Mead is so easy to make, and after telling friends about it a few want to try it. So this is a guide on how to make it for people who are very new to brewing. This post looks long, but this is simply to provide a complete guide on the brewing procedure.

  1. Get a 5 litre bottle water. This water is nice and clean, and will tend to be better than tap water. The container itself will also be used as a fermenter.
  2. Get some honey. I tend to use around a kilogram of honey, costing about €8-9 in a supermarket. The natural sugars in honey are fermentable, and when the yeast is added later on, these sugars turn to alcohol. More honey means more sugar, resulting in more alcohol.
  3. Get yeast. Normal packets of baking yeast can be used, but there are brewing yeasts available. The type of yeast can affect the taste, but either way, yeast turns sugar into ethanol, with carbon dioxide as a by-product.
  4. You can make a basic yeast with just the above, but I suggest adding fruit and spices. You can chop up an orange and lemon, use some sticks of cinnamon, couple of spoons of nutmeg… Whatever you wish. Feel free to experiment here!
  5. Get a big pot and put it on the cooker. Pour in about 1.5-2 litres of water from the bottle and heat it up. Add in your fruit and spices, and let it simmer away for about 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.
  6. When you’re happy with the spiced water, take out any fruit pieces or cinammon sticks. You will be left with a delicious-smelling and light gold liquid.
  7. Pour the honey into the hot water (you could heat up the honey gently beforehand to let it flow better). This mixture of honey, water, and spices is called must.
  8. Stir in the honey to ensure it melts. Let it simmer, and you will notice white scum forming on the surface. This is a type of parrafin from the beeswax in the honey. This scum must be skimmed off the top, or else you’ll have an awful-tasting mead.

    Must with white scum

  9. Once the white scum stops forming, the must is ready to put into the fermenter (your 5 litre bottle). Empty out an extra litre or so of water from the bottle – this makes room for the extra volume the honey takes up. Use a funnel and pour the warm must into the cool water.
  10. Finally, it’s time to pitch the yeast. Use a 7g packet (or measure out 7g if not from a packet) and actiate the yeast if required (it’ll say it on the box). Then just chuck it into the fermenter on top of the brew. Give the fermenter a gentle jostle to allow the yeast to spread across the top of the liquid.
  11. The yeast will get to work on the sugar pretty quickly, so do not seal the bottle. If you do, the pressure inside will build up and you’ll have an explosion and a mess to deal with. Instead, make a pinhole or two in a balloon, and fasten the balloon over the top of the bottle. The balloon will stand up straight while it ferments, and deflate once fermentation has finished. Over the time it ferments, you will notice the liquid turning from cloudy to clear.

    Mead with fruit left in

  12. When fermentation has finished, the mead is ready for bottling. Some people like to transfer it to another 5 litre container to age for a few more weeks. I tend to bottle it in wine bottles and let it age in those. Use a sterilised rubber tube to siphon the mead into the bottles.

The mead is now drinkable, but it’s recommended that you let it age to let the flavours enhance. After a few months you’ll have a delicious drink.

Nyom.

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