Mead: simpler than you think

Strip away the folklore and mead is honey, water and yeast — nothing more. It has been brewed in Britain for centuries, from the monastic houses to the kitchen tables of hobbyists who fancied something different from wine kits. A traditional mead, sometimes called a show mead, contains no fruit, spices or hops. It is the cleanest way to learn the craft, and it gives you a plain base to tinker with once you have a batch or two behind you.

One thing is worth knowing before you begin. Mead ferments like a wine, but honey is a poor source of the nutrients yeast needs to work efficiently. Left to its own devices, a mead can crawl, stall and sulk. Look after it with a little nutrient and a steady temperature, though, and it will give you something genuinely lovely: dry, floral, and far more complex than three ingredients have any right to be.

What you need for a 4.5-litre batch

A one-gallon demijohn is the ideal size for a first attempt. It keeps the cost low and the quantities manageable, and it fits in an airing cupboard or the back of a wardrobe without complaint. For a single batch you will need:

• A 4.5-litre demijohn with a drilled bung and airlock
• 1.3 to 1.4 kg of honey — a light, mild variety such as acacia, clover or a gentle wildflower blend. Strong, dark honey makes a heavy mead that takes years to soften
• Roughly 3.5 litres of water — bottled spring water or tap water that has been boiled and cooled. If your tap water tastes of chlorine, don't brew with it
• A wine, mead or champagne yeast — a dry wine yeast is fine; champagne yeast will take it drier and stronger
• Yeast nutrient, which is not optional in mead making
• A hydrometer and a trial jar, so you can actually measure what is happening
• A syphon tube with a bottling stick
• A no-rinse acid-based sanitiser
• Bottles — swing-top or corked wine bottles both work well

Sanitising: twenty minutes that saves the batch

Every surface that touches your mead once it has cooled must be clean and sanitised. This is not fussiness. Mead sits in the fermenter for weeks, and a stray wild yeast or acetobacter infection will turn your careful work into vinegar or a sherry-like disappointment.

Wash everything first with hot water and a little unscented washing-up liquid, then rinse thoroughly. Follow with a no-rinse sanitiser mixed to the strength on the bottle, and let the solution contact every surface for the full contact time. Don't forget the inside of the airlock, the bung, the syphon tube, the lid of the honey and your own hands. Work on a clean surface, and resist the temptation to peek by lifting the lid during fermentation — the airlock is there for a reason.

Mixing the must and pitching the yeast

Warm about a litre of your water to around 30°C — comfortably warm, not hot. Hot water drives off the delicate aromatics in honey, so never boil it. Stir the honey into the warm water until it has fully dissolved, then pour the lot into the sanitised demijohn.

Top up with cool water to around the shoulder of the demijohn, leaving headspace for the fermentation to foam. Fit the bung and shake the vessel hard for a minute or two to aerate it; yeast needs oxygen at this stage. Take a hydrometer reading and note it down. You are looking for something in the region of 1.100 to 1.110, which will ferment out to a dry mead of roughly 13 to 15 per cent alcohol.

Rehydrate your yeast in a little lukewarm water for fifteen minutes, then pitch it and give the demijohn another gentle swirl. Fit the airlock, half-filled with water or sanitiser, and put the vessel somewhere dark at a steady 18 to 21°C.

Fermentation, racking and patience

Bubbles should appear in the airlock within 24 to 48 hours. The first week is vigorous, sometimes alarmingly so. Add your yeast nutrient in two or three small doses over the first few days rather than all at once, stirring gently each time — this keeps the yeast healthy and reduces the risk of off-flavours. If the must climbs the neck of the demijohn, you have overfilled it or let it get too warm.

After two to three weeks, activity slows to a bubble every minute or two. Take a hydrometer reading. When it holds steady at or below 1.000 for three consecutive days, fermentation is done. Syphon the mead off the sediment into a clean, sanitised demijohn, leaving the lees behind. This is racking, and it is the step that turns a cloudy, yeasty liquid into something clear and drinkable.

Rack again after another month if more sediment drops. Then leave it alone. A young mead can taste sharp and slightly harsh; that is normal.

Bottling, ageing and drinking

When the mead is clear and no longer dropping sediment, syphon it into sanitised bottles, filling to within a couple of centimetres of the top, and seal. If you want a sweeter mead, stabilise it first with a campden tablet and potassium sorbate, then add a little honey back — otherwise the yeast will simply start fermenting again in the bottle.

Store the bottles somewhere cool and dark. Traditional mead improves dramatically with time: three months is the minimum, six is better, and a year will transform it. Serve it lightly chilled in a wine glass, and taste a bottle at three, six and twelve months to learn how your own batch evolves. That first glass, made from honey and patience, is one of the most satisfying things in home brewing.