How to make mead

From oldtimeywineyhr650.wordpress.com

Mead is best described as a honey wine, however it is in a category of its own. Traditionally mead would be made by diluting honey with water in either a clay or wooden vessel and through airborne yeast along with the naturally occurring amount which is in the honey would just do the rest. Seems pretty easy aye?

So there’s no surprise that mead is one of the oldest recorded alcoholic beverages, with references in ancient cultures of China, India, Greece, Egypt and Africa spanning as far back as 3000 BCE. The ancients believed it to be the drink of the gods, possessing magical qualities such as the ability to prolong life.

In fact, any country which is involved in the production of honey, also has a history of mead production. The popularity of mead in England was at its highest during the medieval period – hence its constant use at renaissance fairs . By the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this beverage had mostly fallen out of fashion in favour of ale and later beer.

Recently though however, it has begun coming back into fashion. As with other types of alcoholic beverages, mead has a few different sub-groups. For instance, the mead could be mixed with beer, this is known as ‘braggot’. If you wish to add some fruit to your mead, you will end up with something called ‘melomel’. There is even a watered down version of mead which is consumed in Spain and France known as ‘hydromel’. Mead also comes in a variety of sweetness levels and can either be still or sparkling…

                                       This is what the final outcome should look like

Okay, I’m sure you’re eager to start brewing, I must forewarn you, that the only unfortunate downfall of this recipe is that it requires PACIENCE. It is recommended that this recipe is fermented for as long as possible before consumption, this can mean anywhere up to 2 years. However, if just don’t have it in you, the mead can be consumed after a month. Do remember though, it only gets better with age. Below are two slight variations of the same recipe.
Good luck.

What you will need
Hot pot
Wooden spoon
Empty glass bottles
A Kettle
A large container
Honey
Wine yeast or A toasted slice of bread with spreadable yeast extract
Water
Spices/berries (optional)

                                          An example of some of the equipment required

Method
Using our three main ingredients: honey, wine yeast and water, I scaled down the original recipe by one third to make the quantities more manageable. The equipment I used to make mead was a hot pot for brewing, a wooden spoon, some empty glass bottles, a large metal spoon to collect the scum of the top of the boiling mixture and a kettle to sterilise.

Starting off by sterilizing all of the equipment to avoid contamination, add 450g of honey to 2.2liters of water into a pressure cooker or any other large pot. Make sure to stir the mixture until the two are combined and the mixture runs smooth. Boil for an hour on high heat, after some time, the mixture will develop a white froth, made sure to take all of the scum off and let the mixture cool for about 3hours. we must wait until the honey cools down well but not too much, or otherwise the yeast will not activate properly. Once the mixture cooled off enough and was warm to the touch, you can either add half a teaspoon of yeast to 200ml of warm water mixed it through or alternatively you could take a slice of toast and spread a generous amount of yeast extract onto it and add that to the rest of the mixture.

If you are using toast for your mead then when your mixture develops a head, you can take out your piece of toast. You may need to heat the mixture slightly to do this. Finally, cover the mixture while allowing a vent to prevent pressure build up. I secured the lid of my pressure cooker and placed a balloon on the top allowing for the gasses to escape without outside bacteria getting in. After about 4 weeks’ time I decided it was time to bottle the mead. After properly disinfecting your cork bottles, different flavourings can be placed in such as raisins. It is important to leave it in a cool dry place to sit and don’t forget to check on your mead bottles as you may have to release the pressure build up to avoid any accidents.
Enjoy

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