Description: How to make your own mead! (Assuming you're of age to do this, of course...)
Submitted by: admin on 2004-01-28 14:23:56
Serves: Makes 6 bottles of mead
Prep Time: About 2 hours - mead drinkable in around six month
Difficulty: Difficult
Ingredients
You will need to beg, borrow or steal some basic wine-making equipment:1 demijohn (gallon jar) with bung and airlock
A large pan - to hold a gallon, or else two smaller pans
A long spoon, preferably plastic
A large funnel
And also 4 x 1lb jars of honey
1 x sachet of wine yeast
8 pints of water
2 lemons
Spices to taste if required
Instructions
Firstly, sterilise all your equipment. You can either use boiling water, or else buy a proper steriliser from a chemist.Empty the jars of honey into the pan, add the water. Stir over a low heat, you don't want to boil the mixture, just dissolve the honey gently into the water. When the honey is dissolved, put the mixture into the jar using the funnel. Add the lemon juice. At this stage, you can add spices to taste. I like cinnamon or cloves. Alternatively, you could add lemon or orange zest. This is completely optional.
Wait until the mixture is blood temperature, and then add the yeast - follow the instructions on the sachet. Fit the bung and airlock. The mixture should start bubbling within 24 hours.
Here's the hard part - you must now leave the mead for about six weeks, until it has stopped fermenting. At this stage, if you have another demi-john, you can 'rack' the mead from one to the other, leaving behind the sludge at the bottom. Leave the mead for another six to eight weeks and then bottle. If you can bear to leave it before drinking, it will improve a great deal with age. I leave mine for around 6 months to a year.
Please get in touch with me if you have any problems with your brew.