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How to make Mead (Honey Wine)

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1 lemon quartered. Experimentation has found that the amounts of ground spices indicated will equal the amount of the whole spices if you are unable to obtain any of the whole ingredients. With the measure of nine to ten gallons... See more » 1 lemon quartered. Experimentation has found that the amounts of ground spices indicated will equal the amount of the whole spices if you are unable to obtain any of the whole ingredients. With the measure of nine to ten gallons we can adjust the amounts of needed spices to our recipe below in order to make a 5 gallon batch. For this example use half of the spice ingredients and half of a large lemon. Take 3.5 gallons of water and add 23 lbs of honey into a large pot. This honey/water mixture will have a resulting specific gravity of approximately 1.09 degrees or 21.5 brix. This is sufficient to bear the smallest chickens egg available today. The egg in the recipe was the "...breadth of a shilling..." a shilling was approximately 1" in diameter so an attempt to find an appropriate sized egg resulted in the smallest chickens egg about 1.25" in diameter. Further experimentation resulted in the egg floating to only reveal about an inch of it's surface. Add the spices to a muslin or cheesecloth bag and tie it closed. Tie the sprig of rosemary and the briar together and add it also. Bring the liquid to a simmer (boiling honey will overflow your pot and make an absolute mess in your kitchen) and remove the scum that floats to the surface. An hour is probably excessive as most of the honey used today is pasteurized and filtered so only simmer/skim the must for 1/2 an hour. After it is done simmering remove the sprigs of briar and rosemary and allow the must to cool to room temperature (75 degrees) usually overnight. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into the must and add the lemon rind which should be removed the following day. The recipe does not call for any additional yeast to be added and relies solely on the natural yeast that is present. Unfortunately the temperature involved in simmering will kill the natural yeast and there are more bad yeast and other bacteria than good ones floating around so the possibility of infection is high. With commercial honey that has been pasteurized or filtered there is also little to no natural yeast left. I would suggest using a good wine yeast starter as outlined in the section on yeast in this document. Add the yeast (see below) and put the must into a carboy, cover with several layers of cloth until rapid fermentation begins then place an air lock onto it and continue fermentation until it subsides. The recipe calls for three months of fermentation and then it is to be bottled. I would suggest that the method for making mead below be followed from this point on as you will likely end up with a very tart mead (as I have on occasion with this recipe) if it is left on the dead yeast cells for three months. We have looked at a sample period recipe and how it can be reproduced today with little effort and with the same ingredients used by Digby. Some of the notable points of interest discovered in reproducing this recipe were: * Honey - fresh natural honey has sufficient natural yeasts to ferment a low alcohol content mead but only if you do not heat it. * Racking - none of the period recipes I have studied have mentioned racking the mead at intervals, other than bottling. I would suggest that you rack only once or twice during the primary fermentation and once or twice during secondary to help produce a clear mead. * Spices - there are virtually no spices/herbs that are unavailable today that were used in period recipes. * Aging - in the recipe we have looked at we find that the mead was 'drinkable' after only four to six weeks from bottling. I would recommend more time in bottles or barrels. While you may find that your mead is drinkable early on, Â I am sure you will also find that it is much better in a few years. * Temperature - Most period recipes for mead usually start by stating somewhere in the directions to make it in the Spring. The reason for this is probably to avoid cold weather which would undoubtedly cease the fermentation process and make it virtually impossible to restart. Sterilization: THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING! See less »

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