Queen Elisabeth’s Mead

A variety of my favorite recipes.

Queen Elisabeth’s Mead

Source: justcoz@triton.unm.edu

Ingredients (for 1 gallon):

3--1/2 pounds, honey

1/4 teaspoon, acid blend

1 tablespoon, yeast nutrient

1/2 ounce, rosemary

1/2 ounce, bay leaves

1/2 ounce, thyme

1/4 ounce, sweet briar

1 Campden tablet 1 package, Madeira yeast

1 gallon, water

Procedure:

In the primary, dissolve the honey, acid blend, yeast nutrient and yeast in 1 gallon of luke-warm water. Add the Campden Tablet. Attach airlock and let sit until ferment is complete (about 3 - 5 weeks). Siphon off sediment into secondary and let sit for 6 months. When wine is 6 months old, rack back into primary. Place herbs in nylon straining bag (securely tied) and place in primary. Taste the wine daily until the flavor extracted from the herbs is satisfactory, then remove the bag of herbs. Mature for at least an additional 6 months, racking every 2 months to aid clearing.

Comments:

Queen Elizabeth's own royal recipe for mead has survived to this day, although no brewer in his senses would want to make such a sickly concoction. This is a modern adaptation of Her Majesty's recipe which should prove satisfactory insofar as the herbs are infused in the finished mead. This enables the brewer to exercise much greater control over how much herb flavor is imparted to the drink.

Maple Mead

Source: coz@triton.unm.edu

Ingredients:

3--1/4 pounds, maple syrup

7 pints, water

1/2 teaspoon, acid blend

3/4 teaspoon, yeast energizer

1 campden tablet

1 package, Red Star champagne yeast

Procedure:

It'll take about a day to really get fermenting, and should go like crazy for 4 to 6 weeks. Rack off the yeast sediment at that time and then re-rack at least 3 times at 3 month intervals. It'll be ready to bottle by 9 or 10 months of age. The longer it sits, the mellower and smoother it becomes.

Comments:

If you are going to make a small quantity of this brew, I suggest that you follow this recipe fairly closely. I, on the other hand, make mead 5 gallons at a time and so my recipe for a large batch varies a bit. If you want to make a lot, try it this way:

in a 6 gallon primary, place:

1 1/2 gallons of maple syrup

4 gallons water

2 tsp. acid blend

4 tsp. yeast energizer

1 campden tablet

1 pkg. Red Star champagne yeast

2nd Mead

Source: Jacob Galley (gal2@midway.uchicago.edu)

Ingredients:

7 pounds, clover honey (60 min. boil)

5 pounds, orange blossom honey (60 minutes)

1 pound, chopped raisins (dark) (30 minutes)

1 teaspoon, thyme (30 minutes)

1 pack, Red Star champagne yeast

yeast nutrient

Comments:

This stuff smells incredible---slightly orange, slightly fruity, very much like flowers. The grape juice had not fermented out completely (it's not explosive, yet), but neither was it noticeably sweet. The grape masks whatever young-taste the mead still has in it (not much). After two weeks it was lightly carbonated and a very clear pink.

Mead Ale

Source: James Smith (SMITH%8616.span@fedex.msfc.nasa.gov)

Ingredients:

5--7 pounds, honey

1/2 gallon jug)

2 cracked cinnamon sticks

20 cracked allspice

other flavorings (ginger, hops, orange peel, nutmeg, etc.)

maybe a couple pounds of fruit

Edme ale yeast

Comments:

My hypothesis, which has a little data to support it, is that boiling the honeywort reduced fermentation time (while also removing a lot of the honey essence, I imagine). Note that the above is a 5 gallon batch. I don't have a hydrometer so I can't guess the OG or FG, but this stuff is pretty thin. Fermentation takes 2-3 weeks, sometimes I rack, sometimes not. Basically I don't put much effort into this stuff; hell, it's 97 degrees here and I'm not running my AC enough to get the temperature down past 80, so why try to make anything award-winning when it's doomed to failure?

Mead

Source: Rudyard A.K. Porter (rp9780@medtronic.com)

Ingredients (for 1 gallon):

2--1/2 pounds, clover honey

2 teaspoons, yeast nutrient

1/2 pack, Red Star champagne yeast

Apple cider to fill to 1 gallon

Procedure:

Heat (not boil)1/2 gallon apple cider, yeast nutrients, and honey to about 170 degrees. Hold at 170 for 30 minutes. Skim off any foam that develops, although my honey was very "clean" and had no foam develop. Transfer to 1 gal cider jug and fill to within 1" of top with cool apple cider. Wait for temperature to drop below 80 degrees (refrigerator is nice place to cool this one) and then pitch the yeast.

