The classic mead in the form in which it is prepared today (by fermenting honey using water, yeast, hops, various herbs, berries and spices) is a relatively young drink. And the modern technology of its preparation is as close as possible to the method of making wine and beer, so sometimes we also come across such names of mead as honey wine or honey beer. And today we will try to understand the variety of mead varieties and consider several popular recipes for making this honey drink.

What kind of mead is there?

By manufacturing method:

• Put mead - prepared by natural fermentation with berry sourdough, bee bread, hops (the oldest method of cooking without yeast and boiling). Due to the complex technological process and high cost, this method of making mead has practically outlived its usefulness.
• Boiled mead (nourishing) - sterilized by boiling and fermentation.

By fortress:

• Light mead (with an alcohol content of 14% and below)
• Fortified mead (with the addition of alcohol or vodka)
• Strong mead (boiled) -14% and more
• Non-alcoholic mead

The amount of alcohol contained in the drink is influenced by the way it is prepared.

• Dry drinks contain 1% sugar or less
• Sweet mead contains much more sugar

• Plain and light mead with a little gas
• Effervescent Mead - Lots of Gas

By color:

• Light mead
• Dark Mead

Deservedly:

• Simple Mead
• Thin mead

On adding honey to the finished mead:

• A drink with the addition of honey to the finished product (in some cases, honey is added to the finished fermented drink, if it turns out to be sour, to give it sweetness and honey aroma)
• No added honey

By production time:

• Young mead
• Put mead
• Plain mead
• Strong mead

By ingredients:

• Counterfeit mead (contains spices, spices, fruits, berries, herbs and other ingredients)
• Hop mead (hops are involved in the fermentation process, speeding it up)
• Fruit mead (with berry and fruit juice) and natural (no juice added).

Mead recipes

There are actually a great variety of recipes for a drink called "mead": this is honeycomb, Suzdal and Novgorod, royal and monastic mead, non-alcoholic and alcohol-free. It is not possible to consider all the options. Therefore, we offer only some of the recipes for this fragrant honey drink.

Old hop mead

Compound:

• Water - 8 l
• Gelatin - ½ tsp.
• Hops - 2 tbsp. l.
• Ginger, cardamom - to taste
• Honey - 1.25 kg

Cooking method: honey is poured with boiling water and kept for a day. Then the syrup is brought to a boil and boiled for another hour. Then the hops are added, brought to a boil again and cooked for another hour. This procedure must be done 4-5 times.

After that, pour the cooled honey into a barrel, add diluted gelatin and spices. We close and hold for a couple of weeks. If the fermentation process is inactive or does not start at all, yeast can be added. After the completion of the first fermentation, pour the drink and put it in a cool place for three months.

Hops are an important component in preparing a drink according to this recipe. The enzymes contained in it give the drink a pleasant bitterness and brighten it well. In addition, hops promotes better growth of yeast mass, kills pathogenic microbes, and increases the strength of mead.

But connoisseurs-mead brewers do not recommend getting carried away with hops. The optimal amount is 3-4 hop cones per 8 liters of water. And if honey is used little, two cones will be enough.

Hearty (boiled) cranberry mead

To prepare mead according to this recipe, you will need:

• Water - 1 l
• Honey - 1 kg
• Cinnamon and cloves to taste
• Cranberry juice - 1 l
• Yeast - 100 g

Preparation: Boil honey diluted in water, remove the foam, cool, pour the drink into a bottle, add yeast, juice, spices and leave in a warm place for 2 days. Then put the drink in a cool place for a month.

By the way, honey is also boiled in order to protect oneself and purify honey from harmful bacteria and impurities.

Cherry mead without hops and yeast

You will need:

• Cherries - 4-5 kg
• Water - 4 glasses
• Honey - 2 kg

Cooking method: it is necessary to boil the syrup from honey and water, stirring and removing the foam. Fill the pitted cherries with chilled syrup and leave to ferment for 3 days. When the mixture ferments, you need to plug the neck of the bottle with a canvas stopper and set aside for three to four months for further ripening. The mead prepared according to this recipe, the better, the longer its aging period.

This recipe uses wild yeast in the form of a cherry sourdough. Such a starter culture can be made from any sour berries and from grape pulp (a mixture of crushed berries). Or you can completely or partially replace the water in the recipe with raspberry, currant, mountain ash, grape or viburnum juice.

A simple homemade mead recipe

Compound:

• Water - 2 l
• Honey - 300 g
• Seasonings to taste

How to cook: Stir honey well in water over low heat, while removing foam. Bring to a boil and keep on fire for a few more minutes. Then add nutmeg and cinnamon (pinch at a time), you can (but optional) add a small hop cone. Add yeast to the cooled syrup and ferment the honey mixture. After three days, we pour it, seal it and put it in a refrigerator or basement for a month.

Raisin mead without boiling and yeast

For cooking you will need:

• Honey - 40-50 g
• Water - 1 l
• Raisins - 50 g (do not wash)

Cooking method: Dissolve honey in water and add raisins. Filter the fermented wort several times and let it ripen. It turns out a low-alcohol drink with a strength of up to 3-4%. Before use, it must be kept for at least 3-4 months.

The filtered cake can be used as a starter for a new batch of mead.

