Homemade Mead (Honey Wine!)

I have been taking an online herbal course (Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine) since January. I am {finally} to the section on how to make mead! Here's the thing: I have never had mead before but I am dying to make it!

I made 2 different kinds: A Maple Mead (adapted from Grow, Forage, Cook) and a Blackcap, Elderberry Mead, which I adapted from my course.

This is for 1 gallon of mead. You want to sanitize everything. I used One-Step brand for this process.

Supply List

• 1-gallon, glass jug

• Airlock and matching plug, #6 fits most small openings

• Mini 3/8" auto-siphon with siphon tubing

• 4 bail-top bottles. You can buy new or reuse

• Non-bleach sanitizing solution (I used One-Step)

• Stainless steel funnel

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups pure maple syrup (we make our own maple syrup)

• 1 cup honey (we harvested honey from our hives)

• non-chlorinated water

• 1 cinnamon stick

• 4 whole cloves

• 10 raisins

• 1/2 orange, cut into wedges, skin on

• champagne yeast

Add 8 cups water, along with the cinnamon stick and cloves, in a large pot and warm on medium heat. Next add maple syrup and honey. Do not boil.

Once the maple syrup and honey have dissolved, using a funnel, transfer the mixture, including spices, into gallon jug. Add raisins and orange wedges to the jug.

Fill jug with cold water, leaving about 3 inches of head space at the top. If you have the cap to the jug, put it on and give it a few shakes to mix everything together. I didn't have a cap, so I used my topper and gently shook my mixture

Make sure your mixture cools to room temperature or bath water. This took a bit of time. If it's too hot, it will kill the yeast. If it's too cold, the yeast will stay sleepy. Once your mixture has cooled, add the yeast. Add 1/2 package of champagne yeast to the jug. You can save the other half in the fridge for the next gallon batch of mead.

Put the jug in a dark and quiet corner somewhere out of the way. Mine started to bubble within a couple of hours! So exiting! Fermenting can take 6 weeks or longer. Some people like their mead a bit more 'green' or you can age it and let it develop a bit longer. It is done fermenting when it stops bubbling.

Mine is going on about 2 weeks and still bubbling. I will check back in a few weeks!