Metheglin is a variety of mead flavored with hops, herbs, or spices. Capsicumel, a hot pepper flavored mead, would be a metheglin rather than a melomel. Melomel is mead flavored with fruit, like the peaches I tried before. I promised I was going to make a capsicumel earlier and so I've started one after getting a great deal on a large quantity of Anaheim peppers. I've had some level of success with mead and also some peach orchard scented abominable failure. The key is following a good recipe and this time I'm using one from Charlie Papazian's Brewing Mead.
This recipe starts with a well-tested effective basic mead that can be brewed and bottled on its own. But I'll be adding in gruit, which is the flavoring that takes this brew from mead to metheglin. I also changed up some of my brewing day technique following guidance in Brewing Mead and elsewhere. This new process stirs together honey and water and heats it to a low boil before adding it to more water in the carboy for fermentation. Later the gruit is boiled into a strong tea and added to the mead at bottling time. I got the peppers early so they are seeded, bagged, and frozen until first fermentation is done.
