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zacschmidt

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Hello everyone, I've been reading all threads on this form for quite a while and am interested in starting to brew mead. From what I've read, besides getting a good recipe and patience, mead seems fairly easy to brew.

However I am a broke college student and have just enough to cover bills and a basic starter kit for small batches doesn't come very cheap.

I'm looking for somewhere to get some equipment that is cheap or possible used but in good condition or home made equipment. If someone might be able to provide a few leads that would be awesome!

Or if someone on here like an experienced brewer had some old used equipment that they no longer use that they might like to sell for cheap or donate that would be really nice!
 
Since mead takes a lot of time to age, you could start small and then add the other pieces as you need them. For instance, you certainly wouldn't need bottling equipment right away... kettle, sanitizer, fermenter, airlock, yeast nutrient, yeast, honey will get you started.

Kettle; assuming you will boil the must. You can probably borrow one from someone.

Fermenter/airlock; $20-$25 at your local homebrew supplier. There are numerous online sources that will get you in the same ball park.

yeast/yeast nutrient; under $10 from LHBS or online

honey; ??? prices can vary widely depending on type. Also depends on how much you use for the recipe

sanitizer; $1.50 Lots of people poo-poo bleach, but I think it is great for the beginner on a budget. It cleans and sanitizes which not many other products do. It does, however, require proper rinsing. Beach has been used by both home brewers and pros for a long time. Simple reason- it works
 
Mead is probably the cheapest equipment setup possible. You don't need a kettle, especially if you use reverse osmosis water at 39¢ a gallon. All you need is a fermenter bucket and airlock ($10) and some nutrient and yeast to get started. Then honey. You can either buy Wild Mountain Honey for about $2 a pound, or you can buy Manuka honey for $15 a pound. Or anything in between. Everything else you can buy down the road, while your mead is fermenting.
 
bottlebomber said:
Mead is probably the cheapest equipment setup possible. You don't need a kettle, especially if you use reverse osmosis water at 39¢ a gallon. All you need is a fermenter bucket and airlock ($10) and some nutrient and yeast to get started. Then honey. You can either buy Wild Mountain Honey for about $2 a pound, or you can buy Manuka honey for $15 a pound. Or anything in between. Everything else you can buy down the road, while your mead is fermenting.
Click to expand...

Wild Mountain honey is 2 dollars where you are?! In the UK, for a pound jar of decent honey you're looking at like 3-4 pounds (about 5-6 dollars).
 
I started on a budget as well.
Here's the basics on cheap:

1.) Fermenter: 4 liter table wine jugs(carlo rossi) or one gallon jugs(apple cider, etc.)

2.)Airlock and drilled stopper. three bucks.

3.)Honey

4.) Yeast nutrient. 1.25

5.) Yeast, 1.25

6.) Campden tablet if your not gonna boil, saves you the pot.
 
If you REALLY wanna go cheap. Buy your favorite soda in a 2 liter bottle - drink it! Drill a hole in the cap, place an airlock in it and voilá! You have a fermentor.

Buy a jar of honey you like and mix some water and honey, add cheap dry wine yeast (they're like 3 USD here in Sweden) and some yeast nutrients. It'll ferment dry, so occasionally add more honey until it stops fermenting. Then add some more if you want to sweeten it, then let it clear and age.

Let's see here, by my local prices we're up to 22 SEK for the soda, 17 SEK for the yeast, 40 SEK-ish for the nutrients (there is a cheap wine and nutrient combo you can buy here, but I haven't tried it. I think they're about 20 SEK), 20-ish SEK for the airlock, 50-ish SEK for a 700 gram jar of honey. That's 150-ish SEK or around 20 USD. Or 17-ish USD for the cheap wine and nutrient combo.
 
look up the JOAM recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/

You could get by with the following:
- 1 gallon container(empty milk jug, empty juice container, my LHBS sells 1 gal glass jugs for about $5).
- Air lock or balloon. Just put the balloon on top, and vent it when it gets big so it doesn't blow off.
- Sanitizer(bleach works or sanitizer from the LHBS would work too)
- Empty pop bottles, sanitized, with screw on tops(they're not wine bottles, but you won't need a corker or capper), and I'm assuming a college student could convince friends to save a few bottles :D
- Ingredients for recipe, which should run you about $20 bucks at the grocery store(give or take depending on honey prices where you shop).

Also, as was previously mentioned, if you indicate where you're located, someone on this forum may be willing to make small equipment donations.
 
