Cherry Mead
Brewing Progress
Brewing Data
Ingredients
- 3 lbs Maker's Mark Premium Wildflower Honey
- 1.5 lbs whole frozen cherries (with pits) — primary
- 1.5 lbs whole frozen cherries (with pits) — secondary
- 1 packet Red Star Premier Blanc yeast
- ¼ tablespoon FermAid K (yeast nutrient)
- Distilled water to volume
Instructions
Gather Equipment and Ingredients
Before starting, gather everything you need: your fermenter, airlock, mesh bag, honey, frozen cherries, yeast, and spring water. Having everything ready and sanitized will make the process go smoothly. I'm using a 1.5-gallon fermenter for this batch. The Maker's Mark Premium Wildflower Honey provides a rich, smooth backbone, while the frozen cherries will contribute both flavor and a deep red color. The Red Star Premier Blanc yeast is a reliable choice for fruit meads — it ferments cleanly and lets the fruit character shine through.
Prepare the Cherries
Start by pulling the stems off all the frozen cherries. You don't need to pit them — the pits actually contribute a subtle almond-like complexity during fermentation. Once destemmed, lightly crush each cherry with your fingers. You want to break the skin and release some juice, but be careful not to crush the pit itself. Crushing the pit can release bitter tannins that would make the mead harsh. The goal is to expose the fruit flesh to the must without damaging the pits.
Load Cherries into Mesh Bag
Place all the crushed cherries into a mesh brew bag. Using a mesh bag makes it easy to remove the fruit later — after primary fermentation, you simply lift the bag out rather than having to rack around loose fruit. Tie the bag securely so the cherries stay contained. The bag will go directly into the fermenter with the must, allowing the yeast to work on the fruit while keeping everything contained for easy removal.
Add Honey to the Fermenter
Pour the three pounds of Maker's Mark Premium Wildflower Honey directly into the fermenter. The quality of your honey matters a lot in meadmaking — it's the primary fermentable sugar and the dominant flavor component. Maker's Mark Premium Wildflower Honey has a rich, floral character that pairs beautifully with cherries. If the honey is thick and hard to pour, you can warm the jar in a water bath to make it flow more easily, but avoid heating it too much — excessive heat can drive off delicate aromatics.
Add Water and Mix the Must
Add distilled water to the fermenter, leaving enough headspace for fermentation activity. Mix thoroughly to dissolve the honey completely. This mixture of honey and water is called the must. Stir vigorously to ensure the honey is fully incorporated — undissolved honey at the bottom of the fermenter won't ferment properly and can cause issues later.
Check Original Gravity
Before aerating and pitching the yeast, take a gravity reading with a triple scale hydrometer. Draw a sample of the must into a test jar, float the hydrometer, and read where the liquid surface crosses the scale. This first reading is your original gravity (OG) — it tells you how much sugar is in the must and lets you calculate the potential alcohol content. For this batch, the OG came in at 1.090, which should yield around 12% ABV if it ferments to dryness. Take note of this number — you'll compare it to your final gravity reading later to determine the actual ABV. Make sure the must is well-mixed before taking the sample, otherwise you might get an inaccurate reading from honey that settled to the bottom.
Aerate the Must
Once the gravity is recorded, aerate the must by shaking the fermenter vigorously. This is a critical step — yeast needs oxygen to reproduce and build healthy cell walls during the early stages of fermentation. Shake the fermenter for several minutes, periodically removing the cap to let fresh air in, then shaking again. The more oxygen you introduce now, the healthier your fermentation will be. This is the only time you want oxygen in the mead — after fermentation begins, oxygen becomes your enemy.
Add the Cherry Mesh Bag
Place the mesh bag of crushed cherries into the fermenter with the must. The cherries will float and release their juices gradually as fermentation progresses. The yeast will work on both the honey and the fruit sugars simultaneously. Over the next one to two weeks, the cherries will give up their color, flavor, and sugars to the mead. Primary fermentation with fruit tends to blow off a lot of the volatile aromatic compounds — this is normal and is why we'll add a second batch of cherries in secondary.
Pitch the Yeast
Add one packet of Red Star Premier Blanc yeast to the must. Make sure the must temperature is in the recommended range for this yeast before pitching. Red Star Premier Blanc is a dry yeast strain that ferments cleanly and produces esters that complement fruit meads well. Once the yeast is in, install the airlock on your fermenter. Within 12-24 hours you should see active fermentation — bubbles in the airlock and a layer of foam forming on top of the must.
Primary Fermentation
Primary fermentation runs for roughly three weeks, though the cherries will not stay in that long. Early bubbling in the airlock is vigorous, then gradually tapers as the yeast settles into its work. The fruit bag releases color and flavor quickly at first — by day three the must had already taken on a deep ruby hue. **Note:** In the video below, notice the skewer at the bottom of the airlock holding the fruit bag submerged. CO2 produced during fermentation fills the bag and causes it to float, which can block the airlock if left unchecked. The skewer keeps everything in place. This fermentation kicked off within an hour of pitching yeast — the fastest start I have ever seen. It also turned out to be the most aggressive. The yeast activity built so much pressure that it blew straight through my airlock, popping it off entirely and spilling krausen down the side of the fermenter. I came down to find a sticky mess on the counter and an open fermentation vessel. After cleaning up and sanitizing the airlock, I reinstalled it and refilled the chamber with Bacardi Gold rum. The alcohol creates a hostile environment for any microbes trying to work their way in, and honestly, it smelled a lot better than the sour, yeasty water that had been dripping everywhere.
Remove the Cherry Bag (Day 12)
Around day 12 of fermentation — projected for early August — I will pull the cherry bag out of primary. The mead should have extracted plenty of color and flavor by then, and leaving fruit on the yeast cake much longer can pull harsh tannins from the pits and risk spoilage if the bag breaks the surface. After the bag is out, I will lift it carefully, let it drain back into the fermenter, and discard the spent cherries. The must underneath is already a deep garnet-red and the yeast still has work left to do. Once the bag is removed, the plan is to allow this to finish the time in primary and then transfer the mead to secondary and add a fresh batch of cherries for a second round of flavor and color without the violent CO2 blow-off of primary.
Notes
This is a live batch — started on July 22, 2026. The original gravity came in at 1.090, which should yield around 12% ABV if it ferments to dryness.
Bottle Aging: After bottling, this mead will undergo 6 months of bottle aging to allow the flavors to settle and the carbonation to develop properly.
This post will be updated as the mead progresses through each stage. Check back for updates on the cherry bag removal, secondary fermentation, bottling, final gravity, ABV, and tasting notes once it's drinking ready.
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