So I'm getting ready to start my first batch of mead. I decided to go the easy route and get a brewsy kit. I've secured 100% raw Michigan cherry blossom honey as well as some Michigan cherry juice concentrate.
My best advice is to check out Gotmead.com - they have a really good Newbee guide to mead making. I'm a paying member there although I'm not really an active poster in the forum at this time.
The NewBee Guide was written in 2006 by Angus, then a very active member of the GotMead forums, and a new, but avid, meadmaker. Angus developed several recipes that turned out pretty awesome, and the NewBee Guide was his very kind gift to GotMead to help other new meadmakers to learn our...
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Thermoworks Thermapen and Chef Alarm
I haven't actually made mead, although I have brewed, fermented, and distilled many other things. You'll need a LOT of patience, and be ready to accept that not everyone is going to love your product (mead is a bit of an acquired taste).
Here in Detroit we're blessed to have Ken Schramm, the author of "The Compleat Meadmaker" and there are some of his products available on shelves around town. Check it out if you're serious about mead.
I would say that one of the most important ingredients in mead (and beer) is water. You will want to use good water, not city water from the tap unless you have a good filtration system. When I started beer and mead making I had access to a 400 foot deep well that tapped into the local aquifer. I had the water tested and was told it was some of the best in the county and it made excellent beer and mead. Now I use store bought spring water.
Yeast will have an influence on a mead's flavor, you will have to experiment to find what you like best. Wyeast makes a sweet mead and a dry mead yeast, I like DV10 because it makes a crisp clean tasting mead - I use it mostly for lower alcohol session meads. EC1118 is a wine yeast that is very popular. My favorite yeast is Vierka Sweet Mead yeast from Germany. It is hard to find but I've made meads that taste good right out of the fermenter with it. It has fallen out of favor over the decades and I've been told that if you wanted to make mead in the 1950s or 60s Vierka was the one most commonly used; now people use EC1118 and other yeasts that weren't available back then. I call Vierka my secret weapon because I've won numerous mead contests with it including two gold medals at the international meadfest - The Mazer Cup.
Fermentation temperature is also important, meads like cooler temperatures and the sweet spot is about 60 F. I generally ferment at room temperature though I keep my house at 70F or a little below.
If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to check out the link I posted above especially the section about nutrient additions.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
I brew, and have only done mead once and cider once, to prove I could. Then went back to brewing beer.
I will second the advice about water. Unless you have a good water filter, which is what I use here, don’t use straight tap water, as the chlorine will introduce off flavors. And since you won’t be boiling things like a brewer does, which sanitizes things, go with the gallon jugs of spring water from the store.
The truly most important thing you need to deal with is sanitation. Bacteria will ruin things. Most brewers and mead makers I know use Starsan, which dilutes at 1 ounce per 5 gallons, to sanitize anything that will touch your mead. The fermenter (I recommend glass carboys), the bottles, the autosiphon, caps. Anything. Sanitize. The only bacteria you want in your mead are the yeast you introduce.
I'll add that when I did mead and cider, I even dunked the gallon jugs of spring water into a 5 gallon bucket of sanitizer, so that I could ensure the outside was clean before I pulled the seal on the cap and started pouring it into the carboy through my sanitized funnel.
If you are using plastic fermenters - which I would not recommend for mead, since it can take an extended time period to finish out - be careful when cleaning those, and do not use ANYTHING that can scratch or gouge the plastic, as that creates crevices that cannot be cleaned, and that can harbor bacteria. I wash fermenting buckets or my Spiedel 30L fermenters with soapy water, and a dish cloth. Then rinse, then I will soak in PBW or Oxyclean if dirty, rinse again. Then Starsan. Then beer.
Yup sanitation is #1 and controlling fermentation temp is #2.
For water - I use distilled and make up the water profile with brewing salts - but you could just use bottled spring water as a base and you should be good to go. I wouldn't use tap water though. - just as jfmorris rightly says.
I brew quite a bit of beer and some hard ciders - I have a friend who makes mead - so I dont need to and we swap elixirs.
I've never personally made Mead, but I follow these folks on YouTube and they make Mead, along with other home brews, and they are very thorough in their explanations.
Newbie mead maker
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