Short Mead Recipe

Quick, Easy, and Short mead

Product links below are for illustration – all of these could be purchased at a local homebrew supply
store or Amazon.

Supplies:

• One gallon vessel with a narrow neck or stopper hole (plastic water jug, tea pitcher, or glass juice jug)
• A sanitizer
• An airlock
• A stopper
• Good water (like bottled spring water – NOT DISTILLED)
• 1.5# of honey (that’s 16 liquid ounces). Most any good tasting honey will be fine.
• Yeast nutrient (needs to supply some nitrogen – several options, but I’ve been using Fermaid K.
• SafAle S-04 dry yeast (1/2 of an 11.5 gram sachet) Other clean ale yeasts would work)
• Optional – some additional flavoring such as tea, spices, or juice (see below)

Procedure

• Clean and sanitize jug, stopper, and airlock
• Warm some of the water (or use tea while still hot) to dissolve the honey
• Add 1/2 tsp of nutrient
• (Optional) Add any additional flavors
  • Teas: heat part of the water and steep the tea (as much as seems right) for 10-12 minutes, then strain. Some examples are:
    • 5 bags of Tazo Passion
    • 2 TB rosemary, 1TB thyme, and 2 bay leaves steeped for 12 minutes.
    • Outer peel of 1 orange (thinly peeled to get no white) and about 1/2 – 1 inch of fresh ginger, thinly sliced.
  • spices: tie up in cheesecloth if messy
  • Juice: Can replace part of the cold water – depending on strength of juice flavor, could be anywhere from all juice to 1/4 of the volume
• Fill to 1 gallon, or a little less to leave about 1 inch of space from top
• Shake/slosh to mix and get some oxygen in there
• Check temperature – do not proceed until temp is below 80° F
• Add ~ 1/2 packet of S-04 (seal the packet and keep in the fridge for the next batch)
• Cap with stopper and airlock. Fill airlock with Star San or cheap vodka.
• Keep in warmish place (somewhere between 65 and 85° F) for 4-6 days. Fermentation should be obvious within 12-24 hours
• Taste every day after 4 days – when it tastes good to you, put in the fridge for a day or two