So you want to know how to make mead? It’s easy.
Honey, water, and yeast (the yeast might already be in the honey).
Done!
Well, not quite.
Sure, you can make mead that way, but it’s better to have a little knowledge behind you. You want to choose the right yeast for what you’re trying to do, the right amount of honey, select additions, the list goes on and on.
Very little mead was made historically with just honey. Most of it had fruits, herbs, spices or other flavorings added. All these things need to be taken into account when making a mead.
In the video above, we go over all the things you need to get started. This is a basic mead, nothing fancy, but… simple doesn’t mean it doesn’t taste good. The little touches we added make it taste wonderful, even young.
Speaking of young, like fine wine, mead gets better with age. The honey flavors really come back, and the alcohols mellow, creating a truly amazing drink.
Go ahead, give mead making a try. Just remember, the better products you put in your mead, the better mead you will make in the end!
-Brian
Ok. So I watched this and it seems like there is a part 2 to this. What is the part 2?
We try to put out 2 videos for every brew. Part one is what you watched. Part 2 is checking, racking and bottling. It’s almost ready for bottling now, so it won’t be too long for part 2.
I get a lot from watching your shows on brewing meade. I have tried a batch for the first time after watching your basic meade video. I used orange blossom honey and the tea with raisins you showed. Is there a round about timeline before racking
Hey guys! I’ve been watching your YouTube channel and reading your blog in preparation for making my first batch of mead. I do have one question that I can’t seem to find the answer for, when I rack to my secondary fermenter, how much headspace should I have? Also, I have a feeling that I will have to much headspace so what do I do to get rid of the excess headspace?
We mention this a lot, but the amount of headspace for conditioning phase is “as little as possible”. You can rack to a smaller vessel or add sanitized marbles to make up the space.
Thank you! If I have to back sweeten ( I need to watch your videos on this again) can I add must at that point to to add to the volume or will that mess up the brew.
If you add must to a brew, you could restart fermentation or dilute the ABV. Backsweetening will do the same.
Thanks for the info!
Ok, so I have 2 more questions, I have mead coming up into my airlock, is this normal? I also have a bag to hold the blueberries that are in my fermenter, the recipe I used (before I found your videos) wasn’t very clear on when I should remove them. Thanks for the help!
As you have blueberries in a bag, that might be the culprit for why your fermentation is coming up into your airlock. We have had this problem ourselves. The bag acts like a barrier and the gasses get trapped underneath it and push it upwards. This blocks the ease of escape of the gasses into the airlock but the pressure continues and little amounts of the the liquid get pushed forward instead as they are trapped between the bag, build up of gasses and the airlock. It is annoying but nothing too worrisome. We would give things a swirl from time to time to allow the gasses to get past the bag blockage. Be careful as this can get a little messy sometimes. As far as when to remove the blueberries and bag, that is mostly up to you. Make sure that the blueberries have imparted what you want from them into the brew before removing and as always, the goal is to keep them submerged as much as possible. Thanks for watching and remember that Brian tends to respond to the comment section on our channels quicker than I can here. 🙂
what if i cant get star san where i live? what would be recommended?
Nearly any sanitization liquid will do. You can find ones marketed to sanitize baby bottles. If you cannot get it, you can boil all your gear as if you were canning. Just be cautious with plastic.
For someone that wants to possibly get into home brewing, what do you recomend starting with? Mead, cider, wine, beer, etc…?
My gut is telling me mead is probably the simplest to start with. What are your thoughts?
Cider is easiest!
I started two separate batches of mead using your recipe. They both started off gassing the next day. One stopped on the second day the other continues to bubble away. What should I do for the one that stopped?
I would give it a good swirl to see if perhaps there was a build up of gas limiting the yeast from continuing. If nothing happens after four days, you can try adding new yeast. You can always take hydrometer readings to see clearer signs on how much fermentation is taking place.
I’ve been watching cs mead and more, and brewing for over a year now. Many Brews started and bottled and drank with very good results. I started a batch of grape wine, sg 1.109…it only went about 2 weeks and ended up at 1.040…it’s very sweet and only 4.5 percent abv…is this typical? Do I just bottle and drink, or should I try to add something to restart fermentation? Just not sure, never had a brew this low of a very before…thoughts?
I think there was a 2021 update but I can’t find it on YouTube.
I have all the ingredients and in ready to go.
We did not make a 2021 Basic mead… sorry.