# Never Made Mead, Help Please



## wineon4 (Jul 18, 2014)

I was able to get 20lb of a very dark honey from a friend only cost is some Mead when it is ready. Now my problem I have never made Mead. I want to make a traditional Mead like the old Monks made. Can someone give me a good recipe?


----------



## salcoco (Jul 18, 2014)

go to gotmead.com or Google a mead recipe. technique is required.


----------



## LoneStarLori (Jul 18, 2014)

You might also look into posts or message from *the_rayway*. She's done quite a bit of meads.


----------



## vernsgal (Jul 18, 2014)

There's some good recipes here
http://www.leeners.com/mead/recipes/


----------



## Deezil (Jul 18, 2014)

Lol, y'all crack me up - "Go here, go there!"

3lbs honey per gallon of mead, roughly
3lbs of honey is roughly 1 quart; 12lbs in a gallon of honey

SG is probably fine anywhere between 1.085 - 1.100

You'll want to do some reading on yeast nutrients, and use some sort of staggered nutrient addition, to keep the yeast happy

Darker honeys will make darker meads - hopefully you like the flavor of the honey?

Basically you just have to dissolve the honey into some warm/hot water, and let it cool down, figure out your yeast and nutrient additions, and you're off to the races.. It's just a lot of butterflies, really..

You can make it as complicated, or (almost) as simple as you want it to be.


----------



## Bob1016 (Jul 25, 2014)

I'd found that often times dark honeys make mead that require long aging periods and acquired tastes. If you like the honey then it should be fine, but if there is any "funk" flavor, no matter how minute, understand that that flavor will be much more prominent when the sugar has been fermented out. You can try making a lower gravity mead (~SG 1.080) and backsweetening to mask/dilute some really potent flavors, which may help; but you'd want to add some body with additives (booster blanc, optiwhite, sur lie aging). About 1g/L of any yeast nutrient mix (fermaid K, superfood, etc.) and 0.5g/L DAP should do you right for nutrients (split them up as often as possible with the last addition before 1/3 sugar break). This is higher than many will recomend regarding the superfood/fermaid K, but you can go up to 3g/L without bad side effects from both products. You can even do only fermaid O according to many people (~5g/L) but I haven't tested it myself, and question some palates of those who say it works.


----------



## seth8530 (Jul 25, 2014)

Bob, I think you might be calling it a bit short on the nutritional needs of honey must. They really do benefit from using high quality nutrients such as fermaid K and O. Also, depending on the type of nutrient you can add it up to the 2/3 sugar break which helps encourage a nice clean and even fermentation which is crucial for getting a mead to turn out.

Really, mead is about as hard as it gets when it comes to fermenation management. In fact, I might be so bold to claim that if one can manage the fermentation kinematics involved with making mead, one could greatly improve their grape wine making, white wine in particular.


----------



## Bob1016 (Jul 25, 2014)

I am well aware of the deficiencies of honey musts, check my blog in a few days, I should have some info comparing amino acids in honey vs grapes. The nutrients I suggested yield ~200ppm YAN, which is enough for most low nutrient yeast in gravities <SG 1.150. Might you have misread and think I said g/gal as opposed to g/L?


----------



## seth8530 (Jul 25, 2014)

Nah, leme double check when I get a chance and I will verify to be sure. I guess I really wanted to point out that their are other concerns than just YAN when it comes to fermenting honey.


----------



## Bob1016 (Jul 25, 2014)

I completely agree, but it is very easy to go overboard with info in the begining. In reality, it is pretty easy to make good mead, but very hard to make great mead. Sometimes we can forget the fact that we didn't start out calculating an exact nutrient regime specific to a select yeast and SG, and getting all the other technicalities down; it's fun to throw together a simple mead recipe that's drinkable, even good. We all need to end up choosing how far down the rabbit hole we go, not start off at the damned tea party!


