Real mead recipe at home. How to make mead at home and what you need for this

Homemade mead - ancient Slavic drink, which is quite simple to do yourself, especially if all the products are collected from your own apiary. There are quite a few recipes that use different ingredients, but the simplest mead recipe is a classic one that allows you to quickly make a drink with the minimum amount ingredients.

How to make mead at home

For cooking you will need:

• 350 g honey liquid state;
• a teaspoon of yeast;
• nutmeg;
• 5 g hops;
• cinnamon;
• 2 liters of water.

The mixture is prepared in the following way:

1. The water is boiled and then honey is added to it. As soon as it boils, wait 5 minutes, remove the resulting foam and add the rest of the ingredients, except for the yeast. The pan is removed from the heat and covered with a lid, waiting for cooling to 50 degrees, after which yeast is added.
2. The container is placed in a warm place for 3 days. After that, pour the liquid into the jar and put on a lid with an air vent.
3. The jar is left for 6 days, after which the mead is transferred to another container through gauze. It is then bottled and kept refrigerated.

How to check if fermentation will continue for a long time? It's simple: you need to look at the air outlet. If there are bubbles near it, the process is still going on.

This recipe is not the only way to make such a drink. From the video and printed sources, you can learn a few more ways to make it. Below are a few options.

Medovukha for a large number of guests

Sometimes you need to prepare a drink not for yourself, but for a feast, which will be a lot of people. Ad hoc great option the recipe will be:

• 1.5 kg of any honey;
• 10 g of hops;
• 3 g yeast;
• 10 liters of water.

The water is still brought to a boil for big fire, then boil it with honey for about 5 minutes, stirring well. At the same time, they monitor the foam and clean it carefully. When the foam is no longer formed, add the hops, removing the container from the heat.

IN a separate pan they collect about a liter of hot water, add sugar and place the yeast there until cooked. As soon as honey mixture cools down to 50 degrees, yeast is poured there. The mixture is covered with a lid and put in heat for 5 days. Then the hops are removed from it and filtered into another container, which is put in the cold for a week. And after that, the mead is ready for serving.

How to make a drink from old honey

As a rule, mead is prepared from fresh, liquid honey. But after all, it happens only in the warm season, and even then for too long. But you can make a drink at any time. In addition, any beekeeper always has stocks of honey, which crystallizes and becomes unsuitable for many purposes, except for simple eating.

In this case, the recipe for making mead from old raw materials will come in handy. For this you will need the following:

• water (all the same 10 liters);
• any kind of honey (1.5 kg);
• 10 g of hop cones;
• 3 g bread yeast.

Medovukha is prepared in this way:

• They select a large stainless steel container and heat water in it until boiling.
• Then solid honey is added to it in portions.
• Boil the mixture for 3 minutes, removing the periodically formed foam.
• Waiting for the foam to stop. Once this time has come, add, stirring, hop cones.
• The container is covered with a lid and removed from the fire.
• Yeast is prepared in the next pre-prepared pan. To do this, boil water, add sugar and yeast to it, wait until they rise.
• As soon as the honey mixture cools down, yeast is added to it, everything is covered with a lid and put to ferment in a warm place.
• The mixture ferments for five days, then it is necessary to remove the hops from it and pour the drink into bottles, which are tightly corked and left in a dark and cool place.
• After two days, the bottles are opened, releasing gas, and closed again for 5 days, after which the mead is ready.

After all, fermentation occurs with the release carbon dioxide, an excess of which can break a bottle or other container and completely spoil the whole preparation.

"Dry" mead: how to cook

Of course, any alcoholic drink, especially if it includes honey, should be prepared with yeast. But they are not always at hand, so you can get out without them. To do this, it is recommended to use the following very simple recipe:

• 1 liter of water;
• 4 kg of cherries;
• 2 kg of any liquid honey.

Mead is prepared initially according to the standard principle, by boiling water in an enameled container and adding liquid honey to the boiling water. The mixture is well mixed until smooth and boiled for small fire about 15 minutes. At this time, everyone still monitors the formation of foam, removing it in time, because it can radically change the taste of mead. The resulting honey syrup is cooled to 50 degrees. Then move on to cherries.

The berries are washed and pitted. Then they are placed in large saucepan and pour it with previously prepared and cooled to a predetermined temperature honey syrup. Cover loosely with a lid and leave in a warm place until fermentation begins. After that, the syrup is poured into a bottle, closed and put in a cold place. The disadvantage of the method is that mead will be ready only after 3 months.

It should be borne in mind that any mead prepared according to folk recipes at home, stored for a very short time, about two weeks, after that taste qualities are lost. No need to freeze mead in the refrigerator, it will be even worse. It is better to prepare the drink in a timely manner. In addition, with such a variety of recipes, it can be made at any time of the year.

The historical memory of peoples often presents surprises. For example, if you conduct a survey among the population of Russia about national alcoholic beverages, then the answer will be unequivocal - vodka and moonshine. Hardly anyone will remember mead - a truly Russian, with a history of several thousand years, an intoxicating drink.

Cooking technology

How to make mead, they knew on Ancient Rus'. It was prepared, according to those recipes and technologies, for a very long time, for 20-30 years. To do this, honey diluted in water was poured into a tarred oak barrel and buried in the ground. The drink turned out to be both tasty and intoxicating and, most importantly, healthy. No wonder the newlyweds had to drink it regularly for a month in order to give birth to healthy offspring. Hence, by the way, the expression: "honeymoon".