If you are a broke college student and interested in fermenting beverages, unless you have a free or cheap source of honey, I would rather just spend the $50-$100 on an all-grain setup and brew beer if it were me. Making mead is not cheap. Honey is expensive, especially compared to getting grain.

It is certainly a much cheaper setup to make mead, but every batch will cost quite a bit more than an equivalent batch of beer, at least in my own experience. And of course you do generally need to wait months to properly enjoy the products of your labor when you make mead.

That being said, I have a friend who made mead in college using the free honey packets from the cafeteria. Naturally it took a very large number of packets, and quite a bit of manual labor to make a batch using free honey, but I'm just putting it out there as a possibility.
 
Thank you all for responding! All of you have gave some good advice/ ideas/ leads. If anyone is curious I am a student at Ball State University.
 
I'm gonna say cider is cheaper than mead. If we're gonna get into that.

I got started on the Carlo Rossi / No. 6 bung / two chamber airlock, and it cost me $15.. $12.xx of that was for the rossi, which got me good and drunk before I even got into the stinkin project :D

Look up "five day country cider" and tell me it gets much cheaper than that - I think the most expensive gallon of cider I've ever bought was $8 and I was in a pinch (setting a friend up, closest/only store was the super snooty organic joint).

Other ideas for the impoverished noob would include - yeast washing, EZ-cap or washed-out soda bottles, and sanitizing with bleach (unless you're paying for your own water, in which case you *may* get by cheaper with a no rinse, obv!)
 
weirdboy said:
That being said, I have a friend who made mead in college using the free honey packets from the cafeteria. Naturally it took a very large number of packets, and quite a bit of manual labor to make a batch using free honey, but I'm just putting it out there as a possibility.
Click to expand...

Wow...seriously?

Was it a full 5-gallon batch?:D
 
A lot of those honey packets are actually just high fructose corn syrup spiked with honey and honey flavoring...
 
definitely a plus for cider! Mucho cheapo. At a supermarket you can get a gallon of unpreserved (except vitamin c) apple juice for 4 dollars. A dollar for yeast makes the raw ingredients a whopping 5 dollars.

If you want the mead, I find 2.8 lbs for seven bucks at my grocer. No need to get into the quality, expensive honeys yet.
 
I used the cheap "clover" honey on mine. Seems to have worked out so far! I used the quotes because I'm a bit skeptical... lol
 
Agreed that cider is easier and cheaper. It has it's own 1 gallon jug too.
1) 1-gallon cider ($5)
2) airlock ($2)
3) wine yeast ($1)

bleach for sanitation ("borrowed" from parents.)
Or for mead, use that one gallon jug, the same equipment and buy honey... or "borrow" some honey packets from the dorm lunch rooms.
 
KevinM said:
Agreed that cider is easier and cheaper. It has it's own 1 gallon jug too.
1) 1-gallon cider ($5)
2) airlock ($2)
3) wine yeast ($1)

bleach for sanitation ("borrowed" from parents.)
Or for mead, use that one gallon jug, the same equipment and buy honey... or "borrow" some honey packets from the dorm lunch rooms.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I usually make cider, but I get in a mead or two once in a while when I can afford to!

I was reading about someone who started off making cider in college, they bought a gallon of cider (preservitive free) and left it out on the counter for a week with the lid cracked open. Not the best cider, but it was something. I would recomend getting a little more high tech (term used very loosely) and get an airlock and some wine yeast.

Good luck!
 
Even if cider is cheaper, I think that's besides the point. You can make wine with free berries, fruits and flowers found in nature, and you won't even have to buy yeast. But he didn't ask how to make cheap alcohol, he asked for advice on how to make mead on a meager budget.

Even if it's more expensive, mead is something completely different - there is no reason to compromise. Buy the equipment you need, and make any kind of fermented beverage you damn well like. :p
 
I dunno, oni. That first post states a definite willingness to compromise by accepting donated/sold-at-a-discount equipment.

People come on and say "where do I start?" and the answer is JAOM, often. Our newfound friend doesn't profess to lack knowledge, he lacks money. And that poverty has pointed the whole thread in this direction. If there were no reason to compromise, wouldn't the answer be "wash out an old peanut butter jar, cut a hole in the lid and save your spare change in it to buy a proper brewing setup"?? lol

Edited to add: I'm a poor college student myself, and the advice I'm sharing is the direction I myself took. I still love mead - haven't been drinking it because I'm trying to let it mellow - but cider is just fine for a day to day beverage, and one can make it quickly/easily enough to have it on hand and not need to buy beer, saving one money, so that one can..........
 
