As we traversed South Dakota on our recent road trip, my girlfriend and I found ourselves inundated with honey. Janelle’s family stockpiles the stuff and they were looking to pass it off into any open hand. About the time six or eight pounds had accumulated, the epiphany to turn all of the golden nectar into mead began to surface. Partially born from necessity (“how are we going to eat all of this honey?!”) and definitely inspired by the copy of Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher I was toting around on the trip, mead provided a perfect solution to the conundrum.
Yet, another followed: although a relatively experienced home-brewer, I had yet to try my hands at making mead. While delving into research, the general consensus seemed to be that it was less technically demanding than brewing beer but required just as much care towards sanitation and a far sight more patience. Instead of having my ales kegged within two weeks of the brew day and drinkable shortly thereafter, the mead will have to rest in the secondary carboy for months before being transferred to bottles, where it can continue to age for years (if bottled with proper care).
I had to round up two more pounds of honey and I opted to spend a little extra on some from Spokane’s south hill. A trip to Jim’s Homebrew to procure yeast and brewing nutrients followed and then Carl and I were ready to brew.
After some thorough cleaning and sanitizing, we added the honey to one gallon of distilled water and a half gallon of tap water and then brought it slowly to a boil. Carl set about cleaning the primary carboy as I monitored the mead to keep it from boiling over. Once it reached a boiling point, I started to skim off the protein foam that coagulated on the surface. Continuing my skimming regimen, I also measured out the dimmonium phosphate and the biotin wine nutrients and added them at the correct time. I decided to throw in a little irish moss as well, knowing its ability to trap bits and pull them out of my ales.
When the boil had proceeded long enough that only a small amount of protein was appearing at the surface, we removed the mead from the heat and moved it inside to an ice bath we had prepared. While the mead must was cooling, I began to prepare a yeast slurry using a combination of methods recommended on the package and ones I had lifted from my research. Once the slurry was looking happy and the must had cooled to near pitching temperatures, I began to acclimate the yeast by adding a couple of tablespoons of the must to the slurry and then letting it sit for a few minutes. Repeating that process five times, the yeast was ready to be pitched.
We transferred the must to the carboy where one and a half gallons of water at the proper temperature were waiting. We vigorously stirred the mixture periodically as we poured to introduce as much oxygen as possible for the yeast to use. The complex sugars in honey are tough for yeast to digest, even strains that are specially cultivated to deal with that hostile environment. Adding nutrients and oxygenating well ensure the best possible set of conditions for the yeast to thrive and get fermentation started off well.
We finished with mixing and transferred the full carboy to its resting place. Clean up was a relative breeze, even with the inherently sticky nature of honey. About the time we would have been adding hops to an ale, we were cleaning up the last few utensils and enjoying a homebrew. Carl and I were happy to have completed a “brew” day in just under two hours and we are excited to taste how the mead matures over the next couple of years.
As we were working on bringing the mead to life, I began contemplating where I will be when this mead will actually be drinkable. With about a month to go until my move to Davis, Carl and I have to plan a bottling session when I travel back to Spokane to visit. After the mead has reached maturity in about a year’s time, I literally have no idea where I will be living or what brewery I will be working for. The mead now signifies to me my last weeks in Spokane and it will remind me of these times whenever I open a bottle with friends in the years to come. I will also be sending a couple bottles back to South Dakota as thanks for the honey that produced it.
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