Homemade & Commercial

Wine, Beer, Spirits, Cider & Mead Guides

Alcoholic beverages; most commonly beer and wines made at home. Brews made from brewing kits purchased at shops specialized in spirits. The Beer Pirate features homebrew recipes, equipment requirements, and commercial productions information; and all the best practices needed to make that perfect batch!

These meads flavored with flowers are something quite special. The flavor of the flowers in these is not so marked as when more flowers are used to make flower wines. The amounts of flowers given in these recipes give a delightful background flavor while allowing the flavor of the honey to remain unmasked. These ‘meads’ are not, strictly speaking, meads, but I call them meads because the basic material is honey. All flower mead recipes make for medium sweet wines. Those who know in advance that they must have all wines dry should use not more than three-and-a-half pounds of honey instead of the four pounds given in the recipes. Those who must have all wines on the sweet side should use not less than four-and-a-half pounds and not more than five pounds instead of the four pounds given in the recipes.

Clover Mead

Use purple (sometimes called mauve) clover.

• 4 lb. honey
• ¼ oz. citric acid
• ¼ pint strong freshly-made tea
• 2-3 pints clover head
• yeast – nutrient

The clover heads should be loosely packed in the measure and not pressed down hard.

Mix honey with about half a gallon of hot water, bring slowly to boil and boil for two minutes.

Turn into polythene pail containing the clover heads. Add citric acid and tea and make up to one gallon with boiling water. Add extra quart of boiling water to make up for the space occupied by the flower heads – regardless of the number of pints used. Allow to cool to approximately 65ºF, and add yeast and nutrient. Cover as directed for beers and ferment in warm place for five-six days.

Strain out flower heads and return strained liquor to fermenting vessel. Cover again as before and continue to ferment thus for a further five-six days. Then siphon into gallon jar, leaving as much deposit behind as you can. Fit fermentation lock and leave until all fermentation has ceased. Fermentation may go on for as long as several months. When finished and the wine is clear it should be siphoned into another jar and bunged down for one year, after which it may be bottled.

4½ – 5 lb. honey
¼ oz. citric acid
¼ pint strong freshly-made tea
yeast – nutrient

Mix honey with about half gallon of hot water, bring slowly to boil and boil for two minutes. Turn into polythene pail, add citric acid and tea and make up to one gallon with boiling water. Allow to cool to approximately 65ºF, then add yeast and nutrient. Cover as directed for beers and ferment in warm place for ten-fourteen days. After this, proceed as for dry table mead.

• 4-4 ½ lb. honey
• ¼ oz. citric acid
• ¼ pint strong freshly-made tea
• yeast – nutrient

Mix honey with about half a gallon of hot water, bring slowly to boil and boil for two minutes. Turn into polythene pail, add citric acid and tea and make up to one gallon with boiling water. Allow to cool to approximately 65ºF, then add yeast and nutrient. Cover as directed for beers and ferment in warm place for ten-fourteen days. After this, proceed as for dry table mead.

As already mentioned, honey contains bacteria and yeasts. These, like the yeasts and bacteria on the skins of fruit, are the main causes of spoilage. The method we shall use, ensures that they are destroyed; I mention them because too many people are still trying to make mead without sterilizing the honey-water mixture before they begin. If not sterilized, these yeasts and bacteria will almost certainly start spoiling ferments to produce souring, bitterness or vinegar flavours. In its undiluted state, the concentration of sugar prevents their action, but as soon as this is reduced by diluting with water, they are ready to spring into action and spoil the mead. Where small amounts of mead are being made – say one or two gallons at a time – boiling the mixture is the easiest means of sterilizing. But where larger amounts are being made, a large enough vessel for boiling might be hard to come by; in this case, the mixture may be sterilized by adding two Campden tablets per gallon. These are crushed and dissolved in a little warm water and stirred into the mixture. This is left for a few hours and then given a brisk stirring before the yeast is added. But as most beginners will be making one or two gallon lots to start with they will do the heat sterilization method as given in the recipes.

Boiling one gallon of honey and water mixture often proves difficult owing to a vessel holding a good deal more than a gallon being required. Therefore, I have arranged the method to allow for half the water to be used at the start – or approximately half, it will not matter if you are a pint over or under the amount given to start with. As will be seen, the mixture is made up to one gallon before the yeast is added, and this is all that matters.

Dry Table Mead

• 3½ lb. honey
• 1 oz. citric acid
• ½ pint strong freshly-made tea
• yeast – nutrient

Mix honey with about half gallon of hot water, bring slowly to boil and boil for two minutes. Turn into polythene pail, add citric acid and tea and make up to one gallon with boiling water. Allow to cool to approximately 65 Of. and then add yeast and nutrient. Cover as directed for beers and ferment in warm place for ten-fourteen days.

