1. Mead Making 101 (A Short Course)
By: Andy Hemken
Bee & Mead Guy
Big Bend, Wisconsin

2. Despite what you have heard, mead is the easiest alcoholic beverage you can make in your spare time. Not perfect, but easy.

3. Beekeepers are Natural Mead Makers
Chuck, Tony
& Paul
At the club yard

4. Mead Worlds oldest fermented beverage
Newlyweds drink mead during the honeymoon (first 30 days) to insure fertility
Made from honey, water & yeast
Mead is the root for other beverages
Takes two years for the good stuff
Is relatively simple to make with basic tools and materials
Cleanliness is next to godliness

5. Why am I so thirsty when I had so much to drink last night?

6. “Other” Meads Honey = mead Grapes = pyment Apples = ciser
Fruit = melomel
Malted grain = braggot
Herbs or spices = metheglin
Distilled mead = mead brandy
Mead brandy + honey = honey liqueur

7. Mead Ingredients Honey Water Yeast Other Mead will mirror the honey
Spring water is best / no distilled, mineral, or chlorinated
Yeast
Dry / liquid / slap pack
Other
Fruit (freeze & thaw) / nutrient powder / etc

8. Yeast feeds on the sugars, and creates carbon dioxide and alcohol as waste products.

9. Equipment

10. Starting Mead Honey Water Fruit or Additives Yeast nutrient Yeast
Do not boil or heat the honey
Mix water & honey to dissolve the honey
Water
Fruit or Additives
Freeze & thaw fruit to unlock the flavor
Yeast nutrient
Check the specific gravity – Important / progress
Yeast
Prepare the yeast ahead of time / add last
Record everything – start / each racking / finish

11. Starting Mead - continued
1 gallon / 3 gallon / 5 gallon / 6 gallon batch; or more
Primary fermenters
Bucket / fancy containers
Temperature; 60° - 80°
Keep everything sanitized
Active fermentation may take a week or two – look at the bubbles

12. Recipes 15-20 pounds of honey for a 5 gallon batch
Add water to make up starting gravity
10-20 pounds of fruit, depending on sugar content
10 grams of yeast nutrient
Ciser or pyment, use fruit juice instead of water
You are shooting for a balance of honey and flavor – don’t over power your mead
Everyone has their own preferences

13. Common Fruit in Mead (fresh or juice, hand picked, store bought or bartered)
Raspberry
Cherry
Black Currant
Blueberry
Strawberry
Blackberry
Cranberry
Apples
Grapes

14. Documenting the Process
Write everything down
You can recreate a great mead
You can tweak a so-so mead
Record what works and what bombed
Keep the record with the mead
Label your meads when bottling
See internet blogs for troubleshooting hints

15. The Process Storage of your working meads Racking: removing sediment
Eventually the mead will get clear
Keep the vapor lock full of water
Oxygen is very bad for mead
Mead may be drinkable in several months, but will be better at months
Meads should continue to improve with age

16. Racking and Sediment

17. Your Mead Area (my mead area)
Dark
Clean
Constant temperature
Store your stuff

18. Bottling Your Mead
Clean bottles, just like your honey containers – they hold something you worked hard for
Can use wine, beer or other bottles
Last racking before bottling
Bottling bucket
Corks – different kinds
Create a good label; lots to choose from

19. Specific Gravity – What is it. Water is 1
Specific Gravity – What is it? Water is fruit juice is more / alcohol is less

20. Specific Gravity Starting gravity = 1.080 – 1.120 Final Gravity
Mine can be 1.170, depending on amount of honey
Final Gravity
Dry; – 1.010
Semi-sweet; – 1.025
Sweet; – 1.050
These are guidelines
Beer and wine websites have calculators

21. Oops -or, what the heck happened to my mead?
Use honey to sweeten a dry mead
Blend a dry mead with a sweet mead
May need to add acid, tartaric, acid blend
Mead may go sparkling; not a bad thing
Never throw out a mead; play with it

22. Bragging Rights
Contests and judging can be a way to get constructive advice. Take a chance!

23. Iowa Homebrew Clubs A sample of sites Homebrew clubs are a great way to meet people, learn how to homebrew, and sample really good homebrew!
Ames, IA - Ames Brewers League
Burlington, IA - Burlington MOB (makers of Beer) (319)
Cedar Falls, IA –CRAZE (319)
Cedar Falls/Waterloo, IA - Cedar River Association of Zymurgy Enthusiasts (319)
Cedar Rapids, IA - Cedar Rapids Beer Nuts
Cherokee, IA - Cherokee Brewers (712)
Clear Lake, IA – North Iowa Wine Club (515)
Corning, IA - Adams County Brew Crew (AC/BC) (641)
Davenport, IA - MUGZ2 (563)
River's Edge Fermentation Society (563)
Denver, IA - Brewers of Bremer County (BoBCo.) (319)
Des Moines, IA - Iowa Brewers Union (319)

24. Iowa Homebrew Clubs More samples
Raccoon River Brewers Association (515)
Dubuque, IA - GotMead International Brewmasters (563)
Elkader, IA - Turkey River Utopian Brewers (TRUBs) (641)
Glenwood, IA - Keg Creek Homebrewers (712)
Iowa City, IA – THIRSTY (319)
Marshalltown, IA - MASH - Marshalltown Area Soiety Homebrewers
(641)
Milford, IA - Okoboji Homebrewers Guild (712)
Monroe, IA - Cenosilicaphobia Brewers (641)
Northwood, IA - Iowa/Minn. Society of Brewers (IAMNSOB)
(507)
Oskaloosa, IA - Oskaloosa Beer Brewers (641)
Schleswig, IA - Schleswig Wine & Bier Club (712)
Sibley, IA - Yeastie Boys (712)
Sioux City, IA – RASCALS (712)
Surf the internet to find homebrew clubs

25. Questions?

26. Any Questions at all?

27. Time to go out and make some mead!