How to Make Honey Mead: One Gallon Honey Mead Recipe
Do you love mead? Have you ever thought about making your one-gallon batch of honey mead? This simple honey mead recipe is a straightforward process that anybody can do at home.
Mead or honey wine is a fermented alcoholic beverage traditionally made from honey and is known as one of the oldest alcoholic drinks.
People have been making and enjoying mead for thousands of years, and the simple recipe has hardly changed. I’ll walk you through your first time making your ancient mead recipe at home.
What is Mead?
Mead is a fermented beverage made of honey, water, and yeast, often called “honey wine.” During the primary fermentation stage, the yeast converts the sugars in the honey to alcohol.
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Once this primary fermentation is complete, the mead is transferred into another fermentation vessel for further clarification.
History of Mead
Like sauerkraut and kimchi, its exact origins are unknown or at least widely disputed. Some historians believe ancient Greeks consumed a honey-and-water mixture to honor the goddess Aphrodite, one reason why it’s called the “nectar of the gods.”
Historians also believe it originated in Africa from 20,000 to 40,000 years ago. Where tribes would drink the liquid created by honeybees that used hollowed-out tree trunks to build their hives.
While the English would often infuse their mead with herbs to aid digestion or improve depression.
Honey wine was also an essential part of a new marriage celebration.
The phrase “honeymoon” comes from mead; after marriage, a couple was supposed to drink this honey liquid to boost fertility.
Nordic Vikings also thought to celebrate battles and long voyages with mead.
To learn more about mead, check my article What is Mead?
Last update on 2023-01-24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Flavor Ideas for Honey Mead
There are many different types of mead. You can enhance the mead’s flavor by adding fresh fruit, wildflower honey, raw honey, fruit juice, grape juice, and even orange peel.
You can even add spices or herbs to the fermentation process. Depending on the honey used, fruit additions can make it sweeter or drier.
Melomel is a mead made with fruit. A long time ago, making mead with fruit was a method of preserving summer fruits for winter consumption.
Mead, made with spices or herbs, is called a Metheglin.
You could also use apple cider instead of water, and then you’d have a cyser. Check out our Apple Cyser recipe.
Whether you want to jazz it up with fruits, spices, or herbs, or if you wish to make a simple, delicious mead, the process is the same and will yield great tasting results.
Mead Making Equipment:
- One-gallon jug or a glass carboy
- Large stainless-steel pot
- Large stainless-steel spoon
- Funnel
- Sanitizer- recommend Star San
- Airlock and rubber stopper
- Thermometer
- Beer Bottles with flip cap
- Hydrometer
- Complete Mead Making Kit
Ingredients for making 1-Gallon of Honey Mead:
- 2 1/2 to 3 pounds of raw or unpasteurized honey is best. Buy here
- 12 cups of water (Do not use chlorinated water! If you are on city water, use spring water at your local store. If you are on a well, your water should be fine unless you have a water softening system)
- 1/2 package champagne yeast or wine yeast
- Optional flavoring ideas: berries or fruit of any kind, fresh or frozen, and/or raisins
How Much Honey Do I Need for 1 Gallon of Mead?
To make one gallon of honey mead, you will need between 2-3 pounds of honey. You can choose exactly how sweet you’d like your mead to be, 2 lbs if you want it on the dryer side, and 3 lbs if you’d like it to be sweeter mead.
Mead Making Instructions – How to Make Mead
1. Cleaning and Sterilizing
First, you’ll need to sanitize all of your equipment. I cannot overstate the importance of this step!
Failing to sanitize properly can render all of your efforts useless. The presence of bacteria or other microorganisms can ruin your mead before you even get it started.
There are many brands of sanitizers available. Anything that thoroughly kills bacteria will do the trick (do not use bleach), but I’ve always used Star-San in my homebrewing.
It’s a simple but effective liquid sanitizing solution that can be purchased at any brewing supply store or on Amazon.
2. Make the Must
Make sure that your entire working area is clean before you begin.
Use a large container such as a 5-gallon bucket to dunk all equipment, including the jug, airlock, spoon, pot, airlock, funnel, and thermometer.
Add a half-gallon of clean filtered water to the large pot and bring it to a warm temperature, but do not bring it to a boil.
Add 2-3 lbs of raw honey (2 pounds for a dry mead or 3 pounds for a sweet mead) to the pot. Stir until it is well blended but do not bring to a boil.
Heating the honey and water may produce foam on the surface, called a ‘must’; you can skim it off or leave it as it will not affect the recipe.
