Making mead and adding some extras

[Boof]

Hi All.  So I've found a few threads on here that discussed some similarities to my question, but none of them seemed resolved.  I'm after some discussion of people's experiences with brewing / fermenting and adding some herbal goodness.  I keep bees so am lucky enough to frequently have an abundance of honey.  As a result, I make my own metheglins (fruit flavoured meads), mostly cyser.  Been thinking of adding some different botanicals, but am unsure of what stage to do so.  During first ferment?  Or during second ferment after racking off?  Or at bottling when I back sweeten?

 

I'll say straight up that I am not scientific at all in my brewing, I don't use a hydrometer or anything.  Maybe I will one day, but for now, I've found a recipe that works and I just make subtle changes to it and see what results.  I read somewhere recently that damiana steeped in wine makes a great drink for couples, which got me thinking about the subject in the first place.  Botanicals I am thinking of include damiana and HBWR.  I read in another thread on here that particular mushrooms might not be suitable due to the breakdown of components to less stable compounds.  That makes sense to me.

 

Anyone tried such a thing?  Thanks

[Alchemica]

I'd suggest  Sacred and herbal healing beers: the secrets of ancient fermentation as a starting point. I've PM'd the link

If you wanted to get technical, I tried to brew with things early in the mix if I wanted to encourage potential bioconversion of actives, or add them later if the actives were likely to be degraded to less active metabolites. You could consider if the actives are likely to be destroyed, or bioconverted to more potent ones with a bit of research
 

"...fermentation could be considered as a potential technology for releasing phenolic compounds from natural resources, as well as for producing new bioactive compounds. 
The ability of fermentation to improve the yield and to change the profile of phenolic compounds is mainly due to the release of bound phenolic compounds, as a consequence of the degradation of the cell wall structure by enzymes produced during fermentation." [1]

The simple recipes simply use things like:

Lemon BaIm AIe

4 pounds dark brown sugar
3 gallons water
1/2 pound dried lemon balm herb
yeast

Boil 3 gallons water with 8 ounces dried lemon balm herb and 4 pounds sugar for one hour; skim off scum. Let cool and strain into fermenter. Add yeast. Ferment until complete; 7 to 10 days. Prime bottles, fill with beer, and cap. Ready to drink in one to two weeks.

[Boof]

Thanks so much, I didn't expect such a resource.  I don't like beer, but that lemon balm ale sounds good!

[Cimi]

Yeah that does sound delicious. It reminds me of that 'mint hash' the dude from hash church said he initially made as a practice run for bubble hash, would taste amazing.