I recently acquired some dried barberries, a Middle Eastern and Indian fruit that resembles a milder, less acidic cranberry. In this batch, I combined it with mesquite honey and fresh rosemary for a tart, herbal mead.

I apologize for the terrible, cheesy name on this. It was a tough batch to name, I swear.

Ingredients in this batch

  • 42 oz (2 lbs 10 oz) Trader Joe's Mostly Mesquite honey
  • ⅛ tsp Wyeast nutrient
  • ½ batch Red Star premier rouge yeast, rehydrated
  • 0.75 oz Golchin dried barberries, added on 8/31
  • 2 large sprigs fresh rosemary, added on 8/31 and 9/9

Process

Mixed this up on 7/30 with an SG of 1.085, then added the barberries and some rosemary a month later on 8/31. When I tasted this on 9/9, the rosemary didn't seem pronounced enough, so I added some more. The barberry flavor is subtle, nice, and tart.

We bottled this on 10/13 along with a host of other batches. Batch 129 came out bone dry at 0.995 (13%) ABV, with gentle tartness from the barberry and a noticeable but not too overwhelming rosemary aroma IMO.