Mead on perge

• Water - 8 l
• Honey - 2-3 kg
• Hops - 3-6 cones
• Grape juice (slightly fermented) or juice of other berries - 200-300 ml
• Black raisins (unwashed) - handful
• Perga - a little
• Condiments and herbs - optional

Preparation: all the constituent components are merged into one vessel (it is good to use a large glass bottle for this), leaving about 1/6 of it unfilled (carbon dioxide will accumulate there, which is released during the fermentation process). The bottle must be closed with a lid with a gas outlet (water seal).

To get a semi-sweet effervescent mead, you can pour it into bottles or jars after a couple of weeks of active fermentation (by filtering and carefully removing from the sediment). If the goal is different, you can continue the fermentation process (it starts to slow down after 3 weeks). And after that, also pour the mead into containers, but also not completely, because the process of quiet fermentation is still going on.

If you want to make a staged mead, it will take patience and endurance. Honey should be allowed to brew well and lighten. This will take more than one month. A couple of times during the ripening process, it must be carefully removed from the sediment, without touching it, until the drink becomes translucent. Only then can it be poured into storage.

Strong mead with alcohol

Compound:

• Water - 2 l
• Alcohol - 1 l
• Lemon zest (or lemon peels)
• Honey - 2 kg

How to cook: honey, dissolved in water, cook, stirring, for 4 hours. After cooling, pour over. We add alcohol, previously infused on lemon peels, and put on fermentation for two weeks in a warm place. After that, we filter the drink, pour it and keep it for at least six months.

Buckwheat mead

From the name it is clear that for its preparation we take only buckwheat honey. For the rest, we proceed in the same way as we usually do when brewing a traditional drink.

For cooking we need:

• Water - 4 l
• Buckwheat honey - 300 g
• Hops - 2-3 pcs.
• Spices (cinnamon, at least one red peppercorn and others optional)
• Brewer's yeast - 15 g.

Cooking method: Boil a solution of honey and water for 25 minutes. Cool to 25-30 ° C, add prepared yeast and other ingredients and place honey syrup for fermentation in a warm place. We filter the fermented drink and pour it into a glass container for infusion in the refrigerator. We stand it for 30 days before acquiring a drink of a special taste.

Mead "Novgorodskaya"

Compound:

• Water - 1 l
• Honey - 150 g
• 1/2 lemon juice
• Yeast - 30 g

How to cook: dissolve honey in boiling water, stirring occasionally. Remove the foam, cool to 40-50 ° С, add already diluted yeast and leave in a warm place for fermentation for about a day. Strain, add lemon juice and chill.

Altai mead

Altai mead is famous for its unsurpassed taste and aroma, because it is prepared on the basis of honey collected by bees from Altai medicinal herbs. And it's easy to cook it.

We will need:

• Spring water - 4 l
• Floral honey collected in the Altai mountains
• Hops - 10 g
• Mint - 15 g

Cooking method: we mix all the components in an oak barrel (in the absence of one, it can be replaced with a glass bottle or jar) and insist for 3 weeks. After three weeks, the drink is filtered and bottled for storage.

The drink prepared in this way has a sweet taste with a pleasant aroma, small strength and retains the beneficial properties of Altai honey. The aging period can be increased to obtain a stronger drink.

Zabrus mead recipe

This drink is made from an extremely useful bee product - a backing (the upper part of a wax honeycomb, built by bees with the use of bee saliva and enzymes). The mead made from the backing tastes somewhat like a soda with a sweet and sour taste.

Ingredients:

• Honey - 1 kg
• Zabrus - 1.5 kg
• Water - 10 l
• Red and black currants in equal proportions - 500 g

How to cook: Pour the currants with water, add the backing. We are waiting for the appearance of foam on the surface and after a week and a half we filter it. We "rejuvenate" the filtered drink with honey and leave it for about a month in a warm place (temperature - 30 ° C). The result is a strong, intoxicating drink.

Homemade mead in two right ways

Alcoholic drinks from honey began to be prepared several millennia ago, simultaneously with the advent of beekeeping. Over time, the production technology has undergone changes, but the unforgettable taste and intoxicating shade have remained the same. Next, I will tell you how to make mead at home. We will look at a modern version and a classic recipe without yeast and boiling, which was used in the past.

Mead Is a low-alcohol (5-10%) alcoholic beverage obtained by fermenting honey. Depending on the recipe, in addition to water, yeast, hops, flavors and other ingredients can also be added to the composition.

There is a strong mead, but it is not made by fermentation, but by adding the right amount of alcohol (vodka) to the finished product. This method allows you to achieve a predetermined strength of the drink up to 75 degrees.

In Russia, "drinking honey" was considered sacred and was an integral attribute of many holidays, but in the Middle Ages this wonderful drink was forgotten. The rebirth of mead fell on the first years of Soviet power, when beekeepers received a lot of honey that was not suitable for long-term storage and sale. For the sake of fast processing, beekeepers made mead with the addition of baker's yeast.

The new low-alcohol drink took root, it was prepared at home, using not only spoiled, but also very high-quality mature honey diluted with water. A few decades later, the industrial production of mead began. In this regard, the city of Suzdal, Vladimir region, became famous, where production has survived to this day.

Modern homemade mead

• honey - 300 grams;
• water - 2 liters;
• dry yeast - 1 teaspoon (or 25 grams of pressed);
• hop cones - 5 grams;
• cinnamon and nutmeg - 1 pinch

All ingredients are available, only hop cones can be difficult. They are sold in almost every pharmacy, so this is not a problem either. Any yeast can be taken, for example, for baking bread.

