Yes this book contains many exceptional recipes! As of original volume: there nearly are no "hard facts" given in the recipes when it comes to ingredients. I tried to scale it down to a batch of 10 liters (one of the most usual batch sizes here in german speaking countries) but it still is more or less quessing. If it should resemble the REAL recipe, we would have to keep in mind that it has been about 1660 - people were smaller these days so "one handful" would probably be less than "one handful" today. Besides this specific recipe has been brewed by a woman - we could also consider that women's handy may be smaller than men's. All in all I think every brewer will have his/her own, slightly different version of this recipe leading to various variants tasting different too.

@@PerfectLiving_AT quite true, through my years of making these recipes I have personally calculated that a “handful” is around 1/2 a U.S. customary cup, or ~ 236 ml (volume measure, mass measure is different depending on the herb/spice) I based it on the “apothecary handful” that was popular at the time. I am still trying to figure out how much a “Race” of ginger is, I think it’s around 3 - 3 1/2 Oz. (85 - 99g) I’ve also found that making any volume under 5 gallons does not lead to good results. And lastly in the end most of these recipes should be slightly sweet, carbonated, and exceedingly clear. What was your P°?

@@gamecollector7930 A "race" at this time had two meanings. I explained it in the video but I don't know how good the subtitles are when it comes to that. It could be a whole rhizome - or a piece cut with a razor blade meaning a small strip. I decided that 4-5 rhizomes would be very much for 6 gallons of brew so I decided to use 4-5 strips instead. Unfortunately this is a measurement unit where not much information exists about. I do not measure gravity for my meads. Normally, I do a 3:1 mixture using 6 liters of water and 3 kilograms of honey (1,6 gallons of water and about 6.6 pounds of honey). This one seems to have been quite strong as it "will bear an Egge to be above the liquor, the breadth of a groat" which would be about 25mm or about 1 inch. So it has to have quite high initial gravity. Regarding carbonation, I think it had been slightly carbonated at the beginning but when it was stored for half a year up to several years in a cask, carbonation would have vanished. As I filter my meads, they fnially have no carbonation at all. All in all I love these kind of recipes as you have to do some research and get unusual results. Here in Austria we have nearly no commercial mead brewers who offer "special" meads so this is the only way to get something more exciting than water and honey.

Do you happen to know the name of the book of medicinal wines by Hildegard von Bingen?

Sorry for the delay, didn't see the comment. The book "Heilweine und Kräutertränke nach Hildegard von Bingen" claims to contain recipes close to original versions. Project Gutenberg also contains some of the original texts of Hildegard von Bingen, especially a "modernized" version of "Heilwissen" which she wrote between 1150 and 1160. Much to read and as usual no measures given. If you understand german or get some good translation, you can find it here: www.projekt-gutenberg.org/hildegar/heilwiss/index.html

Ja, früher waren die Met-Brauer so wie es scheint viel kreativer als heute. Liegt vermutlich auch an den damals fehlenden Regulierungen ;-) Bis zur Verkostung wird es leider noch etwas dauern, der Ansatz ist noch nicht mal gefiltert. Bin aber auch schon sehr gespannt, wie das Ergebnis ausfällt!