Homemade mead using 2 correct methods

Alcoholic drinks from honey began to be prepared several 1000 years ago immediately with the emergence of beekeeping. Over time, production development has undergone changes, but the unforgettable taste and hop color have remained the same. Next, I will tell you how to create mead at home. We will look at the modern version and the traditional recipe without yeast and boiling, which we used earlier.

Mead is a low-alcohol (5-10%) alcoholic drink produced by fermenting honey. Depending on the recipe, in addition to water, yeast, hops, flavorings and other ingredients can also be added to the composition.

There is strong mead, but it is made not by fermentation, but by adding a suitable amount of alcohol (vodka) to the finished product. This method allows you to reach a predetermined strength of the drink up to 75 degrees.

In Rus', “drinking honey” was considered sacred and was an integral attribute of almost all holidays, but in the Middle Ages this wonderful drink was forgotten. The second birth of mead occurred in the first years of Russian rule, when beekeepers received a lot of honey that was unsuitable for long-term storage and sale. For the sake of fast processing, beekeepers made mead with the addition of baker's yeast.

The new low-alcohol drink took root; it was prepared at home, using not only spoiled, but also very high-quality mature honey, diluted with water. A few decades later, the industrial production of mead began. In this regard, the city of Suzdal in the Vladimir region became famous, where the creation has been preserved to this day.

Modern homemade mead

Ingredients:

honey – 300 gr;
water – 2 liters;
dry yeast – 1 teaspoon (or 25 g compressed);
hop cones – 5 g;
cinnamon and nutmeg - 1 pinch.

All ingredients are available; difficulties may arise only with hop cones. They are sold in almost every pharmacy, so this is not a problem. You can use any yeast, for example, for baking bread.

Development of mead production

1. Choosing honey

One of the most fundamental steps, on which the properties of the finished drink depend in almost everything. Try to choose the most fragrant varieties. Buckwheat honey is excellent, but you can use something else, for example linden honey.

In the spring, almost all beekeepers produce the freshest watery honey, but if you are not well versed in beekeeping, it is better not to buy it. There is a risk that instead of a natural product, businessmen sell a sugar substitute, or the honey itself will be of poor quality. Such raw materials will never produce delicious homemade mead.

2. Dissolving honey in water

Pour water into an enamel pan and bring to a boil. Add honey to boiling water, stirring constantly with a spoon. After 4-5 minutes of boiling the honey consistency, a snow-white foam will begin to appear on the surface, which must be carefully collected with a spoon.

Attention! Honey burns very quickly and can ignite, so the pan must not be left unattended for a minute.

3. Adding flavoring additives

After the foam is removed, add the remaining ingredients to the mixture: cinnamon, nutmeg and hops, which will give the drink unique flavor notes. After thorough mixing, remove the pan from the heat.

4. Preparing for fermentation

Cool the mixture to 25-30°C (very important) and add the diluted yeast. If you create this at the highest temperature, the yeast will die and fermentation will not begin.

Transfer the pan with the honey substance to a black space with a temperature of about 25°C. If there is no separate room, you can use an aquarium heater. To avoid foreign substances and insects getting into the wort (flies are especially annoying in the summer), I recommend tying the pan with gauze.

After 1-2 days, signs of fermentation will appear: foam will begin to form on the surface of the consistency, and hissing will be heard. Pour the contents of the pan into a fermentation container, placing a honey glove with a hole in the finger or a water seal on the neck. The designs of these devices are shown in the photo.

Water seal designs for wine, mash and beer

5. Fermentation

Typically, mead fermentation lasts 4-6 days. The end of the process is indicated by a deflated glove or a long absence of bubbles escaping through the water seal. Another way to check is to bring a flaming match to the surface of the water, which does not have to go out. There is nothing to be afraid of, the strength of the drink is only 5-10 degrees, it will not light.

6. Filtration and bottling

The final manufacturing step. Carefully pour the mead into another container, leaving the sediment on the bottom, then strain through several layers of gauze.

Pour the finished drink into bottles (glass or plastic), seal tightly and transfer to the refrigerator or basement. I'm not a fan of storing alcohol in plastic containers, but in this case it's harmless. The strength of mead is low, so alcohol will not interact with plastic. Beer is sold in bottles like these. You can drink mead immediately after making it, but I recommend letting it sit for 3-5 days and only then taste it.

