Honey mead is a sweet traditional northern European wine that works well for dinners, or desserts. It is a simple wine to make at home, and with this tutorial you can get started with small batch mead making today.
Last weekend we travelled to Abbotsford to visit our sons. It was a whirl wind trip driving through snow on Friday morning and returning late at night on Saturday, through more snow. On Saturday afternoon, Chris, our eldest, took us to visit one of his favourite spots in Abbotsford — Campbell’s Gold, a honey farm and meadery. We met Judy Campbell, a gracious woman and knowledgeable honey farmer. Judy treated us to a mead tasting.
We had tried a lovely honey wine (mead) at Chris’ place on Friday night and knew that we wanted to bring a bottle home for Christmas dinner. Judy poured other mead samples for us to try. Elderberry, the dessert mead was just too sweet for us. The Metheglyn, a spiced honey wine, was too powerful for our simple tastes. We settled on the Campbell’s Gold Dry Black Currant, vintage 2010 and the sweet Mead that we tried at Chris’ place. The choice made we had time to look through Judy’s shop.
It was a, “Wow” experience. The airy, bright Country Store was wood throughout, with bright local art displayed on the walls. There were many kinds of honey from cranberry, blueberry, and lavender, to alfalfa, apple blossom, and wild flower. The Campbell’s bees are grazed in several areas throughout the province and bring home different flavours of honey depending on the pollen that they pick up. There was a table overflowing with small jars of honey for testing. I tried lavender honey and cranberry honey. Judy confided that the bees don’t do well on cranberry blossoms and have to have a rich feed of alfalfa after the cranberry farm, so they move them up North for a few weeks, after grazing them at the cranberry bogs.
Of the lavender honey, Judy has both infused lavender honey and honey from the bees feeding on lavender. I opted for the real thing. My honey choices made, I browsed through the store.
The Country Store was filled with local artisan crafts — bees wax candles and honey soaps, of course, as well as pottery, hand knits in a bee theme, some quilted hangings, and wood crafts. It was a cheery and inspiring visit.
Their brochure lists 15 different products, besides honey mead, that they craft from their own bee keeping. They also offer structure tours, self directed tours, and special events at the farm. About themselves they say, “Campbell’s Gold Honey Farm, Country Store and Meadery is a ‘sweet’ Fraser Valley experience not to be missed and so much more than you would expect! Committed to educating and sharing their passion for the honey bee and its importance to our world…”
Judy is a strong supporter and promoter of local agriculture and local artisans. Campbell’s Gold is part of the Circle Farm tour for Abbotsford, as well as part of the Passport to Christmas in the Fraser Valley. If you are planning a homestead business and looking for ideas, Judy and Mike Campbell are doing it right. Travelling to Abbotsford? Pay a visit to Campbell’s Gold and see what Judy and Mike are doing with their bees.
The Mystery of Honey Mead Revealed
Now what exactly is mead? Honey mead is one of the first fermented drinks of Northern Europe, an area too cold for grape growing. It is cloaked in mystery, like many medieval processes, and protected by guild intrigue. Mead is wine made from honey, water and yeast. No sugar added. Mead requires a longer fermentation time to age the flavour, so look for vintage that’s at least a year old, if you’re purchasing from a Meadery. Mead can be dressed up with fruit or spices, mixed with wine grapes or not. The Campbell’s carry examples of each of these.
1 – 750 ml bottle of Mead at Campbell’s Gold will cost you $20. A bottle of Mead has 1/2 lb. of honey, plus water and yeast, a simple recipe.
Do you want to try your hand at making your own Mead? If you’ve made homemade wine before, Mead isn’t a huge leap. Here’s a basic tutorial.
Equipment for success:
- A 1 gallon or 5 gallon glass carboy (I recycled a 1 gallon glass apple cider jug)
- A 2 gallon or 6 gallon bucket to hold the must (the must expands as it bubbles so this bucket needs to be larger than your batch size)
- Cheese cloth to cover the bucket
- String to secure the cheese cloth
- An airlock to fit your carboy
- 5 glass wine bottles or 25 glass wine bottles, depending on the size of your batch
- Corks and a corker to seal the bottles
- Optional wine bottle labels
- A plastic hose to decant the wine
Basic Honey Mead
- Yield: 4-5 bottles 1x
Description
A simple and basic honey mead. Use local honey for best results.
Ingredients
- 4 cups of local wildflower honey (raw preferred)
- 5 quarts spring water or filtered water,
- 1/2 cup of grape juice concentrate or raisins
- 1 packet champagne wine yeast
Instructions
- Dissolve honey in boiled and cooled filtered water.
- Sanitize a 1 gallon glass fermenting jug, along with its tin cap. Pour the honey and water mixture into the jug.
- Pour the grape juice concentrate or raisins into a glass. Stir in 1 cup of water. Allow it to come to room temperature. If you are using raisins allow them to reconstitute. Sprinkle the yeast over top of the grape juice or raisin mixture. Wait 30 minutes. Stir the yeast into the grape juice and wait till it becomes frothy or bubbly.
