Mulling Mead
- Thread starter Soulpanda
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Not yet, but we're going to be doing apple cider this weekend, complete with mulling irons... turns out a 5/8" steel rod doesn't warm a cup of liquid up as much as you'd think it should, takes two tries to get it past lukewarm, at least three to get it hot...
interesting idea i have a hard cider brewing .. i am a bit worried my cider will taste crappy.
my cider is still in a gallon carboy, should i drop some mulling tea bags in it?
or,, wait, and use a powder right before bottling?
dont mean to hijack the thread, just figured since we were on the subject anyway.
my cider is still in a gallon carboy, should i drop some mulling tea bags in it?
or,, wait, and use a powder right before bottling?
dont mean to hijack the thread, just figured since we were on the subject anyway.
I'm just using some cinnamon and a titch of clove (bouth ground), mixed into some brown sugar so it doesn't just sit on the top, we're going to be handing it out chilled, mix a spoon of sugar/spice in, head over to the fire and grab an iron...
When I use my slow-cooker to mull cider, I usually chuck in a cinnamon stick, a couple cloves, a handful of allspice berries and maybe some cracked nutmeg or sliced ginger or star anise if I have them...
Mulling tea bags now sounds like a good idea, I would not do spicing right before bottling. You want to give it a couple weeks to get infused, and you don't want the spices in the bottles.
I've had mulled wine before too, and one of the other common spices to add aside from what's already listed is orange peel.
When I use my slow-cooker to mull cider, I usually chuck in a cinnamon stick, a couple cloves, a handful of allspice berries and maybe some cracked nutmeg or sliced ginger or star anise if I have them...
Mulling tea bags now sounds like a good idea, I would not do spicing right before bottling. You want to give it a couple weeks to get infused, and you don't want the spices in the bottles.
I've had mulled wine before too, and one of the other common spices to add aside from what's already listed is orange peel.
Just go easy on 'em, if you look up a recipe for mulling, the spices will be really heavy because of the reduced contact time (I saw one today for a half-gallon of cider that used 8 cinnamon sticks 
)... thanks, it's our annual pumpkin massacre, we go around after Hallowe'en and round up unsold pumpkins from some local farmers and then we take swords, axes, etc to them... my husband actually made some armour for them so we can see which weapons stand a chance of getting through steel plate armour 
)... thanks, it's our annual pumpkin massacre, we go around after Hallowe'en and round up unsold pumpkins from some local farmers and then we take swords, axes, etc to them... my husband actually made some armour for them so we can see which weapons stand a chance of getting through steel plate armour it's our annual pumpkin massacre, we go around after Hallowe'en and round up unsold pumpkins from some local farmers and then we take swords, axes, etc to them... my husband actually made some armour for them so we can see which weapons stand a chance of getting through steel plate armour
pics please, or better yet videos;D
Not sure about mulled mead, but...
A family recipe for a mildly spiced drink I use involves slightly crushing an orange, sticking 10-15 cloves into it, two rolled and slightly crushed cinnamon sticks put into a big pan with drink and warmed up. Had it every year for as long as I remember, and I know my great grandma made it to celebrate VE day and spent a hell of a lot of money to get hold of the orange for it.
Traditionally it's made with a clear apple cider, though my family converted to mormonism in the 1970s so I grew up with it made from apple juice.
I did however use the same recipe to spice a clear cider, a scrumpy cider and slightly hard hitting drink of 3 parts apple juice with 1 part vodka in the last few years xD
I have no idea about hot spiced mead though. I might try this year with a bottle of the JAOM.
A family recipe for a mildly spiced drink I use involves slightly crushing an orange, sticking 10-15 cloves into it, two rolled and slightly crushed cinnamon sticks put into a big pan with drink and warmed up. Had it every year for as long as I remember, and I know my great grandma made it to celebrate VE day and spent a hell of a lot of money to get hold of the orange for it.
Traditionally it's made with a clear apple cider, though my family converted to mormonism in the 1970s so I grew up with it made from apple juice.
I did however use the same recipe to spice a clear cider, a scrumpy cider and slightly hard hitting drink of 3 parts apple juice with 1 part vodka in the last few years xD
I have no idea about hot spiced mead though. I might try this year with a bottle of the JAOM.
If this doesn't show up, I'll put something up after I dig the camera out of the car.
Oh, and in case anyone's wondering, cider mulled with mulling irons is really, really tasty. Note for next year - when heating mulling irons in a bonfire, they need to be more than 24" total length. I THINK I still have all my hair, but boy that was hot.
Oh, and in case anyone's wondering, cider mulled with mulling irons is really, really tasty. Note for next year - when heating mulling irons in a bonfire, they need to be more than 24" total length. I THINK I still have all my hair, but boy that was hot.
Love the carnage photo.
Now can we have a photo of mulling irons? I've never heard of a mulling iron.
Now can we have a photo of mulling irons? I've never heard of a mulling iron.
^ looks like my garden after me and my sister were let loose with a sabre and a gladius on the estate last week
Umm, I think historically they just used the iron fireplace poker but though I considered it, I didn't dare, mine smelled to much of smoke even after a thorough scrubbing with dish soap... The welder our shop uses (the same one who fronted me honey for future bottles) made the iron part, this one was stuck into a chair leg because we thought it looked prettier than the spruce 2x2 handle did.
More pumpkin massacre photos here, if it doesn't work for non-facebookers let me know and I'll start a new thread, sorry for threadjacking...
Someone told me they actually did at an English pub, every time your drink of cider got cold, off to the fire for the mulling iron because they didn't heat the places!
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So the iron goes in the fire to heat it, then gets sizzlingly plunged into the
mead to warm it up?
Groovy.
mead to warm it up?
Groovy.
Yup! Depends on the size of your iron and the temperature it gets to in the fire, but our first experiments with refrigerated apple cider, one go with the skinny iron was enough to make it not feel refrigerated, two shots brought it to lukewarm and three to about blood temperature, four to get it hot enough to call it hot but not hot enough to burn your mouth. I think three applications of the bigger irons we ended up using would get 1 cup of refrigerated liquid to a good drinking temmperature.
So it would follow that one go of a room temperature cider should almost be good enough to go if not perfect. Nice. I'm really going to have to remember this for when I have a better setup. And this one is cool enough that I could probably convince my lady to go along with it.