In the era of Peter I, the recipe for making a drink from honey was radically changed. To speed up maturation, hops were added to it. A month later, a fragrant intoxicating drink was obtained. However, two surprises awaited the mead makers along the way:

Firstly, when making a low-alcohol drink (7-10 degrees), the wild strain of yeast contained in honey did not always die in the produced alcohol, as a result of which the strength grew (up to a maximum of 14 degrees), but the amount of honey vinegar also grew. As a result, it turned out quite strong, but sour alcoholic product, unusable.

Secondly, the growth of bacteria that cause souring of honey diluted with water. Colonies of microorganisms are initially present in all grades of this product. Mistakes in temperature regimes during the fermentation of mead led to their reproduction. Yeast begins to actively develop at 22 degrees Celsius and above.

With more low temperatures they grow slowly. As a result, little alcohol is produced, which has a detrimental effect on pathogenic bacteria. For the latter, the temperature regime below 20 degrees is the most favorable for reproduction, not to mention the fact that honey is an ideal nutrient medium.

The solution was found by changing the technology of mead preparation. A mixture of honey and water simply began to boil, during which bacteria and microorganisms died. But the heat treatment of a sweet product destroys enzymes and vitamins, due to which it loses a significant part of its useful and medicinal properties.

Therefore, you should clearly understand what you need to get at the output.

If it's fragrant alcoholic drink then pasteurization is required. If you want to get both a medicinal and an alcoholic product in mead, then you should turn to recipes for fermenting honey without boiling.

The modern technology of making mead at home was refined in the 30s of the XX century. Bolsheviks, because a large number unripe honey, I had to remember how to cook mead from a substandard product. They improved the process of making mead.

It includes three phases: fermentation, aging, bottling.

Fermentation. At this stage, a fortress appears in the honey solution. Yeast, processing the sugars of honey, are actively developing. Their growth is accompanied by the release of alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Important: the carbon dioxide released by the yeast, when interacting with oxygen, forms honey vinegar, which spoils the mead. Therefore, it should be prevented from getting into the container where the wort is fermenting, air supplying oxygen. This is achieved with a water seal or a rubber glove.

The fermentation process proceeds rapidly. The composition is cloudy and hissing. As sugar is produced, the mead brightens and calms down. At the bottom, a sediment from the spent yeast forms. The end of the fermentation process can be determined in two ways:

• With a burning match. It does not go out over the surface of the honey drink when the fermentation is over. Otherwise, carbon dioxide will extinguish it;
• With a water seal or a rubber glove. If bubbles do not enter the shutter water or the glove lies on the container, then the yeast has completed its work.

The strength of mead depends on the amount of sugar in the feedstock, the concentration of yeast in the wort and temperature regime in the process of fermentation.

The strength of the finished drink during the fermentation process can only be increased up to 14 volume fractions of alcohol. With such a fortress, the yeast dies, and the process of converting sugar into alcohol stops.

To achieve maximum strength, you must follow temperature conditions and the required concentration of yeast. Sugar for these purposes, as a rule, is enough. Lack of yeast will not allow the sugar to be processed, and their excess will give the drink a cloudy look.

It should be noted that existing recipes homemade mead provide that at the end of fermentation, the strength of the drink should be 6-9 degrees. To increase the proportion of alcohol in it, you should either significantly reduce the amount of water in the recipe, or dilute the mead with alcohol (vodka).

Infusion. Ripening time depends on the recipe and cooking technology. It can vary from 5 to 30 days, and according to individual prescriptions - up to several months. Insisting, the drink is filled with aroma, acquires more delicate taste, becomes stronger.

In order for mead to ripen, completely stop fermentation and precipitate yeast residues, it must be poured into glass vessels or plastic bottles. Close tightly, put in a cold place. So that during re-fermentation the plugs from the pressure of carbon dioxide did not knock out, it is necessary to underfill the container by 5-6 cm, and also periodically bleed the accumulated gases. At the end of the infusion, the mead is saturated with a specific taste and aroma.

Filtration and bottling. This is the final stage of making a honey drink. To get rid of sediment and unsettled impurities, the drink is carefully filtered through multilayer gauze so as not to shake the sediment and poured into a container for further storage.

Preparation of ingredients

To cook mead at home, you need to have two main (honey and water) and several auxiliary (yeast, hops, spices, fruits) ingredients.

Theoretically, every novice mead maker knows how to make mead at home. Problems begin when it is necessary to use theoretical knowledge in practice. And the first thing he encounters right choice honey for intoxicating drink.

Honey. Each type of honey has its own unique color, taste, smell and aroma. Naturally, the organoleptic characteristics of mead will also depend on the quality of the raw material. Therefore, varieties of honey with a slight odor (melilot and fireweed) disappear immediately. Should refrain from using chestnut honey- it gives the hoppy drink a bitter aftertaste.

By color, it is best to use light types of a sweet product. Then mead turns amber in color. Dark varieties(buckwheat, angelica) give the drink a caramel shade and a tart taste.

Honey must be natural, without additives and impurities, and without signs of fermentation.

Water. For a honey drink, clean, soft drinking water is taken, preferably from a spring. The degree of water hardness largely determines the quality of the final product. If the concentration of calcium salts in it exceeds the average level, then it is bitter and smells unpleasant. In addition, the development of yeast bacteria is slowed down in such water. Boiling reduces the hardness of water - salts will precipitate.

