The mead you make with this recipe will reflect the qualities of the honey you use. Consult our guide to mead and consider using a first-rate varietal honey. Because mead is fairly high in alcohol (10- to 12-percent by volume), I recommend 12-ouncebottles over 22-ounce ones.
Ingredients
Makes about five gallons, which should fill 53 twelve-ounce bottles.
Note on equipment:
Step 1
Making mead requires essentially the same basic kit necessary to brew beer at home: primary and secondary plastic-bucket fermenters with air locks and spigots, transfer hosing, a bottle-filler tube, heavy bottles, bottle caps, bottle capper, and a bottle brush and washer. You should be able to find these items for approximately $70 total (excluding the bottles) through a home-brewing supplier, such as The Home Brewery. Bottles cost from $6 to $20 per dozen, depending on style. You might instead buy a couple of cases of beer in returnable bottles, drink the beer, and — after sanitizing them! — reuse those bottles, for the cost of the deposit.
Step 2
All your equipment must be sanitized or sterilized before use. Ordinary unscented household bleach does the job fine. Put all the equipment (including the lid and stirring spoons) into the fermentation bucket, fill with water, and add 2 teaspoons of unscented bleach. Let it sit for 30 minutes. Drain the water through the spigot, rinse everything in hot water, and allow to air-dry.
Step 3
Bring the 4 1/2 gallons of water to a boil. Well water, by the way, should be avoided because of potentially high levels of strong tasting minerals like iron. Boiling should remove harsh chlorine from municipal tap water. If you don't own a pot large enough to hold five gallons of water, boil as much as possible. You will add the remaining water to the fermenter later.
Step 4
Once the water reaches a boil, remove it from the heat and stir in all of the honey. Do not boil the honey, as it reduces the aromatic quality of the finished mead.
Step 5
While the honey dissolves in the water, put a cup of lukewarm (90 to 100°F) water into a clean bowl. Sprinkle in the yeast and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. When the honey has been fully dissolved in the water and the pot is cool to the touch (not over 80°F), pour the honey-water into the fermentation bucket and stir in the yeast mixture. Note: Cooling the honey-water should take about half an hour. This process can be accelerated with a so-called sink bath, that is, repeatedly immersing the pot in cold water in a sink or basin.
Step 6
If you have not already added the full 4 1/2 gallons of water, top it off with the balance in bottled water (or tap water if you're confident of its quality).
Step 7
Seal the bucket and allow the mixture to ferment for two weeks to one month. The progress of fermentation can judged by monitoring the carbon-dioxide bubbles escaping from the air lock: When they drop to one bubble every sixty seconds, fermentation has nearly concluded. Note that is only an issue during this primary fermentation; secondary fermentation has more to do with aging and mellowing and hence is more flexible. When primary fermentation has subsided, siphon the mead over to your secondary fermentation bucket and seal it. Allow one to four months aging time. Do not open the fermenter, as this risks contaminating the mead.
Step 8
When you decide it has matured enough (and the mead has cleared), you will want to siphon it into sterilized bottles and cap them. Follow the same procedure as you would for home-brewed beer. My book Beer for Dummies has a detailed guide in its Chapter Ten, or consult the web site of the American Homebrewers Association.
Step 9
Keep in mind that this is a recipe for still (i.e., non-carbonated) mead.
Step 10
Mead typically improves with age, so the longer you can wait to open the bottles, the better.
Leave a Review
Reviews (10)
Back to Top好的你有基本覆盖很好。但我迪sagree with bringing the water to a boil. Even that much heat you will lessen the core essences of the varietal of honey you are using. Your recipe is all well and good if your using clover or orange blossom. Wild flower honey will loose its flavor profile if the water gets beyond 100 deg. and for other more subtle variables such as blueberry Getting the water just warm enough to incorporate the honey the temp should not go above 98.6 the temperature of your body. Some mare arguer the reasons for boiling being Contamination or bacteria. But proper sanitation and using spring water from the bottle that's not a factor. As Horney has such a high osmotic state no bacteria can survive in it.
LurchChaos
Phoenix
10/27/2022
My mead is now over 3 months into ageing and I just tasted it. It is very sweet, kinda tastes like liquid honey lol. I was hoping for a dryer mead. Could I restart the cook again with more yeast or is it too late in the game?
David
Fort McMurray Alberta
3/25/2022
While this recipe is simple enough that pretty much anyone can follow it and make a nice mead, I would suggest using only spring water. Tap water may add off flavors if it is hard water, has a high chlorine content, other additives such a fluoride, or if you are on well water which in some parts of the country may have a higher sulfur content. Also it pays to research the type of yeast you use. Some yeasts will tap out early in the fermentation process due to the alcohol content while others can go as high as 20% ABV. I recently fell upon a good resource of information if you want to tweak this recipe a little, or just learn a few more particulars, at Meadmakr.com As a side note you can also use Grolsch style bottles or purchase a corker, I understand that the larger floor models are easier, it certainly was for me. And remember, for supplies Craigslist is your friend. Have fun, welcome to the hobby, and happy drinking (in moderation).
Discerning Palate
Colorado Springs, CO
5/17/2018
This is a great recipe if you have the equipment, if you don't have the home brewing stuff we have an easy tutorial on how to make mead with no special equipment over on kiltedbrewer.com
kiltedbrewer
San Diego, CA
3/7/2017
it was pretty good. I usually follow the mead recepy from hidden legend winery hiddenlegendwinery.com/how-to-make-mead/mead-recipe/
Anonymous
spokane, wa
1/29/2017
I normally make homemade wine in 5 gallon batches, and make small batches of mead. I've always done fizzy mead and I infuse ginger while boiling the water, I also let the honey boil a bit in the water so that i can skim off the "sludge." Anyway, last time I made mine it exploded (glass shards embedded in walls and ceiling), so I'm looking forward to trying this recipe for a large batch of still mead, it's looks very much the same as my regular recipe, so I'm wondering how it will come out still? Do i stir the carbon dioxide out of it like when making wine?
veronica_cantin
10/10/2016
One thing is wrong: Hypochlorite bleach is a horrible idea. It leaves a residue and smell that takes hours to disappear and can cause off-flavors and stuck fermentations. Instead use something like potassium metabisulfite (campden tablets), or some other non-toxic, usually sulfite-based, sanitizer.
sayeh
6/24/2016
As a mazer (someone who makes mead) of some experience, I run the online mead community "The Mead Hall", I heartily endorse this recipe. It is a nice simple starter recipe to get you on the road to making more meads.
CuAllaidh
London, ON
2/28/2011
As a homebrewer with over a decade of experience, I would endorse this recipe as written. If a person is interested in the beverage I would suggest studying the many resourses available on the internet. With the addition of yeast nutrients, liquid yeast, spices and apple juice you can make a "cyser" (apple mead) that many people find to be the ultimate hard cider. great recipe!!! make mead! save history!
Rathpig
1/2/2005