By compromise, I wasn't refering to the equipment. My point was that he wanted to make mead, but couldn't afford the equipment - so others suggested making cider, since it's cheaper.
 
Onihige said:
Even if cider is cheaper, I think that's besides the point. You can make wine with free berries, fruits and flowers found in nature, and you won't even have to buy yeast. But he didn't ask how to make cheap alcohol, he asked for advice on how to make mead on a meager budget.

Even if it's more expensive, mead is something completely different - there is no reason to compromise. Buy the equipment you need, and make any kind of fermented beverage you damn well like. :p
Click to expand...

Well he has got a lot of information to look over. As far as the cider recomendation goes, he can take it or leave it. I'd rather have it out there for him to disregard then have him come back later and say "Why didn't someone tell me how much cheaper cider is?"

Just saying...

To OP:

But I would definitey go with the rout of JAOM if you have your heart set on mead!

And I would also recomend trying both Cider and Mead if you are up for it. I love both and I would recommend giving both a shot!
 
Thanks guys I didn't think I would raise this much controversy, but I love all the information! Continued advice is always welcome.

I've been looking up some items at a home brew store, my only problem is it is more then an hour away and I have no car here at school so anything I get has to be shipped. Most small stuff isn't that bad but when it's a larger item like a brew bucket or something fragile like a carboy it starts to get pricey.

As for the mead vs cider I have considered doing 1 over the other, but I want to try my hand at mead first. Mainly because My girlfriend and I have a friend that is getting married in about a year from now and I have read a few threads about giving mead in decorative bottles as a gift. So I'd like to get started soon so it can be aged properly and drinkable by then.

I've found a recipe that I like, it's a vanilla mead that seems really simple. I'd like to make 2, 1 gallon batches to start, 1 for them and 1 for me. For the gift I've thought about doing 4, 375mL bottles, 1 for each of them in their honey moon and 1 for each on their 6 months, 1 sparkling 750mL champagne bottle for their 1 year and 2 750ml bottles for 2 years and 5 years if they can hold onto it that long. Lol

So I guess if this helps anyone thats giving advice on what I'm looking for I hope it helps!

If need be I can post the recipe later today or tomorrow if you have any advice on that.

Thanks again so much and happy brewing to you all!!!
 
Just an hour away? No trains or busses? Can't you get a lift from a friend? And before you order a glass carboy, try looking at second hand stores, they usually have demijohns at least. Really cheap ones, too. Some larger super markets have fermentation buckets, too.

Speaking of friends, try brewing together with a friend. It's fun and it can cut some costs. Only drawback is that you have to share the results. :p
 
Onihige said:
By compromise, I wasn't refering to the equipment. My point was that he wanted to make mead, but couldn't afford the equipment - so others suggested making cider, since it's cheaper.
Click to expand...

Valid! sorry to distract. As was said below though, better to throw it out there and have it disregarded Maybe we should compromise and try to talk him into making cyser :)

Zac - The only things you'll really need from the LHBS (or online supply site) are bungs, airlocks and yeast. The rest you oughta be able to find by keepin your eyes peeled. Especially if you're goin for a 1 gallon primary each time, swing by the liquor store and see if they have 1 gallon bottles of Carlo Rossi. Others have used apple juice/apple cider bottles but I haven't seen any around (in glass) that I've wanted to use.
 
Whole Foods sells one gallon of apple cider in one gallon glass jugs for about seven bucks. you can drink the cider, ORRRRRR throw in some honey for a cyser.
 
zacschmidt said:
I've been looking up some items at a home brew store, my only problem is it is more then an hour away and I have no car here at school so anything I get has to be shipped. Most small stuff isn't that bad but when it's a larger item like a brew bucket or something fragile like a carboy it starts to get pricey.

As for the mead vs cider I have considered doing 1 over the other, but I want to try my hand at mead first. Mainly because My girlfriend and I have a friend that is getting married in about a year from now and I have read a few threads about giving mead in decorative bottles as a gift. So I'd like to get started soon so it can be aged properly and drinkable by then.

I've found a recipe that I like, it's a vanilla mead that seems really simple. I'd like to make 2, 1 gallon batches to start, 1 for them and 1 for me. For the gift I've thought about doing 4, 375mL bottles, 1 for each of them in their honey moon and 1 for each on their 6 months, 1 sparkling 750mL champagne bottle for their 1 year and 2 750ml bottles for 2 years and 5 years if they can hold onto it that long. Lol
QUOTE]

That makes a difference. Definately mead, and not something that's too cheap honeywise, but within a budget.