Mead preparation technology

1. Choosing honey. One of the most important stages, on which the quality of the finished drink largely depends. Try to pick the most fragrant varieties. Buckwheat honey is great, but you can use another, such as lime honey.

In the spring, many beekeepers offer fresh liquid honey, but if you are not well versed in beekeeping, it is better to refuse to buy. There is a risk that, instead of a natural product, businessmen will sell a sugar substitute or the honey itself will be of poor quality. Such raw materials will never make delicious homemade mead.

2. Dissolving honey in water. Pour water into an enamel pot and bring to a boil. Add honey to boiling water, stirring constantly with a spoon. After 4-5 minutes of boiling the honey mixture, a white foam will begin to appear on the surface, which must be carefully collected with a spoon.

Attention! Honey burns very quickly and can ignite, so the pan should not be left unattended for a minute.

3. Adding flavorings. After the foam has been removed, add other ingredients to the mixture: cinnamon, nutmeg and hops, which will give the drink original flavor notes. After stirring thoroughly, remove the pan from heat.

4. Preparation for fermentation. Cool the mixture to 25-30 ° C (very important) and add the diluted yeast. If you do this at a higher temperature, the yeast will die and fermentation will not start.

Transfer the pot with the honey solution to a dark place with a temperature of about 25 ° C. If there is no separate room, you can use an aquarium heater. To avoid the ingress of foreign substances and insects into the wort (in summer flies especially get out), I recommend tying the pan with gauze.

After 1-2 days, signs of fermentation will appear: foam will begin to form on the surface of the mixture, a hissing will be heard. Pour the contents of the saucepan into a fermentation container by placing a medical glove with a hole in the finger or a water seal on the neck. The designs of these devices are shown in the photo.

Homemade odor trap Fermentation under the glove

5. Fermentation. Typically, mead fermentation lasts 4-6 days. The end of the process is evidenced by a deflated glove or a prolonged absence of bubbles coming out through the water seal. Another method of checking is to bring a burning match to the surface of the liquid, which should not go out. There is nothing to be afraid of, the strength of the drink is only 5-10 degrees, it will not catch fire.

6. Filtration and filling. The final stage of preparation. Carefully pour the mead into another container, leaving a sediment at the bottom, then strain through several layers of cheesecloth.

Pour the finished drink into bottles (glass or plastic), seal tightly and transfer to the refrigerator or basement. I am not a supporter of storing alcohol in a plastic container, but in this case it is harmless. The strength of the mead is low, so the alcohol will not interact with the plastic. Beer is sold in such bottles. Mead can be drunk almost immediately after preparation, but I recommend insisting 3-5 days and only after that taste it.

How to make mead sparkling

1. Wash bottles (plastic or glass) well and wipe dry.

2. Add honey to the bottom of each container (one and a half teaspoons per 1 liter of drink). Thanks to honey, a slight secondary fermentation will appear, which will saturate the mead with natural carbon dioxide.

3. Pour the drink into bottles, leaving 5-6 cm of free space from the neck. Seal hermetically with plugs or lids.

4. Transfer containers for 7-10 days to a dark room with room temperature. Check the gas pressure once a day, bleed off excess pressure if necessary.

5. Place the soda honey in a cool place for at least 5 days to ripen.

Mead without yeast and boiling

An old recipe by which our ancestors made mead. They dispensed with yeast and diluted honey in cold water. I warn you that using this technology, preparation will take 3-4 months, besides, the strength of the drink will be much lower - 2-4 degrees.

The most difficult thing in this recipe is to find an adequate substitute for yeast, since honey alone will not ferment with water. There are two options: using cherries (raspberries, strawberries) or raisins as a catalyst. The historically correct choice would be cherries, but the safer raisins. Let's consider both cases.

Cooking technology

1. Dissolve honey in cold water. The amount of ingredients depends on the selected fermentation catalyst. In the case of raisins, the following are used: 1 liter of water, 80 grams of honey and 50 grams of raisins.

If it is decided to support fermentation with cherries (raspberries, strawberries), then to make mead you will need: 1 liter of water, 4 kg of cherry berries and 2 kg of honey. First, remove the seeds from the cherries, then pour in the honey solution.

Attention! The raisins and cherries must not be washed before adding to the mead, otherwise the wild yeast responsible for fermentation can be accidentally washed off, and it will be difficult to predict the subsequent result.

2. Tie the neck with gauze, then put the container in a warm place. Fermentation will start in 1-2 days. Since we have done without yeast (dry and baking), it takes more time than in the first case.

3. When signs of fermentation appear (see point 4 of the first recipe), filter the liquid through several layers of gauze, pour into another container and close tightly. This method is used to prepare the so-called "put mead", which does not require a glove or a water seal.

4. It remains to put the bottles in the refrigerator or cellar for maturation. After 3-4 months, you can try the finished drink. It will turn out to be carbonated with a slight sourness, alcohol is almost not felt, more like kvass.

P.S. Many people call the "right mead" recipe without yeast and boiling. But this does not mean that the first option is not as tasty or healthy. I advise you to prepare mead using two methods, try each option, and only then draw conclusions.

The video shows a simple honey beer recipe.

How to make mead at home: 7 proven recipes

Mead is a fragrant low-alcohol drink known for a long time. It is prepared from honey, water, and various spices are added as desired. Check out our selection of easy, proven homemade mead recipes, cook and invite your guests for a tasting!

Few know how to make mead at home.

Is it only in the villages that ancient recipes for this invigorating low-alcohol drink are passed down from generation to generation. Making a drink from honey is a very exciting process, similar to making homemade bread kvass.