----------



## WVMountaineerJack (Jul 25, 2014)

Have you ever tasted Monk mead? Do you know how patient those guys are in aging their meads? Does your friend have any idea of what kind of dark honey you have, was it from this spring, maybe tulip poplar? Make sure to save some for backsweetening. Anywhere from 20 - 33% honey volume will give you a good mead depending on your next question, which yeast should I use? Maybe a K1V1116 would be a good start plus after Bob and Seth work out how much nutrient to use and when to add it they should be close enough to help out with a ballpark range. Do you like oak? Monks used oak barrels, oak additives in a carboy are good to if you dont have a barrel. Make sure to give your friend a couple of bottles so you are always on his who to give honey to list, a good friend with bees who likes mead is a serious plus on both your sides, you might even offer to help out in the beeyard to learn a bit more about where your honey comes from. WVMJ


----------



## lizardskeep (Aug 29, 2014)

What, exactly, is "1/3 sugar break"? 
Mead was next on my list of things to do and now you guys have just confused the heck out of me.


----------



## Bob1016 (Aug 29, 2014)

There's a post on my blog about calculating that. Sorry for not linking it.


----------



## Thig (Aug 29, 2014)

lizardskeep said:


> What, exactly, is "1/3 sugar break"?
> Mead was next on my list of things to do and now you guys have just confused the heck out of me.



I may be wrong but I think we over think this 1/3 sugar break. I believe this is what it means, ex. If you start with an SG of 1.090 and you expect it to finish at 1.000 then the 1/3 break would be at 1.060. Isn't that it, 1/3 of the sugar has fermented.


----------



## lizardskeep (Aug 29, 2014)

This is going to take some study time and a hand full of one syllable words to figure this one out.


----------



## buzzerj (Aug 30, 2014)

wineon4 said:


> I was able to get 20lb of a very dark honey from a friend only cost is some Mead when it is ready. Now my problem I have never made Mead. I want to make a traditional Mead like the old Monks made. Can someone give me a good recipe?



First question is what is your very dark honey? Will it make a good mead? Dark honey could be buckwheat honey which is very strong and not the best for making mead. Taste it and tell us if it tastes good to you. Ken Schramm, the author of the Compleat Meadmaker (a book every meadmaker should read), recommends making mead only from the best ingredients. It makes sense, the final mead will never be better than what goes in it. So how's your honey taste? Do you like it? If so, it could be suitable for making mead. For more information, if you have an hour and 45 minutes to spare, listen to Ken Schramm explain about making mead on this link - http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Jamil-Show/Mead-The-Jamil-Show-12-01-08. 

Now traditional meads take a bit of time to ferment using typical wine yeasts. So it is an investment in time. Traditional meads are honey, water and yeast. And the general rule of 3 lbs. of honey diluted to a gallon with spring water is a fairly good one. (No need to heat anything, just mix it up at room temperature). The resulting Original Gravity measurement of that resulting must with a hydrometer should be 1.100-1.120. Adding the yeast like a Lalvin 71B-1122 or ICV-D47 or a Red Star Montrachet yeast will make a good mead. But meads made like this can take a long time to ferment out if they ever finish because the must you've made is, as Ken put it, a nutritional desert. Honey has next to no nutrients like you'd find in a grape must for wine. You are otherwise sending your yeast to their death if you don't give them food for them to reproduce and grow. So nutrient additions are not only a good idea but they are really needed if you want the mead to ferment out in weeks rather than months or years. So read up a bit about how to rehydrate your yeast with 104 degree F water, adding a yeast nutrient called Go-Ferm (0.25 tsp) and then a little of the must to wake up your yeast and nurture it a bit. Then add the yeast into your sanitized fermenter containing your must and mix it in well. The mixing (like with a sanitized egg beater) is also to drive oxygen into the must. The yeast need oxygen at this stage to reproduce. Keep stirring the must for several days to keep the yeast in suspension and driving some more oxygen into the fermenting must. At 24, 48 and 72 hours, take more gravity readings with your sanitized hydrometer to see the progression of sugars getting metabolized by the yeast. The gravity will drop over time (the 1/3 sugar break is where 1/3 of the sugars are consumed or a gravity reading of 1.070 if the O.G. was 1.110 and F.G will be 0.995). I'd say feed your yeast well so I'd add 0.25 tsp. of DiAmmonium Phosphate (DAP) and 0.5 tsp of Fermaid-K at the end of the lag phase (when you see bubbling of the must or 12-24 hours after pitching the yeast) then again by the 1/3 sugar break. I just might add another DAP/Fermaid-K dose around a gravity of 1.040 (just above the 2/3 sugar break). When you add these dilute them in say 6 oz of spring water and add slowly as bubbling will increase immediately. MEAs are Mead Explosion Accidents which result from adding nutrients too quickly. I call them volcanoes. With nutrient additions I know the yeast have all the nutrition to finish metabolizing the mead to dryness. Providing proper yeast nutrition should result in the mead finish fermenting after 3 weeks rather than longer. Then this should result in a dry, still mead rather than a sweet mead (assuming the O.G. was not so high than the selected yeast did not reach their alcohol toxicity limit and shut down early leaving a sweeter mead). Anyway thats the basics. After the first few days don't stir the fermenting must to drive in anymore oxygen but swirl the fermenter daily. This helps to suspend the yeast and degas carbon dioxide which can drive the pH of the must down below optimal. Degassing CO2 helps the process. After the mead is done fermenting I'd suggest you rack (transfer or siphon) the mead into a secondary fermenter and top off with water to eliminate head space in the jug (reduces oxidation). For one gallon batches, I use the greatest invention man has ever made, a one gallon Carlo Rossi jug which is properly cleaned and sanitized. All though your mead making, practice proper cleaning and sanitizing of any surface or utensil (like spoon, auto-siphon, hydrometer etc) contacting the must and you will be fine. Age your mead for six months (it only gets better). With time it will clear. Rack again (into another cleaned and sanitized glass jug) off any sediment that falls and it will be crystal clear.