Yeast. Yeast is taken natural (wild) or artificially grown (wine, confectionery). Industrial yeast, dry or pressed, must be of high quality - ferment well. Medovars with experience advise ordinary yeast dip a few wild relatives into the wort. They speed up fermentation. natural yeast found in fruits, hops, rye flour, raisins.

To give honey mead a specific taste and aroma, additives from spices, seasonings, berries and fruits are often used. By combining them in various combinations, you can get great amount types of drink.

Perfectly combined with honey citrus zest and oriental spices(cloves, cinnamon). Pleasant taste obtained by adding various juices to the drink, for example, cranberries, cherries, apples.

Preparing a boiled drink

How to make mead at home? We bring to help step by step instructions for boiled (heat-treated) drink.

1. We breed yeast. To do this, we lower them into sweetened and heated water for about 1 cup. In about an hour they will "earn". This can be seen from the bubbles on the surface of the water.
2. We dissolve honey in water - the proportions depend on the recipe. Boil in an enamel pan for 5 minutes. This is enough to pasteurize the syrup. Longer boiling kills the aroma of honey. In the process of boiling, it is necessary to constantly stir the contents of the pan in order to sweet product didn't burn. Carefully remove the foam that appears on the surface. It is dangerous to leave boiling honey unattended. It quickly ignites, scattering fire sprays with a crash.
3. Add flavorings to the finished syrup: ground cinnamon, hop cones, nutmeg, etc., if the recipe provides for it.
4. Cool the syrup to a temperature of 30-35 degrees.
5. Adding yeast to it. We mix. We cover with gauze so that insects do not get in. We put the finished wort in a warm place, with a temperature of at least 20 degrees. If there is no such room, the wort container can be heated using electric heaters.
6. With the beginning of fermentation, after 1-2 days, pour the mead into a container with a small neck for full fermentation. We close the neck with a water seal or a medical glove with fingers pierced with a needle to prevent contact of carbon dioxide with air.
7. At the end of the fermentation process, after about 5 days, we put the mead to infuse (see infusion).
8. On final stage the drink is filtered and poured into storage containers (see filtration and bottling).

Important: hops can be used as a flavoring agent, then it is added to boiling syrup, and in the form of natural yeast. In this case, it is lowered into a honey solution cooled to 35 degrees. In the case of yeast, many recommend dropping the hops into the mead in a gauze bag.

Preparation of the set mead

To obtain a hop product with medicinal properties, you need to know how to put mead without pasteurization. Here you need to perform a few simple operations:

1. Dissolve honey in cold, unboiled water. Stir until there is no sediment at the bottom.
2. Depending on the recipe, we add wild, in the form of raisins, hops, berries or wine (beer) yeast.
3. Pour the fermented drink into a container with a narrow neck and tie it with gauze so that insects do not get inside.
4. We put the vessel in a warm place and leave it without movement. After 2-3 days, sluggish current fermentation will begin.
5. With the onset of an active process of processing sugar into alcohol, we remove the mead from the sediment and filter it.
6. Pour into dark bottles, cork tightly and set to ripen.

Important: when introducing wild yeast, do not wash their carriers: berries, hops, raisins.

Mead Recipes

In order to subsequently be able to easily navigate the methods of preparing the drink and its types, we classify mead into the following types.

Depending on the degree heat treatment mead happens:

• hearty or boiled (boiled);
• set (without boiling).

According to the strength of the drink:

• low alcohol;
• fortified.

By saturation with carbon dioxide:

• non-carbonated;
• carbonated.

According to the composition of additives:

• natural;
• fake or improved.

Type of yeast:

• with wild yeast;
• with confectioner's yeast.

You can cook mead with your own hands according to various recipes.

Classic mead

A classic mead recipe will require:

• honey - 160 g;
• water - 1.05 l;
• hops - 3 g;
• dry yeast - 12 g;
• cinnamon - on the tip of a knife;
• nutmeg - on the tip of a knife.

Prepared exactly according to the instructions for boiled mead.

carbonated mead

From mead you can make sparkling wine, very similar to champagne, but with its own taste and aroma. For this honey drink after the completion of the first fermentation, filter and pour into glass bottles. Adding there natural honey at the rate of 35 g per 1 liter of wort and put in a warm place for 8 days.

Natural honey yeast will resume fermentation, saturate the drink with carbon dioxide. At the end of the specified period, we transfer the bottles to cool place for insistence. After a week, the sparkling wine is ready to drink. To prevent the cork from being knocked out of the bottle during the second fermentation, it should be strengthened, similar to a Champagne cork.

Mead without boiling

How to put mead without heat treatment is described in detail in the instructions (see above). Ingredients may vary. Here are some recipes.

Recipe number 1. The easiest mead recipe - 2 l drinking water, 120 g of flowing honey and 20 g of dry yeast.

Recipe number 2. Royal mead. For her you need:

• drinking water - 1 l;
• honey - 40 g;
• raisins - 30 g.

Pre-raisins are soaked for 2-3 days, and then everything is according to the instructions for the mead.

Mead without yeast

Medovukha without yeast can be both hearty and spicy. Industrial yeast replaces hops, raisins, berries. Here are some recipes.

Recipe number 1. The following components are required:

• water - 2 l;
• honey - 0.2 kg;
• perga - 100 g;
• lemon - 2 pcs.;
• raisins - 100 g;
• cinnamon - to taste.

