Persephone Mead (One Gallon)
If you are brewing for the sake of the flavors, have at it! This mead pairs exceptionally well with a tray of figs, goat cheese, candied ginger, sugared flowers and toasted almonds.
If you are brewing this to create a sacred libation and calling on the energies and presence of a specific deity, consider this a ritual. Put on appropriate music, light candles, set your space and your intention, and act with consideration as befits your tradition.
I tend to brew this every August, when the season of summer is high and Persephone starts looking forward to returning to the Underworld and Demeter is in full bloom and fertile fields. This means that it is ready for toasting Persephone’s return in Spring of the following year.
Ingredients
- 2 quarts (1.9 L) pomegranate juice (make sure there’s no sulfites or preservatives)
- about 3 cups of water
- 1/2 orange or lemon, chopped
- 1/8 cup (20 g) raisins, chopped
- 13 cardamom seeds (not pods!), crushed
- 1 stick of cinnamon
- 10 black peppercorns, crushed
- 1 cup of flowers – dried elderflowers, dried rose petals, fresh yarrow, fresh violets, fresh dandelion petals
- 1 bag of black tea (jasmine tea is nice, too)
- 3 lb (1.4 kg) honey
- 1/2 packet of Lalvin D-47 yeast
Instructions
- Gather your ingredients and sanitize your supplies – a stock pot, a long spoon, funnel, strainer, gallon carboy, bung, and airlock. (learn more about equipment here)
- Bring the water to a simmer in the stockpot. Add the orange, raisins, and spices (cardamom, peppercorns, cinnamon) for ten minutes.
- Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the flowers and the tea bag. Cover with a lid and let it steep for ten minutes.
- Stir the honey into the warm tea until it is all dissolved.
- Use the funnel to pour the pomegranate juice into the sanitized carboy. Strain the hot honey water (must) into the jug on top of the pomegranate juice.
- Use cold water to top off the liquid in the carboy until it reaches the neck of the jug. Close it off with the bung and airlock until the carboy is cool enough to pitch the yeast.
- Once the jug is cooler than body temperature (ideally under 80 degrees F), remove the bung, pour in the yeast, return the bung and give the whole jug a gentle swish. This is the perfect time to add in some prayers or songs or words of encouragement for your yeast friends as they embark on their task of making alcohol!
- Label the jug and set it aside in a cool, dark place to ferment for a few weeks. Once it has no more bubbles rising from the yeast at the bottom and has cleared, go ahead and bottle the brew.
