Garlic Mead Recipe

This garlic mead recipe is made with Mesquite honey, and was one branch of a larger mead batch split three ways.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs honey Trader Joe's Mostly Mesquite

• 1.5 tsp Fermaid-K yeast energizer

• 1.5 tsp Diammonium Phosphate yeast nutrient

• Water up to 1 gallon

• 5 grams Lalvin D47 yeast (rehydrate if possible)

• 70 grams roasted elephant garlic (about 2-3 cloves. see instructions below)

• olive oil (a few drops)

Instructions

Make the Base Mead

1. Begin by rehydrating your yeast following the instructions on the packet.  While I did not at the time, you may wish to rehydrate using GoFerm.

2. Add your honey to a sanitized fermenter.

3. Dissolve Fermaid-K and DAP in room-temperature water. Often I will add water and the nutrients to a nearly-empty jar of honey, to help rinse out the remaining honey and dissolve the nutrients at the same time.

4. Top up the fermenter with room-temperature water to make 1 gallon of must.  Mix until the honey is completely dissolved.  

5. When the rehydrated yeast and must are within 10° F of each other, pitch the yeast into the must.

6. Set the fermenter in a place where it can reach your desired fermentation temperature. I prefer to open ferment, covered with a clean paper towel. Let ferment until clear; rack as needed.

Make the Roasted Garlic

1. Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400°F

2. Choose and peel 2-3 cloves of elephant garlic.

3. Place coves in the center of a square of tinfoil, and dab with a drop of olive oil. Close the tinfoil over top to wrap the garlic into a closed ball.

4. Roast the tinfoil-wrapped garlic for 35 minutes in preheated oven at 400°F.

5. Remove and let cool to room temperature.

Second Fermentation

1. Weigh out 70 grams of the roasted garlic, and add to an empty gallon carboy.

2. Rack your fermented mead onto the roasted garlic; add airlock and stopper.

3. Let sit for 4 days.

4. After 4 days, rack off of the garlic lees into a new sanitized carboy. Let sit until cleared, and bottle.

Notes

• Elephant garlic gives a milder flavor and aroma than smaller garlic.

• You may wish to rehydrate with GoFerm to provide more early nutrients to the yeast.

• You may also with to dissolve your honey completely, and follow a nutrient regimen like TOSNA 3.0, instead of the Fermaid-K and Fermaid-O amounts listed above.

• The mead may have a layer of olive oil at the top, after adding the garlic. That’s fine; rack under it if you can/wish.

• I used Trader Joe’s Mostly Mesquite honey, and it took a while to clear. There was always a layer of yeast (?) at the top, even after bottling, but no evidence of spoilage.

• Batch started Dec. 30, 2019; racked onto Garlic Dec. 29, 2020; bottled Jan. 31, 2020.

How'd It Do

A few weeks after bottling, aroma was like that of a jar of garlic pickles.  

Somehow a few members of the local homebrew club were brave enough to accept bottles during a bottle swap, and taste during that month’s virtual club event. One brew club member thought it was really drinkable, and finished it during the meeting. Another brew club member thought it was perhaps better suited as a marinade, and used it to baste yakitori. According to him, it was very aromatic during cooking.