Savory mead

[SouthernGorilla]

My wife and I have a ton of ideas for mead recipes we want to try. But she has an urge to try something we can't find a recipe for or devise one ourselves. Does anybody have a good recipe for a savory mead? I'm guessing it would have to be a metheglin. But I'm wondering about adding some peppers or something to give it a richer flavor. I've searched the recipe section here and didn't see anything.

 

[Arpolis]

Well here ate the results of a quick google search that gave me some inspiration:

sa·vor·y
/ˈsāv(&#601rē/
Noun
An aromatic plant (genus Satureja) of the mint family, used as a culinary herb, esp. the annual summer savory (S. hortensis) and the winter savory.

Main Entry: summer savory
Function: noun
Date: circa 1573
: an aromatic annual European mint (Satureja hortensis) with leaves used for seasoning ; also : its leaves — compare winter savory

So a mint metheglin may be fun to make. I have done a few metheglins and used fresh mint before. Mint seems to be a hard fragrant and taste to hold through primary. So adding mint is probably best added in secondary. Here is how I might do this:

Start by making a mint extract.

1 cup fresh mint leaves added to a standard canning jar. Fill jar half way with vodka. Shake it till you don't want to any more and then place in the fridge. For the next week do this daily then leave it sit in the fridge till you need it.

Start 1 gallon of mead

3 lb of honey (adjust to reach gravity of about 1.100.)
1tbs of your favorite herbal tea (celestial seasonings has a lot to choose from. I like raspberry zinger or possibly the sleepy time teas would do well)
Water to 1 gallon
1tsp yeast nutrient
1/2tsp yeast energizer
Yeast (any wine yeast of choice but I like lalvin 71b for most meads)

Let the primary go for 2-3 weeks and once at a gravity of 1.000 then place the jar/jug in the fridge and let sit 1-2 weeks to further clear. Then rack off the lees and in secondary add in your mint extract. Probably straining the leaves out. The leaves can be added to a jelly bag and added to secondary. Let that sit for another month. Rack off any more sediment. Allow to bulk age as long as you can stand it or bottle and age from there. Should be a refreshing minty mead but may take a long while to age and mellow out.

 

[SouthernGorilla]

We're already planning a couple recipes with mint. But that isn't the variation of "savory" I was using. More like "hearty". Like the main course of a meal might be described as "savory". I honestly didn't know savory was a spice. I've always just heard it used as an adjective to describe a dish.

What my wife is looking for is a mead that might use regular cooking herbs like thyme and basil. I guess it could sorta be a variation of a capsicumel. One without the heat. Or maybe a very weak barbecue sauce?

 

[biochemedic]

"Savory" to me always implies some degree of saltiness, or perhaps even the nebulous 'unami,' neither of which I would think be well translated in a mead. You mentioned basil, and I have heard of basil metheglins, and interestingly, have had a honey basil ale from Bison Brewing that was quite good. Perhaps a semi-sweet basil metheglin? The other thing I thought of when you described your concept of savory was perhaps something that was somewhat hearty, and perhaps had some body. You could consider making something in the way of a braggot, using basil...Using some steeped crystal malts would give you some unfermentable sugars that would contribute to some body and some of the residual sweetness...

 

[SouthernGorilla]

A braggot is an excellent idea. That would definitely have more body to it. I'd have to find malted buckwheat though. Grain-based foods no longer agree with me.

And maybe push a bochet to the limits where it's supposed to get a smokey flavor to it. Possibly do 1/3 malt, 1/3 burnt honey, and 1/3 raw or lightly reduced honey.

I guess basil is as good a spice as any. I honestly have no idea what most of the various spices taste like. It just struck me though that I should look into glaze recipes. I know honey is used as the base for a lot of glazes for chicken, ham, and other meats. Maybe a glaze recipe could be turned into a mead.

I have no idea how this might turn out. It's definitely a strange idea. The nice thing about mead is that it's open to such strangeness.

 

[Vangor]

Thinking a Metheglin with Cumin might make a savory style flavor desired. Cumin always reminds me of chicken bouillon but sweeter, which may combine better with mead. Perhaps get some cedar to add? Always has a nice influence on grilling flavor.

 

[SouthernGorilla]

Interesting that you should mention cedar. I have an assortment of grilling woods headed my way. I plan to test them to see what sort of flavors the different woods impart to alcohol over time. Cedar isn't one of them. But hickory and mesquite may prove interesting in relation to this idea.

I have half an urge to step into the kitchen and start mixing spices with honey to see what happens.

 

[Bluespark]

Coriander or chillies would be great.

 

[SouthernGorilla]

I like the flavor of jalapenos. I'd have to be careful to de-heat them. I don't think she's looking for a hot mead, just a "meaty" one.

Our herb cupboard is bare. We plan to stop at the market tomorrow and pick up some of the candidates mentioned here. The idea is to toss samples in a honey/water/vodka mix to see how they react to sweet alcohol.

 

[PaddyMurphy]

There's someone somewhere on the forums here who made a pine mead. Turned out to have an "earthy" flavor. Might that be something in line with what you're looking for?

 

[Getzinator]

Just to piggy-back some earlier posts: Savory is the equivalent of "umami" in the culinary definition of the 5 tastes. Not to put down anyone elses tasty sounding suggestions, but those spices and peppers aren't actually savory. You could always sprinkle a little MSG into a glass of mead as an experiment. I can't think of any one food that is both sweet and savory at the moment.

On another note, bacon is pretty savory. If you wanted to try it, pick up the cheapest low sodium pack you can. Low sodium for obvious reasons, and cheap because they usually don't use any other flavorings, or smoke the bacon. From my experience, anything "bacon flavored" is usually overpoweringly smoky or fake-maple-y. Avoid that. Sea-weed and peanut-butter also have that "umami" flavor.

