Made from honey, mead is perhaps the world’s first intentionally fermented beverage. It’s not a beer (grain-based) and it’s not a wine (fruit-based): mead is its own thing, a millennia-old merrymaker that can be rustic and simple or delicate and refined.
Making mead at home is easy—easier than making beer, in fact. But there are a few key differences to understand before you set out on your own mead-ieval journey.
- Mead can take a long time, so plan ahead. While some low-alcohol meads might be ready in a few months, it’s not uncommon for high-alcohol meads to improve with age for years.
- Little to no boiling is needed. Some mead makers insist on boiling must (must is to mead what wort is to beer) for sanitation purposes, but boiling drives off the delicate aromatics that accompany good quality honey. So many mead makers don’t bother boiling at all, preferring instead to simply dilute their honey with warm water. If you do boil, do so only briefly.
- Mead benefits from extra nutrients. Unlike wort, which is rich in essential nutrients, honey is comparatively low in certain compounds that are critical to yeast health. Yeast nutrient is available at your local homebrew store, and your yeast will thank you by making better mead.
- Mead may benefit from the addition of acid. Honey isn’t very acidic, so adding an acid blend can promote a healthy fermentation environment and balance residual sweetness in the finished product.
You can make your mead however you like—still or sparkling, plain or with fruit, hopped or not. However you do it, you’ll share a tradition with the ancients when you make your very own nectar of the gods.