• This recipe is based of a book that my husband  got this about 11 years ago and has been randomly making mead from the recipe since then with various results –  But the results were not consistant either, some batches were medium some were OMG sweet. 

no failures except the one batch that got left out in his parents kitchen unairconditioned in late july for about 10 days that the flies got in. (NO those arent really big yeast – those are baby fly thingies hon! – but we strained it really well….. j/k)

The type of honey to use was not specified nor the type of yeast. No technical readings were taken, no nutrients were added.

The original recipe is as follows:

  • 1 gal tap water
  • ~5 lbs honey (no type specified)
  • 2 oranges
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 pkt yeast (no type specified)

Directions:

  • Combine honey, water, fruits 1/4" sliced with rind, over medium heat bring to a boil
  • Boil 1 hour
  • Strain off fruits
  • let sit until room temp (12-24 hours was recommended if I remember correctly)
  • add warm water to yeast, stir, pour in mixture
  • let sit in towel covered pot 1 week
  • strain into bottles using papertowel or coffee filters to strain
  • soft cork 2 months
  • hard cork balance of year

Thanks to his notes we have a fairly good record of what happened. After 1 year this stuff has the heavy taste of yeast and could blind someone with the alcohol bite in it.  After 10 additional years (yes we have been married that long :lol:) 1 batch is amazing, very complex and medium sweet to dry in terms of mead, no bite with a pleasent citrus taste. (i believe he used 4 lbs of honey, brought to a boil over 40 minutes, boiled just under 1 hour, 8 hours cooling time, a light raw honey, and very large oranges.(this batch sadly is almost gone)  The other 10 year old surviving batch is very very sweet, fairly uncomplex and still has a bit of a bite but the honey taste is overwhelming but almost no citrus taste. This one was brought to a boil much quicker This one sat for 24 hours prior to pitch, was 5 lbs store brand clover honey and used medium sized fruit. He also skipped soft corking these and hard corked them from 1 week on (one exploded) the rest were for a time slightly carbonated after about 1 year when we  opened them. (wearing motorcyle helmet, leather gloves and leather coat just in case of explosion while handling – YAY bottle bombs)

Changes made (this is a 1/2 batch recipe – we made another 1/2 batch identical ingredients and amounts following the old way) – we will be testing taste differences. (we cut the honey amount back in order to get a drier mead)

New recipe:

  • 1.75 lbs clover honey
  • 1/2 gallon warm water (~85 deg F)
  • Juice of 1 orange and 1/2 lemon
  • 1/2 packet Pastuer Champange yeast

Method:

  • Dissolved honey in warm water
  • Added juice
  • Stirred to aerate
  • Rehydrated yeast per packet directions (2oz 103 deg F water, 15 minutes soak stir gently)
  • Pitched yeast into Must at 77deg temp
  • Stirred
  • Set to fermentation in 1 gal food grade plastic bucket covered with a towel

Sg – 1.084 Balling # was 20 (yes it will be Dry). Will set to secondary bulk fermentation in about 1 week in glass 1 gallon carboy with airlock for 2 months or so, will auto siphon to bottle after this.

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