A Sip Through Time

[Norskersword]

Just recieved A Sip Through Time by Cindy Renfrow. This book is great! It will keep me busy for years!

I'm surprised to see certain ingredients used so often in old world meads. In particular, egg whites and lemons. I also noticed in a recipe that they tended to use more lemon during hot season. That's a nice tip for someone like me living in California. I guess more acid helps prevent heat spoilage?

I'm really curious if anybody here has this book and if so, have any of you made some of the recipes? Which ones and did you like the results?

 

[matt_maples]

I have had it for a number of years and think it is an absolutely fabulous book for any mead maker / homebrewer. I have made a few recipes out of it with varying degrees of success. One thing I would caution is not to take the spice quantities as gospel. For whatever reason some of the recipes are WAY over spiced. Maybe some spices were not as strong as they are today or maybe some of the original authors liked tons of spice or maybe they were covering up some weird flavors obtained from wild fermentation. Anyway if it looks like way too much of one thing or another go with your gut.

I also love to cook as well as make mead and when cooking my axiom has always been try a recipe exactly as written the first time then adjust it after that. Well, after making a 1600’s mead that had both clove AND mace in rather larger quantities that I would have used either I ended up with a meth that not only gave you a good buzz but also numbed your tongue as the spice was way over the top.

The most fascinating part of the book for me was seeing how recipes changed over time. Seeing trends change as new spices become available and getting an overall feel for general flavor combinations.

I think that any mead freak that peruses this book for more than 5 min. will want to have it on their shelf.

 

[Norskersword]

Yeah I know what you mean. Back then I don't think they understood things like yeast nutrients and such. I'm planning to make recipe #32 on page 45. It supposedly is ready in a week but the recipe calls for "add a few raisens in each bottle when bottling". If that is all the nutrients it calls for, then the spices must be there to mask the harshness.

I plan to add the raisens in primary after blending them.

I also notice that almost every recipe calls for boiling and skimming. All well, I'm going to do it anyway in this case.

 

[matt_maples]

The raisins are a yeast source. Those powder coatings on grapes (and therefore raisins) are yeast (mostly). So in effect you are adding a little yeast and some small amount of sugar (grape sugar) to each bottle. If you are really dead set on adding one to each bottle try and get organic and at the very least make sure they are un-sulfited. This will give you the intended result. Putting them in the primary will get you the needed nitrogen for yeast replication and isn’t a bad idea.

I for one am not a skimmer. Back in the day the honey they used had comb bits, bee parts and other things that needed to be removed. These days a beekeeper warms the honey and passes it through a gross filter which does the same thing. Also skimming implies that you are boiling the honey, which is completely unnecessary (and I believe detrimental) these days. I suppose you could skim while pasteurizing. Either way I think it is a waste of time although I guess it doesn’t really hurt anything.

Matt Maples
May mead regain its rightful place as the beverage of gods and kings.

Liquid Solutions
450 Beers, Wine, Meads and Ciders online.
www.liquidsolutions.biz

 

[Norskersword]

Yeah I know, and I've never skimmed before. I'm only doing it because the recipe calls for it and I want it to taste authentic (but less harsh or cloudy).

In this case the recipe calls for ale yeast. Since raisens can be used as nutrients for yeast, I'm thinking at some point they found that with the raisens it finished less harsh and incorporated it into recipes.

I usually make meads using Fermaid K and DAP as nutrients, but organic lovers say that chopped up raisens in primary work well. I'm not going to add them when bottling. The yeast will have already worked by then.

 

[Val]

I'm an SCA brewer and this book is often a starting point for me.

I never use it for documentation, as it's a secondary source at best. Plus, I disagree with some of her redactions (hence Matt's comment about over-spicing).

I do boil and skim and always have. I know it's not needed now, but I'm trying to make a medieval product, and they did it, so I do too.

 

[TheAlchemist]

Just recieved A Sip Through Time by Cindy Renfrow. This book is great! It will keep me busy for years!
?

Something to add to my mazing library.

 

[skunkboy]

Some of it can actually be found on the web these days, but it has some nice reference material in back like what ingrediants that they used to use that you should probably avoid.

 

[fatbloke]

The heating thing used in historic/old recipes (more than 100 years) would have been more about killing off bugs in the water, than in the honey.

Don't forget, good, safe, hygienic water has only been "on tap" for what ? a hundred years or so.

It's one of the reasons that people used to drink a lot more beer. Look up the phrase "small beer", it was the drink of the masses because the heating process(es) of the wort would sterilise the water, making the beer safer to drink.

Also, very few spices, if any, would have been used. Because they were just too expensive. Whereas herbs native to northern Europe would have been commonplace.........

 

[ken_schramm]

I've also wondered about the spicing levels. One big difference in quality would be that our spices get to us in a matter of days on jets and in thermally controlled shipping containers. Theirs (until the 1800's) got to their destinations overland on beasts of burden, or on sailing vessels over weeks and months.

 

[youngmeadman]

The heating thing used in historic/old recipes (more than 100 years) would have been more about killing off bugs in the water, than in the honey.

Don't forget, good, safe, hygienic water has only been "on tap" for what ? a hundred years or so.

It's one of the reasons that people used to drink a lot more beer. Look up the phrase "small beer", it was the drink of the masses because the heating process(es) of the wort would sterilise the water, making the beer safer to drink.

I couldn't agree with you more. This is also why tea was such a big hit in London and was believed to be such a healing/healthy drink (not to say it's not healthy, but not as much as once believed). It was the act of boiling water that made it so safe to drink, not the addition of tea. Same thing with beer, that and the alcohol and hops was a way to keep it that way a little longer...oh and it was delicious!

Ken I believe you right too. By the time spices hit Europe I am sure most of the potency was gone, which would account for the higher spice levels needed.

I feel like I just echoed a lot, but eh, it's nice to know that somebody agrees right?

Young

 

[Crane_Dell]

I know this is a bit off topic but seeing the conversation about boiling water in order to be able to drink hit home with me.

While in the army, I spent a bit of time working in the field in Afghanistan and everywhere we went we were offered tea. They still drink tea constantly for that reason, it's the safest way to drink water (unless you have filtered bottled water, which was like gold). So, the practice is still very much alive in parts of the world that are less developed. I'm sure if there are any homebrewers there (considering that alcohol is illegal), they will still have to boil their water if they want to make some mead.

Hope I didn't go too far off topic, just wanted to share.