English Sack

English Sack is a classic English mead, flavoured and bittered with herbs. Though not much brewed these days, it has a long history, going back to the Middle ages. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of English Sack.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

80 minutes

Total Time:

100 minutes

Additional Time:

(+1 year fermenting and maturing)

Makes:

12 bottles

Rating:

Tags : British Recipes English Recipes

Sack has been a traditional English drink for centuries, and though the recipe presented here derives from the 1730s it's known from the Elizabethan and Medieval ages and was probably made for several centuries before this. After all, it's really only a herbed mead.

Ingredients:

300g fennel roots
large sprig of rue
4.5kg honey (needs to be reasonable but doesn't have to be too good)
enough of clean brown withered oak leaves gathered from the tree on a dry to fill a 5l pot
Yeast (Epernay II is good but champagne yeast would also work)

Method:

As with most of the other mead recipes presented on this site, this recipe has been gauged to make 5l of mead. Only a basic listing of ingredients is given, and for a brewing method please see this page for a step-by-step guide. Also see this page for a list of the equipment you'll need.

First prepare the herbs by boiling them in 2l of water for half an hour. Bring the water up to 5l in a large stock pot by topping-up with fresh unchlorinated water, bring to the boil and add the honey a little at a time until it dissolves. Take the must off the heat, and allow to cool. At this point you can return to following the instructions given in the basic mead brewing page to make your mead. Again, this is not a 'short' mead, and you can follow the recipe given for my 'standard' basic mead exactly. As a wine-like mead, once bottled, this preparation needs to be left to mature in the bottle for at least a year.