If using hydrometer, take reading when mixture has cooled to the point where the yeast is added.

After ten-fourteen days, pour into gallon jar, leaving as much deposit behind as you can. Fit fermentation lock and leave in warm place until all fermentation has ceased. It may be several months before this happens, but when fermentation has ceased and the mead is clear, it should be siphoned off the deposit into another jar and bunged down and kept for one year or it may be bottled and sealed; then some may be used right away and a few bottles kept to mature. Don’t judge young mead for it is not at its best; at a year old it will have mellowed and developed its full flavour and bouquet.

When fermentation stops before the maximum alcohol the yeast can make is actually made, we say that fermentation has stuck. The main cause of this is too high or too Iowa temperature. Also, lack of acid or tannin or both. Now, provided the recipes are followed, and the fermenting mead kept warm, fermentation should not ’stick’, but sometimes it does. Where it sticks when only about 2% below the maximum alcohol, nothing much is lost. In fact, you might waste a lot of time in trying to get fermentation on the go again. 2% is not important, so if you obviously have a good mead with near enough the alcohol content you aimed at, be satisfied rather than try to make it better. But where a dry mead was aimed at, a dry mead should result. This is because not enough sugar was in the original must to slow up fermentation. And since dry mead is preferred in this case, fermentation must be induced to recommence.

To define the reason for a ferment having ’stuck’ is difficult for beginners – especially when they have added tannin and acid and kept their musts warm. But here is the usual cause, over-warmth or not warm enough. Where it is clear that a must has become too warm, allow it to become quite cold and then warm it again gradually, but be careful this time not to let it become over-heated. Where it has become cold, gradual warming by keeping in a warm place will usually get fermentation on the go again. On no account, attempt to heat the must quickly. If these two remedies fail after a few days of trial, the need for a tiny additional amount of tannin or acid may be indicated, and this should be tried. Just a few drops of strong, freshly-made tea or a few – three or four – crystals of citric acid should be added. Where crystals are not available, a few drops of lemon juice should be tried. If all this fails, then it could be that all nutrient matter has been used up and a further half to whole nutrient tablet should be crushed and added. After each of the recommended additions, give the must three or four days before adding anything else. It often needs this period of time to get a sticking ferment on the go again. For example, if you try extra acid, wait three or four days to see if fermentation gets going again, if it does not, then try something else I have recommended.

Use of Fermentation Lock

The use of the fermentation lock has already been described in the brewing and cider-making chapters. Here it is necessary only to say that we use it in mead making to ensure maximum alcohol is made and to prevent airborne diseases reaching the must. Follow directions already given in the chapters mentioned above and fit the lock at the time given in the recipes.

Anybody can use baker’s yeast and get a mead of sorts with possibly a yeast haze in it and a bake-house mustiness into the bargain. It is well worth while getting a good yeast either dried or in liquid form. Dried all-purpose wine yeast does an excellent job here, but those with a good deal of experience in making a variety of top-class meads insist on a certain variety of yeast. Madeira yeast is fancied by some while others swear by Tokay yeast. Sherry and Maurey yeasts are also popular. So do not use baker’s yeast, unless you want an inferior product, which, of course, amounts to a waste of honey – and money.

Aids to Good Fermentation

As with all alcoholic products a good fermentation from the outset to the end is important for good results. Now, in itself, and because honey is mostly sugar and water, it is not the best medium for good fermentation. This is because unlike fruit juices it contains no acid or tannin – both of which are essentials to good fermentation. As will be seen in the recipes we add acid either as citric acid easily obtained quite cheaply from any chemist or the same stuff in the form of lemon juice. Tannin is added in the form of tea; tea being a useful and cheap source of tannin. These two constituents are also important to the flavour of the finished product. Without them the mead would appear lifeless; in other words it would lack character, bite – or even ‘guts’ if you like to put it that way. Also lacking in honey are essential elements found in most fruit juices. This deficiency is easily made up by adding nutrient salts in tablet form. These are known as yeast nutrients and are obtainable from dealers in home wine and home brewing equipment. When to add the tablet is given in the recipes. Temperature is also an important consideration.

Yeast, as we have seen in other parts of this book, must have warmth if it is to reproduce itself. And as already explained, it is this reproduction going on that uses up the sugar and produces alcohol. The ideal temperature is between 6So-70°f. It is not always possible to maintain this, but where it is possible, it certainly should be maintained. Failing this, a warm place where the temperature remains fairly constant will do. But on no account allow the mead-in-making to become too warm, otherwise fermentation might stop prematurely or ’stick’.

