
The methodology for making mead is virtually the same as for that of winemaking. The main difference is the content of the original must. In the case of wine, you start with fruit juice which may be enhanced with additional sugar. If honey is used instead of sugar, a melomel is made instead of a wine. The same spices which are used in making metheglyns are frequently used when making wines. Keeping this in mind, then, it becomes obvious that all equipment, supplies and practices which are used in wine can be used in the same manner when making meads, melomels and metheglyns.
Weak Honey Drink - (More commonly called Small Mead)
Digby p. 107/147
Take nine pints of warm fountain water, and dissolve in it one pint of pure White-honey, by laving it therein, till it be dissolved. Then boil it gently, skimming it all the while, till all the scum be perfectly scummed off; and after that boil it a little longer, peradventure a quarter of an hour. In all it will require two or three hours boiling, so that at last one third part may be consumed. About a quarter of an hour before you cease boiling, and take it from the fire, put to it a little spoonful of cleansed and sliced Ginger; and almost half as much of the thin yellow rind of Orange, when you are even ready to take it from the fire, so as the Orange boil only one walm in it. Then pour it into a well-glased strong deep great Gally-pot, and let it stand so, till it be almost cold, that it be scarce Luke-warm. Then put to it a little silver-spoonful of pure Ale-yest, and work it together with a Ladle to make it ferment: as soon as it beginneth to do so, cover it close with a fit cover, and put a thick dubbled woollen cloth about it. Cast all things so that this may be done when you are going to bed. Next morning when you rise, you will find the barm gathered all together in the middle; scum it clean off with a silver-spoon and a feather, and bottle up the Liquor, stopping it very close. It will be ready to drink in two or three days; but it will keep well a month or two. It will be from the first very quick and pleasant.
11 pints water
1 T peeled, sliced fresh ginger (~1/4 oz)
1/2 t yeast
1 pint honey = 1 1/2 lb
1/2 T orange peel
Dissolve the honey in the water in a large pot and bring to a boil. Let it boil down to 2/3 the original volume (8 pints), skimming periodically. This will take about 2 1/2 to 3 hours; by the end it should be clear. About 15 minutes before it is done, add the ginger. At the end, add the orange peel, let it boil a minute or so, and remove from the heat. The orange peel should be the yellow part only, not the white; a potato peeler works well to get off the peel. Let the mead cool to lukewarm, then add the yeast. The original recipe appears to use a top fermenting ale yeast, but dried bread yeast works. Cover and let sit 24-36 hours. Bottle it, using sturdy bottles; the fermentation builds up considerable pressure. Refrigerate after three or four days. Beware of exploding bottles. The mead will be drinkable in a week, but better if you leave it longer.
This recipe is modified from the original by reducing the proportion of honey and lengthening the time of fermentation before bottling. Both changes are intended to reduce the incidence of broken bottles. Using 2 liter plastic soda bottles is unaesthetic, but they are safer than glass.

Blackberry Mead
Source: Chuck Stringer (cstringe@nickel.ucs.indiana.edu)
Mead Lover's Digest #289, 10 April 1994
Ingredients (2 gallons):
1 gallon ripe blackberries
4 1/2 lbs clover honey from Kroger (grocery)
acid blend and yeast nutrient according to package directions
Montrache wine yeast
Procedure:
We picked about a gallon of good ripe berries, rinsed and froze them. Since the patch wasn't huge, we picked some every few days freezing a pint or two at a time. During this time I started a simple mead with 2 1/2lbs of clover honey from the grocery and enough water to make a gallon. I used Montrache wine yeast and added yeast nutrient and acid blend according to the directions on the package. Fermentation stopped after three weeks. We defrosted the berries in a small wastebasket I use for a primary, then mashed them with a sterilized wine bottle. The mead was then added. Two weeks later we racked the liquid off of the fruit and into a carboy. Another 2 lbs of honey and enough water to fill it up to 2 gallons. It was bottled a month later and now at eight months, it's perfect. The only thing I would do differently is leave out most of the acid blend.
Comments:
Up through six months of aging, it wasn't very good, but at eight it was wonderful. It turned out like a really good red wine with a blackberry nose and aftertaste.
Melomel -- Mead with Fruit
Crazy-Good Mead
Source: Dave Polaschek (DaveP@county.lmt.mn.org)
Mead Lover's Digest #230, 26 October 1993
Ingredients:
10 lbs light clover honey
2 lbs blueberries (I used frozen)
1 gallon apple cider (pasteurized)
1/2 oz Saaz hops
yeast nutrient to instructions on package
1 packs champagne yeast (I used WYeast on this one)
Procedure:
Bring 2.5-3 gallons of water to a boil. Add honey, bring to a boil again. Toss in the yeast nutrient and hops and boil for about a half- hour, skimming off any scum that forms on the surface during the boil. Put berries into a hop-boiling bag. Lower heat to a very low simmer, and toss in the berries, mashing the bag around to break them up some. Continue to steep the fruit for about 10-15 minutes while you get the fermenter ready. Put the gallon of apple cider into the fermenter when the boil is about done, and then add the hot wort. Add water to bring the total up to 5 gallons. Let cool, and pitch yeast.
When the gravity has dropped below 0.980, bottle and wait. 3 months wait makes for eminently drinkable stuff, but the longer you can wait, the better. Final color is a light delicate pink, not unlike some white zins, so you may want to store bottles on their head and then freeze the neck to get the sediment out of the bottles, but I've just been very careful decanting into glasses with pretty good results.
Specifics:
Alcohol content: 23 proof
Comments:
This is something I whipped up last winter, and I sure wish more of it had survived until now (I'm down to my last 3 bottles, and it just keeps getting better).

Pyment -- Mead with Grapes
Source: Mark Taratoot (SLNDW@CC.USU.EDU)
Mead Lover's Digest#119, 27 April 1993
Ingredients:
1 gallon local honey (gift from a friend)
10 pounds of concord grapes
2-3 tsp acid blend
3-5 tsp yeast nutrient
campden tablets
Redstar Champagne yeast
Procedure:
I started this stuff on November 1. We had already had a couple of frosts, so the grapes were really sweet. When I pitched the yeast I had three gallons. I used one of the gallons for topping off after each racking (and the occaisonal sample) and by the time I bottled it I had less than 2.5 gallons. The stuff was deliceous right out of the fermenter. After about a month I took an 8 ounce bottle to a party for all to sample. It really is yummy.
Comments:
My question is, How in the hell am I supposed to let this stuff age when it is so good even now? What can I expect to happen to the flavors during the next year or two? I assume it will become drier, which would probably be an improvement.
Simha
Source: Gary Shea (shea@cs.ukans.edu)
Mead Lover's Digest #241, 7 December 1993
Ingredients (for 1 gallon):
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
water to make a gallon
two lemons
yeast
Procedure:
Combine sugars, add water to make 1 gallon, boil. Squeeze two lemons into the mix and throw them in, quartered. When it's cooled enough add 1/8 tsp of yeast (I used bread yeast). Allow to ferment for a day or two at ~65-70F. Bottle, adding a few raisins and a tsp of sugar to each bottle. Allow to sit at ~65-70F until the raisins are sitting at the top (< 1 day). Refrigerate or place in quite cool place
Comments:
Drink in a couple weeks. So far I have only done one batch and I drank it over the course of two weeks. It keeps getting better and better. Plastic Calistoga bottles are what I've been using, they work great and seem to have no flavor.
This is a Finnish drink called 'sima' or maybe 'simha', made only for May Day celebrations. The recipes for it that I've seen (and made) are all pretty much like this.
