Thinking About Mead 12/4/06 Mead is an alcoholic beverage fermented from honey diluted with water. It is golden in color, has a subtle to strong honey aroma, can be sweet to dry, and usually has the alcoholic strength of table wine (10-14% ABV). Traditional Mead is dry, Sweet Mead has more body and honey aroma, Semi-Sweet is in between. All mead is commonly fermented to three strengths: hydromel, standard and sack, hydromel being the lightest and sack the strongest.   Mead can  be spiced or contain fruit or vegetables. Mead made with fruit is known as Melomel, the most common example of this style being Cyser which is apple Melomel. Melomel made with grapes is called Pyment. A mead made with spice is categorized as a Metheglin. Braggot is a mead made from barley and/or wheat malt along with honey. As you can see, there are a lot of options when deciding which kind of mead to ferment. I suggest brewing a traditional dry mead for your first batch. Keep it simple, that way you will be better able to appreciated the subtle complexities your mead will offer. Decide specifically what you want out of your mead do some investigation on your choice. Check out BJCP.org for the complete listing of all mead styles and characteristics and then flip through Ken Schramm’s The Meadmaker and check out his essential advice on mead making. To make mead you need honey, and lots of it! 15 lbs should be good for your first 5 gallon batch. But do you really want 5 gallons of mead? The correct answer is YES! With a fermentation and ageing time of at least one year, and maturity growing over the next few years at least; you’ll thank yourself for laying down the 25 bottles. Back to the honey - choose the rawest honey you can find. The closer to the comb the better. Under $3 a pound is a good price. There are many different kinds of honey, usually dependant upon which type of plant the honey bees pollinate. Colors and flavors vary, but any can be used as long as it has not been stabilized with Potassium Sorbate or any other chemical. At Siciliano’s Market we sell raw, unfiltered, unpasteurized Star Thistle honey from Cherry Hill Honey in Montague, MI. Take advantage of Siciliano’s symbiotic relationship with Cherry Hill, who’s bulk honeys sells for $2.59 a pound straight from the honey pot at our store. Steve the beekeeper from Cherry Hill has offered his email <cherryhillhoney@aol.com> and phone number (231) 893-6418 to any mead makers who may have questions about either his honey or mead making. Besides honey, gather quality water, yeast nutrient and yeast. There are many choices for yeast, some made specifically for dry or sweet mead. As with cider making, there is no one “right” yeast. For your first batch we recommend Lalvin’s K1V-1116 as it is a strong fermenter with a neutral profile. Since the food yeast needs to ferment does not naturally occur in raw honey, be sure to add some yeast nutrient. Along with the necessary ingredients, the mead maker needs some fermentation equipment. Here’s a short list of the necessaries: Fermentation bucket, glass carboy, air-locks and bungs, siphon equipment, stirring spoon, sanitizer, hydrometer, sample thief, stick thermometer, all of which beer and wine makers already have.             ‘Brewing’ mead is as simple as stirring honey and water together and adding yeast! To choose how much of each of the two main ingredients to use (honey and water), decide upon a target gravity. This is not hard. A standard mead has a staring gravity of 1.080 - 1.120. In a 5 gallon batch of mead, 14 - 16 lbs of honey should bring you up to this starting gravity. Procedure First, pour the warm honey in the sanitized fermentation bucket. Second, stir in the warm (80F) water until the 5 gallon mark is reached. Third, after the honey and water have been thoroughly homogenized, take a gravity reading. Add honey or water to raise or lower the starting gravity. Next, add yeast nutrient and pitch yeast.       Ferment in the primary fermentation bucket until most of the alcohol production is complete. Rack to glass when the gravity approaches 1.020. Make sure very little head space is present in the secondary during this conditioning phase. Bottle when fermentation completes. Remember, honey ferments VERY SLOW; this could all take up to year, give or take a few months. To ensure a healthy, vigorous, and complete fermentation, be sure to store the fermenting mead between 67F to 70F or as close as you can get. Bottle in appropriate bottles for either still or sparkling mead. The relative pH of the honey wort is an important factor in creating meads truly able to stand up to the test of time. A good starting pH for most mead is 3.8 - 4.2. Your mead may require the acidity to be reduced in order to achieve this setting and Calcium Carbonate should prove effective. Please refer to Schramm’s book or other resources for more information on this