Unlike beers and cider, meads, being wines, are drunk in small quantities. Therefore, we make them as strong as we can. The amount of alcohol we can make in meads is limited by the capacity of the yeast we add to withstand alcohol. And here it is important to understand that yeast cannot live in a solution containing more than 14% of alcohol by volume. This is the usual amount that will destroy the yeast. But under certain circumstances, and with suitable yeast the percentage might be as high as eighteen. On the whole an amateur is unlikely to produce more than 16%; this is because he is unlikely to be able to carry out his ferments under laboratory conditions with constantly favorable temperatures and a scientifically balanced must.

Therefore, it is always wise to presume that you will not make more than 14% by volume and work accordingly.

Now, honey is made up of approximately 70% sugar; the remainder is made up of some impurities – such as yeast and bacteria, water, albumen and ash. Our concern is the amount of sugar, for it is upon this that the amount of alcohol we make depends. The yeast and bacteria are also our concern, but these are dealt with under the Causes of Spoilage.

Recipes for mead follow, but here it is as well to point out that if you want to be sure of the amount of alcohol you make, then the same type of hydrometer as used for beer brewing becomes essential.

In the ordinary way, three to four pounds of honey are used to make one gallon of mead. And because the amount of sugar will vary slightly in the various honeys available, there is no guarantee when using recipes that the mead will turn out to precisely the fine degree of sweetness or dryness required. Use little honey and the wine will be dry, of course; use a lot of honey and the wine will be sweet. Whether too dry or too sweet or merely medium dry-sweet will depend on the amount of sugar the honey contains.

As will be seen in the recipes the honey is mixed with water, and in the ordinary way, no sugar is added because the honey contains enough.

If recipes are being followed, and if readers are satisfied with the results of using them, as most will be, then all well and good. But those who want to make their meads to fine degrees of sweetness or dryness will have to use the hydrometer, and in so doing, these operators will be able to calculate at the start, how much alcohol they will make in addition to knowing whether their mead will be dry, medium-dry, medium-sweet or sweet. The only way to do this is to mix the honey with water as given in a recipe using the smallest amount given. A sample is then put into the hydrometer sample flask and the hydrometer itself slipped into this. The flask is stood on a level surface and the reading taken where the sample cuts across the stem. This reading is compared with the Hydrometer and Alcohol Table for Meads. Let us say that the reading is 1.090. As will be seen from the table, this will make 11.9% of alcohol by volume, and the mead will be bone dry. Now, we can add more honey – or if this is in short supply, sugar – to increase the gravity to 1.100. If this is done, 13.4% of alcohol will be made, but the mead will still be dry. Not until you go above the figure of 1.110 will the mead begin to turn out sweet. This is because two and a half pounds of sugar will be used up in making 14.5% of alcohol by volume and this amount of sugar per gallon is represented by the reading of 1.100. Actually the exact amount of sugar for a reading of 1.110 is an unimportant fraction above two and a half pounds. Therefore, if a bone dry mead is required you should start off with a reading of 1.100 or 1.110 and end up with a dry mead of between 13.4% and 14.5% of alcohol by volume. Because this figure of 1.110 represents the maximum amount of sugar the yeast can use, it follows that if a higher gravity is used to start with (in other words, if more honey is used or sugar added), all sugar or honey in excess of 1.110 on the hydrometer, will be left unfermented to sweeten the mead. A reading of 1.120 will make mead just a little above dryness or medium-dry, while ten degrees above this will make for medium sweet and so on until sweet mead results. Now take a look at the table below and you will see just how all this works out in practice.

It may be that your first reading will be below the first figure on the table – this being 1.070. Do not let this confuse you, merely add sugar or honey until the reading you want is reached. On the other hand, it could be that the first reading quite by chance is above 1.100. In this case, if a bone-dry mead is wanted, a little more water will reduce the gravity reading, to the required 1.100.

Bear in mind that if one gallon has a reading of 1.100, two gallons with the same amount of honey in each will have the same reading. Three gallons with the same amount of honey in each will also have the same reading. It will be seen from this that no matter how much mead is being made the reading will be the same as if one gallon is being made. This is because each gallon contains the same amount of honey. For example, let us suppose three and a half pounds of honey made up to one gallon gives a reading of 1.100; seven pounds made up to two gallons will still give a reading of 1.100. Similarly, ten and a half pounds made up to three gallons will also give this reading, and so on up the scale no matter how much mead is being made.

Important. If you start with a gravity of 1.100 to make a dry mead – the most popular sort – and this turns out medium sweet or sweet, then it means that fermentation has stuck, in other words, it has stopped prematurely. See Sticking Ferments.

If it had not stuck, fermentation would have gone on to make the amount of alcohol required so that all the sugar in the honey had been fermented out, leaving a dry mead.

