How to Make a Mead in 8 Minutes (Home Made Mead Tutorial)
Summary
TLDRThis instructional video script outlines the process of brewing mead from scratch, detailing the essential ingredients and equipment needed. It guides viewers through steps like sanitizing, mixing ingredients, measuring gravity, and adding yeast and nutrients. The script also covers fermentation monitoring, taste testing, and the decision to age or back sweeten the mead. Finally, it discusses stabilization methods, bottling, and tips for enhancing the mead's flavor and clarity.
Takeaways
- 🍯 To make mead, you need one gallon of water, two pounds of honey, 2.5 grams of wine yeast, sanitizer, a glass carboy, a hydrometer, a scale, an airlock and bung, and an auto siphon or tubing.
- 🧼 Sanitization is crucial to prevent bad fermentation and should be done for all equipment before starting the mead-making process.
- 🐝 Mixing honey with water is the first step in creating the mead base, and it's important to ensure the ingredients are well mixed to avoid uneven fermentation.
- 📏 A hydrometer is used to measure the original gravity of the mead, which helps in estimating the alcohol by volume (ABV).
- 🔬 Yeast is added to the mixture to start the fermentation process, and it's important to mix it well to ensure even fermentation.
- 🍯 Yeast nutrients like DAP, diammonium phosphate, or Fermaid K can be added to support yeast health and lead to a cleaner fermentation.
- 📝 Keeping detailed records of the mead-making process, including dates, original gravity, and other observations, is essential for tracking progress and quality.
- 🕒 Fermentation should be observed for signs of activity, such as bubbling in the airlock, and should be allowed to proceed until signs of slowing down or clearing indicate completion.
- 📉 A final gravity reading with a hydrometer can confirm when fermentation is complete, and the formula provided can be used to calculate the ABV.
- 🍯 Racking the mead into a new container helps separate it from the yeast sediment and can be followed by further aging or back sweetening if desired.
- 🍯 Back sweetening can be done by adding more honey after stabilizing the mead with potassium sorbate and campden tablets to prevent re-fermentation.
- 🍾 Bottling the mead requires sanitized bottles, a bottling wand for filling, and a capper for sealing, with careful attention to avoid overfilling.
Q & A
What is the main ingredient required to make mead according to the video?
-The main ingredient required to make mead is two pounds of honey.
How much water is needed to start making mead in the video?
-One gallon of semi-nice water is needed to start making mead.
What type of yeast is recommended for making mead in the video?
-2.5 grams of Lavin QA23 yeast or any other wine yeast is recommended.
What is the purpose of sanitizing all the equipment before making mead?
-Sanitizing all the equipment is crucial to prevent bad fermentation due to contamination.
What tool is used to measure the gravity of the mead?
-A hydrometer is used for measuring the gravity of the mead.
What does the initial hydrometer reading of 1.065 indicate about the mead's alcohol content?
-An initial hydrometer reading of 1.065 indicates that the mead has an approximate alcohol by volume (ABV) of 8.5%.
Why is it important to add yeast nutrient to the mead?
-Adding yeast nutrient helps the yeast work more efficiently, leading to a cleaner fermentation process.
What are the two methods for adding yeast nutrients to the mead mentioned in the video?
-The two methods are adding all the nutrients at the beginning of the mead-making process or using a staggered nutrient schedule, adding them in four parts on days zero, two, four, and six.
How can one determine if the mead fermentation is complete?
-The fermentation is considered complete when the bubbles slow down, the airlock stops bubbling, or the mead begins to clear up. A gravity reading with a hydrometer can also confirm if the fermentation is done.
What is the formula used to calculate the alcohol by volume (ABV) after fermentation?
-The script does not provide the exact formula, but it mentions that the ABV can be calculated once the fermentation is complete.
What are some methods to stabilize the mead before back sweetening?
-Methods to stabilize the mead include using potassium sorbate and metabisulfite, cold crashing, or pasteurizing the mead by heating it to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius) for 20 minutes.
What is the purpose of racking the mead into a new container after fermentation?
-Racking the mead into a new container helps to avoid getting the layer of yeast and sediment at the bottom, which can affect the clarity and taste of the final product.
How long should the mead be left after back sweetening before bottling?
-The mead should be left for another 24 hours after back sweetening to ensure that there is no more re-fermentation.
What are some tips for achieving a clear mead after bottling?
-To achieve a clear mead, one can let it age for a long time, or use clearing agents such as Sparkolloid, Easy Clear, or bentonite.
Why should pasteurized and filtered honey be avoided when making mead?
-Pasteurized and filtered honey should be avoided because these processes strip characters from the honey, which can negatively affect the flavor profile of the mead.
What are some additional ingredients that can be added to the mead for flavor variations?
-Additional ingredients that can be added for flavor variations include fruits, spices, other types of honey, and maple syrup.
At what stages of the mead-making process can additional ingredients be added?
-Additional ingredients can be added during the primary fermentation stage, the secondary fermentation stage if more sugars are added, or during the aging stage of the mead's life.
