ARTICLE 01
Types of Mead
A tour of mead styles from the simplest traditional mead to fruit, spiced, smoked, and chili variations — and what makes each one what it is.
Intro to Making Mead
A complete beginner's guide to making mead at home, from equipment and ingredients through fermentation, back-sweetening, pasteurization, and bottling.
10Articles
46Min Total
28Views
A complete beginner's guide to making mead at home, from equipment and ingredients through fermentation, back-sweetening, pasteurization, and bottling.
ARTICLE 02
Equipment You Need
A guide to the basic equipment for your first mead batch, from fermenters and airlocks to the few tools worth buying before you start.
ARTICLE 03
Cleaning and Sanitization
Why cleaning and sanitization matter in mead making, the difference between a cleaner and a sanitizer, and the process I use on brew day.
ARTICLE 04
Mead Ingredients
The building blocks of mead: honey, yeast, water, and the additions that turn a simple ferment into something colorful and complex.
ARTICLE 05
Preparing Your Must
How to mix honey and water, make sure all ingredients are well combined, and take an accurate original gravity reading with a hydrometer.
ARTICLE 06
Primary Fermentation
What happens during primary fermentation, when to add fruit or other additions, and how to know the yeast are actually finished before moving on.
ARTICLE 07
Secondary Fermentation
Why mead gets racked into secondary, what happens during the long clearing and aging phase, and how to know when it is ready for bottling.
ARTICLE 08
Back Sweetening
How to sweeten a finished mead to taste by adding honey a little at a time, tasting between each addition until the balance is right.
ARTICLE 09
Pasteurization
Stopping fermentation with heat so you can bottle a sweet or carbonated mead without chemical stabilizers.
ARTICLE 10
Bottling
Choosing bottles, deciding between still and carbonated mead, and handling sediment so your finished mead pours clean.