- Pour the grape juice – yeast mixture into the fermentation jug. Cap the jug and shake it for a few minutes to finish dissolving both the yeast and the honey. Top up the jug to the shoulders with boiled and cooled filtered water.
- Sanitize a wine fermentation lock. Fill the fermentation lock with boiled and cooled water. Place the fermentation lock on the jug.
- Place the jug on a plate to catch any overflow. Place the jug in a spot out direct sunlight and away from source of heat, for several weeks. The fermentation will become active with bubbling. It may froth and overflow.
Racking off
- After 4 to 6 weeks you’ll notice that the fermentation has slowed down and sediment is forming in the bottom of the jug. The mead is still not clear though. When the bubbling and frothing stop, transfer the liquid to a fresh, sanitized fermentation jug. Sanitize the fermentation lock again and place it on the new fermentation jug. The fermentation process will resume.
Clear the mead
- This last fermentation can take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks. When the fermentation stops, the wine will clear.
- When making mead with fruit the mead may not clear fully. If it doesn’t clear naturally add ¼ teaspoon of pectinase to the jug. Replace the fermentation lock and wait.
Bottle the mead
- When the wine clears and fermentation stops, siphon the mead into clean, sanitized wine bottles. Cap with a wine cork or a twist cap according to your bottles. Label the bottles.
- Place the wine bottles in a cool, dark spot. Age at least 6 months before sampling. Mead gets better the longer it sits.
Notes
Ideally you’ll want to have enough mead in your wine cellar so that you can age it for a full year before opening the bottle.
Basic Honey Mead Recipe (Makes 1 gallon – 5 bottles):
Yield: 4 to 5 bottles
- 4 cups of local wildflower honey (raw preferred)
- 5 quarts spring water or filtered water,
- 1/2 cup of grape juice concentrate or raisins
- 1 packet champagne wine yeast
Instructions
- Dissolve honey in boiled and cooled filtered water.
- Sanitize a 1 gallon glass fermenting jug, along with its tin cap. Pour the honey and water mixture into the jug.
- Pour the grape juice concentrate or raisins into a glass. Stir in 1 cup of water. Allow it to come to room temperature. If you are using raisins allow them to reconstitute. Sprinkle the yeast over top of the grape juice or raisin mixture. Wait 30 minutes. Stir the yeast into the grape juice and wait till it becomes frothy or bubbly.
- Pour the grape juice – yeast mixture into the fermentation jug. Cap the jug and shake it for a few minutes to finish dissolving both the yeast and the honey. Top up the jug to the shoulders with boiled and cooled filtered water.
- Sanitize a wine fermentation lock. Fill the fermentation lock with boiled and cooled water. Place the fermentation lock on the jug.
- Place the jug on a plate to catch any overflow. Place the jug in a spot out direct sunlight and away from source of heat, for several weeks. The fermentation will become active with bubbling. It may froth and overflow.
Racking off
- After 4 to 6 weeks you’ll notice that the fermentation has slowed down and sediment is forming in the bottom of the jug. The mead is still not clear though. When the bubbling and frothing stop, transfer the liquid to a fresh, sanitized fermentation jug. Sanitize the fermentation lock again and place it on the new fermentation jug. The fermentation process will resume.
Clear the mead
- This last fermentation can take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks. When the fermentation stops, the wine will clear.
- When making mead with fruit the mead may not clear fully. If it doesn’t clear naturally add ¼ teaspoon of pectinase to the jug. Replace the fermentation lock and wait.
Bottle the mead
- When the wine clears and fermentation stops, siphon the mead into clean, sanitized wine bottles. Cap with a wine cork or a twist cap according to your bottles. Label the bottles.
- Place the wine bottles in a cool, dark spot. Age at least 6 months before sampling. Mead gets better the longer it sits.
Ideally you’ll want to have enough mead in your wine cellar so that you can age it for a full year before opening the bottle.
Mead is a blank canvas and lends itself to mixing with other flavors like fruit, spices or even wine grapes. Here’s a list of several Mead recipes from Storming the Castle. Dig a little deeper in the site and you’ll discover step by step videos and tutorials to instruct you in the secret and most ancient art of making Mead.
From Joybilee Farm:
Honey mead is an awesome way to preserve herbs and fruits during the summer months. Many gently flavored herbs go very well in mead, particularly when combined with wild fruit and local wildflower honey. A recipe you might like to try is this peach, rose, and elderflower mead. It has a gentle, full flavor, which highlights the soft floral tones of the rose blossoms and elderflowers.
Another sweet summer mead option is this chokecherry and elderflower mead variation. The slightly tart flavor of the chokecherries lending greater depth against the background of sweeter elderflower and honey flavors.
If you want honey benefits without the addition of alcohol, you can make an oxymel. An oxymel will give the benefits of the herbs, as well as the honey, without having to be fermented first.
Your Turn:
Have you made your own wine? Ever made honey mead? Tell your story in the comments.