Outlines
🍯 Making Mead: Ingredients and Initial Steps
This paragraph introduces the process of making mead, a honey-based alcoholic beverage. The narrator outlines the essential ingredients: one gallon of water, two pounds of honey, 2.5 grams of wine yeast, sanitizer, and various equipment including a glass carboy, hydrometer, scale, airlock, and tubing for racking. The first step is sanitizing all equipment to prevent bad fermentation. Mixing involves combining water and honey in the carboy, shaking to incorporate oxygen and ensure thorough mixing. A gravity reading is taken to determine the initial alcohol content, which is approximately 8.5% ABV in this case. Yeast is then added, and the mixture is shaken again to ensure even distribution. The importance of adding yeast nutrient for efficient fermentation is highlighted, and options for nutrient addition are discussed. The paragraph concludes with the recommendation to record the mead's details, such as the start date and original gravity, for future reference.
📝 Mead Fermentation and Post-Fermentation Steps
This paragraph continues the mead-making tutorial by discussing the fermentation process and subsequent steps. After adding the yeast, the mixture is left to ferment in a dark place, with the expectation of visible bubbles indicating fermentation activity. The fermentation is considered complete when bubbles slow down and the mead begins to clear, which can be confirmed by a final gravity reading. The mead is then transferred to a new container using a siphon to avoid disturbing the yeast sediment. The narrator suggests letting the mead rest for a few weeks to allow for final fermentation and degassing, and notes that the mead will likely clear further with time. Taste testing is encouraged, and the narrator describes the initial taste profile as sweet, floral, and fruity. The paragraph also covers the stabilization process for those who wish to back-sweeten their mead, detailing methods to halt fermentation before adding more honey. The stabilization options include using potassium sorbate and metabisulfite, cold crashing, or pasteurization. The narrator then describes the bottling process, emphasizing the importance of sanitization and careful filling to avoid overfilling. Finally, the mead can be aged further to develop its character, and the narrator provides tips for enhancing the mead's flavor and clarity.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Mead
💡Fermentation
💡Sanitizer
💡Hydrometer
💡Yeast
💡Gravity Reading
💡Airlock and Bung
💡Racking
💡Yeast Nutrient
💡Back Sweetening
💡Bottling
Highlights
Teaches the complete process of making mead in eight minutes.
Lists essential ingredients and equipment needed for mead making.
Emphasizes the importance of sanitizing all equipment to prevent bad fermentation.
Details the process of mixing ingredients with water and honey.
Describes the use of a hydrometer for measuring the gravity of the mead.
Provides a method to calculate the alcohol by volume (ABV) of the mead.
Suggests adding yeast nutrient for cleaner fermentation.
Recommends a staggered nutrient schedule for optimal yeast performance.
Instructs on recording vital information about the mead for tracking purposes.
Explains how to monitor fermentation through bubble activity and airlock.
Advises on when to rack the mead into a new container for clarity.
Discusses the process of taste testing and evaluating the mead's flavor profile.
Covers methods for stabilizing the mead to prevent further fermentation.
Explains the process of back sweetening the mead to adjust sweetness.
Provides tips for bottling the mead with proper sanitization and equipment.
Suggests methods for achieving a clear mead through aging or clearing agents.
Offers advice on aging the mead to develop its character and flavor.
Encourages creativity by suggesting various ingredients to flavor the mead.
Warns against using pasteurized and filtered honey for mead making.
Provides a list of different mead styles that can be made.
Transcripts
[Music]
today i'm going to teach you how to make
a mead from start to finish
in eight minutes first here are a few
things you'll absolutely need to be able
to do this
you need one gallon of water make sure
it's semi-nice water two pounds of any
honey
2.5 grams of laven qa23 yeast or any
other wine yeast
and some sanitizer alongside your
sanitizer you're also going to need a
glass carboy
a hydrometer for measuring your gravity
a scale for measuring honey if you need
to do that
an airlock and bung for putting on top
of the mead
and an auto siphon of tubing for racking
into a new container
step one you need to sanitize everything
really well otherwise you might have a
bad fermentation
now that we have everything sanitized
you can start to mix your ingredients
fill part of your cardboard with water
and part of it with honey
and in this case i had to actually weigh
out two pounds of honey because
i didn't have a pre-weighted amount you
can forego this if you have a
pre-weighted amount of honey
you're going to want to now take and put
your bung on and shake it until
everything's mixed in
super well shaking adds oxygen it also
just mixes stuff
now that this is shaken up i'm going to
add more water on top
and i will mix it again shake it up
again because i want to mix my
new mixture pretty well after we have
mixed everything
we are going to take a gravity reading
so we are going to need our hydrometer
which is in my bucket right now i am
getting this little tube that will allow
me to float the hydrometer
if you have a tall enough glass you
don't have to do this with my hydrometer
floating in here i see it is floating
around 1.065
so i can look at the back of my
hydrometer and
if i turn it around it'll show kind of
roughly what percent abv i'm at which is
actually 8.5 now that my hydrometer
reading is done i'm going to pour this
back in and actually add my yeast i'm
putting two and a half grams or
roughly about half this packet into this
mead and i will save the other half for
another mead in the future
because you can do that now i'm gonna
take and put my bunk back on
