Mead of Ra

[loveofrose]

Mead of Ra is an ancient Egyptian inspired mead for my historical series. This recipe is heavily inspired by the mead found in Kit Tut’s tomb.

From all my research into ancient Egypt, Egyptians brewed many variations of a red brew. Common ingredients were wheat, barley, dates, honey, ginger and mandrake root. Apparently, mandrake root was considered to be an aphrodisiac. Funny, considering it’s deadly toxic at high doses. At moderate doses, it can be hallucinogenic. Here, I’m using an extremely low dose so that the mandrake serves as a bittering agent like hops. You can omit if you like, but it may turn out too sweet.

Sage is widespread in Egypt, so Sage honey seemed like the best way to go. It also seemed like a good match when tasting the wort. A floral Clover honey would also work.

Ancient Egyptians drank their brew quickly after fermentation because it would spoil so quickly. Generally, it was drunk through a straw to avoid bits of floating grain. They also developed a sort of nested pottery system to cool the brew down. As a result, I’m suggesting light carbonation and chilled for serving conditions.

Mead of Ra - 3 Gallon Batch

1. Bring 1.5 gallons of water to 158 F, then add the following:
-3 oz Roasted Barley (For red color)
-8 oz of crushed dates, remove pit
-6 grams dried ginger root
-6 grams dried galangal root
-2 grams mandrake root (Optional: Mandrake is very toxic in large amounts, but this is historically accurate to use.)
Note: All is contained in a mesh bag except dates.
2. Allow to steep for 20 minutes at 155 F.
3. Remove bag, add 3 lbs of Wheat DME, and bring to a boil.
4. Boil 5 minutes.
5. Allow to cool, then add to carboy.
6. Add 4.5 lbs of Walker Farms Sage honey and mix until it is dissolved.
7. Add 1.2 tsp Fermaid K, 2 tsp Fermaid O.
6. Add water to 1 cup shy of 3 gallons.
7. Place 2 activated smack packs of Wyeast 1388 and carboy into a 70 F fermentation chamber for 1 hour, then pitch yeast.
8. It should finish around 1.002 (unfermentable sugar in the DME should prevent 1.000).
9. Cold crash and bottle with carbonation tabs or keg under 5 psi. Extremely light carbonation.

 

[loveofrose]

Day 1
1.080. Foaming vigorously. It smells very herbal at this point.

 

[Yeti]

How did you determine that this is a safe dose of mandrake? How do you know that this dose won't kill somebody, or induce a psychotic crisis? It's possible that this may be safe, but of course you provide absolutely zero evidence of that beyond an unsupported assertion.

It's extremely reckless and dangerous to recommend that anybody put highly poisonous ingredients into anything they are going to consume.

People, this is an exceptionally bad idea. Don't put deadly poisons into your mead. You would be crazy to go through with this.

 

[loveofrose]

Actually, it is well researched. Many folks use mandrake root as a recreational hallucinogenic. Me personally, I would rather not have hallucinations. As a result, I was very careful to research about the dose and thermal stability of the active tropane alkaloids. I also researched dose in users (which one guy put on YouTube drinking a massive amount of mandrake Infused tea) to see severity and actual effects. The amount I’m dosing here is less than the poison level of rhubarb pie (yes, rhubarb is toxic).

In addition, ethanol is one of the most toxic things you can put into your body; however, dose makes the poison. Overindulgence is the real enemy.

As a doctor, I would never wish to harm anyone or have them use something unknowingly. That is why I said it was an optional addition and was upfront about the potential abuses. If you cannot work it out for your personal convictions, that is not on me.

 

[loveofrose]

Day 3
Gravity 1.028.
I tasted it at room temperature cloudy with yeast as the Egyptians would have. What a surprise! This is a very clean brew that has balance between the honey sweetness and mandrake bitterness.

I figured this would take a few tries to get right, but maybe not. It really smelled terrible early on, but that is gone now. I cannot wait to see how this is cold and carbonated.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Blacksmith1]

Sounds like it's going well. Interested to see how this turns out.

 

[yoop89]

Interested as well. Trying to track down some mandrake root now. Local health food store has everything but that(said they did about 3 years ago but nobody bought it)

A few questions. Why 1388? Just out of convenience or was there an experiment behind this choice? Looks like the most you can expect out of 1388 is 78% attenuation so wont this finish higher than 1.002(more like 1.016)? Ive only ever fermented meads with wine yeast so Im just trying to learn a little

 

[loveofrose]

Attenuation means nothing to honey as there are no unfermentable sugars. As long as the ABV tolerance of the yeast is not reached, honey will go to 1.000.

In this recipe, there is some wheat DME that contains about 0.005 points of unfermentable sugar. As a result, I expect it to finish around 1.005.

I use Wyeast 1388 because it is fast and I know it makes really good mead. You can look at the sticky for Bray’s One Month Mead for more details. Also, see https://denardbrewing.com for more things mead.

 

[yoop89]

Cool! Looks like I have some reading to do and then just need to order some mandrake root and Ill be set. Looking forward to some pictures of this once its finished too

 

[loveofrose]

Mead of Ra

Uncarbonated fresh out of cold crash. Surprisingly smooth with dates in the forefront and mandrake bitterness on the back to balance the sweetness. It has a very unique taste that is really hard to describe. Almost heather or maris otter in nature. Very flowery.

Extremely tasty, but I think a little carbonation would help balance the sweetness a bit more. I’ll keg it and report back!

 

[Blacksmith1]

Maris Otter? what is that? and please don't tell me you licked an otter to find out what that tastes like.

 

[loveofrose]

Maris Otter? what is that? and please don't tell me you licked an otter to find out what that tastes like.

Ha! No, it’s a grain used for English and Scottish beers: https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/english-maris-otter

 

[Blacksmith1]

ok that may be why I like English ales over American beer. I'm all for flavor.

 

[Jaeger]

How did you determine that this is a safe dose of mandrake? How do you know that this dose won't kill somebody, or induce a psychotic crisis? It's possible that this may be safe, but of course you provide absolutely zero evidence of that beyond an unsupported assertion...

Hmm. Psychadelic mead... (makes note in book)... fascinating...

 

[loveofrose]

Results are in. King Tut’s mead is really tasty.

Aroma: Sage and flowers (from the mandrake root and dates)

Taste: Flowery upfront with a smooth finish. Despite being dry, there is a bit of sweetness balanced by the mandrake bitterness.

Overall: I would use 2 oz of Barley for a more red color. That would not impact the flavor, just the color. Other than that, I wouldn’t change anything!

 

[Maylar]

Nice job on the label Bray.