To make your own mead, use natural fresh liquid honey. You can experiment with varieties and use lime, buckwheat or wild forest honey. It is better to take fresh pressed yeast for mead, intended for baking bread, but dry yeast will not spoil the drink at all. If desired, to give the finished drink an interesting aroma, you can add spices - cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, citrus zest, mint.

Some mead recipes use hop cones. They can still be found in some household plots - this climbing plant densely braids fences and blooms with attractive light green cones. They can be collected, dried and used to prepare a drink. However, it is easier to buy ready-made dried hops from the pharmacy.

Mead without boiling

A simple recipe for homemade mead.

You will need: 50 g honey, 50 g raisins, 1 liter water.

Preparation... Add honey to boiled cooled water and stir well to dissolve. Then add unwashed raisins, cover the container with the mixture with a lid and leave at room temperature for 2-3 days. After that, strain the liquid through cheesecloth, bottle, seal and place in a cool dark place to infuse for 2-3 months.

Boiled mead

A light sparkling drink with a pleasant sweetish taste and unique aroma.

You will need: 5.5 kg honey, 1 lemon, 100 g fresh baker's yeast, 19 liters of water.

Preparation... In an enamel saucepan, dissolve the honey in 6 liters of water, add the juice squeezed from the lemon and bring to a boil over low heat, stirring and removing the foam. Then remove the pan from the heat and cool the honey mixture to room temperature. Add remaining water and crush half of the yeast. Mix well, pour the mixture into a bottle or jar, close with a water seal or a rubber glove with a hole made in one finger and leave to ferment in a warm, dark place for 1 month. Then add the remaining yeast, stir, close the container with a water seal and leave for another 1 month. After the specified time, filter the liquid, bottle, cork and let the drink brew for 4-6 months in a cool, dark place.

Modern homemade mead

Even in a modern apartment or country house, you can make real mead using the available ingredients.

You will need: 300 g of honey, 25 g of fresh baker's yeast, 5 g of hop cones, a pinch of ground cinnamon and nutmeg, 2 liters of water.

Preparation... Boil water and add honey. While stirring, simmer the mixture for 5 minutes, remove the resulting foam and add the hops (available at the pharmacy), add the spices and remove from heat. Cool the mixture to room temperature and crush the yeast into it, stir and leave in a warm place for a couple of days. When the mixture is actively fermenting, pour it into a bottle, close it with a glove or a special stopper and leave it for 5-6 days. When fermentation is over, carefully pour and strain the drink into a clean container, being careful not to disturb the sediment that has fallen to the bottom. Pour the mead into bottles, cork, let it brew for 5-7 days in a cool, dark place and taste.

Strong mead

Making mead according to this recipe allows you to get a drink with a strength of 12-18%.

You will need: 1 kg of honey, 100 g of fresh baker's yeast, 20 g of hop cones, a pinch of spices (ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom), 6 liters of water, vodka if desired.

Preparation... Boil the water and, without removing the pan from the heat, add honey and stir to dissolve. Boil the mixture, stirring occasionally and skimming off the foam. Then add spices and hops, cook for a couple more minutes and remove from heat. Cool the mixture to room temperature and add yeast. Stir, cover the pan with cheesecloth and place in a warm place to ferment. After 2 days, when the mixture begins to ferment actively, pour it into a bottle, close it with a water seal or a rubber glove and leave it for another 5-7 days. After that, gently strain the mead into a clean container, removing it from the sediment. If desired, to increase the degree, mead can be diluted with vodka, at the rate of 100 ml of vodka per 1 liter of mead and insisted for another month.

Old honey mead

Delicious mead can be prepared not only from fresh liquid honey, but also from candied honey.

You will need: 1.5 kg of honey, 10 g of hop cones, 3 dry yeast, 10 l of water.

Preparation... Boil water in a saucepan, add honey and, without removing the pan from the heat, stir thoroughly to completely dissolve. Boil for a couple more minutes, skimming off the foam. Then add hops, stir and turn off heat, cool and add yeast. Cover the pot with a lid and leave in a warm place for 5 days. Then strain the drink, remove the hops, bottle and cap. Place the mead bottles in a cool, dark place for 2 days, then open, release the resulting gas, reseal, and leave for another 5 days.

Carbonated mead

Carbonated mead is similar to homemade kvass, only sweeter and richer in flavor.

You will need: ready-made mead and fresh honey (at the rate of 1.5 tsp for 1 liter of ready-made drink).

Preparation... Thoroughly rinse and dry the bottles prepared for the drink. Put honey on the bottom of each bottle, pour the mead, without adding about 5 cm to the edge of the neck. Close the bottles well and place in a dark, warm place for a week. Check fermentation progress daily and release the resulting gas by opening bottles. Then place the beverage bottles in a cool place for another week to ripen. You can leave the mead to ripen for 2-3 months - this will make the taste more intense.

Mead according to an old recipe

Old recipes for making mead have survived to this day, which have been carefully passed down from generation to generation.

You will need: 80 g of honey, 50 g of raisins, 1 liter of water.

Preparation... Dissolve honey in slightly warmed water, add unwashed raisins. Cover the container with the mixture with cheesecloth and place in a warm place to ferment. After 2 days, filter the liquid into a clean container, bottle, seal and place in a cool dark place to ripen.

Now you know how to make mead at home. It only takes a few simple ingredients and patience to wait until the drink matures.

