest ive found so far. I think i may try this one as my first brew.
Just realised thats its a beer, my bad sorry.
Just realised thats its a beer, my bad sorry.
I brew a winter spiced mead with Basil, Clove, Cinnamon and nutmeg with orange blossom honey. Last year I put some Almond in it and it turned out fantastic.
Just remember with spices and herbs a little goes a long way. They come in to the forefront after 1 year or more.
Good luck and please let me know what you decide to try as I am in a Viking group who love mead. LOL!
Just remember with spices and herbs a little goes a long way. They come in to the forefront after 1 year or more.
Good luck and please let me know what you decide to try as I am in a Viking group who love mead. LOL!
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GreyCranium
Member
Well ive looked through the forum and internet for the past couple of days, and ive decided to make a Metheglin with cherries and cinnamon with a lovely deep red colour hopefully. :rockin:
I have a Black Cherry melomel going right now that is a beautiful deep red. I used 4 lbs. of black cherries and 2L of black cherry juice in a 5gal. carboy and after it's done fermenting I plan on racking it onto another 4lbs. of black cherries.
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GreyCranium
Member
black cherry, did not think of that lol. keep us posted on how the colour turns out.:fro:
just checked, as i live in the uk black cherries are extremely hard to get hold of
just checked, as i live in the uk black cherries are extremely hard to get hold of
roastquake
Well-Known Member
I would maybe use aquavit spices:
From Wikipedia: Commonly seen flavours are caraway, cardamom, cumin, anise, fennel, and lemon or orange peel.[4] Dill and "grains of paradise" are also used.
Aquavit is a traditional Norweigian liqour, I would guess the same flavors would go into a Nordic mead as well.
I would also consider using spruce tips/essence
As someone already noted, a true Viking mead would be a stolen one. Vikings where assimilators, so maybe go to a mead-makers house, beat him up, and just start living there.
From Wikipedia: Commonly seen flavours are caraway, cardamom, cumin, anise, fennel, and lemon or orange peel.[4] Dill and "grains of paradise" are also used.
Aquavit is a traditional Norweigian liqour, I would guess the same flavors would go into a Nordic mead as well.
I would also consider using spruce tips/essence
As someone already noted, a true Viking mead would be a stolen one. Vikings where assimilators, so maybe go to a mead-makers house, beat him up, and just start living there.
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GreyCranium
Member
wickman6
Well-Known Member
I'm interested in that sahti recipe, thanks for posting!
Question on juniper berries, I have access to fresh ones or dried. Any idea which to use? If fresh, when should I harvest?
Thanks!
Question on juniper berries, I have access to fresh ones or dried. Any idea which to use? If fresh, when should I harvest?
Thanks!
Sorry Grey, I didn't even think about you being in the UK. I saw Durham and I'm thinking of Durham.......Ontario.........Canada, hahahaha, a town I grew up fairly near to and played hockey and ball against the kids there when I was young so the availability of black cherries never even dawned on me. I wouldn't have thought that they would be a rare commodity.black cherry, did not think of that lol. keep us posted on how the colour turns out.:fro:
just checked, as i live in the uk black cherries are extremely hard to get hold of
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GreyCranium
Member
i could still get them but at an increased exported price. for now ill stick with red cherries, as ive made a deal with my local greengrocers for 8 lb of red cherrys. But thanks for the surggestion.:rockin:
raestlyn
Member
Fresh. If you can, use the whole twigs. Google sahti, you'll find more info about it.
fatbloke
Well-Known Member
No theyre not! Until about 2 weeks ago, you'd find a variety of cherries in roadside layby's. Some red, some dark red and some black.black cherry, did not think of that lol. keep us posted on how the colour turns out.:fro:
just checked, as i live in the uk black cherries are extremely hard to get hold of
Just too far north..... cherries are mostly Kent and East Sussex. ....and yes, the season has just finished.
Check out the local supermarkets, they might even have them in offer...
Well Aquavit flavours are as good as any, but traditional for modern Norwegians and not vikings. You'd have to hit the history books for long time traditional flavours - some of which would likely grow in Canada. I understand that there's a few specific fruits/berries if you could find/get them.....
The problem with these fantasy ideas is that people get carried away. Hell, reasonable amounts of info for Romans, ancient Greek, even Egypt and China, but then you get a big gap in a lot of areas, when writing seems to have gone out of fashion until the over zealous bureaucracy of the Norman period. Even then it seems that as they were more wine than mead, something as mundane as how to make it was lost.
Hence most of the ideas of that sort of thing are guesswork, educated guesswork but nonetheless.......
Juniper has been known as used here for at least 1000 years so worth a crack.....carraway ? Is it a herb or a spice ? Dunno..... rosemary, thyme and that sort of stuff..... even something with apple has got to be feasible.......
wickman6
Well-Known Member
Cool, thanks. I'll look around a bit and see what I can dig up.
Yarrow seems feasible to me. It grows every where ( except in my small part of Kansas) and has a long history of being added to alcohol beverages. I would add just the flowering tops for flavor and aroma as the stem and leaves can add astringency. Of course you can do it how ever you want. Just be careful yarrow is said to have psychotropic properties (according to scared herb and healing beers).
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GreyCranium
Member
all the better, just adds to the experience.