Once the honey and water are thoroughly combined, remove from heat and let and let the mixture cool until room temperature.
Next, add your flavoring options to the carboy: fruit juice, berries, or herbs.
Then, use a funnel to carefully pour the honey water mixture into the jug.
Top it off with cold water. Fill the carboy slightly above the base of the neck, leaving about 2 inches of space at the top.
Put the lid on the carboy and give it a little swirl to mix everything well.
3. Pitching the Yeast
At this time, you will add the yeast to the carboy.
**yeast doesn’t do well with temperatures over 90° Fahrenheit.
Ensure the water is at a lukewarm temperature before adding the yeast.
Once the water is below 90° F (32° C), adding 1/2 a package of yeast to the carboy is safe.
Place the lid back on the carboy and give it another good shake. This time, shake it up vigorously for a few minutes to ensure it is thoroughly mixed.
To learn more about yeast, check out my post on choosing the right yeast for brewing mead.
4. Add The Airlock
Put a little water in the airlock to the line, then put the rubber stopper into the jug.
Store the carboy in a cool dark place to complete the first fermentation stage.
Within 24 hours, you should see some activity in the airlock. A few bubbles and foam appear at the top of the bottle. Fruit and herbs can make their way into the airlock. If this happens, clean the airlock thoroughly to prevent an explosion from carbon dioxide buildup.
You will want to check on it daily to ensure that there aren’t any leaks.
Once the airlock stops moving, the mead will be ready to drink or bottle.
The first fermentation of mead will take 4-6 weeks.
Secondary Fermentation of the Mead
After 4-6 weeks, you can begin “racking” or siphoning the mixture into a second container leaving the sediment at the bottom of the first container.
Cover again with an airlock, and let the mead sit for at least another month. You can siphon the finished mead into bottles and cork them this time.
Less than two months old, Mead is called “green” or young, and it is pretty enjoyable at this point. Try it out, and take notes of the flavor and carbonation levels.
Save several bottles and taste them after several months or a year to see how the time affects the taste of the mead.
Making mead is a fun and straightforward process. It requires a little bit of patience, but the result can be something great. You can enjoy it fresh, but many say it improves with age.
Related Topic: How long does mead take to ferment?
People have been making mead using this simple process for thousands of years.
Brewing good mead can be a highly satisfying experience. Don’t expect to win any awards with your first or second batch. Like anything else worth doing, it will take time to master making mead, wine, or beer at home.
But with patience, the right ingredients, equipment, and some practice, you will.
Before making your first batch of homemade mead, you must ensure that you have all the right equipment handy.
Honey Mead
This easy honey mead recipe takes just a few steps to complete. The honey is the star of the show in this recipe. It is essential to use high-quality honey that will produce a great flavor.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 to 3 lbs. raw unprocessed honey
- Optional fruit: berries or fruit of any kind, fresh or frozen, and raisins
- Optional Spices: cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, etc
- 1/2 package champagne yeast or wine yeast
- 12 cups water
Instructions
- Sanitize all the equipment you will use: pot, jug, funnel, airlocks, spoon, etc. Follow the directions on the sanitizer package.
- Heat 1/2 gallon of non-chlorinated water in the large pot on medium heat, do not boil. Add the honey and stir until it fully dissolves. Remove from heat.
- Add the optional berries, fruit, raisins, and herbs to the one-gallon jug.
- Using a funnel, pour the honey-water mixture into the jug.
- Leave at least 2 inches of headspace at the top. Add additional cold water if needed.
- Secure the lid and shake well.
- When the temperature drops below 90°F, add 1/2 package of the yeast.
- Again, cap the bottle and shake well.
- You should see bubbles within the first 48 hours.
- Store the jug in a dark and cool place, or cover it with a towel. It will take about 4-6 weeks to ferment.
- It is ready when the bubbling has stopped or slowed to once every minute instead of every few seconds as it did initially.
- The liquid will be clear, and the yeast will settle to the jug's bottom.
- Do a taste test. Use a clean straw for tasting but be careful not to backwash into the mead.
- If you like the flavor, it is ready to bottle the mead.
- If it is too dry and you prefer a little sweeter, you can back sweeten the mead.
Notes
Equipment:
- One-gallon glass jug/carboy
- Large stainless-steel pot
- Large stainless-steel spoon
- Funnel
- Sanitizer- recommend Star San
- Airlock and rubber stopper
- Thermometer
Related Posts and Recipes
You’ve reached the right place if you enjoyed this basic mead recipe and are curious about mead. Check our FAQ about Mead Making, where we share all the information you need to know about mead making.