Mead: the best homemade recipes

Mead is one of the oldest drinks invented by cupbearers. In addition to the exquisite taste, it is beneficial, since the main component is honey, which contains many useful substances that our body needs.

Preparation does not take much time, a simple recipe and the availability of ingredients put this drink on a podium of honor and respect in Russia. Natural mead has a strength of up to 16 turns. It is possible to manufacture both a soft drink and a strong drink containing up to 75 degrees.

In Russia, "drinking honey" was originally considered a sacred drink that was consumed on holidays. This was due to the recipe for the preparation of the drink, in which it stood in oak barrels from 3 to 60 years. It was extremely difficult to achieve industrial scale production.

The beginning of the reign of Soviet power can be considered a rebirth, when there was a lot of honey that was unsuitable for long-term storage. Old honey mead was made with the addition of yeast, which accelerated the ripening process. From here its industrial production originated, in which the city of Suzdal, located in the Vladimir region, was most famous, where the highest quality goods are still produced today.

You can quickly make a carbonated drink, for this you need to add to the bottom of each can, where fresh honey will be poured, based on the calculation of 10-15 grams per liter. Let it ripen for five days, checking the gas pressure, and please, everything is ready to use!

If you put mead with hops and yeast, then you can make a strong version. Below in the text of the article I will give an example of such a recipe for you.

For cooking, we need enamel pots, a ladle, a clean wooden spoon, a little patience and free time. Let's get acquainted with the "basic" recipe for the drink.

Mead recipe

In many ways, the future taste of the resulting drink depends on the correct choice of honey. Therefore, you need to approach this with all responsibility. It is necessary to choose the most fragrant varieties; buckwheat or linden varieties would be a good option. We do not recommend taking fresh honey in the spring, there is a high risk of running into a surrogate.

The recipe is simple, we need the following components:

• Four liters of purified water (spring or bottled water is suitable);
• 500 grams of honey;
• 500 grams of sugar;
• 100 grams of yeast.

• Mix water with sugar and add 250 grams of honey, mix, put on fire.
• Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for fifteen to twenty minutes, stirring constantly with a spoon and removing the foam. You need to be extremely careful, honey can ignite.
• We remove the solution and cool to room temperature, add the yeast diluted according to the instructions on the sachet, cover with a light cloth and put in a warm place for two days.
• We remove the foam from the surface of the solution, pour it over glass bottles, make a water seal or attach a glove with a hole.
• We put it in a dark place for a week. We control the completion of the fermentation process with a glove or the absence of gas evolution at the gate, filter the resulting drink, pour out and stir the remaining honey.
• We remove in a cool dark place to ripen for a month. After which the drink is ready, you can serve it to the table!

Yeast-free mead

You can prepare a drink without using yeast, and in order to ferment the mead, add red berries, such as raspberries, strawberries, cherries. We will need:

• Honey - two kg.
• Berries - four kg.

The cooking process begins with the preparation of the berries. If they contain seeds, they must be removed. Dissolve honey in water, as described above, in the basic recipe, fill it with berries, tie it with gauze and put it in a warm place for two days.

Then, remove the gauze, remove the foam, filter the liquid. We pour it into bottles with tight lids and remove it to ripen for 3-4 months in a cool place. The drink is ready, enjoy!

Old recipe

The old mead recipe is more complicated. We will need:

• 1.25 kilograms of honey;
• 8 liters of purified water;
• 2 tablespoons of hops
• 5 grams of gelatin;
• Ginger and cardamom - to your liking.

We transfer the honey to a saucepan, pour boiling water for a day, then bring to a boil and keep on low heat for about an hour. Add hops to the solution, bring to a boil, simmer again for an hour, cool to room temperature. We repeat the process four times.

We cool the resulting solution, ideally it is better to pour it into a barrel, but you can also pour it into a glass container. Add cardamom, dilute gelatin, add it. We close it as tightly as possible.

We wait two or three weeks, see if the fermentation process has started. If it is not very pronounced, you can add a little yeast. When the process is over, we bottle the resulting alcohol and put it in a cool place for three months.

Suzdal mead

To prepare this historic recipe, you must:

• Honey - half a kilo;
• Purified water - four liters;
• Sugar - half a kilo;
• Yeast - 100 gr.

We dilute half of the sugar and honey in water, boil for fifteen minutes, removing the foam and carefully watching so that the honey does not burn.

We cool the liquid, add the yeast prepared according to the recipe, put it in a warm place for three days. Then, filter through cheesecloth, remove for a month in a cool place.

Filter again, add the rest of honey and sugar, stir. Close the lid and put it in the refrigerator for four days. As soon as foam appears on the surface of the solution, everything is ready. We filter it and use it chilled.

Spicy mead

To prepare this variety, only additional components are required, the whole process takes place as in the main recipe described above. So let's prepare:

• 750 gr. honey;
• 3 liters of filtered water;
• 10 gr. yeast;
• One egg white;
• Cinnamon and ginger - pinch each;
• 2 pieces of cloves.

We cook according to the usual scheme, but the taste is completely different.

Quick mead with raisins

Whipping up a raisin drink. Required Ingredients:

• 4 liters of filtered water;
• 3 lemons;
• 100 grams of raisins;
• 0.4 kg of honey;
• Yeast - 30 grams;
• 1 tablespoon flour.

Cut lemons into smaller pieces, add raisins and honey. Fill with boiling water, cool. Add yeast and flour, put it in a warm place for a day.

