Making Mead: Step By Step

Mead making was how I got into the world of homebrewing, so I figured a simple, step by step how to on mead making might benefit some of the newer members.


First rehydrate the yeast in some warm water, I'm using 71b wine yeast here


Soak 1 teaspoon of PBW or Oxyclean in a one gallon jug


Take your airlock, with a #6 drilled rubber stopper, and soak it in some Iodaphor or Star San


For one gallon, 3 lbs of honey will make approximately a 14% abv mead


Warm the honey in some water so it will flow easier


Empty the jug of the PBW, then refill it with some iodaphor. Once it has soaked for a while, dump the iodaphor out and fill it with the honey


Top up with water, and give it a good shake. A really good shake. You want to make sure all of the honey is dissolved.


And that's it! Fix your airlock, and forget about it for a month!

How long should you ferment it? How long should you age it? I've been interested in making mead lately but haven't really done any research on it yet.

This is great! Thanks Mike.

Does the yeast fully attenuate without any additional nutrients? It might be nice if it didn't... leaving a little bit of sweetness behind.

Thanks Mike - I plan on making a mead soon. Can I use a regular ale yeast (notty etc) or is a wine, champagne yeast better ?

Mead is a notoriously slow fermenter, a month in primary isn't unusual. Use your hydrometer to tell if it's done. Once you're sure it's done, bottle it up and forget about it for a year. If you can forget about it longer, it'll be that much better

The yeast may attenuate completely without nutrients, but it may take a bit longer to finish fermenting. I actually did add half a teaspoon of yeast nutrient to this mead at yeast pitching.

Ale yeast will do the job, but not completely, leaving you with a much sweeter mead. Wine yeast will get you down to a dry mead, with the full 14% abv. I've used American ale yeast on a 1.098 og mead, and it only got it down to 1.030

If you guys want some more detailed info, the mead section on this forum is outstanding, with tons of info from master meadmakers.

NOW.... I have to try this, knowing the simlicity of it!!! Thanks for you quick tutorial. I think I'll pick up some Orange Blossom honey from whole foods on my way home.

Good write-up Mike. I know it's implied, but you never actually said when to pitch the yeast

AZ_IPA said:

Good write-up Mike. I know it's implied, but you never actually said when to pitch the yeast

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Lol, I know, I was walking the line between simplicity and detail. Guess I should have put in more detail

Cool! Pictures always get me excited...

I need to find some good honey now.

Defiantly planning some mead towards the end of summer when I pull honey from the bee hive! Thanks for inspiration and motivation

Could you use clover honey as well?

joey11bball said:

Could you use clover honey as well?

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Absolutely. Just keep in mind that the better quality honey you use, the better mead comes out.

Clover honey results in a very simple mead. Often it's used for fruit meads. Try fermenting it with blueberries or other fruit. Just be careful the fruit doesn't clog the airlock, otherwise this happens:

RegionalChaos said:

Defiantly planning some mead towards the end of summer when I pull honey from the bee hive! Thanks for inspiration and motivation

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Who doesn't want you to make mead??

I've wanted to try making a mead, but I also want to try it before I make it. No use in spending over a year one something I may hate

Wow that looks like it was quite an explosion. Could you leave it in the primary for longer then a month or would the yeast cake put in some off flavors after a while?

joey11bball said:

Wow that looks like it was quite an explosion. Could you leave it in the primary for longer then a month or would the yeast cake put in some off flavors after a while?

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That's my question as well. Could I just leave it in the primary for 9-12 months and then bottle it or would it be better to bottle after a month and let the bottles set?

joey11bball said:

Wow that looks like it was quite an explosion. Could you leave it in the primary for longer then a month or would the yeast cake put in some off flavors after a while?

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ibbones said:

That's my question as well. Could I just leave it in the primary for 9-12 months and then bottle it or would it be better to bottle after a month and let the bottles set?

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A lot of people will wait until fermentation is complete (usually 1-2 months, sometimes faster depending on several factors), rack off the lees (yeast, sediment), and then wait until completely clear to bottle.

A couple things to note here, first off I'd recommend always boiling your water and honey into a wort before adding to your fermenter, you never know what pathogens or just odd flavor additives may have ended up in or on your honey bottles.
I've also found that a yeast starter goes a long way with mead, since the fermentation is typically so slow to begin with you want your yeast as happy as it can be by the time you pitch it.
Honey lacks yeast nutrients which is why the fermentation is typically so slow, one can utilize a Yeast Nutrient and Diammonium Phosphate (a mineral suppliment) to expedite a healthier fermentation.

Also if you're concerned about your fruit additives clogging your airlocks, you might try a concentrate instead of raw fruit. I use Welsh's juice extract in my melomel to great success.

Thanks for the tut'

Quantum said:

A couple things to note here, first off I'd recommend always boiling your water and honey into a wort before adding to your fermenter, you never know what pathogens or just odd flavor additives may have ended up in or on your honey bottles.

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Boiling is not needed. You can do it, but it's not needed.

AZ_IPA said:

Boiling is not needed. You can do it, but it's not needed.

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Yes, there are two camps of thought on this one, and it's been argued back and forth for a while. In the end, both ways make mead, you just have to decide for yourself which makes the best mead for you.

Personally, I'm a no-boil guy. Primarily because I'm lazy, but also because a lot of the honey I use has been processed already, and is very clean. More raw honeys, like those straight from the hive will benefit from heating up (don't boil!) and skimming all the junk that comes to the top. If you want more on the heat/don't heat debate, search the mead forum, there's plenty there.

What temperature is this fermented at? What temperature is it 'condition' (is that the right term) after racking once?
This is a 4L or 1gallon carboy to 3lbs of Honey?

It's an older thread but I think we're still on track. The fermentation temperature depends on what yeast you use. Champagne yeasts are pretty forgiving, but if you want to use an ale yeast for example you'll want to pay closer attention to the temp range, mainly to be sure not to have it too warm because that can result in off flavors.

Aging on or off the lees I think is personal preference. It seems aging on the lees imparts more flavor but it may not be a flavor everyone enjoys.

How much honey you use depends on a couple things. First do you want a dry mead, or are you hoping for some residual sweetness? For a dry mead you take the max abv your yeast will tolerate such as 14% or 18%, then estimating the sugar content of the honey you can use something like the gotmead calculator to determine how much honey you need in how much volume to get that (very roughly it's 5% abv per pound of sweetener per gallon).

For a sweet mead you need to use either so much sweetener the yeasts can't eat it all before reaching their max abv, or, you have to stabilize it later (i..e kill the yeasts off) and add honey 'backsweeten' to taste.