the best of ® ALTERNATIVE FERMENTATIONS Please note all file contents are Copyright © 2021 Battenkill Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This file is for the buyer’s personal use only. It’s unlawful to share or distribute this file to others in any way including e-mailing it, posting it online, or sharing printed copies with others. MAKING MEAD BY BRAD SMITH ead, which is a fermented beverage made from honey, is one of the oldest alcoholic M beverages. Vessels found in China dating back to 7000 B.C. have organic compounds consistent with fermented honey and rice. Mead was the revered “nectar of the gods” in ancient Greece and the “drink of kings” throughout history, though it has faded to obscurity in modern times. For homebrewers, mead is a great addition to complement your other fermented offerings. Many of your guests may have never tasted a good quality mead or melomel (fruit mead), but almost everyone enjoys this sweet beverage. Using some modern methods, mead is also relatively easy and quick to make, and you can use equipment you already have on hand for homebrewing. MODERN MEADMAKING TECHNIQUES When I started homebrewing back in 1987, the fermentation of mead was a very slow process, taking 12 to 18 Photo by Charles A. Parker/Images Plus Parker/Images A. Charles by Photo months for a mead to fully ferment and age. Honey has antibacterial it highlights the flavor of the honey country may have additional variants. properties and is poor in nutrients, varietal itself. In the US, a lot of honey production particularly nitrogen, resulting in a The variety of honey and strength is still done by small, independent very slow fermentation. you use will largely determine the beekeepers. The National Honey Over the last 10-15 years, however, flavor of the finished mead. Honey Board runs a honey locator at http:// meadmakers have made significant varieties are determined by the honey.com/honey-locator that can advancements in speeding the blossoms the bees feed and pollinate. help you find local honey in your area. fermentation and aging process For example, I enjoy the flavor of In addition, many commercial vendors through a combination of techniques orange blossom honey with fruit sell honey in bulk; 60-lb. (27-kg) and utilizing yeast nutrients. It is meads. Orange blossom honey is made pails typically offer the best price and now possible to complete a primary from bees that pollinate orange trees, volume for a serious meadmaker. fermentation in two weeks or less, and this variety also makes a nice show Once you have found a source even for a high-gravity mead. Some mead. Another honey varietal I enjoy for your honey, the next decision to low-gravity meads can be enjoyed in is Tupelo, which is made by bees that make is how sweet you want to make as little as a month, and even high- pollinate white (Ogeche) Tupelo trees your mead. The basic guidelines for gravity meads can be cleared and aged in the swamps of the Southeastern straight mead is based on the final within three months, though many US for two weeks every spring. Other gravity, which is mainly a function of will continue to improve with age for varieties such as clover or wildflower the original gravity and the alcohol years to come. can have more variation in flavor tolerance of the yeast used. Dry mead depending on where specifically the is generally below 1.010 finishing CREATING A MEAD RECIPE honey is harvested and the mix of gravity (FG), semi-sweet runs up to For the first time meadmaker, I flowers found near the beehives. about 1.020 FG, and sweet can run into recommend making a straight honey There are at least 40 widely available the 1.030s, though very sweet “sack” mead, also called a show mead, as honey varieties, and your local area or meads may be as sweet as 1.040. 1 Best of Brew Your Own Magazine Alternative Fermentations © Battenkill Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved RESIDUAL SWEETNESS FRUIT MEADS (MELOMELS) homebrewing. You will need to degas One critical point to understand when AND ADDING SPICES the mead twice a day during the early making any mead is the fermentability In order of preference, I always try to stages of fermentation, and this is of honey and the concept of residual work with fresh, ripe, whole fruits first much easier in a bucket than a carboy. sweetness. Honey is composed of a as they provide the biggest, freshest For melomels with fruits like variety of simple and complex sugar flavor impact. Fruit juices, particularly blackberries, raspberries, or currants, chains and will ferment to a dry pure fruit with no preservatives can it is often best to freeze the fruit first, finish much like grapes ferment into also work very well. I generally stay which will break down the cellular dry wine. The implications of this is away from purees only because they walls. I typically wash, dry, and then that, in general, yeast will continue are very difficult to separate from freeze the fruit on a cookie sheet. to ferment away almost 100% of the the mead resulting in quite a bit of After the fruit is frozen you can bag it sugars in your mead, leaving a very loss. I prefer to add all of my fruit in to prevent freezer burn if you are not dry beverage with a final gravity below the primary. using them immediately. When you’re 1.000. The dry mead won’t taste much As with straight honey meads, ready to make your mead, thaw the like sweet honey, as it has almost no fruit meads will generally ferment fruit. You will have much less waste remaining sugars. very dry finishing below 1.000 specific in the fermenter if you bag the fruit in If you want a semi-sweet or gravity (SG) unless you make the a large grain bag before adding it, just sweet finish to your mead you need effort to introduce residual sweetness. as you would for dry hopping. Bagging to use one of two methods. The first I personally prefer to make a high- the fruit also makes it very easy to is simply starting with an original gravity mead and ferment it to its remove after a few weeks. gravity high enough to exceed the alcohol tolerance. Keep in mind that When mixing the mead to create alcohol tolerance of the yeast. In this many big “fruit bomb” meads require your must, the critical point is to hit case, the yeast will ferment until it additional residual sweetness to offset your target original gravity. With reaches its alcohol tolerance level and the acidity and tannins from the software or an online mead calculator then stop and leave residual sweetness fruit and may therefore need an even you can calculate the amount of honey because the yeast itself can’t tolerate higher finishing gravity than sweet and water needed. I generally add the the high alcohol environment. Wine meads. Many of my big fruit meads bulk of the honey and all the water and yeasts used in mead generally have a finish in the 1.030s and even 1.040s if then slowly add the remaining honey high tolerance of 15% ABV or more, so using acidic fruits. until I reach my target gravity. When this means starting with gravity that If you are making a mead with working with real fruit you can crush may be 1.100–1.150 to end up with spices, it is often best to make the a bit of fruit to get juice and measure meads in the 0.996-1.040 final gravity mead and then create an infusion or the gravity of the fruit juice to get an range. tea from spices and add them to taste accurate number before mixing it. The other option you have to make to get the best balance of flavor. Keep in mind when you mix fruit in a semi-sweet or sweet mead is back For yeast, my go-to mead strain is with the mead it will often come in a sweetening. This method involves Lalvin 71B Narbonne dry wine yeast, bit below your predicted gravity until adding both sulfites and sorbates to which many commercial meadmakers the fruit dissolves into the must. inhibit fermentation after your mead use exclusively for all of their meads. When measuring high gravity is complete and then adding additional This yeast performs particularly well meads: Always use a hydrometer honey or sweeteners to bring it up to in fruit meads in part because it can instead of a refractometer to measure your target final gravity. Many mead process some malic acids common the gravity. Refractometer equations purists avoid this method as the fresh in fruit, and also it has a predictable used to adjust for fermenting beer honey added does not have the same attenuation of just over 15% which is or wine simply do not work well and flavor and finish as residual fermented important for reaching a target final you will get an inaccurate reading. honey added in the primary. gravity and residual sweetness level A hydrometer, as long as it has a For large fruit meads, I’ve found critical for these fruit meads. scale high enough for your starting that fruits high in acidity and tannins gravity, will work well through- such as raspberries, blackberries, tart PREPARATION OF out fermentation. cherries, red and black currants, and INGREDIENTS cranberries work best as they provide Many older meadmaking books and YEAST PREPARATION the acidic/tannic structure to offset articles recommend heating your Because most meads have a very high residual sweetness in the honey.