This is the recipie for my first experiment with wild yeast mead, and in my opinion one of the best I have made so far! It was made in 2002 and I have saved a few bottles to see how it turned out after some years; and it is delicious!
Everything that comes into contact with the ingredients or mead is cleaned carefully, with a detergent normally used by beer/ wine makers, before use!
VIKING MEAD WITH SLOE
For this I used all together 9 kilos of honey and 3 kilo berries from blackthorn. I picked the fruit in nature to ensure it was as clean as possible, then it was quickly rinsed in cold water and frozen.
2,5 kilos of honey was boiled with 5 litres of water for about 1/2 hour, all the foam on the surface was removed. When no more foam builded the honey water was left to cool to room temperature, poured into the 25 litre carboy and added the defrosted berries. Airlock on.
The bottle was stored in a warm place and shaken daily. After a week the fermenting had started. After a few more days it was much stronger.
25 days after starting the mead it was filtered into another carboy to remove the berries, and another 1,5 kilos of honey boiled with 3 litres of water was added when lukewarm.
6 weeks after start another 5 kilos of honey boiled with 6 litres of water was added when cooled. I added a little more boiled water to reach the 25 litre mark on the bottle.
After around 7 months, when the mead did not bubble any more when shaken, it was poured into a glass carboy and left to clear with a air tight lid on, in a colder place to speed up the process. After another month or so it was ready.