I’ve made this everywhere from 3.5 to 8 percent ABV, with a variety of hops. This recipe is easiest if you keg and force carbonate and can easily be done in 5 weeks from making to drinking—pick your honey, pick your hops, and have fun.
OG: 1.035
FG: 0.998 (+/- 0.003)
ABV: 5%
INGREDIENTS
5 lb (2.3 kg) orange-blossom honey (with an additional 0.75 lb/340 g reserved for finishing)
5 gal (19 l) water (total volume will be about 5.25 gal/20 l)
Nutrients: 280 ppm yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN). This is about 20 percent more nutrient than is required, but should give a good first batch. (For more about YAN, see “Mad for Mead, Part 2.”) The 20-liter volume ends up with nice numbers of nutrients since everything is in grams per liter.
30 g Fermaid-O
20 g Fermaid-K
4 g DAP
6.25 g Go-Ferm
1 g potassium metabisulfite at bottling