Comments:

I bottled one with a little coriander and one with some cinnamon. These should be interesting......

Specifics:

O.G.: 1.130

F.G.: 1.030

Wassail Mead

Source: Mal Card card@apollo.hp.com,

Ingredients:

12-1/2 pounds light clover honey

4 teaspoons acid blend

5 teaspoons yeast nutrient

wine yeast

Procedure:

Add honey, acid blend, and yeast nutrient to 2 gallons of water and boil for 1/2 hour. Add this to 1-1/2 gallons of cold water in the primary fermenter. Pitch yeast when the temperature reaches 70-75 degrees. Use a blow off tube if you use a carboy. Allow fermentation to proceed for 3 weeks or more (up to several months). When the mead becomes fairly clear, rack to secondary. Attach air-lock. Leave the mead to sit at least 3 weeks. When yeast settles to bottom and is clear, it is ready to bottle. Adding 3/4 cup of corn sugar at bottling will produce a sparkling mead. Sparkling meads should not be made with an original gravity higher than 1.090.

Specifics:

O.G.: 1.100

F.G.: 1.000

Quick Mead

Source: Kevin Karplus (karplus@ararat.ucsc.edu)

Ingredients:

3 gallons, water

5 pounds, honey

1/3 cup, jasmine tea

1/2 teaspoon, ground ginger

2 teaspoons, cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon, ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon, ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon, ground nutmeg

ale yeast

Procedure:

Boil water, adding tea and spices. Remove from heat and stir in honey (some mead makers boil the honey, skimming the scum as it forms). Cover boiled water, and set aside to cool (this usually takes a long time, so start on the next step). Make a yeast starter solution by boiling a cup of water and a tablespoon or two of honey. Add starter to cooled liquid. Cover and ferment using blow tube or fermentation lock. Rack two or three times to get rid of sediment.

The less honey, the lighter the drink, and the quicker it can be made. 1 pound per gallon is the minimum, 5 pounds per gallon is about the maximum for a sweet dessert wine. This mead is a metheglin because of the tea. The yeast is pitched one day after starting the batch, the crud skimmed about 10 days later, then wait 3 days and rack to secondary. Wait 2 more weeks and bottle about 4 weeks from start to finish.

Comments:

Yield is 3.1 gallons. Excellent clarity, fairly sweet flavor, slight sediment, light gold color. An excellent batch.

Sack Mead

Source: Kevin Karplus (karplus@ararat.ucsc.edu)

Ingredients:

3 gallons, water

16 pounds, honey

1/4 cup, Keemun tea

1/4 cup, oolong tea

2 teaspoons, cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon, whole anise seed

18 clusters, cardamom, crushed

20 allspice, crushed

1 inch, Galangal root, crushed yeast

unflavored gelatin (fining)

Procedure:

Boil water, adding tea and spices. Remove from heat and stir in honey. (Some mead makers boil the honey, skimming the scum as it forms). Cover boiled water, and set aside to cool (this usually takes a long time, so start on the next step). Make a yeast starter solution by boiling a cup of water and a tablespoon or two of honey. Add starter to cooled liquid. Cover and ferment using blow tube or fermentation lock. Rack two or three times to get rid of sediment.

This recipe took about 6-1/2 months from brewing to bottling. First rack took place 15 days after brewing. 2nd rack, 3 weeks later. 3rd rack 3 months later. Gelatin added 1 month later. Bottled about 2-1/2 months later. Yield 3.7 gallons.

Comments:

Sweet, smooth, potent. A dessert wine. This is perhaps the best of my

20 or more batches of mead.

Another Mead

Source: Carl West (eisen@kopf.hq.ileaf.com)

Ingredients (for 1 gallon):

1 gallon, bottled water

2 pounds, generic honey

1 Medium lemon, zest and juice

1/4 teaspoon, Red Star Champagne yeast

Procedure:

Simmer these together and skim off the scum as it rises. If you wait for it all to rise so you can skim just once and you miss the moment, the scum sinks, never to rise again. Pitch yeast when cool and kept it at room temp (65-72) for 5 weeks where it bubbled about once every 5 seconds for the whole time.

