I bought yeast, and the gravity measuring tool, and some sanitizer, and the little airlock cork, and some honey, and a glass gallon jar.
If somebody has a document or PDF with childlike instructions for me to follow on how to do this I would be so greatful!
Maybe some recipe that goes through the whole process from start to drinking, fruit adding would add another layer of fun!
Helpful beginners advice would also be great!!
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https://meadmaking.wiki/en/home
In terms of advise, don’t bother simmering your honey as this will remove a lot of the flavour and buy some yeast nutrient if you want to drink it early. The nutrient will make your mead drinkable without having to age it for over a year, cause yeast needs nitrogen and unhappy yeast makes rocket fuel that needs to age out. When in doubt, age it out. Apart from that, just play around, use the GotMead calculator to estimate ABV and have fun.
Not an expert, but I drink other peoples mead, and my best bit of advice is to avoid strong flavoured honeys: Eucalyptus honey such as Leatherbark is great on toast, but not so great in mead. Better to try for very boring honeys, and add the other flavours (if it’s a metheglin) yourself instead of letting the bees do it.
Good tip! Thank you!
I love Doin the Most brewing. Here’s one of his beginner videos https://youtu.be/dPrm35afIOI
I am personally a fan of the Bray Denard method for making mead. It works really well as a nutrient regime and they have their own calculator. They actually have a business centered around home-brewing mead as well called YouToBrew that sells things like yeast, nutrients, and stabilisers and gives recipes and advice.
You might also want to think about tannins and acids. They help give the mead a balanced flavour. Wine has the same concept of sweetness, acid, and tannin balence. For tannins you can use tannin powder, wood chips like oak or cherry, teas, or fruit skins. Acids come in powders or in a pinch you can use lemon juice. Sweetening requires you to stabilise the mead or to use non-fermentable sweeteners.
I would also have a look at some other beverages you can make like fruit wine and cider. I have had good results turning jam into wine; it’s a very cheap and easy way to make a fruit wine. Cider is also very simple and generally tastes alright with little time and effort.
Are you aiming to make a traditional or another mead style?
havent done a mead in years but:
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sterilize all of your equipment first (different ways, find the one that works best for you)
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simmer the honey and water (unchlorinated), skim off anything that floats to the top
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let it cool to skin temperature & add the yeast, give it a nice stir and drop it in your fermenting vessel
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top it up with unchlorinated water but leave a bit of head space. if your ferment is very active, you’ll see why
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attach a cork & airlock, and put it out of the way, somewhere dark and cooler but not cold
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some folks like to add vodka to the airlock but I always just used water
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forget about it for a few weeks
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buy some bentonite clay, add a bit when it looks like the ferment is done/has slowed. this will clarify the mead
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decant, bottle/age for a while. the longer the better!
This is outdated advice. You shouldn’t simmer raw honey. If chlorine is a concern then use sulfites or boil and cool the water separately.
If you want to use bentonite clay then add it at the beginning. It’s not effective to just add it in secondary and just leave it, it has to be agitated. That’s why people use it in primary fermentation now as this helps to get it moving.
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