... to my Brewing Mead page.

Making Mead

Mead is an alcoholic beverage created by the fermentation of honey diluted with water. Meads, like wines, vary in sweetness, color, and flavor. Meads can be made still (non-carbonated), or sparkling (carbonated like champagne), with herbs, spices, fruits and barley. The one major difference between beer and mead is aging time. Most beer is at the peak of flavor when it is young, usually a few weeks to a few months after bottling. The higher alcohol levels and higher acidity of mead result in a beverage that improves with aging. Sharp flavors will mellow and blend with time, and the peak flavor may not be reached for several years. This doesn't mean that young meads aren't good. It does mean that a harsh young mead will probably improve with age and a tasty young mead could mature into Nectar.

Sulphiting Process

• Sterilize all equipment with a chlorine bleach solution and rinse with cold water. Ensure that no smell of chlorine can be detected. Dissolve honey in warm water, adding the ingredients like fruit. Add campden and additives like nutrient, acid blend, and yeast energizer.

• Make a yeast starter for meads.

• Wait 24 hours.

• Add the yeast starter to the must, stir well and attach an airlock. When the specific gravity (SG) is around 1.035 - 1.030, rack into a clean sterilized fermentor and attach an airlock.

• Ferment for a few weeks in a warm, dark place. When the specific gravity has dropped to 1.000 - 1.015 and no signs of fermentation are visible, siphon (rack off) the mead without disturbing the sediment (this may need to be done several times over the course of the next few months to make a clear mead).

• Once the mead is clear bottle it and age in a cool dark place.

Pasteurizing Process

• Make a yeast starter the day before you make mead.

• Sterilize all equipment with a chlorine bleach solution and rinse with cold water. Ensure that no smell of chlorine can be detected. Heat water and add in honey. Bring temperature up to 160 degrees F, continually skimming the scum off of the top.

• Remove from heat and allow the must to cool to 75 degrees.

• Add the yeast starter to the must, stir well and attach an airlock. When the specific gravity (SG) is around 1.035 - 1.030, rack into a clean sterilized fermentor and attach an airlock.

• Ferment for a few weeks in a warm, dark place. When the specific gravity has dropped to 1.000 - 1.015 and no signs of fermentation are visible, siphon (rack off) the mead without disturbing the sediment. This may need to be done several times over the course of the next few months to make a clear mead.

• Once the mead is clear bottle it and age in a cool dark place.

Making Sparkling Mead

• Once your mead has completed fermenting and has cleared, rack the mead into a bottling bucket.

• Boil some water and add sugar, extract, yeast or honey. Cool the mixture and add it to the mead.

• Stir the mead and bottle in champagne bottles.

• Allow the bottles to age in a cool dark place for 3 to 4 weeks.

If you notice any problems, or have any suggestion on how I can further improve this site, please feel free to send me an e-mail [12 November 2006].