An hour away isn't too bad, see if you can find someone who can drive you. Bribe them with making a quick and cheap gallon of alcoholic cider? :D

Go ahead and post the recipe to us. The price point is really going to be the honey, since that will be approximately $4 a pound (give or take) and a gallon batch will be around 3 pounds. ($24 for 2 gallons).
You will want the 1-gallon jugs. Again, you can use something as simple as a water jug (get a gallon of water from the store. Or a bigger 2.5 gallon). Or you can go for something that's glass (some stores sell glass 1-gallon ciders, some just do 1-gallon wines).

If you make a full gallon, you're going to wind up with a little less, just due to some attritionable loss (liquid and yeast at the bottom of the jug/container.) Making a sparkling from the same recipe as the still *could* be a problem, but it's going to depend on the recipe.
Click to expand...
 
Is there a cafeteria? You could talk to whoever is working there to see if they have any glass or plastic jugs they can give you. Be careful what they had in them before, I am sure that glass can be washed out, but not so much for plastic... A large Mayo bucket could work after being thoroughly cleaned; I don't think they shouldn't hold any strong scents. I'd probably stay away from a pickle bucket or something holding mustard.

Those large plastic water jugs should work in a pinch as well, just be careful not to scratch them, I hear that can turn out bad.

If you soak it with hot water and vinegar (I think 1/4 cup of vinegar per gallon should work) it should get a lot of the scents out. I've also heard oxyclean can work too, but I have never tried it!
 
Sorry I didn't get to post this sooner but here is the recipe I wanted to use:

15 Lbs. Fireweed Honey
6 Vanilla beans, split
6 bags Earl Grey Tea
Lavlin EC-1118 yeast
Nutrient & Energizer
8OZ bottle Pure Vanilla Extract

Make a starter with 1qt. warm water, 1/4 cup honey, nutrient, energizer and yeast. Let this work until time to pitch.

Bring 1 gallon water to a bare boil, add vanilla beans and take off the heat. Add tea bags, let steep for 15 minutes, remove tea bags. Add honey, stir to dissolve. Add 1 gallon cool water, stir well then add to primary. Add water to bring to 5 gallon mark. Add vanilla extract, stir well, add starter.

Rack to secondary after 7-10 days straining out vanilla beans.
Rack after another 3 weeks, should be still in another 2-3 weeks.

I will probably use a different honey and will use a regular black tea ( more then likely Lipton) and will scale down as needed. My only concern is when reading it is said that most of your vanilla/ aroma and flavors are blown out of the air lock in primary, should I use less beans/ extract in primary and more in secondary to get a better flavor and vanilla smell to it?

Any other advice is gladly taken!
 
Holy gods man that is a HUGE amount of vanilla! I would axe the extract altogether, and just add the highly aromatic vanilla beans in secondary. Im assuming a 5 gallon batch, so that will give you about 16-19% abv depending on the honey, plenty enough to do a good extraction on that vanilla. (And possibly enough to knock that champagne yeast out of the game, giving you a sweet sack mead kind of a thing). With a recipe like that I'm starting to take your "I'm on a really tight budget" thing with a grain of salt ;)
 
Well it's going to be scaled down to 1 gallon batches so 1 bean per gallon I figured would be plenty and about 3.5 pounds per gallon. I want to do 2, 1 gallon batch but I might only do 1 for now, well see.
 
Great thread... I'm a poor grad student that has been brewing for years, but have been humoring the idea of trying a one gallon jug of mead.
 
Hind site is 20/20 but why didn't you ask for stuff for Christmas? There are so many times I've wished I could have some idea what to buy for some people.

Tomico
 
Heard from a friend of mine who says they tried the grocery store mead recipe, and it turned out pretty well and cost them less than $15.
 
+1 on JAOM I mean it's it's just so easy. I like to double the oranges though, I find there isn't enough orange flavour. Also, not meaning to negate from the whole brewing aspect, and obviously your are set on making mead, but IF you were just looking for an easy cheap drink, U-brew would be the cheapest and easiest. (50 cents for a pint of beer, and you almost don't have to do a thing)
 
Do JOAM, make it in a 1 gal plastic water jug with a balloon airlock. The honey will cost more than everything else combined, and you'll still walk out of the store spending about $15. My friend made wine using prunes and natural yeast in a trash bag stuffed inside a toilet when he was in jail.
 

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