Your First Traditional Mead Recipe

Oct 11

Great! You have ingredients and everything is sanitised. For your first mead, I will step you through a basic traditional mead recipe skeleton, then give you a fully written example recipe.

Feel free to use this as a template for your own recipes. I highly suggest you have a written recipe before you start doing anything. It really helps avoid a lot of issues!

Traditional Mead Method (12% ABV) - 5 litre

Add 1.5 kgs of honey to a sanitised demijohn. I find adding by weight is far more reproducible than any other way.
Add nutrients specific to your type of yeast. (SNA article)
Add water to halfway, cap, and mix until honey is fully dissolved. A swirling motion works best for small demijohns. Large demijohns require a large spoon or a drill-powered stirrer.
Add water to just shy of 5 litres.
Add your prepared yeast. (Yeast Preparation article)
Allow the mead to ferment while adding nutrients at indicated intervals. (SNA article).
Monitor gravity drops until the mead has finished fermenting.
Cold crash (optional) and rack. (How To Cold Crash)
Stabilise and back sweeten to taste. (Stabilisation article)

As you can see, there are a lot of holes for you to fill in based on your recipe. While it may get ahead of the other articles in this guide, I want to give you an example recipe that is fully written. Since I’m the author of Bray’s One Month Mead, it’s only fitting it’s the BOMM.

Bray’s One Month Mead Recipe (12% ABV) - 5 litre

Must Preparation (Day 0)

To a sanitised demijohn, add 1.5 kgs of honey.
Add 2.6 grams potassium carbonate, 2.5 grams Fermaid K and 2.1 grams of Fermaid O.
Add water to halfway, cap, and mix until honey is fully dissolved. A swirling motion works best for small demijohns.
Add water to just shy of 5 litres.
Add the prepared yeast (See below)

Yeast Preparation

Allow the Wyeast 1388 yeast package to reach room temperature.
Activate the yeast via breaking the internal “smack” packet.
Wait for the yeast packet to swell. In general, this should take 10-15 minutes. Sometimes, it can take longer. If it doesn’t swell at all, the yeast may be dead due to poor storage or transport.
Pitch once the must and yeast are within 5 C of each other.
Add airlock to the demijohn.

Fermentation

Store the carboy in a temperature range of 20-22 C.
Add 2.1 grams of Fermaid O at Day 2 and another 2.1 grams of Fermaid O at Day 4.
Note: Adding nutrients will often cause the mead to produce lots of foam. Do this part in a sink or secondary container. Do not put the airlock back on until it has settled.
Monitor the gravity to determine when it reaches <1.000. (7-14 days)

Stabilisation

Note: Stabiliser can give the mead a weird taste when it is freshly added. It fades quickly so don’t worry!

Cold crash in a fridge until clear. Cold temperatures speed clearing, but clearing will occur without it. (optional)
Rack the clear mead into a new, sanitised demijohn using a siphon while leaving the lees/yeast cake behind.
Add 0.4 grams of potassium metabisulfite and 0.8 grams of potassium sorbate.
Mix well.
After 24 hours, add the following to your desired sweetness:
Dry - do nothing.
Off Dry - add 56 g honey (1.005).
Semi-Sweet - 112 g honey (1.010).
Sweet Mead - 168 g honey (1.020)

Note: If you aren’t sure, I suggest starting with off dry. Allow to stand a few days, and taste. You can always add more, but you cannot take it back!

Mix well, then allow the mead to clear again.
A few days after sweetening, you can cold crash again to speed clearing. (optional)
Bottle into sanitised bottles.

I know it seems like a lot, but it’s all very easy to do. You also get to drink while you are doing it! Some of that may be Greek to you now, but continue reading the guide and all will be explained.