15 Easy Mead Recipes for Beginners (2024)

FAQs

How much honey do I need for 1 gallon of mead? ›

The average mead recipe calls for 3 to 3.5 pounds of honey per gallon of finished mead, depending on the sugar content of the honey. This makes strong mead in the range of 14 percent alcohol.

4. Add small amounts of herbs, spices, or a handful of fresh berries, and/or wild-foraged edibles. This step is optional. If you don't want to do a straight honey-water-yeast traditional mead, then just add very small amounts to experiment with herbs, spices, anything you know is edible and tasty.

To make a dry 5% ABV mead, the BatchBuildr predicts you will need 0.98 lbs honey, and recommends a 1.034 SG to start. For the 10% ABV dry mead batch, you'll actually need 2.02 pounds of honey and should have an SG of 1.071. For the 15% dry mead, you'll need 3.13 pounds of honey and an original gravity of 1.110.

Ken introduces his “Noble” fruits which he believes are the top fruits to use in meads including fruits like tart cherries, raspberries, currants and blackberries. We discuss how the acidity and tannins provide the flavor and structure needed for a large gravity mead with a substantial amount of residual sweetness.

(Some recipes call for boiling the honey, which makes for a cleaner, quicker ferment. However, many of the aromatic oils that are characteristic of the different flower honeys are boiled off as well in this process. Either method will make you mead.)

The best honey for mead is raw and local. If you have our Mead Making Kit & need honey to get started, try some of our favorite regional honey varieties: Clover & Midwest. The perfect bulk honey for mead, each bottle contains 40 oz (2.5 lb) - exactly what you need to ferment 1 gallon of mead.

Preservatives will impede or prevent fermentation. Likewise with bottled juices or frozen fruit juice, look out for Potassium Sorbate, a preservative that will prevent fermentation. If using juice, use pure juice. Added sugar in commercial juices can add strange flavors.

Straight traditional mead is typically served chilled in a wine or co*cktail glass; but there is really no wrong way to drink it. From ice cold fruit meads to piping hot spiced meads, this versatile beverage can be served at a variety of temperatures depending on the style and ingredients.

Some people add lemon or other citrus juices to mead as a source of acid to help balance out the sweet flavor of the honey, but this is by no means mandatory. Adding sugar or honey will not actually neutralize the acid or change the pH; it will only help to balance the flavor as David had mentioned.

Smoothing out, over time, to make a mellow, less dry experience, letting the latent sweetness emerge. If you want to create an experience for yourself or your friends, we suggest storing a few bottles of mead, out of the sun at room temperature, for 6 months to a year.

What is the best yeast for mead? ›

Lalvin D-47

This white wine yeast is the primary choice for many mead makers. It ferments at a moderate to fast pace with little foaming and is good for medium to dry meads. It tends to accentuate the honey characteristics so it is a good choice for traditional varietal mead.

Put your mead in a warm, dark place. Your mead will start to ferment within 24 to 48 hours, and will continue doing so for about a week (sometimes longer). You'll know it's done when the bubbling has slowed down significantly (fermentation creates carbon dioxide, which causes bubbling in the airlock).

Step 7: Ferment. Then, when you rack for secondary, add some more coffee (not too much, specially if it's pre-ground. Whole beans are the preferred way to go in this step). Step 8: Rack again in about 2-3 weeks so the mead doesn't get too much of the coffee bitterness.

It's not very hard and makes a really delicious mead when it's finished. This calls for the Strawberries to be added during primary fermentation. But most of the experts in blind tests have preferred meads with fruit (actually called Melomel's) added during secondary.

After at least 24 hours, additional sugar (typically honey) can be added to the mead without the risk of fermentation. The desired sweetness will depend on your personal preference. Add the sugar* of your choosing in small increments, thoroughly stirring, and then testing until the desired sweetness is obtained.

For a dry mead, the ratio is 4 parts water to 1 part honey; a sweet mead is 2 to 1. Kluz likes his mead sweet, so he typically uses 1 3/4 gallons of honey and tops it off with 3 1/4 gallons of water. It produces a mead that is between 13 percent and 14 percent alcohol.

The ratio ranges from 1 lb. honey per gallon of water for a very light "soft-drink" to 5 lbs. per gallon for a sweet dessert wine. The less honey, the lighter the mead, and the quicker it can be made.

The short answer is that for every gallon of mead that one wishes to be made, you would need anywhere from a pound and a half to five pounds of honey, then enough water to make a combined gallon. This is the 'yes' part to question above.

In answer to your question, you can use too much honey. Somewhere above 4 1/2 pounds per gallon, you get into territory that is very tough for yeast, and many will stall before fermentation is complete. When above 5 pounds per gallon (above a gravity of 1.200 you reach a point where most yeast can't even start.