At it’s most simple, mead is a fermented beverage that uses honey as its primary source of sugar. (This compares most favorably with wine, where the grapes supply a ready source of sugar, and most unfavorably with beer or sake, where the sugars come from starch in grain which is transformed into sugar by enzymes or mold cultures.) Because the sugar is readily available, making mead is much easier to make than beer, but slightly more difficult to make than wine. There is no need to spend the entire day mashing grain, nor is there any need to spend an hour or more in a full boil as with beer. Honey also mixes well with other juices and sugar sources, and so leads to a great variety of fermentation experiments. One of the favorite of these are the various fruits, with strawberries leading the list. I’ve also made meads with blueberry, raspberry, apple, cherries,and spices. I’ve had no small measure of success with several of these, and I have the ribbons to prove it.
A typical 5 gallon batch of mead starts with15lbs of honey. This will typically run about $30-40, depending on the source. (Remember, it takes over 2 million trips by a bee to a flower and back to the hive for each pound of honey, so don’t expect this stuff to come cheep!) This much honey in this much water will yield a fermentable liquid (called “must” like beer is called “wort”) with a starting gravity of about 1.100. Adjust this up or down depending on what you are trying to achieve. The higher gravities lead to a more wine-like drink, while lighter gravities can seem more like champagne, or alcoholic soda pop in the extreme.
As a process, start with the water. Bring your 4.5 or so gallons of water up to a steady, rolling boil. Because honey does not have sufficient nutrients to enable yeast to undergo a vigorous and healthy ferment, put perhaps 1 tsp of yeast nutrient, or 3 tsp of yeast energizer (follow package directions, but err on the side of less is better) into the vigorous boil. You will also find that the sweetness of the mead requires the sour tartness of some sort of acid in order to balance it out. I’ve added from 1 to 3 tsp of acid blend, grape tannin, citric acid, or a combination thereof to this rapid boil. However, the fermentation will be more vigorous if you wait until after fermentation to add the acid. It is also easier to blend the acid to your taste if you wait until after the fermentation. Pour the honey into this hot bath, and turn down the heat. Cover the must and hold a temperature at least 175F. You can imagine that during those 24 million trips the bees made to gather the nectar to make the honey, that somewhere along the line, some sort of contamination managed to get into the honey. In fact, honey is actually well contaminated with bacteria, fungus, spores, bee parts, protein, and who knows what else, so steep the must at pasteurization temperatures for as long as half an hour, but for at least 15 minutes. Instead of steeping, you may choose to boil your honey for a while. This will make your final mead much clearer, but the penalty you pay will be a reduced (or non-existent) honey aroma profile: you will have boiled it all away. However, you can take the opportunity to boil and add Irish Moss. A white to yellow scum will rise to the top of the boil. Use a skimming spoon to remove this from the boil. Chill the must as rapidly as possible, aerate, and add a healthy and vigorous yeast starter.
Because mead is a rather high gravity ferment, good yeast techniques are more important than in regular gravity beer ferments. This is good advice for all brewing, but at higher gravities, make sure that you pitch a sufficient quantity of yeast slurry. If in doubt, you aren’t pitching enough. The more yeast cells in your initial pitching, the faster and more complete your fermentation will be. Same with aeration. If you can inject filtered atmosphere (or ultimately, pure, medical quality oxygen), your yeast lag time (initial, reproductive) phase of the ferment will be minimized, and a healthier fermentation will be the result.
As far as yeast types go, I use only Whitelabs Sweet Mead yeast. I have had great results from this brand of yeast and it leaves a nice sweetness behind yet isn’t overly sweet. It also ferments out to around 15% alcohol. You can also find a Dry Mead yeast available from Whitelabs. If you want a VERY high alcohol VERY dry mead, you can of course use a champagne yeast. The choice is all up to you and what you prefer. My wife prefers a semi-sweet mead and so do I, so that’s what I make.
Mead making does take longer than beer making. This is true for a couple of reasons. First, it is a high gravity ferment, and by definition, this takes longer than a lower gravity ferment. Second, an insufficient yeast population is often used, resulting in an even longer ferment. Third, it is often true that the fermentation is done, but you simply find yourself waiting for the yeast and suspended protein to settle out of the liquid. (If you have some sort of filtration system that will remove these floaters, your wait will be proportionately shorter.) Finally, if you used too much yeast nutrient, it will take longer for the harsh, metallic “off-flavors” from these salts and chemicals to recede into background levels. If you used too little nutrient, then the yeast in your ferment is running a marathon with the nutrition of a candy bar. There simply isn’t a healthy enough environment for the yeasts pleasure. Just be prepared for a ferment to take 3+ months. Then you get to age it for another 3+ months ( aging a full year produces some incredible Mead).
Finally a note on adding fruits, spices, or herbs to your mead. Adding fruits adds nutrients, this gives the yeast more to feed on initially. It can also lead to a very vigorous, almost violent ferment. Use a blow off tube if fermenting in a glass carboy for the primary. If you’re worried about the sanitation of the fruit, heat it up to pasteurization temperatures, but no higher. The pectin in the fruit may set, leading to a permanent haze floating in your mead. Adding pectic enzyme can prevent that from happening.I find that adding spices and herbs to the secondary extracts more of the flavor that adding to the primary. I normally add the spices to a cup of water and boil for 5 minutes, cool and then add it all to the secondary. If you add fruits or malt sugars, you can cut down on the yeast nutrients, as these sources bring much needed natural nutrition to the fermentation.
Remember, Honey is the only food in nature that cannot spoil. It’s very hard to screw up to the point of having an infected batch of mead. Just use some common sense and keep anything coming into contact with the mead clean. Now sit back, relax and have a home brew (or 2)
