I'm making this Instructable because if you're like me, you've gone to Home Brew shops looking for some recipes/ingredients/advice on making Mead, and they make it out like it's Rocket Science. I would leave with the impression that unless it were made under strict laboratory conditions, it would fail. The truth is, it's incredibly simple to make. For God sake's, it's just Honey & Water! You can certainly make mistakes that prolong it, but you have to really work at screwing it up to come out with 5 gallons of honey water that in 6 months ISN'T alcoholic.
Some people call to pasteurize the honey and water mixture beforehand. This gets rid of all the bad stuff that might be in your honey & water. I choose not to for a few reasons. First, and this is obviously going to continue to come up, Mead has been around long before Pasteurization! Not doing it doesn't automatically mean it's going to fail. Second, a lot of people don't LIKE to pasteurize it, because even though you're killing off some of the bad stuff, you're also killing off some of the things that contribute to the honey's flavor. At least for me, considering that the ONLY ingredient in Mead to give it it's flavor (for this recipe anyways) is the honey, and Mead has been made quite successfully without pasteurization, I see no need to jeopardize the flavor just to resolve a fear that something bad might take over. There probably is some wild yeast in the honey, but it is going to be greatly out-numbered with the amount of yeast we are GOING to add, that I don't think it's a likely possibility the wild yeast will take over. And finally, you'd likely need to get a 6 gallon pot to pour all this into to pasteurize it. And those pots are expensive, and take up a ton of space.
What You'll Need:
5 Gallon Carboy ($20, used)
15 Pounds of Honey (Quality matters, and if you can afford it, buy local! Clover Honey from Walmart- $40. Local Orange Blossom $90)
1 Packet of Wyeast Sweet Mead ($8)
1 Bottle of Acid Blend ($2.50)
1 Bottle of Yeast Nutrient ($3)
1 Hydometer ($10)
1 Airlock ($1)
Total = $84.5 with Walmart Honey, or $134.50 with Quality Local Honey
Optional:
1 Auto-Siphon (Optional, but totally worth it! $12)
2nd Carboy ($20, used)
About 25 750 ml bottles ($50).
Total = $82
This is one of those hobbies where you can kind of get caught up in the price of things and not realize it. Yeah, you're first batch if you go all out can cost you over $200- BUT, if you save the bottles, your second batch can cost you as little as $50! This will make roughly 25 750ml bottles, and will wind up costing half as much as Commercially available Mead, and it is A LOT better. Most people hear of Mead and go, "Uggghh. That's disgusting! Have you ever tried it?" When in reality, they had some commercial Mead that isn't made anything like the way it's traditionally made. If you've ever tasted real Mead, made the real way, it's totally worth it.
Recipe:
Sterilize everything.
Add 15 pounds of Honey
Fill Carboy with Water for a total of 5 Gallons
Add 5 teaspoons of Acid Blend.
Take a reading with your Hydrometer.
Add Wyeast Sweet Mead.
Add 5 teaspoons of Yeast Nutrient.
Shake the Hell out of it.
Store in warm place for 2 months!
Some people call to pasteurize the honey and water mixture beforehand. This gets rid of all the bad stuff that might be in your honey & water. I choose not to for a few reasons. First, and this is obviously going to continue to come up, Mead has been around long before Pasteurization! Not doing it doesn't automatically mean it's going to fail. Second, a lot of people don't LIKE to pasteurize it, because even though you're killing off some of the bad stuff, you're also killing off some of the things that contribute to the honey's flavor. At least for me, considering that the ONLY ingredient in Mead to give it it's flavor (for this recipe anyways) is the honey, and Mead has been made quite successfully without pasteurization, I see no need to jeopardize the flavor just to resolve a fear that something bad might take over. There probably is some wild yeast in the honey, but it is going to be greatly out-numbered with the amount of yeast we are GOING to add, that I don't think it's a likely possibility the wild yeast will take over. And finally, you'd likely need to get a 6 gallon pot to pour all this into to pasteurize it. And those pots are expensive, and take up a ton of space.
What You'll Need:
5 Gallon Carboy ($20, used)
15 Pounds of Honey (Quality matters, and if you can afford it, buy local! Clover Honey from Walmart- $40. Local Orange Blossom $90)
1 Packet of Wyeast Sweet Mead ($8)
1 Bottle of Acid Blend ($2.50)
1 Bottle of Yeast Nutrient ($3)
1 Hydometer ($10)
1 Airlock ($1)
Total = $84.5 with Walmart Honey, or $134.50 with Quality Local Honey
Optional:
1 Auto-Siphon (Optional, but totally worth it! $12)
2nd Carboy ($20, used)
About 25 750 ml bottles ($50).
Total = $82
This is one of those hobbies where you can kind of get caught up in the price of things and not realize it. Yeah, you're first batch if you go all out can cost you over $200- BUT, if you save the bottles, your second batch can cost you as little as $50! This will make roughly 25 750ml bottles, and will wind up costing half as much as Commercially available Mead, and it is A LOT better. Most people hear of Mead and go, "Uggghh. That's disgusting! Have you ever tried it?" When in reality, they had some commercial Mead that isn't made anything like the way it's traditionally made. If you've ever tasted real Mead, made the real way, it's totally worth it.
