There are three basic steps to mead making, primary fermentation, conditioning, and bottling.  The process from start to finish should take about a year.  Mead making is a great lesson in patience.  A great resource for those who want to go further into mead making is a book called Formulas of the Mellissae, by Melissa Meleen and can be ordered via melissa@mistymountainhandcrafts.com

A word on sanitation:

I don’t use sulfites to control microorganisms to keep them from spoiling my mead so I need to rely on other methods.  Of primary concern is sanitation.   Always use a sanitizing solution with your equipment before it touches the mead and always clean your equipment after use.  If these basic procedures are followed, many of the problems that can spoil your mead will be greatly reduced.  Food grade sanitizing agents can be purchased at your local homebrew supply store.  A small amount of household bleach works well, too, at a ratio of 1 ½ oz. to 5 gallons.

Primary fermentation:

Primary fermentation is the process during which a yeast strain is added to the solution of honey and water.  The yeast colony expands as it consumes the sugar source and produces carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol.  This period of time can last between 7 and 28 days.  Ideally, the fermentation period should not last longer than 7 to 14 days.  The longer the primary fermentation lasts for, the more trouble with off flavors or spoilage you will run into.  I don’t pasteurize my honey which would help reduce the microbes present in the honey.  And, without the use of sulfites, it is even more important to get a healthy steady fermentation off and going as soon as possible.  There are several ways to give the wine yeast you introduce a boost in beginning fermentation. 

-Make a yeast culture a few days before you plan to make your mead.  A yeast culture activates the colony and gets it expanding.   This allows the yeast you introduce to dominate and overwhelm all the other microbes that will be vying for your honey solution which is an enormous food source opportunity to them, especially before fermentation.  To make a yeast culture, boil 1 ½ cups of water and remove from heat.  Add ½ cup of honey to the hot water and let it cool to room temperature.  Pour this solution into a wine bottle, add the dry yeast and attach an airlock.   This is basically a miniature version of what you will be doing on a larger scale.  Sometimes opportunity does not always allow me to prepare a yeast culture.  Suddenly one day my plans will change and I can make mead today, or perhaps I’ve forgotten to make my yeast culture.  In these situations, take the wine yeast and add it to a cup of water at room temperature.  Let this stand for no more than 15 minutes.  In this time the yeast colony begins to activate and after 15 minutes has reached its peak and needs to be introduced to the new food source—your mead. 

-Add yeast nutrients.  Honey is designed to provide food for the bees over long periods of time in between the next blossom season. Honey has evolved antimicrobial properties over time to resist spoilage by bacteria and yeast.  By adding yeast nutrients—which I view as a multivitamin, the yeasts gain additional vitamins and minerals it cannot access from the honey.  I have found the when using fruit in mead making, there are plenty of yeast nutrients available, but I still add the nutrient. 

-Proper temperature is required.  Yeast work best at temperatures between 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit.  Providing these ideal temperatures during the fermentation period help lessen the shock the introduced yeast undergoes at first as well as giving a comfortable environment to expand in. 

-Get the alcohol content up!  High alcohol content greatly inhibits the functioning of microbes.  With meads, try to have your alcohol content around 10 to 14 % alcohol.  This is easy to do with a hydrometer.  Add about 3 pounds of honey per gallon of water and mix well.  Take a hydrometer reading.  The hydrometer is a very useful tool and measures the density of the sugar in the solution, now called must.  The hydrometer will give you a potential alcohol reading.  Add honey as needed to get the desired alcohol content.  It is important to note that the yeast you will be using will not be able to ferment above 14% alcohol.  Even at the high end of 14% you will want to be using champagne yeast.  I generally strive for around 12% and find wine yeasts can handle this.  If too much honey is added, the sugar content of the solution can actually inhibit the yeast, as well as other microbes.  This is why sugar can be used as a preservative. 

Now, on with fermentation.  Here are the steps:

1.  Fruit or herbs?  If you are using fruit, add them to the fermentation vessel and then add the water and honey.  If you are using herbs, I like to make an herb tea the night before and let the tea steep over night.  I take 2 quarts of water and bring it to a boil and then remove from heat.  I then add my pant material.  The amount varies a lot depending on what the plant is.  This is where experimentation comes in.  I have found that at times when I thought I might have added too much plant material the year the mead sits has mellowed out the flavors nicely.  Add the tea to the fermentation vessel and then add the honey and water.

2.  Once you have your ingredients mixed take hydrometer readings and add enough honey to reach a potential alcohol content of 12%.

3.  At this point, add the yeast culture you made, or let the granulated yeast stand in a cup of water for 15 minutes and then add to the must.

