Fun experiment: Homemade Mead

[Solinvicta]

I was reading the other day about honey wine, or "mead" and wanted to try it out. The only problem is that it's a little hard to find, and fairly expensive (say $12 or so for a pretty small bottle). So, I found a recipe in a book ("The Everything Cocktail Parties and Drinks Book" by Cheryl Charming...but this is a really standard recipe from what I've read), and I've modified it to be a little drier. The idea is that you boil two pounds of honey with a little water to thin it out, and add the juice of one lemon and 1/2 tablespoon of nutmeg.

Then, get a gallon-sized bottle (I'm using the jug that some table wine came in), and put the mixture in, along with enough cold water to lower the temperature to about room temp and fill up the container with a little headspace on top.

(digression: The first time I ever made wine, I dumped in the boiling mixture and then the cold water. Don't do this...when I did, it created a temperature gradient that shattered the glass, spilling five gallons of hot grape juice and broken glass everywhere!)

Then, add a package of champagne yeast (not baker's yeast), and put on an air lock. This is a little plastic thing that lets gas escape without letting air get to the mead, which could turn it to vinegar. They're super-cheap...my local homebrew store sells them for $1, and they're reusable.

After a day or so, it should start bubbling as the yeast picks up. Mine's been going for a few days now...I think it will be a few weeks before it stops bubbling and I can move it to other bottles.

Then, I'll report back. If it works, I'll have a whole gallon of mead for about $7

[Xin Lu]

Very cool. At first I thought you were talking about Mead notebooks. haha

[72Tiger]

Mead is like liquid bread. with alcohol.

[lucille]

We used to make mead and got rather good at it eventually. Some mead recipes create an extremely carbonated product almost like a champagne. We learned to bottle this in heavy glass champagne bottles or grolsh beer bottles or it would explode. Some of the recipes don't create any carbonation and are more of a thick bodied consistency.

Don't compare commercial mead to home brewed. Most of the commercial mead tastes awful and is very expensive. Many use chemical stabilizers or mix it with things like grape wine. A good mead doesn't need either one and done right you can age it for years.

[purplefdu]

You must have been reading my husband's mind. He was just talking about making up some mead to have on hand for Ren Faire this year. I'll have to point him here.