Ben's Ancient Blueberry Mead (Shameless Ripoff)

I'm a newbie brewer. So far, I've done two batches of cider (one came out decently). I decided mead is my thing, because it's made of honey and when you utter the name you sound like a viking. I also liked the ancient-ness of it.

I like recipes that are easy for now. I want something that takes about a month to ferment (not three years) and the less racking and obscure chemicals, the better. I even made my second batch of cider with natural yeast. It came out terrible but I still like the idea.

I've done one batch so far of Joe's Grape Mead. It came out so tasty I now have a batch of Ancient Orange going (just about ready). It's done in a month, uses yeast from the grocery store, oranges, cinnamon, honey, raisins, and no fancy chemicals. Woo!

So this recipe is almost the same as the ancient orange, except I used blueberries instead of oranges and cut out the spices.



3 1/2 pounds of honey (I'm too cheap to be picky)
A bowl of frozen blueberries (about two cups)
15 or so raisins (for yeast nutrients)
1 tsp Fleishmann’s bread yeast
1 clove

Follow the instructions on the Ancient Orange page, which are well-written.

Keep in mind that blueberries expand a bit more than you'd think. In my picture below, that's not enough room and after a few hours juice was coming out the top. Leave a bit more room than I did. After I drained a tiny bit it's now going great.

I'll let you know how this turns out. Maybe it's a crappy idea, I dunno!

Great idea, can't wait to see how this turns out!

So how's this coming along?

Hmm... maybe another recipe I should try in a small batch, since I'm planning on getting more 1 gal bottles to try a variety of recipes??

Just so I am clear.... You're just replacing the orange from the ancient recipe with blueberries at the same time you would have added the orange?

Joe's mead is most def. not done in a month. After 1 month it tastes like hot alcohol hooch, and tastes just ok until about 6-10+ months, when it started to taste really good. So keep some tucked away for a few months.

Hey all, sorry for the late update. Only two bottles of this left!

This was only my second batch of mead ever. It came out as well as the orange version. In fact, I think you could substitute just about any whole fruit for the orange and have it come out ok!

This mead is very sweet, use less honey if you don't want that desert wine kinda sweetness.

My wife loves this one, but I prefer something a little less syrupy. I love sweet stuff but this was just a bit much for me.

I have also brewed three or so batches of the quick grape recipe, and this has come out awesome. I've used different honeys and pure fruit juice (and one batch with a whole pomegranate). Nothing but awesome results. It's even a bit sparkly.

Not bashing this recipe, it's very easy and quick and yummy. But I've had more luck with the other one.

could you post your OG and FG? I'm curious how sweet it turned out. thinking of doing something similar.

Using bread yeast instead of brewers yeast is one reason it can end up underattenuated and cloyingly sweet.

Use brewer's yeast, and treat it as good as you can (rehydrate it, aerate when pitching, stagger nutrient additions, and degas the first week of primary 3x a day).

It'll attenuate properly, and won't throw wild off flavors that take a year to smooth/mellow out.

And nothing wrong with 'ripping off' a recipe if you are just trying to improve it. MOAM is nothing but an attempt to get a less pithy final mead that doesn't use bread yeast.


Believe me, I've done my share of bread yeast meads...they just aren't as good. Bread yeast if very one dimensional in how it ferments, and it just does a mediocre job at best. But again Joe's goal was for someone to be able to make a traditional mead with stuff from any grocery store.