the most basic mead recipe

[pandor]

Hello everyone.

I recently read "The Art of Fermentation" however I do not have it available to me as a reference since I had to return it.

I want to experiment a little and make the most basic mead possible and I am posting here to make sure I have the right ideas. I tried researching mead making online but all of the stuff I saw seemed much more complicated than that which I remember reading in the book.

Here is my plan for you to critique:

I bought an 8 oz jar of raw honey. I plan on combining it with 4x water and leaving it in an open canning jar and stirring daily for a week.

Then I plan on putting it in a bottle I have that originally held raw apple cider vinegar.

That's the plan for now. Good enough? Too basic?

Thanks for your input

[Tim Hall]

Just make sure that raw cider vinegar bottle is REALLY well sanitized...or else you're just asking for your mead to turn to vinegar.

[FermentingYeti]

Agree with Tim about the raw cider vinegar bottle. I don't normally go out of my way to overly sanitize, but make sure you clean it out well and that there is no residual smell from the vinegar. Even if your mead doesn't turn to vinegar, you may be imparting some unpleasant flavors. Regardless, if it's a glass jar and you clean it well, you should be fine.

Your technique sounds fine. That is the most basic technique and you will almost definitely come out with mead in the end. The one caveat about brewing honey-water with no additions is that you increase the likelihood of some off flavors. Don't let that stop you, but I will sometimes add whatever fruit is on hand or some spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger, etc.) for flavoring and to speed up fermentation. I almost always add organic raisins, as they are usually covered with wild yeast. Also, another tip I recently picked up is to prepare a ginger starter about a week before you're planning your first batch. This is a good method for naturally inducing fermentation. Simply chop some ginger and add it to about two cups of water and half a cup of sugar. Set it somewhere warm covered with a cheesecloth, stir regularly, and once it starts fermenting, add it to your must (un-fermented mead).

If you're looking for a step by step that avoids all the over complexity you'll find in most mead recipes, I've written a few blogs. This is a good one for starting out: http://www.earthineer.com/content.php?blogid=20656

I apologize for the odd font sizing. The site is currently in beta, but a major revamp will be coming out soon. Also, I've outlined a method very similar to what you're describing in the current copy of New Pioneer Magazine. Good luck!

[pandor]

Thank you so much for the replies. I really enjoyed the site, FermentingYeti.

[pandor]

I think I am probably going to throw my mead away. It is still sitting in the original fermenting vessel as I never bottled it. It never really got any carbonation or bubbles going.

I did not try the ginger starter however I did throw a few small pieces of organic orange peel, plum, and some organic raisins in the batch. I stirred once a day (missing a day here or there) and here I am around 2 weeks later and there is not much going on. I tasted it and it tasted like vinegar.

I think I will toss it.

[Tim Hall]

Use it for vinegar.

[marladurga]

Hello,
I'm going to try to make mead/t'ej for the first time and am collecting the items I need. I bought a gallon jar of dill pickles and will make sure to really clean it well so I don't make vinegar. I will boil the lid to make sure to kill any of the wrong yeast on it, too. Thanks for the ginger starter idea. I will try that. I couldn't find a gallon jug with a narrow neck - I thought of using a latex glove as an airlock - Sandor shows a balloon as an option. But I will still look for a gallon jug locally - will try for applejuice.

First I will get rid of the pickles. A clean gallon glass jar at Wal-mart was $13 in the canning section but a gallon glass jar of pickles cost $5!

I hope to start in the next week or two while the weather is still warm. I don't want to start it in October when the weather can fluctuate.

I plan to use only the wild yeast from the ginger ferment, water and local raw honey. Do I look like I'm on the right track? Any suggestions for first timers? I've made yogurt (oven-light method) and kraut (wild ferment) before. Never tried any alcohol.

[marladurga]

Success! Honey Wine turned out well and was a hit at a recent party!

My friends all declared I should sell mead!

I used the recipe given in Sandor's book. I added the ginger starter and a few raisins in the very well cleaned gallon pickle jar. Aged 4 days. Strained and transferred into a glass jug w airlock and aged 3 weeks. Turned out great! So easy!

All my friends drank it and so there was no issue of storage. Next time if I want to store it could I use mason jars? I also have large beer bottles with flip tops. Has anyone here stored their honey wine?

[WWFSM]

Success! Honey Wine turned out well and was a hit at a recent party!

WOOT! That's great news.

Next time if I want to store it could I use mason jars? I also have large beer bottles with flip tops.

Go with the beer bottles. Mason jars aren't the best thing for long term storage of mead because they are not designed for pressure (incase your mead is still fermenting) and the mead may be strong enough to degrade the metal lid over time. Besides, swing top bottles are the best.

Anyway, well done with the party!

[marladurga]

Wow, Thanks for the beer bottle advice. Since I've not really tasted mead much before (had t'ej at an Ethiopian restaurant) I wasn't sure what flavor to aim for. Sandor, in his book Wild Fermentation, wrote that it's ready in 2 to 4 weeks. I had a party coming up so only aged it 3 weeks. Still pretty sweet and everyone loved it. Now after reading all these posts, I should probably age it longer. But my friends really liked the sweet taste, alcohol content seemed low. So I'll experiment. But I'll definitely bottle with the swing top bottles next time.