Mead
I started making mead soon after I began homebrewing. Our homebrew club when I was in college at Texas A&M (Texas Aggie Brew Club) had a couple of academic advisors: a microbiologist who supplied us with interesting yeasts and another who was also in the Society for Creative Anachronisms. He specialized in meads. He gave use a recipe sheet that he based on recipes from "The Closet of Sir Kenelme Digbie, Opened" a circa 1669 text with many recipes for food and drink.
Mead terminology: Mead = honey wine, melomel = mead flavored with fruit, metheglin = mead flavored with spices. Meads were often used as medicinals in the past. Some of the ingredients of the 17th century recipes reflect this. Here are two sources that carry some, if not all, of the hard to find herbs: Monterey Bay Spice Co. and Penzeys Spices.
Here is a good tutorial on mead making, or you can follow my methods listed below. The Got Mead website is a beginner's guide to mead making.
Instructions for making a mead: There are three ways to make a mead.
1) Boil the honey to sterilize it, or
2) Heat the honey to 170 degrees to sanitize it, or
3) Do not heat the honey; mix with water and immediately pitch the yeast starter.
The first two methods are the traditional methods and are used in Sir Digbie's book. However, you can lose some of the aromatic and flavor properties of a good honey by heating or boiling. Honey is naturally antimicrobial so very few viable bacteria and yeast are found in honey, although some may be present in a dorment state. By mixing with sterilized water (pre-boiled and cooled) and immediately pitching a robust yeast starter, any naturally occuring microbes will be overpowered by the yeast and should not be a problem. This method maintains the characteristics of the honey which makes for a much better mead. This is the method I have started to use and I am very satisfied with it. There are many varieties of honey and they can all be used to make tasty meads: orange blossom honey, tupelo honey, huajillo honey, wildflower honey, youpon honey, and buckwheat honey to name a few. Some honeys are mild, some are strong.
These are the instructions that our faculty advisor gave to the club. If you do not wish to heat or boil your honey, then you boil the spices in water first, let it cool, and mix with your honey.
1) Place the primary boil ingredients, if any, in a boil bag like you would the grains for beer and boil for 30 minutes in 2 gallons of water along with acid blend, epsom salts, yeast nutrient, tannins. Remove from water and add 15lbs of honey slowly (skip this step if you do not wish to heat the honey. Skip to step 2 - "Add secondary boil ingredients" and boil secondary boil ingredients, if any, in the water), while stirring to mix well and prevent the honey from settling on the bottom where it can scorch. Boil for about 30 minutes, skim any scum off of the top and discard it.
2) Add the secondary boil ingredients, if any, for the last 15 minutes of the boil - use a stone to sink the bag. You can also add Irish moss at this time. Cool the liquid with an ice bath, remove spice bag and set aside in a pot, and transfer the must (boiled honey water mixture, similar meaning to the word "wort" used in beer making) into a fermenter (if you are not heating the honey, cool the water, then put the cooled water in the fermenter and vigorously stir in the honey, adding water if necessary to dissolve the honey).
3) Top off to 5 gallons with cooled boiled water as needed. Stir the must vigorously to oxygenate, add yeast starter (and spice bag that was set aside earlier) and ferment. Unlike beer and wine, fermentation may start slowly. You can open the fermenter and stir every day to oxygenate, and get a little taste to see if the spices are how you like them. If they are, remove the spice bag, but it can remain in the fermenter indefinitely. Fermentation can take several weeks. Rack to a secondary when fermentation stops (remove spice bag now if you have not already done so), bottle in another 2-4 months or bulk age in the secondary for several months. I often rack again into another secondary after some of the solids have had time to settle out. Age in the bottles for at least 6 months.
A note about yeast starters. I believe it is imperative to have a good robust yeast starter for a mead, the yeast found in commercial yeast packets (dry or liquid) do not have a high enough population to get fermentaion going in a rapid time frame, which is important if you do not heat the honey when making a mead. I make a starter as described on my beer page, I remove it from the fridge the day before I make my mead, after it warms up I add a bottle of Malto. At bedtime, I also add 1/2 cup of boiled honey water mixture to help condition the yeast to the honey. By the time the must is ready for the yeast to be pitched, you will have a very vigorous yeast starter to add.
If making a melomel (fruit) mead, freeze the fruit first to rupture the cell walls, thaw and mash. Add cambden tablets to sanitize and pectic enzyme to break down the cell walls, let sit for a day, and juice. Add juice/fruit to mead after it cools.
Note: measurements are approximate. The advisor basically measured with his hand and approximated the volumes when writing the recipes for us. He used as his basis: 1 handful = 1/4 cup (dry) or 2 fluid ounces. All of the following recipes, except the Dewberry Dessert Mead, are from Sir Digbie's book. The Digbie recipes are numbered (I went through and numbered them in the book - there are 101 recipes) and some I have named or I used Sir Digbie's names.
Update 10/21/12: I have switched gears a little. I made all of the recipes below and they turned out great (I don't like the flavor of the White Metheglin #70, but it is smooth like the others). I am now making "varietal" meads - just using the different honey varieties. I started an orange blossom honey mead several months ago and it is great. I just ordered a gallon each (enough for 4 gallons of mead) of tupelo honey, sourwood honey, gallberry honey, purple star thistle honey, avocado honey, and mesquite honey. I also found some Indian blanket honey - probably the only time this honey has ever been made, it may never become available again. I only have enough for 2 1/2 gallons (about twelve 750ml wine bottles).