Recipe:
Sterilize everything.
Add 15 pounds of Honey
Fill Carboy with Water for a total of 5 Gallons
Add 5 teaspoons of Acid Blend.
Take a reading with your Hydrometer.
Add Wyeast Sweet Mead.
Add 5 teaspoons of Yeast Nutrient.
Shake the Hell out of it.
Store in warm place for 2 months!
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Signing UpStep 1: Sterilize
Step 1. Sterilize everything.
All of it. The Carboy, the Hydrometer, the Airlock, the Scissors you use to cut open the Yeast packet, everything. I won't go into how to Sterilize in this Instructable as it's been covered elsewhere. But it's really not as much of a pain as it sounds. You don't even really NEED to do it. Remember, Mead has been around much much longer than the idea of Sterilization has. People have been making perfectly fine Mead for thousands of years without sterilizing. But the reason it's recommended is you'll be creating an environment that fosters growth; you want the only thing growing is the yeast you add, not any existing bacteria that could take over the yeast. I want to stress that not sterilizing is not a guarantee for failure. But you're introducing a risk of it not succeeding.
All of it. The Carboy, the Hydrometer, the Airlock, the Scissors you use to cut open the Yeast packet, everything. I won't go into how to Sterilize in this Instructable as it's been covered elsewhere. But it's really not as much of a pain as it sounds. You don't even really NEED to do it. Remember, Mead has been around much much longer than the idea of Sterilization has. People have been making perfectly fine Mead for thousands of years without sterilizing. But the reason it's recommended is you'll be creating an environment that fosters growth; you want the only thing growing is the yeast you add, not any existing bacteria that could take over the yeast. I want to stress that not sterilizing is not a guarantee for failure. But you're introducing a risk of it not succeeding.
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A: 80 % water 20 % ethanol
B: 20% water and 80 % ethanol
The first will have a higher melting point (closer to 0 degrees Celsius). In the jacking process , gradients occur which cause certain parts to freeze up. But in essence you're throwing away ethanol. Which also happens with distillation but that can achieve a much higher purity.
But then I realized I would be a lot warmer and a lot happier with a belly full of mead.
Mead is a VERY forgiving medium for brewing, with vast flavor possibilities depending on type of honey, type of yeast, when fermentation stops, what spices are added and/or what fruits are added (and when), and even what kind of container is used for aging (stainless steel tank, glass carboy, oak barrel, hard maple barrel...)
After learning this, I was completely floored that this wonderful beverage somehow faded from view for so many years.
Anyway, kudos for a great Instructable!
We shake some around in our carboys before use and before storage. We also run it through our auto siphon and any other tubing. And everything else gets a soak in it.
I respect the authors views but I thoroughly sanitize everything that contacts the Mead/Beer/Cider.
I'd recommend it, and that's why I did sterilize everything. But I'm not going to say it's necessary, because plenty of people do manage to make perfectly good homebrews and skip this step. Particularly the people who INVENTED it lol!
So just to make clear for everyone: I recommend you sterilize everything (if it wasn't clear). I'm just making a distinction between it definitely failing versus introducing a risk of it failing. I'd sterilize, but it's your batch of Mead! Have fun everyone!
Enjoy.
Also there is no need to ever buy bottles. You can reuse beer or mead bottles you bought commercially. This is especially easy if they have the swing tops. But you can also buy new caps and a capper for normal style pop tops. You should not try to recap a screw top bottle
Thanks!
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/blackberry-mead-melomel-95583/
Good luck!
Well, I helped once.
The trick we used was (sterilized) drill bit extensions. 2, 12" ones, with the set screw type connector.
On the business end of that, was mounted a beater paddle, from an old hand mixer that JUST fit through the carboy mouth. it was a tiny mixer, used for making mixed drinks, not the larger cake batter style. those are too large to fit through the carboy mouth.
2-3 min with a cordless drill, and that sucker was MIXED.
I suppose a small stainless whisk would work too, but might be more "fun" to mount in the extension.
Is it possible to over pitch the yeast? I have some 1 gal carboys that I want to use as test batches, but I don't want to use too much yeast if possible.
If I can't get mead yeast, can I use wine or champagne yeast?
I've been told champagne yeast will not add to the final flavor, and therefore it should not be used. However, I once used it in a honey/maple mead, which I personally think came out fantastic.
I think mead gets better with age. The aforementioned maple mead is now several years old, and so far has only gotten better with the passage of time. Of course, it can be hard to let your mead age. ;-)
As for the type of yeast, I've heard you can use just about any kind. Each type has a different effect on the final Mead. For example I've heard Champagne yeast makes a more "sparkling" Mead. I've never heard of any yeast that is actually bad for it, it just might not come out as good as it could be. Good luck!