We remove the foam, pour it into vessels with a water seal or a glove. Then we proceed according to the scheme described above.

Strong mead

Strong mead at home is also prepared without any particular difficulties. For cooking we need:

• 0.6 kg of honey;
• 4 liters of filtered water;
• 5 grams of yeast;
• A glass of port or brandy.

For cooking, boil a liter of water, dissolve honey in it, add to the rest of the water, add yeast, stir, leave in a warm place for two weeks.

Then add a glass of alcohol to taste, leave to ripen for another two weeks. We filter, pour into bottles with tight lids and put in a cool place for six months. When the deadline passes, we extract and evaluate the result.

Mead put without boiling

In this review, we have considered only a small part of the recipes for this folk drink. Many people think that the "right" is mead without boiling and adding yeast. It is difficult to argue, but then the period for making alcohol will increase to three to four months.

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The best homemade mead recipes

Mead is a low-alcohol drink (5-10%), which is obtained by fermenting honey. Depending on the recipe chosen, hops, yeast and other additives can be added to it.

Drinks based on honey appeared a long time ago, back in the era of Ancient Russia. At that time, they were made using classical fermentation, so ripening took many months, or even years.

The classic mead we know dates back to around the 18th century. Today we will tell you in detail how to make homemade mead in both ways - according to the classic recipe and the modern one.

1. How to choose good honey
2. Simple mead recipes
3. Modern mead recipe

If you look in more detail, then there are a lot of varieties of mead. There is mead "put" (made without boiling) and nourishing (obtained by boiling the wort). There are drinks of natural strength, and there are fortified varieties (with the addition of ethyl alcohol). We can talk about this for a long time. We will list those recipes that will allow an ordinary distiller to comfortably make this drink at home.

How to choose good honey

But the first thing to take care of before cooking is to choose honey. The better it is, the brighter the aroma and taste of mead will be. Here are some parameters to help you decide which honey to use for your drink.

• Good honey doesn't have to foam on its own. Good honey is bactericidal. Foam on it indicates low quality. Honey loses its bactericidal properties (foams) only when it is diluted with water or boiled.
• Another sign of good honey is its ability to be sugared. Many people think that only fresh and runny honey should be used for mead. But in reality, this is not so - hard candied is also perfect. True, you will have to try a little more to dissolve it in water.
• Liquid honey in winter or spring is a sign of a poor-quality product or surrogate (with the exception of heather honey and honey from acacia). At this time, all high-quality varieties are already crystallized and candied. Liquid honey is available only in summer and early autumn.
• Particular attention should be paid to the type of honey. There are light (acacia, apple, linden) and dark (heather, chestnut, angelica) varieties. Of the light varieties, raspberry honey is especially distinguished, which gives the drink a mild taste and an indescribable floral aroma. Dark varieties will appeal to those who value astringency and light bitterness in the drink.

Conclusion: The taste of the finished drink directly depends on the type and quality of honey. Most often, light lime honey is used for mead. Buckwheat honey gives the mead unusual shades, and flower varieties will give the aroma of fresh meadows and fields. Ultimately it all depends on your preference. The main thing is that honey should be natural and not a substitute.

Easy Yeast-Free Mead Recipes

The classic mead, which our ancestors drank, is prepared without yeast and boiling. We'll warn you right away that the drink will turn out to be not so strong (2-4%), and it will take 3-4 months to insist, or even six months.

In this simple recipe, it is important to find an adequate substitute for yeast: water and honey will not ferment by themselves. There are several options, we will choose the 2 most reliable - cherries and raisins.

Classic cherry mead

To prepare a classic mead, we need:

• Water - 1 liter
• Cherries - 4 kg
• Honey - 2 kg

• Dissolve honey in warm water (30-35 ° C), pour over cherry with honey solution. First, you need to sort out the cherries and remove the seeds from it.

Important! In no case should cherries be washed before use. So you run the risk of washing the wild yeast off the peel of the berries, which is responsible for fermenting the drink.

• Tie the container with gauze and remove to a warm place. It remains to wait for the beginning of fermentation, on average it will take 1-2 days.
• After the start of fermentation, place a water seal on the container and let the wort ferment. On average, this will take 10 days.
• Then the fermented wort must be filtered from the sediment, poured into airtight containers and removed for infusion in a cellar or refrigerator. The infusion time is 3-4 months.

Classic raisin mead

Raisin mead is prepared according to a similar recipe, but there is a significant difference in proportions.

• Water - 1 liter
• Honey - 50 g
• Raisins - 50 g

• We dilute the honey in cold water and fill it with raisins. The raisins are also not washed, so as not to preserve the wild yeast on the surface of the berries.
• We tie the container with the wort with gauze and wait for the beginning of fermentation - 1-2 days.
• After fermentation has begun, we filter the wort and pour it into airtight containers and put it in a cool dark place for infusion. It will also last for about 4 months.

Classic mead, despite all the simplicity of preparation, requires a rather long aging, which not everyone will like. If you want to make this drink faster, you will have to use another recipe, modern. It is a little more complicated in technology, but you will get the result much faster.

Modern mead recipe

It involves boiling the wort and its subsequent aging. For convenience, we will cook the product in the Wayne wort kettle. You can use a regular saucepan, but it will take a little longer and not so convenient.

