"mead of meath" ancient irish mead recipe

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Steed

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mead-of-meath-recipe-and-fermentation.jpg


the recipe on the photo is not precise and leaves things out.
i decided to tweak the recipe directions and i ratiod the recipe to a one gallon batch instead of a 6 gallon batch like in the picture.

at face value this mead (or ale if you double ferment by adding honey durring bottling) is supposidly a classical irish mead from the county of meath. it is said to have been drank by irish kings..
as i am 100% irish and a beekeeper i decided to give this batch of mead a go with a little interpotation of the ingrediants and directions.
this is my second batch of mead so please do not be harsh if i am doing something wrong.
input and advice is appreciated!

i hope you have luck in bringing this age old mead recipe to life.


one gallon ingredients:
3LB honey (i am using raw honey)
1/2LB Honey malted Barley (i am using milled barley)
1 2/3 cups of Heather tips (i am using dried heather tips (2oz))
2/3 cups of elderflowers (i am using ground elderflowers (2oz))
1 teaspoon of irish moss (not much is needed i have about 4oz with much to spare)
1/3 cup of oak chips (i am using american white oak)

instructions for a 1 gallon batch of "mead of meath"
heat 2/3 gallon of water
steep 1/2LB of barley
steep 1/2 cup of heather tips
strain heather tips and barley into half a gallon of 170 degree water
EDIT:
add 1/2 cup of heather tips
add 1/3 cup of elderflower
mix in 3LB of honey
bring wort to a boil for an hour
add 1 teaspoon of irish moss to be boiled for 15 minutes before letting cool
strain wort into fermenting container
END OF EDIT:
add 1/3 cup of heather to brew
also add 1/3 cup of elderflower to brew
cool to room temperature
add champagne yeast
after one week in ferment, add 1/3 cup of heather tips and 1/3 cup of oak chips

if carbonation is desired add honey before bottling; sweeten to taste.

i will be following this recipe for one gallon tonight and i will sample when taking gravity and let you know how it tastes.

i am going to carbonate one bottle when fermentation is complete.
i am unsure how long it will take for fermentation to finish.
i found this mead recipe online.

i was googling for an irish mead and came across a website and this photo that claimed a bunch of history and greatness to this mead.
so i decided:
this is what i am going to undertake tonight.
wish me luck!

questions?
comments?
tips?
please feel free to add to the thread.
 
Last edited:
You may want to include some nutrient. And perhaps use a less aggressive yeast..71B is a yeast that many (most?) commercial mead makers use - low maintenance yeast and a yeast that does not produce a lot of hydrogen sulfide. It's also a yeast that allows the honey to hold on to its flavors - champagne yeasts blow them away..
 
You may want to include some nutrient. And perhaps use a less aggressive yeast..71B is a yeast that many (most?) commercial mead makers use - low maintenance yeast and a yeast that does not produce a lot of hydrogen sulfide. It's also a yeast that allows the honey to hold on to its flavors - champagne yeasts blow them away..

the recipe called for champagne yeast and the brewery didnt have any scotish ale yeast... should i just use wine yeast?

it says red star on the packet pasteur champagne E491 on the back... is that good or bad?
 
i also have Montrachet Red Star
and .... bread yeast fleishmans lol
 
original gravity reading: 1.122; only filled about 2/3ish a gallon. had to heat water, add honey and mix in. added about another half a pound of honey due to how much water i was to add. a lot of water must have come out with the malt.

took second gravity reading after filling the carboy... 1.100. i am no expert on what that means i am just taking the measurment to figure out alc content later on.
 
Potential ABV with a starting gravity of 1.100 is about 13% but given that some of the sugars from the barley are not likely to be fermentable I think this will be potentially closer to about 11 or 12%
 
When will you rack to the secondary?

i am going to rack to another carboy and add the elderflowers heather tips and oak chips in the new container after a week and after 60 days then bottle with a filter to keep the stuff out of the final
 
Well it's been a week I strained most of the stuff out. Took gravity 1.026 and then added some dry oak chips heather tips and elderflowers. Tastes a bit hoppy but it should age well. I'm at about 10% abv. OG was 1.100 Added a little water to compensate for the bit lost from straining. Probably sitting at about 9.5% abv is my guess. Not much water added just enough to get her filled to the neck of the carboy.
 
Steed you based in Ireland?

no, i am a citizen of the republic of ireland through my parents being citizens but i was born in; and live in new york. i chose to brew this to get a taste of my heritage. it tastes a bit hoppy so far but it will age well i think. my father owns a farm in ireland that he said i will inherit if he passes. if i decide to move out there i will connect with people of the same interests and get some traditional irish recipes and perhaps send bottles to friends here in new york so they too can have a taste of ireland. but in the mean time i will be taking time to perfect the mead of meath!
this is pretty much the only irish recipe of mead i could find online; i read somewhere that a lot of mead brewers in europe keep their mead recipes secrete, like a craftsman would keep his trade secretes secrete to keep his work valued.
makes sence; ya wouldnt want everybody brewing your stuff if you make a living brewing and marketing lol
 
Awesome! Yea honestly mead isn't very popular over here. I don't think there's been any kind of meadery in Ireland for a long long time. Saying that it's definitely getting some interest. I made my first batch this year and it's getting more and more entries every year in our National Homebrew competition.
 
Awesome! Yea honestly mead isn't very popular over here. I don't think there's been any kind of meadery in Ireland for a long long time. Saying that it's definitely getting some interest. I made my first batch this year and it's getting more and more entries every year in our National Homebrew competition.

great! i feel that the more mead brewing grows, the more bee keeping will grow which means more bees more honey more crops and more booze!!! seems like a good thing to me! hahaha if you have any irish recipes for mead, particularly older ones i would be interested in trying to brew them!
 
great! i feel that the more mead brewing grows, the more bee keeping will grow which means more bees more honey more crops and more booze!!! seems like a good thing to me! hahaha if you have any irish recipes for mead, particularly older ones i would be interested in trying to brew them!

Yea definitely its hard to get any kind of bulk honey here if not impossible so I really do hope it picks up. If i find any recipes i'll get back to you!
 
Yea definitely its hard to get any kind of bulk honey here if not impossible so I really do hope it picks up. If i find any recipes i'll get back to you!

thanks. il be posting on here when my mead of meath brew is ready for bottling and give a taste analysis.
 
HELLO FELLOWS!
good news!
My "mead of meath" has a final gravity of 1.000
the taste is strong almost like the bite of a champange.
it is very hoppy tasting like a nice IPA beer.
it has only been 14 days but the gravity is at its final resting place at 1.000

i added oak chips, heather tips, and elderflowers a week ago and they made for a very strong flavor.
i used no fruit to feed the yeasts in this brew so the yeast ate the honey very quickly.
the mead is strong tasting but may mellow out over time.

what should i do now? should i shake the bottle up and see if it continues fermenting? should i filter out the must" and bottle the mead?
where should i age my mead cool dark closet?

should i back sweeten with honey to get some honey flavor back?
 
alright guys i have had mead of meath in secondary fermentation vessel for awhile and it was at 1.000 gravity last i checked. i am going to sample some and post the gravity momentarily.. stay tuned cheers:mug:
 
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