First Mead

[AtrociousGuff]

Hello, ladies and gents. I'm starting my new hobby soon and I am thinking of incorporating Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat tea and possibly their Dandelion tea as well into the batch. The Throat Coat is composed of slippery elm, marshmallow root and licorice root. My question is should I brew the tea and then add the liquid to the must or just throw the dry ingredients in? Or perhaps both?

Thanks

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi AtrociousGuff and welcome. Cannot say what you SHOULD do but I generally prefer to make a tea from "teas" .My preference is to treat the "teas" as if I am going to drink them unfermented, so the length of time under heat and the amount of tea itself I tend to follow directions. That said, I have used marshmallow root to make a tea to make a mead and while it was ... um... OK it was not anything to write home about, if yer knows what I mean. But your commercially made product may be delightful. Good luck!

 

[AtrociousGuff]

Thanks, Mr. Smith.

 

[Squatchy]

Perfect chance to try both. I would strongly suggest it. Then you will know the difference for yourself. I would do 3 batches. One with tea made and fermented in the must. One with tea leaves in it during fermentation. And the third, add the dry tea leaves after it's stable.

These are what you do so as to learn as much as you can from each opportunity you have while making a mead.

 

[honky]

I started brewing mead and the best way is to add additionals like yours are after the initial ferment is done, otherwise, the yeast will use the sugars in your additions. Let the yeast do its job and become dormant and die first then add your medicinals.