So, we need the following ingredients:

• Put the water on heating and pour honey into it. Stir the solution constantly while pouring. After it boils, foam will start to form on it. It needs to be removed from time to time.
• We cook honey for about an hour, then add hops and spices. Add hops and cloves as indicated in the recipe, and sprinkle the cinnamon evenly in a small layer over the surface of the wort.
• After adding, stir and let the drink cook for another 20 minutes.
• Shortly before the end of cooking, put the chiller in the wort. After turning off the heating, turn on the cooling of the chiller to the maximum and wait until the wort cools down to 28-30 ° C.
• Then pour the solution from the pan into the fermentation container. We do this in any convenient way, the main thing is to drain the liquid cleanly, without sediment. We will use a special overflow siphon with a filter.
• After we poured the liquid, we use the yeast. Spread them evenly over the surface of the future mead and close with a tight lid. We are waiting for 2 weeks.

Pouring for carbonation

After 2 weeks, it is necessary to bottle the mead for carbonation. To do this, we need: regular PET bottles of 1.5 liters, a funnel, scales, a spoon, a hose with a check valve and dextrose.

Carbonation is done so that the mead in an already closed container ferments, becomes carbonated and acquires its final honey taste.

• The first thing to do is to disinfect all equipment. This can be done with any alcohol-containing substance. We will be using heads. So, we thoroughly rinse all the equipment with our solution (sterility is very important for mead) and we can proceed to carbonation. Do not forget about bottles either - we rinse with our heads and rinse with clean water.
• We start carbonation. Add 10 g of dextrose (7 g per 1 liter) to each bottle and start bottling mead. For filling, we will use a special valve that sucks in liquid and simplifies the whole process of pouring.
• We fill the bottle approximately up to the hangers. Then we squeeze the bottle so that the liquid comes to the very edge of the neck and twist it. In the future, when carbonation starts and carbon dioxide is released, this will save the container from bursting.
• We remove the ripening mead in a dark cool place for about 10 days.

30.11.2016 4

Mead at home: the recipe without yeast is the most popular for one reason - a drink made from pure water and honey, without additional fermentation stimulants, is the most useful, environmentally friendly "fun" drink based on honey.

The history of the drink is quite old: our ancestors knew it, great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers drank it, and the rules of preparation were passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, mead can be considered a sacred drink - the drink of the ancestors. And he, in this status, fully justifies itself: this is one of the best traditions that should be maintained, preserved and cultivated further.

The value of the drink

The healing properties of the drink were known in ancient times. It was even recommended for pregnant women to drink it in small quantities: mead contained a lot of useful minerals, trace elements, vitamins. Most of the preparation options made it possible to create a drink with a strength of up to 4 °. But there were also recipes for getting strong honey - up to 21 °. For holidays, usually served mead varieties with a strength of up to 10 °.

Drinking mead was considered safe, without the risk of sleeping as if from stronger vodka. The main problem in production is timing: the drink required a long aging. Therefore, it was considered solemn and status: it was served at feasts, exhibited at significant events. It was highly appreciated by foreigners and visiting merchants who rarely tried such a drink at home - Russia, one might say, had a monopoly on this product ..

Basic information about mead

Mead without yeast and boiling was called staged - the drink was set to ripen for a long time, according to some sources, the aging time could be half a century for the most valuable honeys. If 50 years seem like a long time to you, then 20 years of aging was a common thing: a drink in a barrel was buried in the ground for the birth of children and left there until their wedding.

During the holding time, the product is quietly fermented, gaining the required "degree", and the absence of thermal operations retains most of the useful properties of the main raw material.

The main ingredients were:

1. Natural, non-candied honey.
2. Fermented berry juice: raspberries, cherries, strawberries, raisins.
3. Sometimes hops, herbs and spices were added.

Homemade mead recipe without yeast

Making real mead excluded the use of water or yeast. The raw material was loaded into oak barrels, mixed and left to stand. The minimum aging period was 5 years. The process of transformation of the mixture into "pitny" honey took place in the cellars.

How to make such a drink at home?

Option 1: classics of the genre

The recipe for DIY mead without yeast is very simple. Of course, you cannot achieve perfect correspondence with ancient recipes, but you can get an idea of ​​the taste if you have endurance and patience.

• first try the Sami simple option. Take any honey (even crystallized, 1 kg). Add berry juice (2 kg), some spices and hops. If honey is candied, then it can be diluted with cold or warm water heated to 30 ... 35 degrees (you cannot boil the water). Bee bread can be added as a fermentation component;
• after all the elements are filled in one container, the mixture is left to ferment for 2 weeks. In this case, it is necessary to periodically shake the container and mix the contents;
• active fermentation ends and the period of mead settling begins. To do this, the raw material is filtered, poured into a previously prepared container, which will be tightly closed. In this container, the fermentation and fermentation processes will end. You will receive the finished product in four months. There will be no fortress in it - it will resemble beer in alcohol saturation. But the taste, believe me - you have never tasted this!

Option 2: only taste of honey

Homemade mead without yeast can be produced in another way. A pure drink (without admixture of berry juice and other components) is obtained in the following way. Sprouted wheat is used as a fermentation activator. Therefore, her recipe is radically different from the previous one.

You will need:

1. Honey (preferably liquid - lime, May) - 1 kg.
2. Pure natural or purified (but not distilled) water - 2 ... 3 liters.
3. Sprouted wheat - about 20-30 grams, for each liter of the mixture.

Wheat is germinated in advance - it will take 2 ... 4 days. The resulting crop is divided into two equal parts: one is left intact (sprouts with caryopses), and the second is ground into a finely dispersed gruel.

