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New user here, plus a serious question about mead and whisk(e)y essences

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Xmetalearth

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 13, 2017
3
0
0
Arizona
Hey everyone, new user here! I discovered mead while playing Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, sounds nerdy as hell, but I would have never found out about mead had it not been for Skyrim. To make a real long story short, I had my first glass of mead at a trendy house bar that was in a neighborhood with a lot of little restaurants, book stores made from houses and turned into shops. A buddy of mine ordered it for me and I fell in love with the drink, it was so good, so sweet and I've been in love with the drink ever since, it was the blackberry mead from Redstone meadery in case anyone was wondering.

So here's my serious question about mead, I've been seeing these whiskey essences pop up lately, I've always want to try them, but it says they require 80 proof vodka to blend the essence with. But I got to thinking, I wonder if I could blend these whiskey essences with mead instead? The reason is, is I've developed health problems and I can't have hard liquor anymore (amongst other types of alcoholic beverages *besides mead :D thank the gods*), no more whiskey or anything like that. I miss the flavor of whiskey, and I'm wondering, has anyone ever tried to blend these whiskey essences with mead? I wanna try it, just once to see if it'll work, and I also wanna get one of those whiskey sticks and just let the mead take in the whiskey flavor and the oak to "age" the mead over night and part of a day to see what would happen. I know I can't keep mead out for very long, so I would drink it the day after I make it. Has anyone tried this?
 

dingurth

Worker Bee
Registered Member
May 23, 2012
489
3
18
Brooklyn , NY
I haven't done this, but I don't see why you couldn't. The higher alcohol of the vodka would extract the flavor more quickly/easily from the whiskey mix, but it should be doable with mead too.

I assume you mean mead that you're buying from a store. I don't know how long it would need, but definitely start with small amounts. You can always add more, but you can't take it back out. Might require some experimenting.
Adding a stick, or any other wood, would require more than a night to age. Weeks minimum usually. Unless this is something else that I'm not familiar with.

If you ever make your own mead, I would suggest aging it in a bourbon or whiskey barrel from a distillery. I've had a couple and they impart good flavors from these.
 

Xmetalearth

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 13, 2017
3
0
0
Arizona
Hey thanks for the reply, and yes I mean adding whiskey essence to a bottle of mead I got from the store. I figured I would need to experiment with it, and adding small amounts of it since the mead is not 80 proof. I found these time and oak whiskey sticks, the vid said it take take 24-48 hours to "age" a whiskey, so I'm not sure if it's just a gimmick, or if it will actually work, so I figure, it couldn't hurt to try anyway (https://www.timeandoak.com/). It is definitely something I want to try for sure.
 

dingurth

Worker Bee
Registered Member
May 23, 2012
489
3
18
Brooklyn , NY
I wouldn't say its a gimmick, but you certainly won't be getting the full/best effect IMO.
There is a thread on here called "Wood Management" by Squatchy. Check it out if you want to read a ton about how oaking works with alcohol.

It does say they are designed to work with whiskey, which again, with a higher alcohol content, will extract the flavors from the wood more quickly. I think most people on here would advocate a slow extraction with a small amount of wood (something like 1-2oz per 5 gallons). This lends itself to more complex flavors as it pulls from deeper than just the surface of the wood. Of course it does depend on how its cured and toasted as well.

Certainly try it. But I would expect this to work like a punch in the face. It might not taste like whiskey either. I was expecting these to be some sort of whiskey infused stick, but these just look like oak staves, which might bring a different amount/balance to a mead than a whiskey.
 

Xmetalearth

NewBee
Registered Member
Oct 13, 2017
3
0
0
Arizona
I'll probably try to do it one of these days, I'll just get the whiskey essence and just forget the whiskey stick. It's something I wanna try, and if it works, great, if it doesn't work, then it was worth a try anyway. Thanks for the comments!
 

Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
5,542
261
83
Denver
The stick is just a small spiral that was way over toasted. Nothing good comes from oak in a day or two. And nothing other than time will age anything. It's physics and chemistry and you can't change the time frame for that.
 

clym

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 7, 2019
5
0
1
Yorkshire
my son has just returned from Ireland and has brought me some jars of honey with Irish Whiskey in it; can this be used for my next batch of Mead. I don't know if the alcohol in the Whiskey be too much for the yeast, or would it not affect it?
I haven't tasted the honey, and there is nothing on the labels to say how much Whiskey there is in it.
 

Squatchy

Lifetime GotMead Patron
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Nov 3, 2014
5,542
261
83
Denver
You can try it. When you water it down to make a must it dilutes the ethanol as you know. You could also make mead with some other similar honey and then back sweeten with that honey. Or you can always add some Irish Whiskey to a traditional mead. I'm as much of a whiskey guy as I am a mead guy. I can suggest lots of nice Irish Whiskeys. But you will probably just want to add some Jameson to it. You probably won't catch the finer nuances of top-shelf juice.
 
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