chrisveska
kaleidoscopeflux
Jesse Black
Rob Nagy
Tom NagyFor I Gallon I used:
-3 lbs. organic fireweed honey
-1/5 tbsp. gypsum
-3/4 tsp. acid blend (not as exciting as it sounds!)
-Small pinch of Irish Moss
-A handful of freshly picked yarrow leaves (I left the premature flowers alone so that they would seed more for future batches.)
-3 gr. champagne yeast, dehydrated in 1.5 oz water and 1/2 tsp. nutritional yeast
Excuse the poor quality picture, the lighting was all wrong, it’s actually more golden in colour than it appears here.
Beer For Breakfast 
What is Yarrow and what does it taste like?
Yarrow is an asteraceous plant with long, fern-like leaves that are finely disected and a flat topped, aromatic cluster of white flowers that are produced throughout the growing season.
The plant has a very bitter, yet pleasantly floral and resinous taste and aroma and was commonly used both a bittering agent and flavouring for beer in the middle ages. I don’t know of any commercial beers that are made with Yarrow (perhaps at a street corner pub in Germany or Sweden) but it is definitely something that I have wanted to experiment with.
Sounds scumptious, Timmy. What is the gypsum for, and what exactly is bled acid? Ellis D.?
Dr. Hoffman’s secret recipe: beer brewed from ergot-infected rye!
Hope you enjoy losing limbs to vasoconstriction š
Ha, you Skinny Timmies are a bunch of Slim Jimmies!
Acid blend is 25% citric, 30% malic, and 45% tartaric acids. It is supposed to give a subtle fruity flavour and lessen the “hotness” of the alcohol. Honey lacks acidity on its own, ergo, acid blend..
Gypsum (calcium chloride) is a salt. The calcium ion(atin) is supposed to help the clarification process during fermentation – the yeast will more easily sediment. The calcium ions also aid in removing proteins, tannins, and the husk flavour in beer brewing. Obviously there is no husk in mead. If not removed, these will all add to the haze, as well as the harsher flavours in beer. The sodium ion (NA, a.k.a. salt) will also contribute to the perceived flavour by enhancing other flavours.
I’m really interested to see how this turns out. Sounds great. Did you prepare the yarrow at all – any pasteurization or anything?
I simmerd the “wort” for about 15 minutes, when I turned off the burner I added the yarrow and steeped it until pouring into the fermenter. This would have been above pasturising tempurature.
[…] is a great ingredient for mead, as fellow BFB-er Jesse Black has demonstrated in a previous post describing his own yarrow mead recipe. It’s bitterness and astringency neutralize sweetness […]