Mead

Submitted by Mephysteaux

Intro

Mead is something I was introduced to when I started exploring Viking culture. While most people seem to think that Mead is some kind of beer, it's actually closer to wine, except it's made by fermenting honey instead of fruit. It's sort of a niche drink - Not entirely rare, but it can be a bit hard to find. Making your own mead is generally less expensive than buying it commercially, and while it takes a lot of patience, the freedom you have with it can be very rewarding. The whole process generally takes at least 3 months, and adding more time on to age it makes for a better product. Anyway, on with the show.

Equipment

You will need the following items:

• A large pot
• A ladle
• A food thermometer
• Food grade pales, with lids
• Coffee filters

Ingredients

This is for 5 gallons of basic mead. I'll go over some variations later.

• 10 pounds of honey
• 4-4.5 gallons of water
• One tube of liquid yeast

Optional ingredients:

• Acid blend
• Bentonite or Gelatin

Getting Started

First thing to remember is that the quality of your ingredients do make a difference. While I usually get the cheapest honey I can buy because I'm an unemployed college student, I would definitely recommend springing for bottled water instead of just using tap water (You can usually find gallon jugs of it for less than a dollar). Also, for the yeast, go to a home brew shop and get your yeast there. I've never tried using bread yeast, but I hear it comes out terrible. I personally use White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast, but there is also a dry mead yeast available, and I hear a lot of people use champagne yeast.

Next thing to do is sterilize your containers. I dip them in boiling water (Can use tap water for this) for a few minutes, then seal them until I'm ready to use them. Now, onto the actual brewing.

Brewing

This is fairly easy, but a bit time consuming. You want to heat your water, and as it gets warm add the honey, getting it to dissolve rather quickly so it doesn't sink to the bottom and burn. Raise the temperature to 160 degrees F. Keep it between 160 and 180 for an hour. This sterilizes the honey without boiling it, because boiling honey makes it lose some flavor. While this is happening, you'll notice a white foam/film rising to the top. Homebrewers affectionately call this "scum", it's impurities in the honey that separate out, and tend to make it taste bad unless you skim it off. Easy way to do it, put the bottom of the ladle on the surface of the water and draw a circle with it, maybe 3-5 times. This will push all the scum to the edges where you can easily scoop it out. After this is done, what you have is called "must", the pre-fermented liquid. Pour it into your pail(s), put the lid on, and wait for it to return to room temperature. Then add your yeast, and a bit of acid blend if you like (yeast like an acidic environment).

Oh, and one tip: When I make mead, I divide my 5 gallon batch into 5 one gallon batches so I can make several varieties. A useful fact for this is that the volume of a pound of honey is about 10 fluid ounces.

Fermentation and Racking

Within about 3 days or so, you'll be able to see the fermentation. Short science lesson, yeast consume sugar, and their waste products are alcohol and carbon dioxide, which you'll see bubbles of. Also, if you sample it after about a week or so, you'll be able to taste the alcohol. Overall fermentation time is 3 months. If you want to easily calculate the potential alcohol, I use the brewhaus calculator.

Every 3 to 6 weeks you'll want to rack the mead. Racking is basically filtering out all the yeast, mostly dead, that settled to the bottom. There's probably a more official way to do it, but I just carefully pour it through a coffee filter, trying not to stir up what's on the bottom too much. I did an experiment, I added the stuff I filtered out to must for a new batch, and it turned out well for me. You can try it if you like, but I can't guarantee results. You'll want to rack it one last time before you bottle it, but this time use the bentonite. Bentonite is bits of clay, available from your homebrew shop, that has a magnetic charge on it, and can be used to filter out small, dissolved bits of yeast. Dissolve a small amount in some warm water, and add to your mead. Wait 24 hours, then rack it. This will clarify the mead and give it a less yeast-y taste. I hear that unflavored gelatin can be substituted for bentonite.

Finishing Up

Once this is done, put it in bottles. I'd recommend plastic bottles, as if fermentation isn't quite finished, pressure building up inside a glass bottle can potentially be hazardous. I bought plastic bottles online, and after shopping around I found some inexpensive bottles that suit my needs at a place called Midwest Bottle. When you're buying, make sure to get compatible lids, and to take shipping and small order fees (if applicable) into account. Anyway, once it's bottle, time to age it. It's recommended that you let it age for at least six weeks, but a lot of varieties I find taste good then and there.

Also, when I started doing this, I had some people questioning the legality of it. The rule in most places, from what I hear, is that a household with one person of legal drinking age is allowed to make up to 100 gallons of wine per year for personal use. A household with 2 or more can make up to 200 gallons. No guarantees, though.

Mead Varieties

There are some varieties of mead that can be made, I'd recommend making a few at a time to see what you like. If you want to make a mead with fruit juices, I'd recommend replacing 1/4-1/2 of the water with juice, and when you're buying, make sure it's preservative free. Or, if you have the initiative, Anyway, some mead varieties are:

• Show Mead, Hydromel - Regular Mead. Tried, true, and delicious.
• Sack Mead - Extra strength mead. The recipe I've provided, with 2 pounds of honey per gallon, yields about a 10.5% alcohol content by volume. The yeast I buy has a tolerance of 17%, so adding more honey up 2 about 3 pounds per gallon will make it more alcoholic, but after that it just gets sweeter.
• Metheglin - Mead with spices. My usual cocktail is ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, which is highly delicious. I've also made it with Earl Grey tea (kind of bitter, but good) and mint (in the process of making, but tastes really good right now).
• Malomel - Fruit mead, general term. There are some more specific ones, though. The few of these I've made so far have been disappointing, I hope they get better with age.
• Cyser - Mead with apples
• Pyment - Mead with grapes
• Hippocras - Mead with grapes and spices
• Omphacomel - Mead with unripened grapes
• Braggot - Mead with malt

Resources

For recipe ideas and general information, these are the two sites I used the most:

• The Mead Maker's Page
• The Bee's Lees