Specifics:

Primary Ferment: 5 weeks

Malomel

Source: Michael Zenter (zentner@ecn.purdue.edu)

Ingredients:

16 pounds, wildflower honey

5 gallons, water

5 kiwis

3 star fruits

1 pound, cranberries

acid blend to .45 tartaric

MeV liquid mead yeast culture

Procedure:

Pasteurized the honey and fruit at about 180 degrees for 10-15 minutes, ran through a chiller, pitched with VERY vigorous aeration. Let it sit with the fruit in for 7 days, then rack off.

Specifics:

O.G.: 1.124

Standby Mead

Source: Michael Tighe (tighe@inmet.camb.inmet.com)

Ingredients (for 1 gallon):

1 gallon, Water

2 pounds, honey

1 Thumb size piece of ginger

2 Tablespoons, Orange peel (no white pith please)

Champagne yeast

Procedure:

Bring the honey and water to a boil skimming off the white and brown foam as you heat it. Simmer/skim for about minutes per gallon (5 gallons = 20 min.). When the boiling is almost done, add the ginger and orange peel. Cool (I usually let it cool "naturally"). Work with yeast (Werka Mead Yeast is good, champagne or general purpose wine yeast will do). Bottle after two weeks (while it's still sweet and still quite active). Refrigerate the bottles after another two weeks (to avoid the glass grenade syndrome and to make the yeast settle out of the mead).

Comments:

To quote the original source: "It will be quick and pleasant from the very start and will keep for a month or more." Other variations included:

Add lots more honey and let it ferment till it stops. Bottle and wait a month or more, you get champagne.

Use some other citrus fruit peel, such as lemon or grapefruit.

Add some other fruit flavoring (crushed berries of some sort).

Load up on the ginger (my friend makes Death by Ginger by using pounds of ginger per gallon!)

Specifics:

Primary Ferment: 2--3 weeks

Honey Ale (Mead)

Source: David Haberman (habermand@afal-edwards.af.mil)

Ingredients:

4 pounds, Buckwheat honey

4 ounces, Styrian Goldings hops

7 grams, Red Star Ale yeast

1 teaspoon, acid blend

1 teaspoon, yeast nutrient

1 cup, corn sugar

Procedure:

Boil honey and 3 gallons water with 3 ounces hops n 47 minutes, add 1 ounce last 7 minutes. Before adding hops, skim off the scum that rises to the top. Cool and pour into fermenter and top to 5 gallons. Add acid blend, nutrients and re-hydrated yeast. When fermentation completes, mix with 1 cup sugar, a little yeast and bottle.

Comments:

This was the very first beer I ever made and 7 years ago most people I knew didn't worry about the bittering units of the hops. I would guess that they were around 3% AAU's. Red star was the main yeast used at the time. Yeast nutrient is necessary since the honey does not have the required food for the beasties. I used buckwheat honey because I like the flavor. Do not drink this beer until at least 1 month after bottling. Since it is made from honey the ale improves with age. A bottle that I saved for 4 and a half years tasted so good that I wish I had saved more! The beer had a very nice honey aroma and flavor. The hops were enough to balance the sweetness. I don't think that I would change anything except try to make more and keep it a while before drinking.

Specifics:

O.G.: 1.031

F.G.: 0.997

Orange Ginger Mead

Source: Brian Bliss (bliss@csrd.uiuc.edu)

Ingredients (for 6 gallons):

15 pounds, clover honey

181 grams, grated ginger

2 tablespoons, gypsum

3 teaspoons, yeast energizer

1 ounce, Hallertauer hops (boil)

1/2 ounce, Hallertauer hops (finish)

4-5 pounds, oranges

juice from 1 orange

1/2 teaspoon Irish Moss

champagne yeast (Red Star)

Procedure:

Combine honey, ginger, orange juice, 1/2 ounce of hops, and yeast energizer and bring to a boil. Remove a small amount of wort to be used for a yeast starter (allow starter to cool, and add yeast). Boil the remaining wort 30 minutes. Add another 1/2 oz hops and boil for additional 30 minutes. Turn off heat, cut 4-5 lbs of oranges in half and squeeze into the wort. Toss in the orange halves after squeezing. Let sit 12 min. Strain into fermenter sparged into cold water, while removing the orange halves and squeezing the last bit out (with clean hands,-very hot,-ouch!).

Comments:

After several months it's just gEting drinkable now. If I let a bottle sit in the ‘fridge for about a week, and decant very carefully, it's very good, and gives one heck of a buzz.