Squeeze out the juice from the lemon. Mix all the components of the drink. Let's wander. Further actions in accordance with the instructions for the set mead.

Recipe number 2. We take 2 liters of water, 400 g of honey, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of hops and cardamom. Cooking according to the instructions for a hearty mead in which hops are yeast.

strong mead

To prepare a strong honey drink, it is enough to change the ratio of water and honey, bringing them to the form of 2: 1, and also add 5 g of dry yeast to each liter of the composition. Everything else according to the instructions for hearty mead. Note that such manipulation with water is allowed in all recipes for boiled mead.

Mead from old honey

Very often a separate recipe for making an intoxicating drink from old honey is given. Indicate the following ingredients:

• water - 10 l;
• honey - 1.5 kg;
• hops - 10 cones;
• yeast - 3 g.

Then everything is according to the instructions for boiled mead. The drink can be made effervescent or fortified, to the taste of mead. Such honey can be used for any recipe. When the mead is placed, it is pre-dissolved.

Medovukha with alcohol and vodka

Fans of fortified drinks can increase the strength of mead with alcohol or vodka. It is enough to add strong alcohol to the finished drink (after filtering) and let it brew for another 5 days. However, there are two very important points here.

1. If the final strength of the mead does not exceed 19 degrees, then pour the alcohol-containing liquid into the honey tincture. If you want to get a unique alcoholic drink with a strength of 28-40 degrees, then, on the contrary, pour mead into alcohol or vodka. The explanation is simple: any liquid, passing through a point of 20 degrees of strength, is subjected to violent and rapid chemical reaction, with the release of a large amount of heat and the formation fusel oils and various poisons. In this case, a wild hangover is guaranteed.

2. You can add alcohol to a honey drink at any stage of its production. But, nevertheless, it is better at the end of the technological chain. Then the mead is soft and fragrant.

cherry mead

To make Cherry Mead, you need the following ingredients:

• drinking water - 5 l
• cherry juice - 3 l;
• natural honey - 2 kg;
• yeast - 200 g;
• cinnamon - 10 g;
• cloves - 10 g.

You can prepare a smaller amount of drink. To do this, all components should be taken in proportion to the main recipe. Production according to the instructions for hearty honey. The only thing that should be changed is the term of insisting. It is 21 days.

Young honey mead

The situation with young honey is similar to that with old honey. It can be used in all recipes without limitation. Yet, in some cookbooks the following recipe is given:

• water - 5 l;
• honey - 0.4 kg;
• raisins - 100 g;
• juice from 3 squeezed lemons;
• wine yeast - a teaspoon;
• wheat flour - 3 tbsp. spoons.

Cooking according to the instructions for boiled mead.

apple mead

Preparation is similar to cherry mead. Naturally, Cherry juice is replaced by apple, from sweet and sour varieties. Sometimes 30 g of sugar is added, which affects the strength of the drink.

Storage of mead

Store the finished drink in wooden barrels, glass containers, plastic bottles. Metal containers must be excluded. Vessels with fragrant mead must be hermetically sealed. For storage, you can use the cellar or basement.

Knowing the recipe for mead at home, you can quickly and correctly prepare this magical drink.

Making mead at home

Aromatic mead: cooking traditional drink for health and pleasure Honey and drinks based on it are traditional in the CIS countries.

The delicacy, diluted with water, passed through the process of fermentation, has amazing taste, healing properties. If you decide to make mead at home, it is better to choose simple recipes for the first experiments.

Before proceeding to the story of how to make Medovukha at home, we want to know if you were wondering: How to make cognac from moonshine at home? if not, we recommend reading this article.

If you drive a car and you are “soon” behind the wheel, then use the free online breathalyzer online accurate application, which will always tell you how long you can drive. Mead cooking recipe Homemade mead recipes Spices are also welcome The simplicity of the technology does not negatively affect the quality of the drink.

It will be strong, tasty, if you follow its technology step by step. Yeast is required for mead. The traditional fortress of intoxicated is 10-12 degrees.

If mead is to be prepared at home, the drink recipes do not exclude the use of spices (cinnamon, nutmeg) added simultaneously with hops.

mead recipe simple

• 2 liters of water;
• 300 grams of honey;
• 5 grams of dry yeast.

If you need a strong mead, how many degrees will be in it, it is easy to plan - according to the duration of the fermentation process and the infusion of the drink. Strong mead recipe But first you need to boil water, add honey to it.

We keep the resulting composition for 15 minutes on low heat. The liquid must be constantly stirred, remove the foam. As soon as the specified time passes, the mead is removed from the fire.

Now it must be cooled to 30-40 degrees, poured into another dish for the further fermentation process. The container is placed under a water seal - a small hose that extends from the lid. It is necessary to improve the quality of the fermentation process, which lasts about a week in the heat.

Then the mead is poured again. It is important that sediment does not get into the container. The drink is placed in the cold, where it "ripens" for a month. When you need a strong mead aged in the old traditions, you can not change the recipe, increasing the period of infusion of the drink up to six months.

Monastic mead recipe

In monastic traditions To the question “How many degrees is monastic mead?”, those who have not tried it answer: “A lot!”. In reality, it is not stronger than usual.

But the components are needed in a different ratio. 3 liters of water; 1 kilogram of honey; 2 teaspoons of hops; 1 teaspoon yeast. Dissolve honey in boiling water.

