Making Mead

A talk by David Lishman of Coleshill, Warwickshire

Date: Thursday 25 March 2004

Venue: Church Rooms, Stow on the Wold

Notes by: Jeremy Voaden

David begins by showing us The Brydon Trophy awarded for mead at The Royal Show. It has David’s name on it four times. Also on the bench in front of us is the Millenium Punchbowl, awarded at the National Honey Show for Metheglin. This is mead flavoured with fruit.

On a flip-chart hung from some wooden steps, in large capital letters writ large the word:

WAIT

Making mead and other drinks is a slow process. Patience and the ability to wait are at the heart of producing the best refreshments.

Mead is, in essence, fermented honey + water. There is no other content except for:

· Yeast

· Food for the yeast (yeast nutrient)

· Acids to regulate the conditions for yeast growth

Honey mixed with water will ferment. The agent for fermentation is yeast. Yeast is alive, it is “one of nature’s refusemen”. “It gets hold of

any sugar and turns it into alcohol”.

The Basics

Many books will tell you to mix 1 gallon of water with 4 lbs of honey then wait!

4lbs Honey

+

Juice of 1 Orange or Lemon

+

1 Gallon of water

+

Yeast

+

Yeast Nutrients

Sterilise equipment with a Campden Tablet. This tablet (invented at the research station in Chipping Campden) is made of Sodium metabisulphate. In water it produces sulphur dioxide and is used to sterilise equipment. Alternatively, sterilising fluid used for babies’ bottles etc is equally good.

Boil the honey and water for 5 minutes. Add to the gallon jar. Add the juice of 1 lemon or orange then, when cooled, add the yeast (or fermented honey) and yeast nutrient.

Cover with a cloth or place in a demi-john with a “Trap” (one-way valve created by filling “trap” with water allowing fermentation gases out but nothing in. Another one of nature’s refusemen is Acetobacter (which turns alcohol into vinegar). This is carried by fruit flies. The traps stop Acetobacter and any other contaminants from coming into contact with the fermenting mead. If there is too much sugar in the “must”, it will kill the yeast. This is why liqueurs do not ferment.

Don’t do this is a narrow-necked vessel. Fermentation is a lively process and will eject the cork AND half the vessel contents.

Place the vessel in a warm place (not in the airing cupboard, eruption will cause devastation!). After 1 week, when the fermentation quietens down, top up to the shoulder of the vessel with cold water and leave for another week.

Check the “trap” water levels and top-up if necessary.

Refining the basics!

The basics above are flawed. A much more pro-active effort will yield much better results. There are, after all, different sorts of honey!

The books regularly say “taste the mead and when you want to end the fermentation, add a tablet”. No. Decide if you want sweet or dry mead at the start of the process.

Using the Hydrometer

Taste the mead all the time as it is brewing. Dryness can be judged by the tongue or by using a hydrometer.

Some say “The hydrometer has no place at a wine tasting”. David agrees with this view. The Hydrometer is for what you are going to do or get, not what you have got. The Hydrometer measures weight/volume, which is the Specific Gravity or density. In water, weight/volume is 1/1 = 1. If you put sugar in the water, this makes the liquid denser so that the float in the hydrometer goes up. At The National Honey Show, dry mead must read 1 on the hydrometer.

Type of Mead	Start	Finish	Alcohol
Dry	1.100	.999	9-12%
Medium	1.118	1.010	12-15%
Sweet	1.127	1.025	12-15%

So, if you want a dry mead, must start the mix with 1.1 on the hydrometer….and if all goes to plan, you will finish with a Specific Gravity of .999. It is surprising how accurate these figures are.

If making 4 gallons in a 5-gallon bucket (c.16lbs of honey), dealing with large volumes so take a sample of the “must” in a small tube and measure the Specific Gravity using the hydrometer in this.

The Other Ingredients

Yeast

You can allow wild yeast from the air to initiate the fermentation. Fermented honey also does this. However, wild yeast doesn’t always produce a good taste so David does not recommend it. Instead, you can purchase yeast in small packets.

Brother Adam recommended a yeast called Mori. In the 1940s, the Ministry of Agriculture recommended Mori Instead, you can purchase yeast in small packets. Brother Adam recommended yeast called Mori. In the 1940s, the Ministry of Agriculture recommended Mori Yeast for making cider. David’s father obtained some in the 1940s. It was a brownish gelatine-like substance in the bottom of a small medicine bottle. It certainly made good mead and the sediment produced was solid and so avoided too much cloudiness. Unfortunately David hasn’t seen it for some years.

Commercially available white wine makers’ yeasts are good but note that some produce higher levels of alcohol than others do.

You can add the yeast straight onto the “must” but this is slow so use a “starter bottle”. Add the yeast to the starter bottle and a teaspoon of honey and some water. Put the bottle somewhere warm. The airing cupboard is sometimes too hot and can kill the yeast. A warm room will be fine. Wait 48 hours until fermentation has started then add to the main “must” in bucket or demi-john.

Check the bucket daily and stir vigorously. Remember that this is aerobic fermentation – it needs air to feed on! Get air mixed in from top to bottom. A big wooden or stainless steel spoon is a key tool in the mead-makers toolbox. Check every day for 2-3 weeks and keep tasting! After a while, the fermentation process changes to anaerobic fermentation. It will continue fermenting like this for years. David shares a bottle of sweet mead from 1998 with us that is still fermenting.

When aerobic fermentation shuts down, everything is much quieter so you can put the mead in demi-johns. Fill to the middle of the shoulder of the jar using a siphon. Tie the siphon down to the handle of the bucket with a bit of string.

Glycerine Mix

If you put just water in the “traps”, they can dry out or get mouldy. To prevent this, put a 50:50 mixture of water:glycerine mix in the “traps”.

Yeast Nutrients

Marmite is a good yeast nutrient. Unfortunately (for this use), it has a strong flavour and can result in marmite-flavoured mead. David recommends buying commercially produced yeast. These are made of Ammonium phosphate and Ammonium sulphate.

Acids

The acids we can harness in mead making are Citric, Malic and Tartaric Acid. We can use these to regulate the taste. The aim is to achieve a PH of 3.2 which is the best PH for the yeast. Put a small amount of the acid into the mead then try it. If it needs more, add more.

Grape Tanin

A tiny amount of this can be used right at the start of the process. David has a bottle purchased by his father in 1945 that is still in use! Just 1/8 - ¼ teaspoonful per gallon is needed. No more! If you try the tanin, it is dryer than the taste of sloes.

WAIT

When all is done, wait – for not less than 1 year after putting the mead into the demi-johns, preferably 2-3 years. The Trophy that David won in 1987 was for mead made in 1962.

If you are going to enter mead in a Show, it must be in a clear glass, straight “sauterne” bottle. The National Honey Show requires a “punt” (a bump in the bottom of the bottle) but the British Beekeepers’ Association (BBKA) will accept a flat bottle.

Siphon the mead from the demi-johns into your wine bottles. Fill the bottles to half-way up the neck. Store bottles away, on their sides. If the corks blow out, you know that you have bottled too soon.

Metheglin

David shares a fantastic metheglin with us which was created using sloes and ginger. 10 ounces of sloes and ¼ ounce of shredded ginger root are added to 1 gallon of “must” right at the start of the process.

The amount of fruit to be added depends on personal taste. Try your mead over the years. You can also use flowers such as rose petals. Raspberries and Strawberries make a fine, sweet mead.

Recommended Reading

Berry, C.J. First steps in wine making (Nexus, 1997)

ISBN 1-85486-139-5