First Mead!

Classification: mead, traditional mead, melomel

Source: B.J. Davis (java@indy.net), Mead Digest #436, October 15, 1995

Wow, I made my first mead! That was fun! My beer brewing roomie helped lots. She has made lots of great beer, but this was her first mead too. We made a basic mead recipe, and let it go 3 mo. Today we split it into 2 batches. To my half we added mixed berries and some cider to sweeten. To hers blueberries and ginger. A taste of the base mead, before adding it to the berry juice was interesting. Kind of tart with a cider-sweet background, and the honey was still there. I can't wait to taste it when it's finished.

Ingredients:

6lb. Grade A honey and 5lb. raw honey
1/2 tsp. gypsum
1/2 tsp. yeast energizer
1-1/2 tsp. acid blend
2 gal water
2 packs Red Star Flor Sherry yeast
Berries or spices to taste (see notes)

Procedure:

Heat to 210 F remove and add 3 gal chilled water, cool to 75 F and pitch 2 packets Red Star Flor Sherry yeast.

Ferment 3 months, then split batch in half. Crush fruit. Bring 2-1/2lb. cherries, 1lb. each raspberries & blackberries 1/2lb. blueberries, and 1/4 gal apple cider with water to make it a gal. to 160 F for 20 min. Cool to 75 F, pour in carboy add 2-1/2gal mead. The other 1/2 was done with 4-1/2 lbs. blueberries and 2-1/2 oz fresh ginger made into a tea. The berries were pasturized the same as above.

Specifics:

OG: 1075
FG: 1005