Has anyone made metheglins in place of tinctures?
For anyone who does know, metheglin is a type of mead (fermented honey) which was originally brewed with herbs and/or flowers and used as medicine. It ferments out at a much lower alcohol level than what’s usually recommended for tinctures, but, as long as the honey is available, mead is much easier to make than distilled spirits…
wow i’ve never even heard of that concept. you’re on a honey kick right now eh? it sounds like a much more viable option in primitive conditions. i would love to learn more as well.
(hmm. seems like i have a habit of replying to your posts merely to second the interest. well, thanks for opening my mind up to new ideas.)
Eh, I’ve been an on again, off again homebrewer for a fair few years…
I kind of like meads because they’re pretty simple.
I don’t mind 
at least I know they’re interesting to more than just me
Yeah, ya gotta love mead for easy.
But it tastes kind of sweet and gross, so I’ve experimented with adding herbs, looking for something to bitter it up a bit. I’ve heard the ethiopian kind, t’ej, tastes great, but I’ve never found the gesho they use as a bittering agent–supposedly something like hops. Maybe I should just try hops.
So I can’t say that I’ve added anything with medicinal intent, but the idea interests me. I understand that fermentation increases the powers of the plants involved and perhaps releases certain components, which wouldn’t be available from a tincture. I love this idea for flowers, it seems like what they offer us is so ethereal, and fermenting in honey water seems like a gentler way of extraction than drowning in alcohol.
Ginger gives it a good bite. Nettles came out pretty good too–I love nettles. Lately I’ve been thinking about mountain ash berries.
The primitive application, though. . . has anyone ever harvested wild honey? I’ve stumbled across the odd hive, but wouldn’t dare to reach in, smoke or no.
[quote=“yarrow dreamer, post:4, topic:372”]Yeah, ya gotta love mead for easy.
But it tastes kind of sweet and gross, so I’ve experimented with adding herbs, looking for something to bitter it up a bit. I’ve heard the ethiopian kind, t’ej, tastes great, but I’ve never found the gesho they use as a bittering agent–supposedly something like hops. Maybe I should just try hops.[/quote]
Generally I just make proper meads or melomels (honey w/ fruit). I have used hops once tho’ (it wasn’t something you’re likely to drink for fun, let’s just leave it at that). And I’ve got a dandelion mead that’s about ready to rack now. But other than that, I haven’t done anything w/ herbs. Guess I can put that on my list.
I have to admit, I’ve never thought about like that before. Seems reasonable tho’.
I’ve never actually tried it, but I think I’d be willing to. If I felt like I could develop a good relationship w/ the hive. I think that would be likely tho’, I generally get along well with bees.
I have to wonder tho’, would fruit wines also work for this? Hmm… Wild Grape Wine w/ Nettles, anyone?
I don’t think mead can be made strong enough to extract the active constituents of most herbs. Some mushrooms are water soluble so they could probably work with mead, though it would be for flavor only and not function. It seems like it might work better to dry the herbs for infusions and decoctions, unless you’re dead set on using alcohol. A metheglin would in effect be a fermented, alcoholic infusion, wich would be beneficial if you made it potent enough and consumed about four oz. three times daily as you would any other infusion. Seems like alot of drinking though.
Could bee keeping be a tribal option? or is that too much of a civ pratice? my wife and I have thrown the bee keeping idea around,almost hoping it could be a service to help ‘up’ the bee population…but then again,whatever is causing the problems for the bees could be right in my back yard, in the almost down town area of a city…
Check out “Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers” by Stephan Harrod Buhner. Can be picked up @ most commercial bookstores or ordered online. Has great info on the healing and medicinal properties of beers (including meade) brewed with different herbs. About 500 pages long with recipes, general info, etc. Awesome as a general read, even if you’re not into brewing.
no shit, just as general reading about the way our culture interacts with alcohol, compared to other, older, wiser and more interesting ways this can happen. buhner’s book pushed me past some barriers (including modern american (germanic?) anal hygiene rules) and got me brewing stuff, got my attention onto interactions with plants.
Cool, I’ll have to check that out. Thanks!
Buhner’s book is a very good one, probably the best on the subject.
You can extract lots of medicinal qualities into a mead or related ferment… I especially like using yarrow, nettles, rose, chamomile, elderberry, elderflower and sage (not together)… and I didn’t like lavender too much, if you try it, use a light touch…
lots of fun, very easy to do… don’t buy the bs of some of the books of all the expensive brewing tools you need… you can do it super simply with some jars and bottles.
Oh, hell. I got started in homebrewing cause I wanted to make mead (way back when I was trying to get a better handle on my Teutonic roots). It looked way too complicated, so I thought I’d start w/ beer (of all things!).
After a few years I finally wised up! 
Mead-making can be as simple as mixing honey & water, then waiting. It’s amazing how complicated brewing instructions can be…
I think I might try yarrow, I’ve been tromping around thickets a lot lately, so some yarrow tincture & plantain salve/oil are looking better and better to me…
i do this a lot with beer and sometimes with wines/tej.
if you want strong medicine make sure the herbs you’re using will extract well in water.
i consider drinking herbal beer to be in the same category as diet when it comes to health care. therefore, best to have tonics, nutritives, and your own herbal allies in your brews.