Brewing

Cherry Mead

ByJoseph Crawford••0•0
Cherry Mead

Brewing Progress

Primary
21 days
Secondary
14 days
Bulk Conditioning
90 days
Bottled
Bottle Conditioning
180 days

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

1

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.

Gather Equipment and Ingredients
2

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.

Prepare the Cherries
3

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.

4

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 Honey to the Fermenter
5

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.

6

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.

Check Original Gravity
7

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.

8

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.

9

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.

Pitch the Yeast
10

Primary Fermentation

Let primary fermentation run for three weeks. During this time, the yeast will consume the sugars from both the honey and the cherries, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide. You'll see vigorous bubbling in the airlock for the first few days, which will gradually slow down. The cherries in the mesh bag will slowly release their color and flavor. After three weeks, or when fermentation activity has significantly slowed, it's time to remove the cherries and move the mead to secondary. Fermentation kicked off within an hour of pitching the yeast — this is the fastest I have ever seen a fermentation begin. **Note:** Look closely at the bottom of the airlock in the video and you'll see a skewer keeping the fruit bag submerged. CO2 produced during fermentation fills the bag, causing it to float and potentially block the airlock. The skewer prevents this by weighing the bag down.

11

Secondary Fermentation

After removing the cherry bag from primary, transfer the mead to a clean secondary fermenter for two weeks. This stage allows the mead to settle and clear as fermentation completes. The calmer environment in secondary also provides a better opportunity for adding a second batch of cherries for additional flavor and color without the vigorous CO2 blow-off that occurs during 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 Conditioning: After bottling, this mead will undergo 6 months of bottle conditioning to allow the flavors to settle and the carbonation to develop properly.

The two-stage cherry addition is a technique worth highlighting. Primary fermentation is vigorous — the yeast is reproducing rapidly, producing lots of CO2, and driving off volatile aromatics. This means a lot of the fresh cherry scent and delicate flavor compounds get blown off during primary. By adding a second dose of cherries in secondary fermentation, where the environment is much calmer, the fruit flavors and colors infuse into the mead without being stripped away. The result is a much more vibrant cherry character in the finished mead.

This post will be updated as the mead progresses through each stage. Check back for updates on secondary fermentation, bottling, final gravity, ABV, and tasting notes once it's drinking ready.

Tags:brewingmeadcherryfruit-mead

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