how do you make mead?

Answer 1

Basic Mead
(Traditional Mead and Maple Wine)

Ingredients:
5-6 qts honey or 7-8 qts maple syrup (bulk grade B dark)
5 tsp yeast nutrient
15 gm white wine yeast

Procedure:
Hydrate the yeast and dissolve the yeast nutrient separately in warm water for 30 minutes. Mix the honey, maple syrup, or both with first hot and then cold tap water in a large open container to almost 5 gallons at your target specific gravity. Splash or spray the water to oxygenate the must so that the yeast will multiply. Pour the must into a glass carboy, then pitch in the hydrated yeast and dissolved yeast nutrient, dregs included.

Use a blow off tube for the first few days and then switch to a water trap. In a month or so, the alcohol will kill the yeast before it runs out of sugar. If not, and the mead turns out too dry, add some more honey. It is ready to drink as soon as fermentation stops.

Maple wine becomes crystal clear with a beautiful sherry color within 60 days. Mead will sometimes clarify in 90 days. If you choose to bottle the mead before it is clear, it will clarify in the bottles, leaving an unsightly but delicious sediment.

Use Bentonite (clay) to quickly clarify a mead anytime after
fermentation stops. Boil 12 ounces of water in a saucepan. While simmering, slowly sprinkle and stir in 5 tsp of bentonite. Cover and let stand for 24 hours. Add during racking. It may be necessary to rack and bentonite twice. The result is crystal clear.

Comments:
Traditional Meads and Maple Wines have an alcohol content of 12-15%. Always use yeast nutrient and plenty of yeast for a strong start. The fermentation will take off with a bang and the rapidly rising alcohol content will quickly kill off any wild yeast. There is no need to sulphite, heat, or boil the must. Why ruin good honey? I have never had a bad batch of mead, except when I added acid.


Alternate version - untried

Viking Mead Recipe
Mead (Honey Wine) - 5 gallon recipe


8-10 lbs pure raw honey (for light, delicate Mead)
(or)12-13 lbs pure raw honey (for medium sweet Mead)
(or)15-16 lbs pure raw honey (for very sweet or alcoholic Mead)
4-5 gallons purified spring water (not distilled)
3 tsp. yeast nutrient (or 5 tablets) - beer brewing stores
1 tsp. acid blend (combination malic/citric acid) - beer brewing stores
5-7 oz. sliced fresh ginger root (1 finger's length)
1/4 tsp. fresh rosemary (optional, as desired) - not my fav
5-6 whole cloves (optional, as desired)
1-2 vanilla beans (optional, as desired) - nice
cinnamon/nutmeg (optional, as desired)
lime/orange peels (optional, as desired)- also nice
crushed fruit (peaches, strawberries, grapes, etc.)
1 tsp. Irish Moss (to clarify Mead)
1/2 tsp. clear gelatin (to clarify Mead)
1 packet yeast (champagne or ale yeast)


Heat spring water 10-15 minutes till boiling. Stir in honey, yeast nutrients, acid blend, and spices (rosemary, ginger, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, lemon peel). Boil for another 10-15 minutes, (overcooking removes too much honey flavor), skimming off foam as needed (2 to 3 times during last 15 minutes). After 15 minutes, add Irish Moss or clear gelatin to clarify. After last skimming, turn off heat, add crushed fruit, and let steep 15-30 minutes while allowing mead to cool and clarify. After mead begins to clear, strain off fruit with hand skimmer and pour mead through strainer funnel into 5 gallon glass carboy jug.
Let cool to room temperature about 24 hours. After 24 hours, warm up 1 cup of mead in microwave, stir in 1 packet "Red Star" Champagne, Montrechet, or Epernet yeast (or Ale yeast in order to make mead ale), and let sit for 5-15 minutes to allow yeast to begin to work. Add this mead/yeast mixture to carboy jug and swirl around to aerate, thereby adding oxygen to mead/yeast mixture.

Place run-off tube in stopper of bottle, with other end of tube in large bowl or bottle to capture "blow-off" froth. Let mead sit undisturbed 7 days in cool, dark area. After initial violent fermenting slows down and mead begins to settle, rack off (siphon off) good mead into clean sterilized jug, leaving all sediment in bottom of first jug. Attach airlock to this secondary carboy. After 4-6 months, mead will clear. During this time, if more sediment forms on bottom, good mead can be racked off again to another clean sterilized jug.


When bottling, in order to add carbonation, add either 1/4 tsp. white table sugar per 12 oz bottle, or stir in 1/2 to 1 lb raw honey per 5 gallons mead (by first dissolving honey with a small amount of mead or pure water in microwave).

Answer 2

Ive nevdr tasted mead and really want to buy just dont know whrre from

Answer 3

In short, you mix honey and water until your dilution is such that it is suitable for the yeast. Add yeast and nutrient and whatever other flavoring (fruit, spices, herbs) you might like, and let it ferment. Similarly to wine, you'll separate the clarified liquid from the sediment when the fermentation has slowed to nearly a stop. Let it sit for a few months or more before bottling.

Unlike fruit sugars that wines and ciders are made from, honey takes much longer to ferment...much patience is needed.