4.  Add 1 tsp of yeast nutrient for each gallon.

5.  Close the fermentation vessel and attach the airlock.

You will notice signs of fermentation anywhere after 6 to 48 hours after pitching your yeast.  The airlock will bubble vigorously.  Eventually, after a week or so the airlock activity will subside.  At this point, gently rock and swirl your primary fermentation vessel.  Throughout the fermentation process, the yeast has consumed much of the sugars and as the colony increased and the sugars decreased, many have fallen to the bottom of your vessel.  This vessel rocking brings the yeast back up into the solution to consume additional sugars.  You will probably notice more air lock gurgle talk over the next day or two.  After this has subsided, open the lid and a hydrometer reading.  To do this, sanitize a turkey baster and squeeze it into the must and pour the mead into the hydrometer tube.  If your hydrometer has reached and specific gravity of 1.000 then fermentation is complete.  If not, attach the lid and airlock and gently swirl again. 

6.  After fermentation is complete, siphon the mead out of the primary fermentation vessel into a secondary vessel.  Siphon quietly without disturbing the sediment that has formed on the bottom.  Leave as much of the yeast sediment behind as you can.  Attach a sanitized airlock onto the secondary vessel and let sit for at least 6 months, and a year is better.  From time to time, every three months or so, sanitize your turkey baster and remove the airlock and take a small sample for tasting.  Do this quickly so the air lock is not off for too long and your mead is not exposed to oxygen for too long a time.

7.  After a year, siphon into a bottling bucket and fill up jugs and wine bottles and cork them.  See your local homebrew supplier for details.       

Recipe for 1 gallon of ground ivy mead

-2 quarts fresh ground ivy

-3 to five pounds of honey

-1 gallon of water

-1 tsp yeast nutrient

-1 TBLS lemon juice

-Original specific gravity:  1.090

-Final specific gravity: 1.000

-Harvest 1 quart of the aerial tops of ground ivy in early to mid may when their beautiful purplish-pink flowers are in full bloom.  Take 1 quart of water and bring to a boil.  Pour the hot water over the ground

ivy to make a tea.  Cover and let sit over night at room temperature.

-The next day, before you are ready to begin, go outside to your favorite ground ivy patch and gather another quart of the aerial tops and have them ready. 

-Next, take your tea and strain off the ground ivy plant material.  Add the quart of tea to a sanitized two gallon fermentation bucket. 

-Add 3 quarts of water.

-Begin adding 3 pounds of honey and mix well.  Use a sanitized turkey baster and take a sample of your must and fill your hydrometer case with it.  Take a hydrometer reading.  Your reading should indicate a

potential alcohol content of around 5 or 6 %.  You are shooting for 12 %.

- Add a little more honey and mix well. Take another reading.  Proceed at this pace adding honey, mixing well and taking a hydrometer reading until you reach a specific gravity and potential alcohol reading

of 12%. 

-Once you are at 12%, add yeast nutrient and lemon juice and mix. 

-Add your yeast culture or hydrated dry yeast.

-Wrap your freshly gathered quart of ground ivy with cheese cloth and make a tea bag by tying the ends shut.  Don’t tie the bundle too tight, it should resemble a loose tea bag. 

-Attach your sanitized lid and airlock.

-Store in an out of the way place at temperatures as close to 70 degrees as possible. 

-Fermentation should take 7 to 28 days.  Follow the suggestions listed above for monitoring the fermentation process. 

-You will want to remove this tea bag after 5 or 6 days of it steeping in the primary container.  Take out your airlock and remove the cover.  When you remove the bag from your fermentation vessel, be sure

to squeeze out any of the juicy ground ivy goodness.  Reattach the lid and airlock.

-When fermentation is complete, transfer to a sanitized secondary one gallon glass jug using a sanitized siphon system.  Attach a sanitized rubber stopper and airlock. 

-Store in a cool dark place and try to wait a year. 

-When you go to make your next year’s batch of ground ivy mead it is time to bottle.  You will get about 5 –750 ml wine bottles from one gallon.  See your local homebrew and winemaker store for bottling details.   

  Average amount of fruit per gallon for other meads from Melissa Meleen. 

Apple: 8 pounds macerated

Apricot:  3 pounds crushed

Blackberry: 4 pounds crushed

Sour cherries: 4 pounds gently crushed, don’t break the pits

Blueberry: 3 pounds mashed, use more if you got em’

Elderberry:  1.5 pounds will work, but if you have the patience to de-stem them, 3 to 4 pounds makes a tremendous beverage.

Mango:  4 pounds pitted and chopped

Oranges:  10 pounds, peeled with pith removed

Peach:  3 pounds, pitted and chopped

Pear: 4 pounds cored and chopped

Plum:  4 pounds pitted and chopped

Rosehips:  2.5 fresh with seeds removed or 10oz dried

Rhubarb:  2 to 5 lbs. frozen and thawed

Strawberries:  4 pounds chopped (more if possible) with stems removed