{"id":9,"date":"2007-05-06T21:14:27","date_gmt":"2007-05-07T01:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/06\/a-simple-mead\/"},"modified":"2021-08-20T18:04:54","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T18:04:54","slug":"a-simple-mead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/06\/a-simple-mead\/","title":{"rendered":"A Simple Mead Recipe"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float: right; margin: 1em;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!-- amazon_ad_tag=\"meadmaker-20\"; amazon_ad_width=\"180\"; amazon_ad_height=\"150\"; amazon_color_background=\"EFEFCC\"; amazon_color_border=\"A43907\"; amazon_color_logo=\"FFFFFF\"; amazon_color_link=\"A43907\"; amazon_ad_logo=\"hide\"; amazon_ad_title=\"Meadmaker's Store\"; \/\/--><\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/s\/asw.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>After writing about mead yesterday, I decided to make one. Here&#8217;s how I did it:<\/p>\n<h2>Ingredients for mead:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>1 gallon (12 lb) of wildflower honey<\/li>\n<li>5 gallons water<\/li>\n<li>5 tsp diammonium phosphate (aka &#8220;DAP&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li>5 tsp cream of tartar<\/li>\n<li>yeast (I used Red Star&#8217;s Premier Cuvee)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Basic mead making equipment:<\/h2>\n<p>A fermenter, stirring spoon, 3+ gallon stockpot, and a hydrometer are needed today. A 5-gallon carboy, 1-gallon jug with drilled bunges to fit, airlocks, siphon hose, and racking cane will be needed later. This is available at any homebrew\/winemaking shop.<\/p>\n<h2>Procedure &#8211; how to make mead:<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Measuring honey\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/pic\/20070504%20-%20errollo%20-%20measuring%20honey%20edit%20crop%20300x450.jpg\" alt=\"Measuring honey\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" align=\"right\" hspace=\"30\" \/>All your equipment (fermenter, stirring spoon, stockpot) should be clean. It&#8217;s also a good idea to sanitize your equipment by immersion in boiling water or sanitizing solution. YU8HwZ9FDAu1vtFJ9TNghZJJuqi0nr0v6ou can buy a commercial sanU8HwZ9FDAu1vtFJ9TNghZJJuqi0nr0v6itizer at any homebrew shop, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/12\/simple-homemade-sanitizer\/\">make your own<\/a>. Measure one gallon of honey and dissolve into 2 gallons of water. In the photo, I&#8217;m pouring honey from a 5-gallon bucket into a stockpot. The stU8HwZ9FDAu1vtFJ9TNghZJJuqi0nr0v6ockpot has markings at the 8 quart and 12 quart levels. I filled it with hot (just off the boil) water to the 8 quart line, then poured in honey until it reached the 12 quart line. So I&#8217;m using the stockpot as a large measuring cup. I used hot water so that I could dissolve the honey more easily.<br \/>\n<br clear=\"all\" \/><br clear=\"all\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Filling the fermenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/pic\/20070504%20-%20errollo%20-%20filling%20fermenter%20edit%20crop%20300x450.jpg\" alt=\"Filling the fermenter\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" align=\"left\" hspace=\"30\" \/>Next, fill the fermenter. In the photo at left, I&#8217;m pouring the 3 gallons of honey-water into my fermenter. After that, I dissolved the DAP and cream of tarter in a little water and stirred it in. Finally, I added 3 gallons of cold water and gave the whole thing a good stir.<br \/>\n<br clear=\"all\" \/>Take a sample to measure the specific gravity with your hydrometer. Make a note of this so you can compare it to the specific gravity of the fermented mead and estimate the alcohol content. Here I measured the SG as 1.080, which means the potential alcohol is about 11% by volume. A pH measurement can be useful too, but the total acidity that winemaker&#8217;s often measure is much less useful in mead.Once you&#8217;ve taken your sample, you can pitch the yeast. I made a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/14\/making-a-yeast-starter\/\">starter<\/a> the day before with about a quarter cup honey dissolved in a cup of water with a pinch of DAP and cream of tartar. This gave my yeast a head start, and I poured the starter into my fermenter after I drew my sample.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Mischievous meadmaker tasting his honey\" src=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/pic\/20070504%20-%20errollo%20-%20tasting%20honey%203%20edit%20crop%20300x338.jpg\" alt=\"Mischievous meadmaker tasting his honey\" width=\"300\" height=\"338\" align=\"left\" hspace=\"30\" \/>It&#8217;s vital to stay focused and diligent. Due care must always be taken to perform each step with rigor and precision. Never forget the seriousness of your task \ud83d\ude42<br \/>\n<br clear=\"all\" \/><br clear=\"all\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Update 5\/28\/07 &#8211; clarifying the mead with bentonite<\/h2>\n<p>I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/28\/a-simple-mead-recipe-rack-to-secondary\/\">racked<\/a> the mead into a new carboy and fined with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/27\/a-simple-mead-recipe-fining-with-bentonite\/\">bentonite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Update 11\/8\/07 &#8211; aging the mead in oak<\/h2>\n<p>I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/08\/a-simple-mead-recipe-acid-and-oak\/\">racked<\/a> off the bentonite sediment and onto some oak chips. I also adjusted the acidity.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Update 1\/27\/08 &#8211; different ways to make mead<\/h2>\n<p>There are many different ways to make mead, and in June 2007 I briefly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/21\/botteling-day\/\">discussed<\/a> three of my other meads as well as an apple wine. I bottled all four that day, including some of the first mead I ever made, a mead in honor of Brother Adam, and the most wine-like mead I ever made.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/23\/a-simple-mead-recipe-bottled\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 1em; float: right;\" title=\"Wildflower Mead\" src=\"\/pic\/wildflower mead small.jpg\" alt=\"Wildflower Mead\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Update 3\/23\/2009: Bottled &#8211; the mead tastes great!<\/h2>\n<p>This is a simple recipe that turned out great &#8211; the only hard part was waiting. It was definitely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/23\/a-simple-mead-recipe-bottled\/\">worth the wait<\/a>, and I would recommend this recipe to anyone interested in, or curious about, mead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This great tasting mead is easy to make. Illustrated, step-by-step instructions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,30],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mead","category-recipes","tag-nad"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2792,"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/2792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/washingtonwinemaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}