With the weather turning and the rain looking like it has finally moved on the bees are hopefully now doing what they do best and gathering plenty of pollen for lovely honey and with the increase in popularity of bee keeping why not look for some locally produced honey for making an excellent gallon of mead or three and you may be surprised just how simple and straightforward it is to make. Alternatively when is a mead not a mead, when it is a fruit mead or melomel if you have plenty of honey why not experiment by blending it with some lovely juice soft fruits such as blackberry to add extra fruitiness to a smooth full bodied mead.

So here is our tried and tested receipe.

Simple guide to producing Mead & Melomel Mead is pure fermented honey, melomel is mead with fruit added to it.

Before starting ensure all equipment is cleaned and sterilised with Heart of England cleanersteriliser.
The better the honey the better the mead, only use pure honey. Heather honey produces an excellent mead followed by flower honey or blossom honey.

Typically use 1 or 1.5kg of honey per gallon more will be better and for a sweeter mead use more such as 2kg.

Place honey in a saucepan bring to the boil and simmer, any wax will rise to the surface and should be skimmed of, normally a 20min simmer is sufficient to remove all wax. For mead allow to cool before transferring to fermenter and topping up to the required level with water.

For a melomel wash & crush fruit into a suitable food grade fermenting bucket ( 10L, 15L and 30L) ideally with either a Quick Chop or Fruit crusher for hard fruits. Do not use a blender or juicer especially the modern juicers as this will over pulp the fruit and then add the cooled honey and top up to the required level with water.

Per gallon now add 2 good teaspoons of a full spectrum yeast nutrient (such as tronozymol do not use a basic nutrient as it will not be good enough), 1 teaspoon of Cellar Supplies acid blend (made from a mix of 1 part citric acid, 2 parts malic acid and 3 parts tartaric acid). Tanin could be added at this point depending on personal preference, this will increase zest and offset any flabbyness a general dosage for small adjustments would be 1/2 teaspoon per gallon.
For melomel only also add a heaped teaspoon of pectolase per gallon. Add one sachet of gervin no.3 wine yeast and leave in a warm position to ferment.

For an oaked mead add a sachet of cellar supplies oak chippings.
For melomel after 7 days, press out in a wine press or squeeze through a straining cloth to extract juice. Transfer to wine fermenter such as Hamstead wide neck 1gallon fermenter with airlock for 1 galls or a 5 gall wine fermenter and leave to continue fermentation.

Fermentation will be over when bubbles are less than 3 a minute through the airlock and on your hydrometer a steady reading is achieved over a 3 day period.
At the end of fermentation syphon the mead into another sterilised vessel of the same capacity and add per gallon 2 crushed campden tablets and 1/2 a teaspoon of potassium sorbate and mix well in. Leave for 24 to 48 hours and then shake 2 to 3 times a day for 3 days to remove the gas.

Then add finings and shake or mix in and move to a cool place to clear.
When clear syphon the mead off the sediment into another sterilised container (the original one is perfect) ready for bottling in to wine bottles (not screw cap) and corked or into polypin (bag in box) style container.

Your mead should be finished cleared and bottled in under 6 weeks quite often 4—5 weeks and then bottled and laid down the mature. The maturation period will depend upon the honey & fruit
used.

If you intend to keep your mead then it should go into wine bottles sealed with a best waxed cork inserted with a corker. Mead will always benefit for matureing and should ideally always go into a traditional wine bottle with cork (not screw cap bottle)

We can supply all of these options and are happy to advise on which would suit your requirement best with regards to volumes and keeping your wine fresh.
While this guide covers the basic procedure some ingredients are specific to the fruit type used please ask, for example we have specific yeasts to bring out the best in different fruits and other ingredients such as oak chipping for extra smoothness.

Why not personalise your wine further by adding your own label we have an excellent range of labels that can be written on or fed through a computer printer for overprinting perfect for serving with pride or keeping to yourself.
Chris is from Hamstead Brewing Centre in Great Barr where they have been teaching brewing for over 35 years.