How to create carbonated mead

1. Wash bottles (plastic or glass) thoroughly and wipe dry.

2. Add honey to the bottom of each container (one and a half teaspoons per 1 liter of drink). Thanks to the honey, a small secondary fermentation will appear, which will saturate the mead with natural carbon dioxide.

3. Pour the drink into bottles, leaving 5-6 cm of free space from the neck. Seal tightly with stoppers or lids.

4. Transfer the containers to a dark room at room temperature for 7-10 days. Check the gas pressure once a day and release excess pressure as necessary.

5. Place the carbonated honey in a cold space for at least 5 days to ripen.

Mead without yeast and boiling

An ancient recipe according to which our forefathers made mead. They did without yeast and diluted honey in cool water. I warn you that using this technology, production will take 3-4 months, and the strength of the drink will be even lower - 2-4 degrees.

The most difficult thing in this recipe is to find an adequate replacement for yeast, because honey and water will not ferment on their own. There are two options: use cherries (raspberries, strawberries) or raisins as a catalyst. Cherries are historically the right choice, but raisins are the most reliable. Let's look at both options.

Manufacturing development

1. Dilute honey in cool water. The amount of ingredients depends on the chosen fermentation catalyst. In the case of raisins, use: 1 liter of water, 80 grams of honey and 50 grams of raisins.

If you decide to support fermentation with cherries (raspberries, strawberries), then to create mead you will need: 1 liter of water, 4 kg of cherries and 2 kg of honey. Remove the pits from the cherries first, and then add honey.

Attention! Raisins and cherries should not be washed before adding to mead; otherwise, the wild yeast responsible for fermentation may be accidentally washed off, and it will be difficult to predict the next result.

2. Tie the neck with gauze, then place the container in a warm space. Fermentation will begin in 1-2 days. Since we did without yeast (dry and baker's), it takes more time than in the first case.

How to make mead

A drink glorified in legends

Since time immemorial, honey drinks, highly valued for their taste and beneficial characteristics, have been used to welcome guests, cure the sick, or even simply be consumed from time to time in everyday life. Over time, they acquired a sacred character and were served in an indispensable order on the table at solemn feasts and during religious ritual events.

"Staged" honeys

In ancient times, the development of the production of honey drinks differed significantly from modern ones. In those days, it was customary to prepare so-called “set” honeys, the ingredients for which were honey of the highest quality and berries (cherries or raspberries). The honey-berry mixture was placed in open vats for fermentation, after which it was spilled into oak barrels specially created for this purpose, which were buried in the ground for final ripening. The short aging period was 5 years, but in order for the drink to come out fully mature, it could be aged for up to 15-20 years.

Boiled honeys

Around the 11th century, references to boiled honey began to appear in historical chronicles. Such drinks from honey were prepared even more quickly, and to add strength during the manufacturing process, hop cones were added to them.

The recipe for the drink, called “medovukha,” was invented in the 13th century in Nizhny Novgorod, and since then has undergone minor changes. Its recipe has been preserved to this day, and using it, you can prepare mead at home without any problems. Making mead opens up wide possibilities for creativity, because having mastered the basic recipe, you can later vary it by adding different herbs and spices.

Mead: main recipes

Basic recipe for homemade mead

300 grams of honey;
2 liters of water;
25 grams of compressed yeast ;
5 grams of dry hop cones.

To prepare mead according to this recipe, you should proceed as follows:

Pour water into a saucepan and bring it to boiling temperature. Then pour honey into it, stir the mixture until smooth and, lowering the heat, boil, stirring continuously, for 5-6 minutes, removing the foam that forms on the surface with a slotted spoon. At the end of boiling, add hops, remove the pan from the heat and be sure to cool to 30°C.
Add yeast diluted in warm water to the cooled honey mixture, mix everything again and transfer to the black space for fermentation. The temperature in the place you choose must be at least 25°C, otherwise the fermentation process may be very sluggish or not start at all.
After a couple of days, foam begins to form on the surface of the honey mash. At this point, it is necessary to pour the mixture into a fermentation container and install a water seal on the neck. The fermentation process takes on average 4-6 days. Towards the end of fermentation, the intensity of the release of bubbles through the water seal noticeably decreases.
Fermented mead must be carefully drained from the sediment and filtered through several layers of gauze. After this, it should be poured into bottles (in this case, plastic containers can also be used), sealed tightly and sent to the refrigerator or cellar for final maturation.

