Want to make some mead

[bluedragoon85]

Hi, a friend of mine has become interested in making some mead; however, he doesn't know much about the process of doing mead. He just wants to make a traditional sweet mead. Does this involve just using water, honey and some special kind of yeast to give that sweet finish? It would be great if someone could provide some helpful links or information with some good recipes and instructions to the process. Thank you very much

 

[Rick_R]

I'm thinking of making some mead as well. Here's a good starting point:

Homebrewtalk Wiki on Mead

Rick

 

[avidhomebrewer]

Yeah, mead is basically water and honey, lots of honey. Depending on the strength, you can go anywhere from 10# up to 15-18# of honey/5 gallons. I have made several meads, from your basic sweet mead to a melomel, which I used 18# of honey and 5# of blueberries for a batch that was about 16 or so %. For the yeast, Wyeast makes a sweet and a dry mead strain. View them here:
http://www.wyeastlab.com/he_m_productinformation.cfm

I'm sure that White Labs also makes mead yeasts, but don't know the strain number off hand. My first batch (5 gallons) was 10# of orange blossom honey, some yeast nutrient and the sweet mead strain from Wyeast. Let it ferment for quite a while and don't expect a whole lot of carbonation, unless you force-carbonate.

 

[malkore]

www.gotmead.com

The Compleat Meadmaker - by Ken Schramm