Specifics:

O.G.: 1.088

F.G.: 0.998

Primary Ferment: 12 days at 65--70 degrees

Secondary Ferment: 1 month

Traditional Mead

Source: John Carl Brown (brown@ cbnewsh.cb.att.com)

Ingredients:

12--1/2 pounds, honey (6--1/2 of clover, 6 of wildflower)

4 teaspoons, acid blend

5 teaspoons, yeast nutrient

2 packages, Red Star Pasteur Champagne yeast

Procedure:

On process, there is contention about the need to boil honey. I've seen suggestions to use Campden tablets, to pasteurize by holding at 170 degrees, and to boil for only 15 minutes. Honey itself inhibits bacterial activity but does not kill organisms. Advocates of non-boiling feel too much flavor and aroma are lost by boiling. On the other hand boiling is said to ensure a clean wort and aid in clearing. I boiled, rehydrated the yeast and pitched at 80 degrees and then have kept the carboy in a 70 degree room.

Comments:

I plan to make this a sparkling mead by priming with 1/2 cup of corn sugar when bottling.

Maple Wine and Traditional Mead

Source: John Gorman (john@rsi.com)

Ingredients:

8-9 quarts, maple syrup or about 5--1/2 quarts, honey

5 teaspoons, yeast nutrient

15 grams (1 pack), champagne or any white wine yeast

Procedure:

Hydrate the yeast in warm water and dissolve the yeast nutrient in hot water. Mix the maple syrup or honey with cold water in a large open container to almost 5 gallons at your target specific gravity. Splash or spray the water to oxygenate the must so that the yeast can multiply rapidly. Pitch the dissolved yeast and yeast nutrient, dregs included, into a glass carboy. Then splash in the must and slosh around until well mixed, oxygenated, and full. Use a blow off tube for the first few days and then switch to a water trap. After about 60 days, when the maple wine is crystal clear and you can shine a flashlight beam right thru the carboy onto the wall, bottle your maple wine. It is ready to drink immediately. Make some for Christmas!

I always use yeast nutrient and plenty of yeast for starter, so the fermentation takes off with a bang and the rapidly rising alcohol content quickly kills anything else. For this reason I have never heated the maple syrup or honey, and have had no problems with contamination.

Comments:

The question was asked: "what would a mead made with pure maple syrup taste like?" Now on my sixth batch, I can say "like ambrosia.

Maple wine becomes crystal clear with a beautiful sherry color within 60 days. I find that mead will usually clarify in 90-120 days. If you choose to bottle the mead before it is clear, it will clarify in the bottles, leaving an unsightly but delicious sediment.

Specifics:

O.G.: 1.120---1.130

F.G.: 1.015---1.030

Cranberry Mead

Source: John Wyllie (skl6p@cc.usu.edu)

Ingredients (for 2 gallons):

1 gallon, ocean spray cranberry juice (included a nice 1 gal glass fermenter!)

5 pounds, clover honey

1/2 teaspoon, yeast nutrient

1/2 teaspoon, acid blend

a handful of raising Red star champagne yeast

Procedure:

I added a Campden tablet to the juice (24 hrs) then pasteurized the honey with water to make 1 gallon. I have two 1 gallon jugs for fermenting. I'm still waiting for the lag to end and ferment to begin. It has gotten cool in the basement, so brought one upstairs, and pitched another sachet of yeast into the two jugs.

Batwing Blood

Source: POWDERHOUND #6 @1503004

List of Ingredients:

10 lbs. light amber honey

1 tbsp. gypsum

4 tsp. acid blend

1/4 tsp. Irish Moss

1 1/2 lbs. corn sugar

boil 15 min. Scrape sides

add the following fruit just after boiling stops. Crush it well first,

12 oz. (variety) of Strawberry,blue,rasp,black- all berry

1 lb. blackberry

1 lb. strawberry

no more heat, let steep for 20 min. stir now and then pour into 3 Gal. cold water

pitch 15 grams of champagne yeast at 70 - 78 degrees

also add 1/2 oz. yeast nutrient.

Procedure:

let it ferment for a week or two then rack it into a secondary fermenter and forget about it for about 3 mo. When it is clear put it up in jugs it may ferment for a little while longer so watch out for pressure in the bottles. I suppose you could add a bit of sugar and bottle & cap it but that wouldn't be mead - or would it? It may sound very weird and quite unorthodox for a mead recipe but it worked great for me the result is very blood red.