The sample can be taken immediately, but it is better to let the drink sit for 5-7 days to “gain the taste.” The strength of the finished drink is 5-10%.

If desired, while adding hop cones to the honey mixture, you can add a little spice: a pinch of cinnamon or orange peels. In addition, ginger, cardamom, cloves or a mixture of baking spices can be used as additives. Thyme, thyme, and juniper berries also give mead its unique taste and smell.

If you want to not only enjoy the taste properties of an easy-to-drink and healthy drink, but also experiment, then you can prepare homemade mead using a yeast-free method, very close to ancient production technology. With all this, it should be taken into account that even in modern adaptation this process will take 3-4 months, and the strength of the finished drink will be 2-3 degrees.

Ancient mead recipe

There are two main options for ingredients for this recipe, and we present them both.

Option I

50 grams of honey;
1 liter of water;
50 grams of raisins.

Option II

2 kg of honey;
4 kg pitted cherries;
1 liter of water.

This manufacturing process is much simpler than that described a little higher, and is almost in every way identical to the creation of moonshine based on ordinary sweet mash. The sequence of operations here is as follows:

The development of making the drink in both options will be similar:

After 3-4 months, the drink is ready for drinking, and the alcohol in it is virtually not felt. This mead comes out carbonated and resembles kvass in taste and texture.

Make mead using any of the suggested recipes and enjoy this amazing drink!

Mead: the best recipes for making it at home

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Mead is one of the most ancient drinks invented by cupbearers. In addition to its unique taste, it has benefits because the main component is honey, which contains a huge amount of essential substances needed by our body.

Production does not take much time; the usual recipe and availability of ingredients put this drink on a pedestal of honor and respect in Russia. Natural mead has a strength of up to 16 revolutions. It can be produced as a non-alcoholic drink or a strong one, containing up to 75 degrees inside.

Tips before production

In Rus', “drinking honey” was initially considered a sacred drink, which was consumed on holidays. This was justified by the recipe for making the drink, in which it was aged in oak barrels for 3 to 60 years. It was very difficult to achieve industrial scale of production.

The beginning of the reign of Russian power can be considered a rebirth, when a lot of honey became unsuitable for long-term storage. Mead from old honey was made with the addition of yeast, which accelerated the ripening process. This is where its industrial production originated, in which the city of Suzdal, located in the Vladimir region, became more famous, where they create a product of the highest quality even now.

You can quickly create a carbonated drink; to do this, you need to add the freshest honey to the bottom of each jar into which the mead will be poured, based on the calculation of 10-15 grams per liter. Let it ripen for 5 days, checking the gas pressure, and you're ready to eat!

If you put mead with hops and yeast, you can create a strong version. Below in the text of the article I will give an example of such a recipe for you.

To make it we will need enamel pans, a ladle, a clean wooden spoon, a little patience and free time. Let's get acquainted with the “basic” recipe for the drink.

Mead recipe

In almost all respects, the future taste of the purchased drink depends on the correct choice of honey. Therefore, it is necessary to approach this with full responsibility. It is necessary to choose more fragrant varieties; buckwheat or linden would be a good option. We do not recommend taking the freshest honey in the spring; there is a greater risk of running into a substitute.

The recipe is simple, we need the following ingredients:

Four liters of clean water (spring or bottled water is suitable);
500 grams of honey;
500 g sugar;
100 grams of yeast.

Mix water with sugar and add 250 grams of honey, mix, put on fire.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for fifteen to twenty minutes, constantly stirring with a spoon and removing the foam. You need to be as careful as possible, honey can catch fire.
Remove the solution and cool to room temperature, add yeast diluted according to the instructions on the bag, cover with a light cloth (the collection of different and interacting tissues form organs) and place in a warm space for two days.
We remove the foam from the surface of the solution, pour it into glass bottles, make a water seal or attach a glove with a hole.
We put it in a black space for a week. We monitor the completion of the fermentation process by checking the glove or the absence of gas evolution at the shutter, filter the purchased drink, pour out and stir the remaining honey.
We put it in a cold black space to ripen for a month. Once the drink is ready, you can serve it to the table!