I'm interested to see what you end up doing!

 

[SouthernGorilla]

I was actually researching pine needle tea for another idea. I'm going to have to make some to get an idea of what it tastes like. It's an interesting idea.

 

[Bluespark]

I love the idea of a juniper mead but have yet to try it. As its a pretty strong flavor, often used to flavor meat and gin, I would think it would work well for a 'savoury' mead.

 

[biochemedic]

I love the idea of a juniper mead but have yet to try it. As its a pretty strong flavor, often used to flavor meat and gin, I would think it would work well for a 'savoury' mead.

+1...I've been thinking about a "gin" metheglin using the same mix of herbs that go into gin...

 

[SouthernGorilla]

How did I miss a post about bacon? I wonder how that would even work.

I think the key to this idea is to make it a bochet. Supposedly if you cook the honey long enough it takes on a smokey taste. That should go a long way towards umami. The body of the honey itself should help as well. My meads always come out a bit thick since I'm a fan of sweet meads. Although this might be the one time I have to let sweetness take a backseat.

Pine and juniper both sound promising. They aren't really spices exactly. They seem to offer more of the "feel" I think I'd be going for here. Black tea or coffee might also work. Although the one time I tried coffee in a mead it didn't carry through the primary very much.

Another factor to consider is the secondary and aging. I'm about to perform a test of various woods to see what they add to a mead over time. It's possible there's a wood suited to this sort of idea.

 

[biochemedic]

Yeah, I missed the bacon comment too, but it made me think of something else...going back to the braggot idea, or even just steeping some grains, you might consider including some smoked malt -- Briess makes a cherrywood smoked malt that is generally described as having a very bacon-like smokiness...

 

[SouthernGorilla]

I want to see what smoky honey tastes like first. I have issues with grain in my diet. So I can't use much, if any, malt. That's why I've almost entirely quit drinking beer. But a darkly toasted buckwheat might also do the trick.

 

[Getzinator]

Chiming in on juniper flavor fermented beverages: They come out tasting very similar to a "ginger" flavor. More tree-sap-like and herbal, but it's got that crispness to it. Not what I would consider savory, but definitely something I would want to try in a mead.

+1 on the comment from biochemedic too. Steeping a specialty grain with the flavor you're looking for could be another great option.

 

[SouthernGorilla]

Chiming in on juniper flavor fermented beverages: They come out tasting very similar to a "ginger" flavor. More tree-sap-like and herbal, but it's got that crispness to it. Not what I would consider savory, but definitely something I would want to try in a mead.

I soaked several spices overnight in samples of a fake mead to see what they would do. Juniper was one of them. I think it has promise for a savory mead. It is an interesting flavor. But it would need something more as well.

By way of passing along information, the other spices/herbs I tried were cardamom seed, paradise seed, star anise, rose hips, and coriander. I expected the star anise to be horrifically licorice based on the smell. But it turned out to be one of my favorites of the test. The rose hips were also impressive. The only dud was the paradise seed. I couln't detect anything from it. All the others show promise for interesting additions to a mead. I'll have to experiment further with them to find the right proportions and soak times.

This morning I also experimented with a few regular cooking herbs; garlic, thyme, and cumin. Surprisingly, they also show promise. But it will take further experimentation.

Right now I have my last two samples soaking tea. One has a bag of store brand black tea and the other has a few loose leaves of a nice Earl Grey with bergamot. I'm going to let them soak for a while before sampling them.

The whole point of this is to understand what individual flavors do to a mead. No recipe ever written relies on a single spice for its flavor. So having a broad selection of flavors to pull from will allow me to create a variety of flavor combinations for various purposes.

 

[lpsumo]

I want to see what smoky honey tastes like first. I have issues with grain in my diet. So I can't use much, if any, malt. That's why I've almost entirely quit drinking beer. But a darkly toasted buckwheat might also do the trick.

I assume you are going gluten free? I am as well which somewhat limits brewing.

If you are interested in a thread about gluten free braggots go here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/gf-braggot-without-sorghum-373681/

I haven't started experimenting with savory meads yet but eventually I will. Sounds like you are doing a lot of experimentation so I will be very interested in what you come up with.

 

[SouthernGorilla]

I assume you are going gluten free? I am as well which somewhat limits brewing.

That's part of the reason I'm into mead. Wine is swill, and my beloved beer wrecks my system.

I am a huge fan of buckwheat. It's my favorite pancake and my favorite honey. I keep meaning to look for a store that sells raw groats so I can toast or malt them to suit my needs. Actually, I doubt I would malt them. The only reason to malt a grain is to convert the starches to fermentable sugars. I don't need more sugar in my mead. Simply soaking the buckwheat in the mead would extract the flavors and whatnot.

Another possible option is various nuts. Brewers avoid nuts because of the oils. But those oils might be useful in a savory drink.

 

[biochemedic]

There was a good article on using nuts in beer (which would certainly apply to mead as well) in a recent BYO issue...I can't remember what month, but I'm pretty certain it was last year sometime...perhaps you could look that up for some more ideas on using nuts in your mead...

 

[SouthernGorilla]

There was a good article on using nuts in beer (which would certainly apply to mead as well) in a recent BYO issue...

This one? Seems I was right about brewers being worried about the oils affecting the head. That isn't a concern to me since I don't plan to carbonate anything. But I still think those oils might really add something to a mead.

So I guess I'll have to plan another experiment to see what nuts do to a drink. Good thing I like experiments.