Composition 3 hours "torment" on low heat. Hops are added, which must be wrapped in gauze, weighted with a load. The composition is again put on fire, “tormented” for 1 hour. The liquid will boil away.

From it it is necessary to regularly remove the foam and add to the container hot water. The future mead is removed from the fire, cooled to a temperature of 40 degrees, yeast is added, which can be beer.

The container is closed with a lid, put on fermentation in heat. As soon as abundant foam appears, the composition is placed under a water seal. You can go the other way: use a rubber glove, remembering to pierce her finger.

To saturated beautiful color steel mead strong recipe includes 1 cup pre-chilled strong tea. After adding this component intoxicating strain.

You can wait a few days for the drink to infuse. But it is important to consider: "Monastic mead" is stored for a month. Very light hoppy! Light mead how many degrees?

In terms of strength, it is much weaker than the classical one, but it is very popular among amateurs. natural drinks. It needs: 2 liters of water; 300 grams of honey; 15 grams of hops; half a teaspoon of dry yeast.

Cooking according to traditional pattern: honey is dissolved in water, hops are added to the boiling liquid. Boil mead for only 7 minutes. After cooling, it "wanders" in a warm, dark place for 5-6 days. Next, the drink is filtered, bottled and stored in the cold, where it "ripens" for a week.

How to make mead at home:

If there is no yeast? Without them, it is possible to make a great honey drink. Yeast-free mead tastes very pleasant, how many degrees in it - a little. Due to the lack of yeast, it will not turn out stronger than 2-3 degrees.

For the fermentation process, unwashed raisins, cherries, and any other berries are used. For an economical option for yeast-free mead, you will need:

1 liter of water; 50 raisins and honey. Honey should be diluted in cold water, the container should be covered with gauze on top, placed in heat. The fermentation process starts in a day or two. As soon as abundant foam appears, the future drink must be filtered through several layers of gauze, poured into a clean container, put in the cold.

"Ripen" intoxicating will be 3-4 months. Mead cooking at home: The secret of the recipe with cherries If cherries, not raisins, contain mead how many degrees in it? The strength of yeast-free drinks is about the same, but it will taste completely different intoxicated.

As for the composition: the number of berries in mead is much larger: they are taken in a ratio of 2:1 with honey. For 2 kilograms of honey, 1 liter of water is required. Before pouring the berries with a water-honey solution, the bones must be removed from them (otherwise the taste of the drink will be bitter). The technology for preparing intoxicating treats is no different from that where there are raisins.

One of the many advantages of mead (a low-alcohol honey drink with a strength of 1-16 degrees) is the possibility of preparing it at home.

Of course, this is not about home production honey mash in industrial volumes, but a dozen or two soul-warming half-liters this way, each of you can easily provide yourself.

Monastic honey for drinking

Ingredients

1. Honey - 3.25 l
2. Water - 6.5 l
3. Fresh hops - 75 g
4. For tea essence: 1 tsp. tea leaves and 1 cup boiling water

Cooking Method

1. For the preparation of honey, the best is taken, pure honey without the slightest trace of wax.
2. Take a well-tinned iron or copper cauldron, pour honey and water into it, stir and put on the stove.
3. Once it boils, simmer for 3 hours on an even, light heat. Then put hops in honey, tied in a bag of loose fabric. Tie a sinker to the bag so that it lies at the bottom of the boiler.
4. Hops should be boiled for 1 hour. Then add hot boiled water to the original volume (that is, add boiled liquid), boil again, set aside and cover.
5. While the honey is still quite warm, strain it through a thin linen or gauze into a wooden or glassware, but in such a way as to fill it 4/5, cover it with a cloth and put it in a warm place (from 18 to 20 degrees), in the winter near the stove, and in the summer in the sun. After 2 days, the honey begins to foam.
6. If the honey is kept at a lower temperature, it will not ferment, but will start to mold. The warmer the place, the sooner the honey will be ready. This usually takes 3-5 weeks. After 3 weeks, you need to listen: if the honey is very noisy, leave it on, if it stops hissing and you can already smell the honey and alcohol, then it is ready.
7. If you want to have stronger honey, you need to let it stand warm until it stops sizzling, and if you want to have honey that is weaker and sweeter, you can strain it when it still sizzles.
8. Before straining honey, you need to pour a glass of tea essence into it. Do not interfere with the honey liquid, but carefully drain it, filtering through a flannel or several layers of gauze, repeating this even several times until the honey is completely clean and transparent. Honey strained in this way is good for consumption, but after six months it will be better, and after a year it will be excellent. The longer it sits, the better it will be.

Mead straight

Ingredients

1. Water - 3 l
2. Vodka - 125 ml
3. Honey - 1 kg of honey
4. Yeast - 50 g yeast
5. Cloves - 4 grains
6. Ground cinnamon - 8 g
7. Violet and cardamom - 5 g each
8. Melissa - 3-5 g

Cooking Method

1. Heat water, add, stirring, honey, boil over low heat until the consistency of molasses. Remove from heat and strain.
2. Pour liquid into wooden barrel, put and stir the yeast.
3. Let the drink ferment, pour in vodka and add spices in a cloth bag.
4. Leave to infuse for 1 month, then strain and pour into bottles for storage. Seal tightly, keep in a cold place.