Mead without yeast

You can prepare a drink without introducing yeast, and in order for the mead to ferment, add burgundy berries, such as raspberries, strawberries, cherries. We will need:

Honey – two kg.
Berries - four kg.

The manufacturing process begins with preparing the berries. If they contain seeds, they must be removed. Dissolve honey in water, as described above in the basic recipe, pour it over the berries, tie it with gauze and put it in a warm place for two days.

Then, remove the gauze, remove the foam, filter the liquid. We pour it into bottles with tight lids and put it away to ripen for 3-4 months in a cold space. The drink is ready, enjoy!

Ancient recipe

The old mead recipe is the most complicated. We will need:

1.25 kilograms of honey;
8 l. clean water;
2 tablespoons hops;
5 g gelatin;
Ginger and cardamom - to your own taste.

Transfer the honey into a saucepan, pour boiling water over it for a day, then bring to a boil and keep on low heat for about an hour. Add hops to the solution, bring to a boil, again keep on low heat for an hour, cool to room temperature. We repeat the process four times.

Cool the purchased solution; in best cases, it is better to pour it into a barrel, but you can also pour it into a glass container. Add cardamom, dilute gelatin, add it. Close it as tightly as possible.

We wait two to three weeks and see if the fermentation process has begun to move. If it is not very pronounced, you can add a little yeast. When the process is over, bottle the purchased alcohol and put it in a cold space for three months.

Suzdal mead

To make this historical recipe, you need:

Honey - half a kilo;
Purified water – four liters;
Sugar – half a kilo;
Yeast – 100 gr.

We dilute half the sugar and honey in water, boil for fifteen minutes, removing the foam and carefully watching so that the honey does not burn.

Cool the liquid, add the yeast prepared according to the recipe, and put it in a warm space for three days. Then, we filter through cheesecloth and put it in a cold place for a month.

Filter again, add the remaining honey and sugar, stir. Close the lid and put it in the refrigerator for four days. As soon as foam appears on the surface of the solution, everything is ready. Strain and consume chilled.

Spicy mead

To make this variety, you only need additional components; the whole process occurs as in the main recipe, described a little higher. So let's prepare:

750 gr. honey;
3 liters of filtered water;
10 gr. yeast;
One egg white;
Cinnamon and ginger - a pinch each;
2 pieces of cloves.

We cook according to the usual scheme, but the taste comes out completely different.

Swift mead with raisins

Making a quick drink with raisins. Required ingredients:

4 liters of filtered water;
3 lemons;
100 g raisins;
0.4 kg of honey;
Yeast – 30 g;
1 tablespoon flour.

Cut the lemons into smaller pieces, add raisins and honey. Fill with boiling water and cool. Add yeast and flour, put it in a warm place for a day.

Remove the foam and pour into containers with a water seal or glove. Next, we proceed according to the scheme described a little higher.

Strong mead

Strong mead can also be prepared at home without much difficulty. For production we will need:

0.6 kg of honey;
4 liters of filtered water;
5 grams of yeast;
A glass of port wine or cognac.

To make it, boil a liter of water, dissolve honey in it, add it to the rest of the water, add yeast, mix, leave in a warm place for two weeks.

Then add a glass of alcohol to taste and leave to ripen for another two weeks. We filter, bottle it with tight lids and put it in a cold space for six months. When the deadline has passed, we extract and evaluate the result.

Video

Mead set without boiling

In this review, we looked at only a small part of the recipes for this popular drink. Almost everyone believes that the “faithful” one is mead without boiling and adding yeast. It’s hard to argue, but then the production time for alcohol will increase to three to four months.

Ordinary mead recipes at home

Mead is a unique drink that is made using various technologies. This can be a fortified alcoholic product or a carbonated infusion that does not contain alcohol at all.

To begin with, you should use ordinary manufacturing recipes consisting of a small number of ingredients. Anyone can handle them, just maintain proportions and consistency.

