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Big Boy - Acerglyn

Bryan Trosen

My first mead racked and a few weeks out from being bottled.

Acerglyn

I am excited for all of you mead brewing enthusiasts to try this mead! I used Bourbon Barrel Aged Maple Syrup in the Primary Fermentation and to back sweeten it. OMG! My local Costco just happened to get this in stock when I was prepping for this recipe so I grabbed a bottle. I couldn’t stop eating this luscious liquid gold syrup. Oh my lord, the tastes is absolutely amazing. My mouth is salivating just thinking of this stuff. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to buy a second bottle and Costco ran out. Thankfully I found it on Amazon and picked up two more bottles.

Acerglyn Tidbits:

The key distinction in an Acerglyn is the addition of Maple Syrup in the primary fermenting stage. The term Acerglyn is interesting to me because it borrows from another mead term - Metheglin and Acer or Maple tree! If you take the original word Metheglin, metheg meaning a doctor or healer and lyn meaning liquor my assumption is Acerglyn should actually be called ‘Acerlyn’ but too late now. And honestly the hard ‘g’ does add character to the name. Try saying the word with out the ‘g’, its too soft of a name. Sorry, geek’ing out a bit, but for a reason!

Random Thoughts of the Day:

Totally getting side tracked, but I have a point to this rambling. I am making a line of Mushroom Meads and I couldn’t find a name for this category of mead. So you have it hear first, I am going to name them ‘Agarillyn’ and ‘Pezizaglyn’! Agaric Fungus, are mushrooms with a cap on them and Pezizales is one of the categories that contain Black and White Truffles. I am excited to share these recipes with you in the upcoming weeks! Stay Tuned!


Hardware:

Back on track, lets get started with the Acerglyn Recipe.

If you haven’t read my post on basic fermenting equipment why don’t you jump over there and read up on that quick. But here is a quick overview of equipment in case you need a quick refresher:

Note: If you do click any of my Amazon links and purchase said items, I am compensated by Amazon. If you use my links, thank you! I really appreciate it!

  • Mead Kit - This is a great starting point because it gives you all the basic equipment and even a packet of yeast to get started.

  • Large Mouth Carboy - This is optional but its handy to have a second carboy to rack your mead into when the time comes.

  • Star San - If you are going to make more mead you need a good quality sanitizer. Trust me, get some Star San.

  • Hydrometer - This tool helps measure alcohol content and lets you know when the mead is dry or done fermenting. It isn’t necessary if you are just getting started but again it is really handy to have on hand.

Recipe:

This recipe is similar to my first recipe - Rookie. Big Boy Acerglyn has the addition of maple syrup and scales back the Wild Flower Honey a bit. The recipe is scaled down to a 1 gallon fermenter. If you want to scale this recipe to a 5 gallon carboy just multiply everything by 5. I am not made of money, so I reduced my Maple syrup to only 2 lbs for a 5 gallon batch and used honey for the other 13 pounds. Don’t bankroll your mead budget on this one item.

Ingredients:

  1. The first step is to always sanitize ALL EQUIPMENT before placing ingredients in them. So get cleaning!!

  2. Start steeping your tea packet in one or two cups of hot spring water. The tea is used for tannin purposes only.

    • Use water from your gallon jug and always avoid using tap water.

    • If you scale this up to 5 gallons. Use 5 tea packets and you can still steep it in one or two cups of hot water.

  3. While the tea is hanging out, take the raisins and orange peel and put them in your carboy.

    • I find that the smaller you make the ingredients the easier it is to get out of the carboy. So keep that in mind when shoving ingredients in your carboy hole.

  4. Take the 2 lbs of honey and put it in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in a quarter of your water. You really want to whisk this mixture vigorously to incorporate as much oxygen in your must as possible.

    • You should see bubbles or a foam form. Go ahead and dump this in your carboy. And it’s okay to be “rough” with your mead at this point. You want oxygen to get in the mead, so take out your work-day-aggression by giving the carboy a good shakin’! Remember to leave some room in your carboy for the tea!

    • The oxygen is needed to help your yeast thrive throughout the fermentation process.

  5. Add your 1 lbs of Maple Syrup to your mixing bowl. Add in a cup or two of water. Give it a good mix and add it to your carboy.

  6. If you still see some honey/syrup in the mixing bowl, add the now warm black tea into the mixing bowl and give it a good whisking. Then add it all into the carboy.

  7. Give the carboy a good shake to incorporate the ingredients through out the must.

  8. If you have a hydrometer take a reading.

    • We are shooting for a specific gravity reading of between 1.100 and 1.110. Its okay to be a little off either way. If everything looks good and you sanitized all equipment go ahead and dump the test solution back into your carboy.

  9. Last steps! Add in your yeast and put your airlock on. Give the carboy another shake and you are set. Place the mead in a dark place away from sun light. Keep your temperature range between 65 and 75 as a rule of thumb.


Tips:

  • Want to elevate this mead?

    • When you rack your mead add in 1 or 2 vanilla beans.

      • The vanilla beans can stay in the mead as long as you want. But I recommend giving your mead a taste every week or so and see how you like it. Once you get to a point the mead is to your liking, go ahead and bottle the mead without the vanilla in there..

    • If you have a few bucks to spend I bought some more Bourbon Barrel Maple Syrup to back sweeten. I highly recommend doing this as it adds a wonderful maple flavor and bourbon barrel. Yum!

      • Remember the maple syrup already has some Oak flavor in it. So if you oak it add less then you normally do to avoid over oaking.