As a bee-keeper of many years standing, one of my favourite products is mead. Mead is delicious and very simple to make.
There are many types of mead; Cyser – Honey and Apple juice, Melomel – Honey and fruit juice, Hippocras – Honey and grape juice, and so on. My preferred drink is straight, unadulterated Mead.
The recipe is as follows;
Honey – **See Below
1 pint very strong tea – 5 teabags mashed for at least 20 minutes
3 tsp. Malic Acid
1.5 tsp. Citric Acid
Yeast Nutrient – Double the dose stated on the packet.
1 Campden Tablet
Wine or Mead Yeast – Made up in starter bottle and fermenting vigorously
**Depending upon your taste, for dry mead use 2.5lb of honey, for medium use 3.25lb of honey and for sweet use 4lb.
Put all the ingredients into a demijohn and make up to 7 pints with warm water. Swirl it around the demijohn to ensure that everything dissolves. Plug the demijohn neck with a clump of cotton wool and leave overnight. The next day pitch the yeast and fit a fermentation lock. After 2 weeks top the demijohn up with cooled boiled water to about the bottom of the neck. Put the demijohn somewhere warm and out of the way and leave for 18 months.
After 18 months the mead should be perfectly clear with a layer of yeast at the bottom. Carefully syphon out into wine bottles (Green glass if possible), cork and lay down for a further 12 months.
Open and enjoy.
This mead, especially the medium and sweet will improve in the bottle for up to 10 years and keep for 25 years.
Stephen
