Lord Rhys Chocolate Mead Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How much honey for 1 gallon of mead? ›

We'll go over it in further detail later, but we recommend using between two and three pounds of honey per gallon of mead — 2 pounds if you want it on the dryer side, and 3 pounds if you'd like it to be sweeter.

The ratio of water to honey depends on the type of mead you want to make. For a dry mead, the ratio is 4 parts water to 1 part honey; a sweet mead is 2 to 1. Kluz likes his mead sweet, so he typically uses 1 3/4 gallons of honey and tops it off with 3 1/4 gallons of water.

The fermenting process depends on various factors, like temperature, the amount of honey, the type of yeast, and the presence of additives and nutrients. Depending on how active the yeast is, it will take around 2 to 6 weeks.

Step 2: Making the mead

These instructions produce a light session mead at around 4%, this means we're going to start with 150g of honey per litre (so for 5 litres that's 750g). Add 5 litres of boiled water to the sterilised and rinsed bucket.

If you put in a bunch of honey and you get enough yeast (the right kind of yeast where it ferments all the way out) then you'll have a really dry, high alcohol champagne-like mead. You can use less honey to make a lower alcohol mead. Using less honey might make it a little bit more dry, though not necessarily.

(Some recipes call for boiling the honey, which makes for a cleaner, quicker ferment. However, many of the aromatic oils that are characteristic of the different flower honeys are boiled off as well in this process. Either method will make you mead.)

Why did it fall out of favor? There were some new tax laws, as well as an increased availability of West Indian sugar in the 17th century that made honey harder and less necessary to obtain. But it was also the rise of other alcohols—namely beer and wine—that really did it in.

Orange Blossom honey is a good reliable choice for mead production, so you really can't go wrong if this is the type of mead you produce your mead with.

Tannin- This will give you a counter point to the mead's sweetness. I use black tea for mine. 5 bags of any black tea will do. You're using the black tea for the tannins not the flavor of the tea.

Stirring twice a day is generally sufficient (if you have a fast fermentation, you might want to stir three or four times a day).

Can you let mead ferment for too long? ›

Historically, in a lot of the ancient mead making, they would start drinking it at this stage. Tej, for example, they'd just open ferment it, and over time it becomes less sweet and more alcoholic. If it's left in that open fermentation eventually it starts to become sour.

Traditional meads usually require six months to 2 years for the flavors to mellow and smooth and any off flavors to diminish. Melomels or fruit meads can take six months to 5 years for the flavors to fully integrate and the tannins and acids to mellow. Metheglin or spiced meads are quicker, six months to a year.

Lalvin D-47

This white wine yeast is the primary choice for many mead makers. It ferments at a moderate to fast pace with little foaming and is good for medium to dry meads. It tends to accentuate the honey characteristics so it is a good choice for traditional varietal mead.

One of the world's oldest alcoholic concoctions, mead is a combination of fermented water and honey. Spices, fruits, grains, and hops can be added to create diverse flavors. Viking mead would be likely more diluted (4-8% Alc), made with more water than honey, due to the resources available to Vikings.

Use 1.5 to 5 pounds of honey per gallon, depending on your target for residual sweetness and alcohol content. The more honey, the more residual sweetness and the greater potential for a high, final alcohol content.

A good starting point with most fruits is about 3 pounds of fruit per gallon of mead, though I have been known to use 5 or even 6 pounds of fruit. Fruit blends can produce some great-tasting meads.

1lb of honey in 1 gallon of mist should give you roughly 1.035 SG which of it ferments dry will give you 4.5-5% So a basic mead if you want 10%ish do 2lbs of honey then usually water to one gallon. Mix very well to ensure it's dissolved.

Honey is typically sold by weight rather than volume and is heavier than water (the standard for “fluid ounces”). That is why one cup of water is considered eight fluid ounces, but one cup of honey will actually weigh 12 ounces. A gallon of honey weighs approximately 12 pounds.