Selection of bee honey

Before you prepare mead at home, you need to decide on the technology. Typically, old and lightly candied natural honey is used to produce a homemade drink. The best products for this are linden and buckwheat beekeeping products - they have a special smell and give homemade alcohol a pleasant and mild taste.

The main condition is to select healthy honey that does not show signs of disease. But in any case, it must be sterilized before cooking. Apart from this, when choosing, you need to pay attention to the following points:

A good product that does not foam . If foam appears on the surface of the honey, then you should not get it, because this indicates a low quality product - most likely, it begins to ferment. The natural product has antibacterial properties, so this cannot happen to it.
Sugariness is a good sign, so you can confidently take such a product. It is cloudy and thickened compounds that are most often used in recipes for making mead at home.

Completely watery honey can only be purchased in the summer or in September, since in October it already begins to sugar. If watery honey is sold in winter or spring, then most likely it is a fake.

In addition, a natural product has a pronounced odor, while a fake product has no odor at all.

This is due to the fact that bad products are made from sweet sand, and it kills any smell. It will not be possible to make mead at home from such raw materials.

Traditional drink

The traditional tincture is prepared very simply and quickly. The process begins with preparing the components. A typical homemade mead recipe includes:

natural honey – 300 g;
untainted water – 2 l;
hop cones – 5 g;
dry yeast – 7 g;
cinnamon – 3 g;
nutmeg – 3 g.

The production process itself is carried out according to the following scheme:

First you need to prepare a container; an enamel pan is ideal for this. Water is poured into it and set on the stove to boil;
as soon as the first bubbles appear, add natural honey and cook for 5 minutes;
during the process, a whitish foam appears on the surface of the solution; it must be removed;
at this time add all the prepared seasonings, cook for another 2 minutes and turn off the heat;
After the liquid has cooled to a temperature of 30-40 degrees, dry yeast is added, the syrup is carefully stirred until completely dissolved and put in a warm room for several days.

At the end of the day, a special device is put on the container with homemade mead - a water seal.

It is sold at any wine store. This device can be easily and quickly made with your own hands. An ordinary rubber glove will be useful for this. Using a sewing needle, you need to create a hole in one of her fingers. All that remains is to pull it onto the neck of the container.

A water seal is needed in order to provide the solution with rational conditions for active fermentation. After this process is completed, it can be removed. recognize that fermentation is complete by the following signs:

there is no pronounced alcohol smell in the room;
bubbles cease to form in the water;
there is no foam on the surface;
the solution became even lighter;
a cloudy sediment formed on the day;
The glove fell off.

All these signs indicate that it’s time to proceed to the next step – filtering. To do this, use gauze or a special sieve to pour the alcohol into a new container.

It is better to do these manipulations a couple of times. After this, the solution is poured into separate bottles and kept for 3 months in a cold room.

Tincture from old raw materials

You can create mead from old honey, especially if it has been stored for a couple of years and is very candied. If no one wants to eat it anymore, and it’s a pity to throw away the product, it can be used to produce a savory fortified drink. Any leftovers are suitable for this, you can even soak honey jars.

To brew real strong honey moonshine, the following ingredients will be useful:

natural honey – 1.5 kg;
yeast – 4 g;
untainted water – 10 l;
hop cones – 10 g.

It is also worth preparing a container in advance in which the solution will be boiled, pour water into it and put it to boil. Then proceed according to the scheme:

Add honey in portions to boiling water and stir constantly, otherwise it will burn and spoil the taste of the upcoming drink. Boil the syrup for 5-7 minutes; From time to time a foam will form on the surface - it needs to be removed.
Then hop cones are added to the solution, which must first be crushed. Close the container with a lid and remove from the stove.
After the liquid has cooled to 45 degrees, it is necessary to add yeast, which was diluted in advance according to the instructions. Mix everything well and put the container with the drink in a warm space for fermentation.
After 5 days, the honey syrup must be properly filtered using gauze. With all this, the main thing is that during the process the sediment that has formed on the bottom of the container does not rise, so all operations are done carefully.
The liquid is poured into clean bottles, sealed tightly and stored again in a room where the temperature is maintained at 12-15 degrees. With all this, it is necessary to open the containers once a day so that the pressure in them decreases. Ripening lasts exactly three weeks.

At this point, the process of making mead with your own hands is considered complete.