This year Texas had its first mead contest. I didn't find out about it until after the fact. I ordered all of the honey listed above to try and have a large variety of mead to enter in next year's contest. See Texas Mead Association for more information.
Update 7/1/15: I have progressed in my mead making quite a bit. I have won a total of 11 medals and Best of Show at the Texas Meadfest in 2013 and 2014 so I'm on the right track but there is still need for improvement. I entered the 2015 Mazur Cup and my Cherry Russian Melomel went to the medal round (but didn't win anything) - not bad for a first time entrant going up against 400 entries. I reduced all of the spices by 25% in the Cherry Russian except for the ginger. I also did not boil them, I just added them to the primary. I made a mead with Olallieberries from California that scored 46/50 at Mazur Cup. That is a pretty high score but the category is one of the most competitive and it didn't advance to the medal round. I'm still tickled that it scored so high.
White Pepper Metheglin, #72 - 5 gallons
1.25oz whole white peppercorns, crushed
0.6oz whole cloves
3-4 whole blade mace
2.5oz fresh sliced ginger
1.25oz cinnamon sticks, broken up
15 whole nutmeg nuts, crush with pliers or hammer
There are no primary boil ingredients. Add all ingredients during the last 15 minutes of the boil.
Dewberry Dessert Melomel - 5 gallons
This was modified from the sweet raspberry mead recipe on the Cat's Meow 3 website. Dewberries are wild native blackberries found here in Texas.
For each gallon:
4.5 pounds clover honey
1.5 pounds dewberries
Juice of one lemon
Juice of one orange
3 tablespoons of strong-brewed black English tea
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient (generic, white crystals)
Sweet Mead yeast
The dewberries were frozen to help break down the cell walls, and they were crushed by hand with a potato masher after thawing. The lemon and orange juice were to provide acids. The tea was to provide tannins. Boil the honey in some water for 30 minutes, skimming off any scum, wax, bee parts, etc. that rise to the surface. Remove from heat and add berries, tea, juice, and nutrient. Let sit, covered, for a few minutes to let the heat sanitize the fruit. Chill to room temperature in an icewater bath. Put into primary fermenter and add water to bring the volume of the must up to the appropriate level. Pitch yeast into must. Rack after about three weeks, when the fruit pulp has settled. Rack again at month 2, 4, and 6. Bottle at month 8.
Angelica Root Metheglin, #26 - 5 gallons
Angelica Root is a medicinal herb. According to the TABC advisor it is also considered an aphrodesiac for women, but I have not found this info on the web.
Primary Boil
1.25 Tbsp Rosemary
2.5 Tbsp Angelica Root
2.5 Tbsp Lemon Balm
2.5 Tbsp Borage
Secondary Boil
0.6oz cloves
1.25oz ginger (sliced)
Ms. Hebden's Cherry Russian Melomel, #34 - 5 gallons
10/14/11 - I'm making this for the first time today. I tasted it after cooling and it tastes good, but the mint is pretty strong. Depending on how this melomel ages I might cut the mint in half in the future. I'll update after fermentation is finished and when it has aged - probably in several months.
Update 11/26/11 - after fermentation and two rackings, this mead tastes great. I won't be reducing the mint in the future as mentioned above.
Update 2/21/13 - Me and some friends tasted this melomel and it has aged very well. This is a fabulous mead! And, I hope, a show stopper at the next state mead contest.
Primary Boil
1.25Oz Hops (I don't know the variety, I bought bulk leaf hops from Monterey Bay Spice Co.)
Secondary Boil
1.25oz cinnamon sticks, broken up
2.5oz ginger (sliced)
0.6oz whole cloves
1.25oz Cardamom (decorticated seeds)
2.5 tsp lemon peel
1.25 oz Elderflowers
1.25oz Mint
Juice from 7.5lbs of Cherries. You can also use Raspberry juice or dewberry/blackberry juice instead.
White Metheglin, #70
As this strong metheglin fermented, I liked the taste less and less. I think this is better as a sweet mead. Eventhough I'm using a sweet mead yeast, it is too dry. Once fermentation is complete, I'm going to add a cambden tablet to kill residual yeast and then add honey to sweeten it up.
There are no primary boil ingredients
Secondary Boil
2.5 tsp Lemon Peel
0.6oz. Whole Cloves
10 Tbsp Rosemary
10 Tbsp Sage
15 Bay Leaves
10 Tbsp Thyme
10 Tbsp Sweet Marjoram
10 Tbsp Winter Savory
Metheglin #80 - 5 gallons
Primary Boil
0.5 Oz. Nutmeg (crushed whole nutmegs)
0.5 Oz. Ginger Root, sliced
0.25 Oz. cloves
0.25 Oz. Cardamom seeds
0.25 Oz. Annis seeds
0.5 Tbsp Orange Peel
Secondary Boil
0.25 Oz Elderflowers
0.25oz cinnamon sticks (sliced)
Excellent Metheglin, #66 - 5 gallons
Primary Boil
5 Tbsp Rosemary
5 Tbsp Sage
5 Tbsp Sweet Marjoram
5 Tbsp Lemon Balm
5 Tbsp Sassafras
Secondary Boil
2.5 Oz Lemon Peel
3.33 Oz Ginger (sliced)
Add 1 pint of Aqua Vitae (brandy) per 5 gallons to the metheglin at bottling. Aqua vitae (Water of Life) was sometimes called spirits of wine in English texts, a name for brandy that had been repeatedly distilled. Use a good quality brandy to enhance your good quality mead. Like wine in cooking, use something that you would drink, not nasty cheap stuff.
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Updated February 21, 2013