I really have to recommend you take at least 2.5 lbs. of this honey (if it's good) and try making a gallon of one month mead as per below. The key to this recipe is follow it exactly and use the Wyeast Belgian Strong Ale yeast and the nutrients that Bray (loveofrose) describes. I'm experimenting with this now. Read up and study a bit. Best of luck!

Bray's One Month Mead

BOMM Recipe - 1 gallon
(Updated for clarity & post fermentation options)

Start with 1 gallon Ozarka spring water. 
Remove 1/2 cup water to compensate for smack pack volume. 
Draw line on jugs at this water level. 
Remove an additional 3.2 cups of water from jug (757 ml).
Add Orange Blossom honey (or your favorite varietal honey) back to line. 
-About 2.5 lbs. SG 1.099ish.

Add 1/4 tsp DAP and 1/2 tsp of Fermaid K. Add these again at 2/3 (1.066) & 1/3 (1.033) sugar break. 

-These are nutrients you can get at homebrew shops or Amazon. Diammonium phosphate (DAP) is a free nitrogen source. 
Fermaid K contains vitamins, minerals, and trace nutrients. Honey is very deficient in nutrients so you need both to prevent fusel production. 

Add 1/4 tsp K2CO3. One time addition.
-Potassium carbonate (K2CO3) is preferred due to high K+ levels, but potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3) will work fine. This is for pH buffering and to provide potassium ion (K+) for the yeast. 

Shake with the top on until honey is fully dissolved. It will require some effort! You're earning your mead!

Add activated Wyeast 1388 yeast smacked for about 2 hours. 
No water in airlock for 7 days or the gravity falls below 1.033. Whichever comes first, add water or vodka to airlock. Ferments dry in about a week.

NOTE: Wyeast 1388 is NOT sensitive to temperature. Temperatures of 65-80°F all yield clean mead free of fusels. The yeast do ferment the fastest at 68°F however. 

Post Fermentation (Optional!)
Add 1 vanilla bean, 3 cubes American Medium toast and 2 cubes French Medium toast oak for 2-4 weeks to taste.

You can also step feed small additions of honey until the yeast give up to sweeten. Just be sure your gravity is stable over several weeks to avoid bottle bombs!

I've also had good luck racking on 3-5 pounds of frozen berries to make a melomel. 

It's your mead. Experiment!

Better brewing through science!

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/brays-one-month-mead-429241/index25.html


----------