Mead South

Ingredients

1. Water - 3 l
2. Honey - 1.5 kg
3. Light raisins - 200 g light raisins
4. Hops - 30 g
5. Brewer's yeast - 1/3 tsp

Cooking Method

1. Place the hops in a cloth bag, put in water, put a bowl of water on the fire and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce the heat to the weakest and evaporate the liquid by a third, without letting it boil.
3. Take out the hops and transfer to a small amount of cold water, then squeeze well, add the squeezed liquid to hot water. Dissolve honey in the same water.
4. Measure the honey liquid, transfer to a large saucepan, pour in the same cold water three times more honey water. Let it boil, stirring constantly, cook at a slight boil for 40 minutes, strain hot.
5. Wash the pan thoroughly, pour the honey liquid back into it and boil until the volume is reduced by a quarter. Remove from heat, cool, add brewer's yeast and raisins.
6. Pour honey into a wooden barrel, let ferment in a warm place (about 10 days) and rearrange for 4 days in a cold place.
7. Ready drink pour into bottles, cork tightly, stand before use for 90 days.

birch honey

Ingredients

1. Birch sap - 3 l
2. Honey - 500 g honey
3. Rye (black) bread - 1 slice
4. liquid yeast– 20 g

Cooking Method

1. Pour honey into Birch juice, stir, bring to a boil over low heat.
2. Boil for an hour on low heat, then cool until warm.
3. Coat rye bread with yeast, put in syrup and leave in a warm place for 1 hour.
4. Add a little more yeast if the honey doesn't start to ferment.
5. From the moment the fermentation begins, remove the bread, cover the dishes with a cloth, keep in a warm room until the end of fermentation.
6. Pour the drink into bottles, cork and store in a cool place. Use after 120-150 days.

vanilla honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 5 liters of water
2. Honey - 1 kg
3. Sugar - 1 kg
4. Hops - 50 g
5. Yeast - 15 g
6. sachet vanilla sugar- 1 PC.

Cooking Method

1. Mix yeast with 40-50 g of sugar, pour in a little water, grind thoroughly, leave to approach.
2. Pour cold water into a saucepan, add all the sugar, vanilla sugar, add honey and hops and put on fire.
3. Let it boil, boil for a few minutes and cool.
4. Mix with yeast, leave for fermentation in a warm place for 4-5 days (until the hops float to the surface).
5. When foam appears, strain the drink, pour into bottles, cork tightly and insist in a cool place for 14-15 days.

cherry honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 500 ml
2. Honey - 1 kg
3. Cherry - 2 kg

Cooking Method

1. Wash ripe berries, dry, carefully remove the seeds.
2. Heat water, pour in honey, stir and cook, stirring and removing foam from the surface.
3. cherry berries place in a bottle with a narrow neck, pour over honey syrup and close the neck with a wet cloth.
4. Leave for 3 days in a fermentation room. Then tightly cork the bottle, rearrange in a cool dark room.
5. Insist before use for at least 90 days.

Cherry honey alternative recipe

Ingredients

1. Water - 1 l
2. Fresh cherry - 1 l
3. Honey - 1 kg
4. Yeast - 50 g of yeast,
5. Raisins - 50 g raisins
6. carnation and ground cinnamon- 10 g each

Cooking Method

1. Pour water into a saucepan and boil. Add honey, stir until completely dissolved, put back on the fire and cook for 5 minutes. Remove foam.
2. Remove the liquid from the heat, cool to room temperature, pour in the cherry juice and put spices in a bag (can be made from medical gauze gauze). Also add raisins and diluted in a small amount yeast water.
3. Stir gently, let ferment for 3 days (keep warm) and strain.
4. Pour into bottles, close tightly with corks, keep before use for 12-20 days in a cool place.

ginger honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 4.5 l
2. Lemon - 2 pcs.
3. Light honey - 2 kg
4. Yeast - 25 g
5. Hop cones - 25 g
6. Ginger root - 14 g
7. Gelatin - 7 g

Cooking Method

1. Wash the lemons, pour boiling water over them, squeeze out the juice.
2. Cut the peel of lemons into small strips.
3. Boil water, dissolve honey and add chopped hops ginger root, lemon juice and peel.
4. Boil over low heat for no more than 45 minutes, strain and pour into a wooden barrel or dark glass bottle.
5. Add yeast to warm liquid, stir gently and leave to ferment for 35 days.
6. Dissolve gelatin in 100 ml of water, pour into honey liquid, mix everything and tightly cork the dishes, insist for 175-180 days.
7. Pour the finished honey into bottles and close the corks well, tying the wire on top.

Raspberry honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 3 liters of water
2. Fresh raspberry juice– 180 ml
3. Honey - 500 g honey
4. Hops - 15 g hops
5. Yeast - 10 g
6. dark raisins- 2 pcs. on a bottle.

