Mead Making

Equipment You’ll Need

  • Fermentation vessel – usually a glass demijohn (1 gallon is standard for beginners) or a food-grade plastic fermenter.
  • Airlock and bung – lets carbon dioxide escape while keeping oxygen and contaminants out.
  • Sanitiser/steriliser – keeping everything sterile is essential to avoid bad flavours.
  • Siphon tube – for transferring mead without disturbing sediment.
  • Hydrometer (optional but useful) – measures sugar levels and potential alcohol content.
  • Bottles & caps/corks – glass bottles (swing-top, beer bottles, or wine bottles).
  • Large spoon or paddle – for mixing honey and water.
  • Funnel – for pouring into narrow-necked demijohns.

Ingredients (for 1 gallon batch)

  • 1.3–1.5 kg of raw honey (the better the honey, the better the mead)
  • About 3.5 litres of water (non-chlorinated if possible)
  • Wine yeast (Lalvin D47 or EC-1118 are popular)
  • Yeast nutrient (helps fermentation, as honey alone lacks nutrients)

Optional: fruit, spices, herbs (e.g. berries, cinnamon, ginger) for flavoured meads.

Basic Mead-Making Recipe

  1. Sanitise everything
    Clean and sterilise your demijohn, funnel, spoon, and airlock. This is the single most important step.
  2. Mix must (honey + water)
    • Warm your honey slightly (not boiling, just so it flows easily).
    • Add it to your demijohn or fermenter with water.
    • Stir or shake until dissolved.
    • Top up with water to about 1 gallon.
  3. Add yeast & nutrient
    • Sprinkle wine yeast onto the must.
    • Add yeast nutrient according to the instructions.
    • Fit the bung and airlock (half-filled with sanitised water).
  4. Primary fermentation (2–4 weeks)
    • Store in a dark, cool place (around 18–22°C).
    • The airlock will bubble as CO₂ escapes.
    • When bubbling slows or stops, fermentation is nearing completion.
  5. Racking (optional but recommended)
    • Siphon the mead off the sediment (lees) into a clean demijohn.
    • Helps avoid off-flavours.
  6. Secondary fermentation / ageing (2–6 months)
    • Leave the mead to clear and mature.
    • Taste occasionally; it will improve with age.
  7. Bottling
    • Once fermentation is finished and the mead is clear, siphon into sterilised bottles.
    • Seal with caps or corks.
  8. Ageing in bottle
    • Mead is often drinkable after 3–6 months but improves greatly after a year.

Tips

  • Mead takes patience — it usually tastes much better after 6–12 months.
  • If it’s too dry, you can stabilise it and back-sweeten with more honey.
  • For sparkling mead, bottle before fermentation completely stops (similar to cider/beer brewing) — but this requires care to avoid exploding bottles.
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