Short Course in Mead Making: Prepper’s Abbreviated Guide to Mead
It’s probably the first alcoholic beverage ever consumed. Honey, water, and any natural occurring yeast is all you need to make Mead– a fermented beverage of honey, water, yeast, and sometimes grains, herbs, and spices. It can range from a low of 4% alcohol by volume through a natural yeast to a brain-numbing 20% alcohol content with today’s modern yeast strains. You can make as little as a gallon or five gallons or more at a time.
In this post, I’ll run you through the basic process of mead creation. To put a little twist on it, though, we’ll ferment three batches—two with commercially developed yeasts and one with yeast we capture from the wild. I’ll take you step-by-step, so let’s jump in…
THE MEAD MAKING PROCESS
Here’s what you will need, a pot sufficient to boil at least one gallon of water or several gallons of water, up to 5 gallons. The size of the pot will depend on the size of the batch and the size of the vessel you will ferment your batch. I will be referencing both a five-gallon batch I made and a one-gallon batch to explain the process through this video. You can scale up or down based on your capabilities and once you understand the fundamental quantities and ratios. You will also need up to a 1-quart jar of honey per gallon of water. The best ratio is 2-3 pounds of honey per gallon of water. I will explain this in the next section. You will also need at least one gallon of water, preferably Springwater, as this isn’t chlorinated and has a higher mineral content that your yeast will love…
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
