:QUOTE [quotetype:personal]
Mead is the oldest fermented drink humans ever made. Honey, water, yeast, and patience. That has always been all it takes.


:COUNTER.half
340 Grams

:INFO
Starting Simple: Traditional Mead
For a one-gallon batch, you need about 1.1 to 1.4 kg of quality honey (darker wildflower honeys give more complex flavor), 3.5 liters of water, and one packet of wine or mead yeast (Lalvin 71B is a solid first choice). No boiling needed. Boiling drives off aroma compounds in the honey.


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Sanitize Everything
Dissolve one campden tablet or use a no-rinse sanitizer (like Star San) on
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:INFO
Sanitize Everything
Dissolve one campden tablet or use a no-rinse sanitizer (like Star San) on every piece of equipment: fermenter, airlock, spoon, funnel. Any wild bacteria or yeast in your equipment will compete with your mead yeast and produce off-flavors. Sanitation is


:PATH
Mix and Pitch
Add honey to your fermenter, pour in room-temperature water, and stir
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:INFO
Mix and Pitch
Add honey to your fermenter, pour in room-temperature water, and stir vigorously for 3 to 5 minutes to incorporate oxygen (the yeast needs it at this early stage). Rehydrate your yeast per packet instructions or sprinkle directly onto the must. Fit the


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Fermentation and Racking
Vigorous bubbling will begin within 12 to 48 hours.
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:INFO
Fermentation and Racking
Vigorous bubbling will begin within 12 to 48 hours. After the first week, add a small pinch of yeast nutrients if available. Once bubbling slows to less than once per minute (usually week 2 to 4), rack the mead off the sediment into a clean vessel using


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Clarifying and Bottling
Let the mead clear in a cool location for another 2 to 4 weeks.
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:INFO
Clarifying and Bottling
Let the mead clear in a cool location for another 2 to 4 weeks. It will drop bright on its own. Taste it. If it is still quite sweet, fermentation may not be complete. Once stable and clear, bottle into sanitized wine bottles or flip-top bottles and


:CHECKLIST
Before You Bottle
[ ] Airlock has been still for at least 72 hours
[ ] Specific gravity reading is stable over 2 days (if using a hydrometer)
[ ] Mead has cleared noticeably and sediment has settled
[ ] Flavor is balanced and not unpleasantly hot or sulfuric
[ ] All bottles are sanitized and dry

:NOTE
On Honey Quality
The quality of your honey determines the ceiling of your mead. Raw local wildflower honey or varietal honeys like orange blossom or buckwheat will produce something complex and genuinely interesting. Cheap blended grocery store honey produces thin, unremarkable mead. Buy the best honey you can reasonably afford for this.