Searching for a specific flavor

[ronjohn55]

Hi all,

I've been asking anyone who'll listen (and tolerate my crazy ideas for meads), so I figured this place might be better than most.

Is there anything I can add to a mead to give it a rum-like flavor (other than rum itself)? I'm considering either turbinado sugar or possibly a good quality molases.

I just need enough to impart a slight flavor, I'm not looking for it to be the dominant flavor in the mead.

Thanks!
John

 

[Vicky Rowe]

Hi John,

I've used molasses to give a 'rum' like flavor. You might also want to check at your brew shop for flavorings. Mine has small bottles of lots of flavors, including rum. I've also seen 'rum' flavoring at some grocery stores.....

 

[ronjohn55]

Thanks Vicky!

I'm not horribly opposed to even using actual rum (I'll just need to adjust for the alc %), but I think I'm going give the turbinado/molases route a shot. I think that will hopefully provide the flavor I'm looking for.

Hopefully this will work, and I can add a mai tai mead to my oddball recipe collection. After all, I managed to come up with a margarita mead!

Thanks again!
John

 

[Vicky Rowe]

Hey, if you have all these cool meads, you *gotta* send me the recipes for the site! Send 'em to gotmead@gotmead.com, so I can post them for the masses!

Vicky - envisioning a margarita mead

 

[ronjohn55]

**you *gotta* send me the recipes for the site**

I'll be glad to. I'll try to dig out the recipe for the margarita mead when I get home. The mai tai is still a work in process though - no formal recipe yet.

John

 

[dogglebe]

I believe that adding distilled spirits to a mead is considered distilling and, thus, illegal.

Phil

 

[ronjohn55]

Actually, adding it to mead is just 'fortifying'. As long as I'm not firing up a still and making my own rum to add (It would be a nice, legal bottle of tax paid rum) it won't cause any issues.

If it were being made to sell as a port-style wine for sale to the public, I'm sure there probably would be additional tax ramifications.

John

 

[Lagerman64]

I've heard of using a neutral alcohol, like vodka, to extract flavor from spices and herbs to add to meads. Have not tried it myself, I usually brew a tea and add it to the primary fermenter.

Has anyone tried maple syrup in a mead? How did it turn out?

Tupelo Honey, how's that in a mead? 8)

 

[The_Ferminator]

I believe that adding distilled spirits to a mead is considered distilling and, thus, illegal.

Phil

Why do you believe that? do you have any links?

 

[ScottS]

I believe that adding distilled spirits to a mead is considered distilling and, thus, illegal.

Phil

If this were true, making most mixed drinks would be illegal as well.

 

[MeadMkr]

John,

If you're looking for that type of flavor why not just make a liquor using grain or a neutral vodka with the rum flavor.

You might also want to check out the Polish Honey Vodkas (krupnik?) as they can be very tasty as well...

but like mead they can pack a whallop if you don't pay attention to how many you drink or how fast

Trask

 

[ronjohn55]

Yeah, it's looking like I may just end up making a 'fortified' mead, and using some good dark rum for the flavor I'm looking for (Rum for a rum flavor, who'd have thought it!).

I guess I'm just keen on being able to claim that all of the ingedients were fermented.

I still haven't gotten around to mixing it up, so I still have time to try out some other ideas. I hope to get some meads mixed up over the Holidays (That and some beer made, too).

Thanks!
John