and shake this thing up until
everything's mixed
and super well again generally it's a
good idea to add some yeast nutrient to
your mead this will help your yeast from
it more efficiently and
lead to a cleaner fermentation your
yeast nutrient options include things
like dap dymonium phosphate fermate o
for maid k
or some other ones you find online there
are two ways to add your nutrients
option one is to put them all in the
beginning of the mead the second option
is a staggered nutrient schedule which
is where you split them into four parts
add them on four different days
day zero two four and six
it's super important for you to write
down information about your mead whether
that be in a notebook or on
the mead itself so that's what i'm doing
here i'm writing down the date it
started
the original gravity all of that
information now we're gonna put our
airlock and our bung back on that's
filled
and we're gonna take and put this in to
a darkish
space to start fermenting it should
start
doing something in about 12 to 24 hours
your meat should look something like
this
you'll see some bubbles coming up from
the mead you'll also see your airlock
bubble during the fermentation it should
bubble
semi vigorously once the bubbles slow
down or you see the meat begin to clear
up this generally means your meat is
done fermenting
you can double check this by doing a
gravity reading with your hydrometer
depending on the strength of your yeast
you might finish at 1.000
my mead finished at 1.000 to calculate
your abv
use this formula now you can rack your
mead into a new container
try to avoid getting the layer of yeast
and sediment at the bottom while racking
from here i would suggest to let the
meat sit for a few weeks to allow for
any final fermentation
and degassing you should also see the
meat begin to clear up from here
make sure you write down your mead's new
gravity of course you can do some taste
testing here if you desire
now we get to taste test it it's really
really good
[Music]
a little bit sweet it's got perceived
sweetness even though it is technically
dry
it has a nice floral taste to it
a little bit fruity of course with some
age it'll be even better
now let's talk about the next step if
you like it how it is
let it age for a few more weeks and then
move on to the bottling stage
if you want it to be sweeter you need to
stabilize it first use potassium sorbate
and camden tablets
to halt the yeast now you can add any
honey
you want to back sweeten if you don't
halt the fermentation
the yeast will restart fermenting on any
new sugars
and in the bottle this will cause them
to blow up in a carboy or anything else
it will just cause
it to be a higher abv mead you have a
few options for stabilizing
number one is potassium sorbate and
metabisulfite the combination of these
two will slow down the yeast to a halt
making it to where it's stabilized
option two is to cold crash
you're gonna place your meat into a cold
chamber and it will bring it down
temporarily
to where the yeast cannot ferment again
that's temporary and the last one is
pasteurizing pasteurizing is where you
are taking and heating the meat up to
140 degrees fahrenheit
or 60 degrees celsius for 20 minutes
this will actually kill the yeast
allowing you to
back sweeten safely you'll want to wait
about 24 hours before you try to back
sweeten and this is to make sure the
metabisulfite and the sorbate really get
in
to the meat and stop the yeast here i am
adding about two
ounces of honey and this is of course
back sweetening and bolstering the honey
character
i'm mixing it up really well and before
i bottle this i need to make sure that i
put it away for another 24 hours
just to make sure that there's no more
re-fermentation
and it's time for bottling i need a
bottle capper or
possibly a wine bottle corker like this
you're gonna need a bottling wand to
fill each bottle
this is a fancy floor corker for lots of
corking and this is a
bench capper for lots of capping and so
the bottling begins
every single bottle has been sanitized
so that's important
make sure you elevate your liquid so
that gravity will help it flow i'm using
my bottling wand
to fill up each bottle and of course my
goal is not to overfill them
because that would make a big mess
now we take our caps or our corks and we
put them on top of each bottle
with the perspective instrument you need
once you finish that you can take and
put a label on each bottle to
know what's in what and if you have a
bunch of stuff like me which is super
helpful
in total i got eight beer bottles out of
this
and one wine bottle a few things was my
mead really clear when i bottled it
no if i want a really clear meat i have
to try some things method one is just to
let it age for a long time
this will generally clear things up
method number two is to use some
clearing agents like sparkloid easy
clear bentonite dual fine
things you can find on amazon or at your
local brew shop
here are a few tips to help you tip
number one is to age your mead this will
help develop the character of the mead
now honey character is the most
important one we want that to be
developed well
after a mead finishes fermenting
generally it tastes kind of yeasty so
you also want to age it for that reason
tip number two is you can put whatever
you want to your meat fruits spices
other honeys maple syrup anything you
want you have options for when to put
these ingredients into the mead you can
choose the primary stage which is where
the bulk of the fermentation occurs
generally day 0 to 21. the secondary
fermentation is after the primary
fermentation if you add more sugars into
that meat it will start to re-ferment
the third option is to put it into the
aging stage of the mead's life
and tip number three is to avoid
pasteurized and filtered honey because
these strip
characters from the honey itself
[Music]
here's a list of some other meat styles
that you can make
[Music]
i hope this video has helped you go make
some mead share this video with a friend
if you enjoyed it
and thank you so much for watching
cheers
you
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