Those using the hydrometer may take the reading when all fermentation has ceased to check the amount of alcohol made. Those starting off with a gravity of 1.110 or below should end with a reading of 1.000 or less. Those beginning with a reading above 1.110, will find that the figure above this will still register on the hydrometer. For example, if they began with a reading of 1.120, they should end up with a reading of 1.010. This is because sugar representing 110 degrees on the hydrometer has been fermented out. In this case, the resulting mead is of 14.5% of alcohol by volume with sugar representing 10 degrees on the hydrometer left unfermented to sweeten the mead slightly. The same will apply to all readings above the 1.110 figure.

Note. Many people are puzzled when diluting honey after taking the reading with a hydrometer. One person wrote that they had a mixture of honey and water with a specific gravity of 1.180. He wanted to reduce this to make two gallons with a reading of 1.090. In other words he wanted a bone-dry mead of 11.9% of alcohol by volume. But, he wrote, ’surely in making this up to two gallons I shall reduce the reading to ‘590?’ The point overlooked here, of course, was that the water he would have added already has the gravity of 1.000. Therefore, no matter how much water he added, the reading would not go below 1.000. He had overlooked that the figures above the 1.000 mark are all we are concerned with as it is these that record the amount of sugar in the mixture. In his case, if he had done as he wanted to he would have done the right thing, for he would have reduced the reading of .180 – the reading above the 1.000 which represented the sugar content of his mixture – to the figure 1.090. The fact that his hydrometer would record a reading of 1.0g0 is because the water in the mixture has the gravity of 1.000. To make it even more simple, look at it this way -

Water – 1.000
Sugar 90
Specific Gravity – 1.090 or total gravity of mixture.

Certain operators using the hydrometer, like to use enough honey to give a reading of 1.100 and to ferment this, as they know that this is the best figure to start with. I do recommend this for it will be found that whichever yeast is used, it will ferment much better when not too much sugar is present. The reading of 1.100 is the best to use as this ensures that the yeast action is not impeded and that maximum alcohol will be obtained. This means, of course, that unless more honey or sugar is added, the mead will be dry. But because the yeast does better when less sugar is present, more sugar or honey may be added after some of the sugar already there has been used up.

Therefore, always start off with a gravity of 1.100 and add sugar or honey representing the figure above this after say five or six days fermentation. Sugar is best for this later addition as it is easier to calculate how much to use. ~t oz. will raise the gravity of one gallon by five degrees; 5 oz. will raise it ten degrees. Therefore, if you want to start with a gravity of 1.110, start, actually, with a reading of 1.100 and add five ounces of sugar later on. Ten ounces added after starting with a gravity of 1.100 will have the effect of having started with a reading of 1.120. These points are made for those who will want to make less dry or sweet meads.

As with all wines, mead may be sweet, medium or dry. It may also be sparkling. To make sparkling mead one must start with a gravity of 1.100 and when fermentation has finished the hydrometer reading should be 1.000 or less. The mead may then be primed as for beers, and put in screw-stoppered bottles where refermentation will charge the mead with gas in the same way as beers. But because we use rather more sugar in mead making (the sugar being in the honey), it is not always safe to rely on the hydrometer to give deadly accurate results of fermentation. By this, I mean that we are sometimes unsure whether all sugar has been fermented out.

Now, if we primed a mead to make it sparkling and some sugar remained unfermented, this, in addition to that used from priming, would charge the mead with so much gas that the bottles might explode. So, my advice is to leave sparkling meads to those with experience, unless you are certain that all sugar has been fermented out before priming.

There are many sorts of mead: Sack mead is sweet mead of about 14% of alcohol by volume; Metheglin is the same as Sack mead but is spiced according to whim – and often ruined, incidentally, by the over zealous. This may be dry or sweet.

The spices and other flavoring are for some reason referred to as cruits. Their variety is limited only by the scope of the imagination. I am not fond of spiced mead – at least, not that flavored with ginger and clove. Not only do I dislike it for itself, but I consider it a waste of good honey to use ginger and cloves. If you want a ginger-flavored or clove-flavored wine, surely less regal basic ingredients could be used. Many people ruin elderberry wine with cloves so that they have clove wine rather than an elderberry wine finely flavored with clove. So don’t spoil good spiced meads or Metheglins by over-spicing.

Rosemary, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, mace and cinnamon are the usual flavorings and these must be added to suit the tastes of the operator. Start with a little and increase the amount until you have the strength of flavour required. This will vary greatly with each operator and the only guidance I can give is not to add more than one clove to the gallon to start with and only a very small amount of bruised root ginger. Better not to add enough and be able to increase the amount in safety than to over-do it at the start.