Cooking Method

1. Boil water, dissolve honey, put on fire and bring to a boil.
2. Cook over low heat for about 2 hours. Put half the amount of hops, then boil for another hour and strain the honey.
3. Mix the second part of the hops with yeast, let rise, add the mixture to a slightly cooled liquid along with raspberry juice.
4. Let the drink ferment, strain, pour into a bottle and cork tightly. Keep the drink in a cool place for 12-14 days.
5. Carefully strain, pour into bottles for storage, adding 2 raisins to each. Cork bottles and store in a cool, dry place.

mint honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 1.5 l
2. Honey - 1 kg
3. Molasses - 100 g
4. fresh leaves mint (for example: peppermint) - 50 g
5. Yeast - 25 g yeast
6. Gelatin - 5 g

Cooking Method

1. Melt the molasses in 500 ml of water, add mint leaves, let it boil for 10 minutes.
2. It is good to heat the remaining water, dissolve the honey in it completely, put on fire and boil for several minutes.
3. Pour in a mixture of molasses and mint leaves, stir, let it boil once, remove from heat.
4. Cool to room temperature, strain, add yeast and leave to ferment for 3-4 days.
5. Then put pre-dissolved gelatin, keep in a cool place for 2 days, pour into bottles, close tightly.

fruit honey

Ingredients

1. Fresh fruit juice– 3 l
2. Honey - 1 kg of honey
3. Yeast - 50 g

Cooking Method

1. Pour fruit juice into a saucepan and heat without letting it boil.
2. Remove from heat and immediately dissolve honey in it. Let the liquid cool down well.
3. Separately, dilute the yeast in a small amount of water or juice, then pour into the liquid and mix.
4. Leave at room temperature for 1-2 days, then pour into bottles and cork tightly.
5. Keep before use 14-20 days in a cool place.

berry honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 1 l
2. Honey - 2 kg
3. Pitted cherries - 1 kg
4. Strawberries - 1 kg of strawberries
5. Rye bread - 100 g rye bread
6. Brewer's yeast - 50 g

Cooking Method

1. Rinse ripe and high-quality berries, dry them, remove the seeds.
2. Mix berries with honey and mash.
3. Pour in warm boiled water, put a piece of rye bread mixed with yeast.
4. Leave to ferment for 15-20 days, drain the liquid into another bowl, put it again in a warm place for 7-12 days. Ready honey can be consumed immediately.

strong honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 4 l
2. Honey - 600 g
3. Dry yeast - 5 g
4. Port wine or cognac - 40-60 ml

Cooking Method

1. Boil 1 liter of water, dissolve honey well and mix with the remaining cold water.
2. Add yeast, stir, leave at room temperature for 14 days.
3. Add an alcoholic drink to taste, stand for another 14-15 days.
4. Close the container tightly and insist in a cold place for at least 180 days.
5. Pour the finished drink into bottles for storage, keep in a cool place.

If you have a mead recipe that is not listed above, please share it with me via the feedback form. Let's collect all the recipes together!

Medovukha (honey wine, syt) is basically low alcohol drink, the main ingredient of which is honey, which is fermented with yeast. The drink is light like beer or dry wine, alcohol in it is about 4 -10 degrees. In some cases, mead has been aged for up to 20 years! In addition to honey, yeast and water, meaders add to the composition of some recipes: spices, herbs, fruits, berries, juices, hops, bee bread and other flavorings.

Prepare mead from different varieties honey even from fermented and old. effect from proper mead, very interesting - slight intoxication, a cheerful mood, the head seems to be fresh, it thinks everything, and the legs become wadded, give way and braid. Many people are interested in the question - how many degrees are there in mead? As it was written above, from 3 degrees and there is also a strong mead, but its preparation is different in that in finished product added strong moonshine or vodka and drink sometimes reached a strength of more than 70-75 degrees.

In general, there are several types of mead, the difference is in the method of preparation and in the composition of the drink.

• Khmelnaya - with the addition of hops and a bitter taste;
• Set – cooking without boiling honey;
• Boiled or hearty - cooking with boiling;
• Fortified - with the addition of strong alcohol;
• Fake - with the content of spices and spices.
• Non-alcoholic.

They drank drinking honey on major holidays and festivities, at a wedding, at the birth of a child. In addition, a drink made from honey possessed healing power and was beneficial. In the old days, they drank it as a sedative, diuretic, anti-cold remedy. Newlyweds on their honeymoon were simply obliged to drink mead, as it was believed that it contributes to the appearance of healthy and strong babies, and gives husbands masculine strength.

For the first time, a honey drink appeared in Veliky Novgorod in the 19th century; it was brewed in almost all courtyards. Later, they forgot about the wonderful honey-hoppy drink, and only in our time, honey-making began to revive. Even appeared industrial production mead according to old recipes in the city of Suzdal. Cooking mead at home is easy, the composition includes available ingredients, which can be bought at any market or store. The most simple and available recipes how to make mead at home.

Easy hoppy mead recipe

Ingredients:

• honey - 2 kg;
• water - 10 l;
• dry yeast - 5g;
• hops - 15 gr;
• cinnamon - 2 gr;
• nutmeg - 2 gr.

For cooking, you need any honey - flower, linden, than tastier than honey the better the drink will be. It is advisable to purchase it from trusted sellers, since Lately a lot of honey fakes and as a result the drink can be spoiled poor quality product. It is advisable to use wine or beer yeast in the recipe; they will give the mead a purer flavor. Of course, you can also use ordinary dry ones for baking or drinks, but there will be light yeast smack. You will also need enamel pan for cooking and a fermentation tank of the required volume.

Cooking:

1. Pour water into a saucepan, put on fire, when it boils, add honey and reduce heat to avoid burning. Important! You need to take 10% more water than in the recipe, as some of the water will boil away during cooking. Honey satiation must be stirred periodically. After a few minutes of boiling, a foam cap appears on the surface, it must be carefully removed, it contains wax, various impurities which are not needed. Boil satu for 1.5 hours.
2. Add hops and spices to a clean full without foam, which will give the drink pleasant aroma, stirring to cook for another 30 minutes.
3. Cool the honey wort to a temperature of 25-28 degrees, this can be done by placing the pan in a basin with cold water or ice.
4. While the wort is cooling, prepare the yeast according to the instructions. Pour the chilled satu into fermentation tank, add diluted yeast, install a water seal on the container and leave to ferment at room temperature. Usually mead ferments in a week. You can determine the end of fermentation by a water seal, the release of carbon dioxide stops. You can also use a vinometer and measure the density of the mead.
5. Strain the finished drink through a gauze filter, pour into bottles, close tightly with lids and leave warm for a day. Then move the bottles to a cool place.

