The mead solera Patrick started this spring is shaping up very nicely: fragrant and honey-forward, but not too sweet. When I picked up a packet of lemon basil at Whole Foods, I decided to start this zero-effort batch. Unfortunately for the basil, our travels got in the way, and I had to freeze the herbs for later use. Hopefully that didn't butcher their aroma too much.

The name of this batch is, of course, an hommage to John Cleese's character in Fawlty Towers. Thank you for noticing.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 1 gallon solera mead
  • 2/3 oz organic lemon basil from Osage Gardens
  • 8-10 regular basil leaves from Sprouts

Process

Literally all I did was draw off a gallon of mead into a 1-gallon carboy, drop in the frozen basil, and put an airlock on. Patrick even took care of topping up the solera. I'll feel vaguely guilty if this comes out tasty... or triumphant.

We bottled this batch on July 16; final gravity was 0.997 for a 13% ABV. The mead was just the right level of sweetness for me (i.e., dry but not abrasive) and intensely fragrant. I definitely want to do more with basil plus fruit.