Honey wine (or honey mead) recipe?

[LukeM]

I am thinking about making some and as far as I can see, it takes honey, water, and yeast. Is this all that its going to need, or will sugar be needed in the recipe also. If anyone has a recipe for this and would like to share it please do so as I could use more choices on recipes than the few that I found.

 

[AkTom]

Your basic mead recipe is for a 1 gallon batch:
3# honey
Water
Yeast.
One of my favorite is to add 2 cups chopped dried apricots with a little Mexican vanilla.

 

[AkTom]

This is a really simple, but delicious Mead I came up with a couple of months ago. It's pretty drinkable right after it clears, and makes a great dessert style wine. Here's the recipe as I made it:

3 lbs. Wild Mountain Honey (Wild Mountain is a brand. Not sure what varietal. Wildflower, I would assume?)
1 cup Quartered Dried Apricots
½ Vanilla Bean (Split in half)
1 tbsp. Fleishmann’s Bread Yeast (activated in shot glass with sugar and water)
Water to fill to 1 gal.

-Just combine everything, and shake it up really well.

O.G. 1.100

When it started out (first 10 days or so), I popped off the cap to smell it, and man, it smelled like crap. I was thinking I'd have to throw it out, but I let it keep going. Eventually, it began to clear, and smell better, so I transferred it to secondary. It cleared further, and I took a sample. I was blown away at how good it was. I let it go for about another week in secondary, and bottled it (didn't degas it, but would likely be a good idea to avoid bottle bombs in case fermentation decides to kick back up). Get's better every time I taste it (the smell is significantly improved as well).

My Girlfriend is a pretty picky wine drinker, and she absolutely loves this stuff, so do I. I've got a new batch going, the only difference being that I used a full vanilla bean per gallon, added yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, and I used Lalvin D47 (Which I imagine is going to make it much drier, so I'll likely need to backsweeten). We'll see how that turns out.


Give it a shot, and let me know what you think!
This is from Homebrew talk.com. You can sub craisins, dried cherries or other fruit. This is not my recipe, I just use it regularly.
Tom

Cheers!

 

[Arne]

This is a really simple, but delicious Mead I came up with a couple of months ago. It's pretty drinkable right after it clears, and makes a great dessert style wine. Here's the recipe as I made it:

3 lbs. Wild Mountain Honey (Wild Mountain is a brand. Not sure what varietal. Wildflower, I would assume?)
1 cup Quartered Dried Apricots
½ Vanilla Bean (Split in half)
1 tbsp. Fleishmann’s Bread Yeast (activated in shot glass with sugar and water)
Water to fill to 1 gal.

-Just combine everything, and shake it up really well.

O.G. 1.100

When it started out (first 10 days or so), I popped off the cap to smell it, and man, it smelled like crap. I was thinking I'd have to throw it out, but I let it keep going. Eventually, it began to clear, and smell better, so I transferred it to secondary. It cleared further, and I took a sample. I was blown away at how good it was. I let it go for about another week in secondary, and bottled it (didn't degas it, but would likely be a good idea to avoid bottle bombs in case fermentation decides to kick back up). Get's better every time I taste it (the smell is significantly improved as well).

My Girlfriend is a pretty picky wine drinker, and she absolutely loves this stuff, so do I. I've got a new batch going, the only difference being that I used a full vanilla bean per gallon, added yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, and I used Lalvin D47 (Which I imagine is going to make it much drier, so I'll likely need to backsweeten). We'll see how that turns out.


Give it a shot, and let me know what you think!
This is from Homebrew talk.com. You can sub craisins, dried cherries or other fruit. This is not my recipe, I just use it regularly.
Tom

Cheers!

Bet you can get rid of most of the off oders if you add nutrients along the way. Gives the yeast some extra food to work with and keeps them from stressing which is what usually gives the bad smells during fermentation. Arne.

 

[AkTom]

Bet you can get rid of most of the off oders if you add nutrients along the way. Gives the yeast some extra food to work with and keeps them from stressing which is what usually gives the bad smells during fermentation. Arne.

I've never had any off odors. I like the simplicity and variability off this. Change the fruit, change the yeast, it's all good.

 

[LukeM]

Thank you guys, I am looking forward to giving this a try! other than adding yeast nutrient, is there any thing else I should be adding? Anything like potassium metabisulfate, acid blend, ect.?

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi LukeM - Potassium Metabisulfite is used to sanitize your equipment and at less strong concentrations it is used to kill wild yeasts and inhibit oxidation. Many mead makers don't add K-meta (that's how it is often abbreviated in wine forums) to kill yeast and assume that when they pitch their own yeast (that is the verb used for adding yeast) their yeast will so quickly dominate any local colony that there is no need to use K-meta. However, each time you rack you may want to add the equivalent of 1 Campden tablet (this is one way that K-meta is bought) to the receiving carboy to inhibit oxidation(although many mead makers argue that mead is far less subject to oxidation than fruit wines)
Acid blend is another story - many recipes call for the addition of acid blend. But in truth I have no idea why. First, honey has no chemical buffers which control the pH (the acid level) and so it is always possible for the pH to fall below 3.0 - a level that is enough to stall the fermentation. So adding acid before the fermentation is over makes no sense. Yeast do not need significant amounts of acidity to do their work. Secondly, if - and only if the mead tastes too bland without added acidity then you may want to add acid blend, or lemon juice. But if the mead has enough zing when you are ready to bottle then what would be the beenfit of adding acidity? Bottom line: like salt - you taste the dish, if it needs salt, then you add it. If it doesn't, then you leave well alone.

 

[LukeM]

Thank you for clearing all that up for me! I might not be able to make any this year, my wife's uncle's bees are not producing much this year. I will keep this in mind for when I get the homey together though and thank you again for all the help!

 

[AkTom]

Go get some from Costco. It's not bad and you'll have a batch started. Some will need a year to age and mellow.