mead-recipe

Recommended Equipment

Makes 4.5 litre (one gallon) Makes 10 litres (2.2 gallons)
10 litre plastic bucket with lid 10 litre plastic bucket with lid
5 litre plastic (or 5 litre Glass Demi John) 10 litre plastic bucket and lid drilled
Bung and Airlock for container Bung and Airlock for container
Small Fine Nylon straining bag Small Fine Nylon Straining Bag
Siphon and U Tube Siphon and U Tube
Hydrometer with trail case Hydrometer with trial case
Thermometer Thermometer
Funnel Funnel
Steriliser Steriliser
One Litre plastic food grade jug One Litre Plastic food grade jug
5 x 1Litre Plastic PET Bottles 10 x 1 Litre Plastic PET Bottles

Ingredients for both sizes

Camden Tablets Country Wine Yeast 1.3 to 1.5 kilos of Honey (if you want to make it stronger like a wine add 350gms of sugar as well) Yeast Nutrient Tartaric Acid Pectolase Finings Potassium Sorbate For 10 litre just double up the volumes.

Making Instructions (Recipe)

Make sure all the equipment that comes into contact with the wine is Sterilised before starting. 1. Put the honey and add 3 litres of boiling water into the 10 litre plastic bucket. Allow to cool. When the temperature has dropped to between 20 and 25C add 20gms of Tartaric (4 teaspoons) a teaspoon of Pectolase, Yeast Nutrient and Yeast. Cover loosely with the lid and leave to ferment for 3 days (temperature between 20-25C). If the honey has been bought its fine to use as is. If it’s your own honey we would recommend adding some water and bringing to the boil. Skim before using. At this point feel free to add anything that you might think might enhance the wine and give it more flavour. The sort of things is Bananas Raisins Sultans Cranberries Blueberries. If they are hard adding at the time of boiling water if soft they can go in now. 2. If you have added “Extras” leave for 24 hours If it’s just honey proceeds to Point 3. 3. If there are any lumps of fruit pour the juice through the straining bag into the Demi John (or second bucket) if it’s clear add directly to the demi john. Fit the airlock half filled with clean water. Leave to ferment and when the frothing dies down top up with water (20C) to just below the neck of the Demi John (10 litre on the bucket). 4. Leave until fermentation is complete (depending on the temperature). This will normally be when the airlock has stopped bubbling but always use your hydrometer to make sure. It’s should be around 1.000 or less on the scale and will show the same reading for a few days. 5. Siphon the wine off the sediment back into the sterilised bucket leaving the sediment behind. Clean out the Demi John and then pour the wine back into it from the bucket. Add a Campden Tablet (one per 5 litres) and a teaspoon of Potassium Sorbate. Stir or shake well. We need to get rid of the carbon dioxide in the wine before adding the Finings. Once done add the Finings. Leave in a cool place to clear. When clear you can then bottle your wine. See our guide on bottling. Mead will be quite dry so if you do want to add further honey to the mead do this before bottling.

General Guidelines for Fruit Wines

Always try to make sure the fruit is clean and bug free Make sure all the equipment that comes into contact with the wine at any stage of the process is clean and sterilised. Use a hydrometer and thermometer at all times Check out the Guides on the web site. Make sure when shaking a Demi John made of glass that you always release the pressure between shaking. Glass Demi Johns can build up a lot of pressure and can crack or split if this is not done.