A mead made to remember

[VineSwinger]

I've had a few meads before, never tried to make one. With quite a few wine kits and a few batches of skeeter pee behind us now, I want to try a mead. I was thinking a metheglin inspired by a Christmas cookie my grandmother used to make. The cookie (or bar) is called Lebkuchen (or German honey bars). Her recipe for it is lost, Grandma passed in '04, I've resorted to the Joy of Cooking cookbook for a recipe. I'll list the main ingredients and I was wondering if someone with a bit of experience in mead making might give an approx. quantity I might start out with. I am going to make a 3 gallon batch of either semi-sweet or a sack mead.

Here's the ingredients that impart their flavors to make this an excellent cookie to go with tea on a winter's night:

Almonds
Candied citron
Candied orange or lemon peel
Cinnamon
Cardamom
Ginger
Cloves

This cookies flavors has reminded me of Christmas ever since i was just a kid, I'd like to make a mead that would do the same.

 

[Deezil]

I think in order to make the mead taste how *you remember them*.. what i would do is ferment the mead without any of it at first - and think of what, of those flavors listed, were the more dominant flavors & what were the most subtle flavors...

The more dominant flavors that you remember, i'd add a small amount of those ingredients when you rack to secondary - and keep an eye/tongue on it from there, tasting along the way to remove the ingredient when the times appropriate..

And i'd do that on down the line, to the more subtle flavors.. I wouldnt try to layer too many of the flavors, too quickly, or you might end up with something that is good but not what you were aiming for...

Take your time layering on the flavors & i think you'll have a better shot of hitting the target

 

[mmadmikes1]

That many flavors is going to be hard. I will bet you will end up making it at least 5 times before you get what you are looking for. BUT have fun. Things to remember. Honey will need acid added to ferment, keep it warm, make a good started, use nutrients and energizer. Also Ginger and cloves can take over easy, start slow with those two

 

[Neviawen]

Just my two cents: I have a mead going that is an orange-spice mead. I added orange peels during the primary ferment and the spices to it during secondary (about a week later and removed the orange peels at that time). I only added 1 clove, 2 cinnemon sticks, and 1 tsp allspice because I did not want to over-flavor with spices. The orange pretty much is the dominant flavor I think in my mead but I do taste the spices. I guess depending on what the dominant flavor you want is, you would use a little more of that.
Another idea (although not as organic) would be to pick the main flavors you want in your mead, brew just those flavors (like maybe pick orange and maybe 2 cinnemon sticks) and then back sweeten to your taste and then add liquid flavors to it. (I know from baking various goodies that you can get liquid version of a few of those spices that you mentioned.) Maybe just a drop of a few of them per gallon of mead would be all you need to give it that essence. Hope that helps. Good luck!