Mead is a honey-based drink. There are 2 types of mead: boiled, which is boiled from honey with herbs and spices, and set, obtained after fermentation. Boiled mead can be stored for a very long time (up to 10 years), and the delivered drink is essentially a honey kvass.
Pick your recipe
You will need
- Old mead recipe:
- • honey - 1.25 kg,
- • water - 8 l,
- • hops - 2 tablespoons,
- • gelatin - 1/2 teaspoon,
- • cardamom and ginger to taste.
- Cranberry mead:
- • 1 kg of honey,
- • 2.5 l of water,
- • 1 liter of cranberry juice,
- • cinnamon and cloves to taste,
- • 100 g of yeast.
- Pink mead:
- • 5 l of water,
- • 2 kg of honey,
- • 300 g dried blueberries,
- • 2 tablespoons of yeast,
- • 10 g of gelatin,
- • 4-5 drops of rose oil.
- Homemade Mead:
- • honey - 1.5 kg,
- • water - 10 l,
- • hop cones - 10 g,
- • yeast - 3 g.
- Old mead with cherry:
- • honey - 2 kg,
- • water - 4 glasses,
- • cherry - 4-5 kg.
- Suzdal mead:
- • 300 g of honey
- • 2 l of water,
- • 5 g hop cones,
- • 1 tablespoon of yeast,
- • a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Instruction manual
1
There are a lot of cooking options for mead, with different methods, all kinds of spices, herbs, roots, yeast, hop cones, berries can be included in the recipe, in addition to honey. It is important to understand that the taste of a freshly brewed or just fermented drink is highly appreciated by an amateur, however, its palatability improves with age. The longer the mead is stored, the tastier and looks like a noble wine.
2
Antique Mead Recipe
This ancient culinary recipe of Russian cuisine suggests cooking mead using various seasonings. To prepare a drink, put honey in an enamel bucket, pour boiling water and leave for a day. Then bring the mass to a boil and cook on low heat for an hour.
Add hops to the bucket, bring to a boil again and boil for 1 hour, then turn off the heat and cool the mass. Repeat this procedure 4-5 times. Upon completion, cool the honey for the last time, pour into a large wooden barrel, add cardamom and gelatin diluted according to the instructions. Well cork the barrel and keep the drink for 2-3 weeks.
If fermentation does not start or is weak, add yeast to the mass. After the initial stage of fermentation is finished, pour the mead into bottles, close them tightly, put them in a cool place for 3 months, if necessary, fill them with sand. The mead’s readiness can be checked by raising a burning match over it. If fermentation is still underway, the match fire will go out.
During fermentation it is better to use a water trap so that instead of mead, vinegar does not form by chance. To do this, pour the drink into a jar, tightly close the lid. There must be a hole in the cap into which the hose must be inserted. All connections must be sealed. The end of the hose in the vessel should be above the liquid level, and the other is lowered into a container of water.
3
Cranberry mead
This is one of the fastest recipes for making mead. Dilute honey with water in a deep container, boil. Remove the foam, pour the drink into the bottle, add cranberry juice, yeast, spices and put in a warm place for 2 days. After that, close the bottle well and put it away for 20 days in a cold place (cellar or refrigerator).
4
Pink mead
Dissolve honey in warm water and cook for an hour, not forgetting to remove the foam. Add yeast and infusion of dried blueberries, and then leave the mass to ferment for a week. At the end of this step, strain the mass, add the gelatin dissolved in the instructions, rose oil, mix everything. Close the drink tightly and leave it for 2 months in a cold place. After that, you can try mead.
5
Homemade mead
Pour water into a large pot and put on fire, boil. Add honey to boiling water, mix well to completely dissolve, and boil for another 5 minutes, not forgetting to remove the foam. When the foam stops appearing, add hops to the drink, cover and remove from heat.
In a separate container, dilute the yeast in sweetened water (3 grams will make up about 1 teaspoon). When the yeast mass swells, it is ready. After the honey drink has cooled to about 50 ° C, add the yeast mass into it, cover it and put it in a warm place for 5 days, during which time the contents should ferment.
After stopping the fermentation process, remove the hops from the pan, and strain the drink through cheesecloth. Pour the resulting liquid into bottles and place in a cool place to store. After a week, the homemade mead is ready for use.
6
Old mead with cherry
Put honey in a deep pot, fill with water and boil the syrup. While boiling, stir the mass periodically and remove the foam until it forms. At the end of the process, turn off the heat and let the syrup cool.
Prepare the cherry: rinse well, remove the seeds. Pour the berries into a clean bottle with a long neck and fill with cooled honey syrup. Cover the neck of the bottle with a piece of raw cloth and leave for 3 days in a warm place to ferment.
As soon as the contents of the bottle begin to ferment, cover the neck with a cork from a rolled piece of canvas and leave it for 3 months to mature further. After this time, the old mead on cherry will be ready for use. However, the taste of mead will be better if the exposure time is 6-9 months.
7
Suzdal mead
Pour 2 liters of water into an enameled pan and put honey. Stir the mixture thoroughly over low heat, periodically removing the foam. After boiling, cook for 5 minutes. Add a small bump of hops and a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Dilute the yeast in water, leave them for 1 hour before swelling and add to the mixture. Then put the homemade mead for fermentation. After 3 days, pour the drink into bottles, cork tightly and remove to insist in a cold place for a month.
note
Hop cones can be found at the pharmacy. For mead, it is advisable to use special wine yeast, in extreme cases, hop will do. For their preparation, dry hops need to be poured with a double amount of hot water and boiled until the broth is halved, in the process of dipping pop-up hops with a spoon. Insist the mixture for 8-10 hours, strain and squeeze.
Pour a glass of the resulting hop decoction into a half-liter jar, add 1 spoon of sugar and 1/2 cup flour. Mix everything until smooth. Cover this solution with a cloth and put in a warm place for 2 days. When the solution increases about 2 times - the yeast will be ready.
Useful advice
Honey in this drink acts as an excellent antibacterial and anti-inflammatory agent. Honey effectively cleanses the body thanks to the diuretic and diaphoretic components in the composition, has a beneficial effect on pulmonary ventilation. The content of essential oils in the drink makes it an indispensable medicine in the treatment of respiratory diseases.
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