After 5 days, the mead will be ready for consumption. It turns out easy flavored drink, pleasant on taste, a fortress of 5-7 degrees.

Boiled Spicy Mead Recipe

Repeatedly proven recipe from the moonshiners forum. The quantity and composition of spices can be changed and supplemented to taste. During the entire process, observe the sterility, cleanliness of dishes and equipment.

Compound:

• Water - 10 l;
• Honey - 1.5 kg;
• Dried ginger - 5g;
• Coriander - 5g;
• Cinnamon - 3g;
• Mint - 3 gr;
• Nutmeg - 2g;
• Cardamom - 2g;
• St. John's wort - 2 gr;
• star anise - 1 gr;
• wine yeast- 3 gr.

Manufacturing:

1. Pour water into the pan, a little larger by 1-2 liters, it will boil away during cooking. Heat water to 40-50 degrees, add honey and stir until boiling. Cook for 2 hours. During cooking, you need to constantly skim off the foam, carefully monitor the cooking process to prevent the foam from “running away”.
2. Coriander, nutmeg, cardamom and star anise knead with a rolling pin. Add all spices to a saucepan with a sweet full. For better filtering, wrap the spices in several layers of gauze or use a special bag (filter bag) and insist the spices in it for another 10-15 minutes.
3. Cool the spicy wort to a temperature of 20-25 degrees. Dissolve wine yeast in warm sweetened water according to instructions. It is fashionable to use brewer's yeast in the recipe, but it is not advisable to use baker's yeast, they will add a yeasty flavor to the drink.
4. Pour the wort through several layers of gauze into a fermentation tank, add diluted yeast. Stir the contents of the container well to saturate the wort with oxygen for better work yeast. Close the lid and install a water seal. Leave to ferment at a temperature of 18-20 ° for 1-1.5 months. Drain the wort carefully from the sediment, filtering through cheesecloth.
5. In clean plastic liter bottles, add 1 tablespoon of honey for carbonation (formation of carbon dioxide). Fill with fermented mead. For carbonization, you can use a primer - selected wort before fermentation in a volume of 10% in our case 1 liter. The primer is poured into the fermented wort and bottled. Cork the bottles, keep a week at room temperature, and then put the bottles in the basement or cellar.

After a week, you can taste the drink. As a result, it should be light honey carbonated drink, 3-5 degrees of alcohol, very tasty, easy to drink like kvass, with delicate aroma honey and spices. It is very pleasant to drink it in summer time during the heat.

Video cooking recipe:

Placed mead with cherries without yeast and boiling

It's classic old recipe mead, according to which our ancestors made it. Prepared with wild yeast fruits or berries. Instead of yeast, cherries, raspberries or raisins are used. mead by this recipe do not boil, it does not need to be boiled, the taste is pleasantly mild. The strength of the drink is 3-7 degrees. Such cherry honey can be stored in the cellar for years, over time it becomes tastier like wine.

Ingredients:

• Water - 3 l;
• Cherry - 15 kg;
• Honey - 6 kg.

How to make mead:

1. Pour cold water into a saucepan and dissolve honey in it.
2. Remove pits from cherries and pour sweet honey water over cherries. Cherry cannot be washed, it contains wild yeast needed for fermentation.
3. Cover the pan with two layers of gauze and put in a warm place. After a day or two, natural fermentation will begin. It lasts 7-10 days.
4. Pour the mead into a bottle, close and put it in a cool place - a cellar or basement. After 3-4 months, the drink will be ready to drink.

Benefits of mead. The very fact that honey is present in the drink indicates that it is useful and will not harm health. No wonder in the old days the newlyweds drank mead all month, hence the name - Honeymoon. The main benefit of mead is great content in the drink of vitamins and nutrients. Used as an anti-inflammatory and antiviral agent colds. It has an anti-allergic effect.

Good for sore throat and tonsillitis. It is a diuretic and helps with swelling. Will benefit from beriberi, relieve fatigue and restore sleep. Mead with red wine is useful for diseases of cardio-vascular system. It will help to cope with intestinal infections, diarrhea, constipation.

Harm from mead. Despite their useful qualities the drink can cause harm to the body. The most dangerous thing is an overdose, because mead is alcohol, which in large doses is poison. You can not drink to people with individual intolerance, with an allergy to honey. Harm will cause alcohol to nursing mothers and pregnant women.

What do they eat mead. Usually mead is drunk and not snacked as a refreshing drink. But goes well with pear or banana, with hard varieties cheese. It is good to drink under a melon or under cranberry juice. Fried or smoked sausages are also suitable for appetizers.

Mead storage. The shelf life of mead depends on how it is prepared. By wine technology mead can be stored in a cool room for years. It is better to store a drink in a glass container or in oak barrels. Do not store in metal containers, keep away from sun rays. In no case do not freeze, everything will be lost useful material and taste. You need to be careful when opening bottles of mead, as there is a lot of gas in it.