Oak Leaf Melomel Mead

Origin: Welsh      Period: Traditional

This is a bit of an oddity, though a traditional Welsh recipe. It uses oak leaves as a bittering agent and raisins to provide the fruit for the melomel. This is an old traditional recipe that would originally have been made with honey, but which latterly was made with sugar. I have gone back to the honey version of mead in this version whilst keeping some of the more recent flavouring additions. This mead would be an interesting accompaniment to to traditional Celtic festivities such as a midwinter feast or All Hallows' Eve.

Ingredients:

5l of unchlorinated water
4kg honey (needs to be reasonable but doesn't have to be too good)
500g chopped raisins
enough of clean brown withered oak leaves gathered from the tree on a dry day to fill a 5l pot
6 tsp yeast nutrient
1 large piece of bruised ginger
Yeast (Epernay II is good but champagne yeast would also work)

Method:

Preparation

As with most of the other mead recipes presented on this site, this recipe has been gauged to make 5l of mead. Only a basic listing of ingredients is given, and for a brewing method please see this page for a step-by-step guide. Also see this page for a list of the equipment you'll need.

First prepare the oak leaves by pouring 5l of boiling water over the oak leaves in a fermenting bucket. Cover and leave to infuse for four to five days. At the end of this time strain through muslin, add the water to a large stock pot, add the and the raisins and ginger, bring to the boil and add the honey a little at a time until it dissolves. Then add yeast nutrient (this is not strictly necessary but will help kick-start the fermentation). Take the must off the heat, remove the ginger, and allow to cool. At this point you can return to following the instructions given in the basic extract brewing page to make your mead. Again, this is not a 'short' mead, and you can follow the recipe given for my 'standard' basic mead exactly. As a wine-like mead, once bottled, this preparation needs to be left to mature in the bottle for at least a year.

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