The technology for making this mead at home is similar to the first recipe: mix everything thoroughly, wait for a period of active fermentation, then strain and stand for at least 4 months in a cool place. The longer "nutritious honey" will be defended, the better its taste will be.

Option 3: how to make mead from plain honey, berries and water

This option will be good for the case when you have many of the simplest and most affordable ingredients. Any honey, common types of berries (such as cherries, raspberries) will do. All that is needed is to mix the components in a 1: 2: 4 ratio (honey: water: berries).

This mead is not "real", but you get a pleasant low-alcohol tonic drink made from natural ingredients. It will be good for your health and uplifting your mood. It will be done in the same way as in other recipes: let it ferment, strain, pour into a clean container and cork, let the drink infuse from 4 months. This recipe is suitable when there is nowhere to put the harvest and there is plenty of cheap (or old candied) honey.

Option 4: bee bread or raisins instead of hops

The main ingredients are the same: water, honey, berries in a 2: 1: 4 ratio. An activator is needed for the fermentation process. If there is no hop, then you can take 50 g of raisins for this proportion, or 100 g of bee bread. These elements are added to the prepared mixture last and stirred.

When using this recipe, you can get a strong mead with an indicator of up to 16 degrees. If you reduce the proportion of raisins or bee bread, then the drink will come out with a strength of 9-10 °.

• always first dilute honey with water (if necessary), and then add berries to the mixture;
• hops are added last;
• active fermentation begins on the 3rd ... 4th day - after that it is necessary to carefully monitor the mixture;
• all containers must be perfectly clean before any stage of preparation of the drink;
• insist honey in the cold. A cellar will do. You can bury the container with the defended mead in the ground - it's even better: the drink will be infused in absolute calm, which will allow the final fermentation processes to go on without interruption (the chemical reaction needs complete rest so that it goes in the right direction, without stopping, with the greatest return during fermentation) ...

Video: mead without yeast and boiling.

Modern mead

These recipes are not classic for the production technology of this drink. But, nevertheless, the resulting product corresponds to a number of qualities of the Old Slavic mead:

1. The drink, made from natural ingredients, simply boils with useful substances. Therefore, its constant use at certain periods is an excellent means of preventing colds, headaches, and sleep disorders. Partially mead can restore the functions of the gastrointestinal tract, stimulating it to work more actively.
2. The drink perfectly relieves the hangover syndrome, saturating the body with vitamins and microelements, which he had to spend on overcoming alcohol intoxication. For other types of poisoning, it can also be taken as a restorative and cleanser.
3. In addition to recipes close to the classic ones, you can also find production options using hot water, yeast, juice of large fruits (apples, pears, etc.), with shorter aging periods. This mead is less valuable as a healthy food product. If you prepare a drink, then without yeast. Otherwise, it will more resemble honey moonshine - a fun product, smelling of honey, but not healthy for health, but vice versa. Of course, in moderate doses, honey moonshine can be a pleasant addition to your dinner. But no more - he will not add health - that's for sure.
4. Berries for mead are different. There is only one condition - they must be really sweet. As a filler, you can use: raspberries, strawberries, cherries, cherries, currants, blackberries, strawberries, grapes. When choosing a berry, be guided by the density of its rind. But some types of grapes or currants are berries with very dense skin. In this case, the selected ingredient can be wiped through a sieve or ground.

Summing up the topic, we can say the following: modern mead recipes are quite suitable for the production of a healing and invigorating drink. In fact, this is a honey wine with a minimum alcohol content of 2 ... 4 °. A natural homemade product can be safe and healthy if it is made without yeast or boiling.

Intoxicated honey has been prepared in Russia since ancient times. It was served at feasts and festivals, but the process of its preparation was very long, so the old recipe was replaced by a more simplified version of a low-alcohol drink made with honey. The recipe for making mead at home is simple and comes in several interesting variations.

For classic boiled hop honey you need to take:

• 2000 ml of water;
• 300 g of honey;
• 5 g hop cones;
• 7 g dry yeast;
• 3 g cinnamon;
• 3 g of nutmeg.

Recipe step by step:

1. Boil water in an enameled container, add honey to it and boil for 5 minutes. Collect the foam from the surface, add spices, remove from heat and cover.
2. When the honey cools down to 30 - 40 degrees, dilute the yeast in it and put it in a warm place for a couple of days. Then pour into a container with a water seal and keep until the end of the fermentation process (the foam on the surface should disappear).
3. Filter the drink, pour into bottles and stand for two to three months in a cool dark place before use.

How to make Suzdal mead

Suzdal and Vladimir are Russian cities that have been famous for their honey brewing for a long time. And now mead is a gastronomic symbol of Suzdal. There it is produced on an industrial scale, including for export (Japan). And you can taste different types of this drink in the Tasting Room.

Classic Suzdal mead is prepared using the following ingredients:

• 4000 ml of spring water;
• 500 g of honey;
• 500 g sugar;
• 100 g yeast.

Production technology:

1. Dilute half of the prescribed amount of honey together with sugar with water and boil this syrup over low heat for 15 - 20 minutes, collecting the foam from the surface.
2. Cool boiled honey to 30 degrees, dilute yeast in it and leave to ferment for three days.
3. After that, carefully filter the drink, pour it into a prepared container and keep in a cool place for a month.
4. Filter again, add honey and return to cool for four days. The mead is ready.

The other two popular types of Suzdal mead are Kazachya and Pyatialtynnaya. They are prepared according to the same recipe, only in the first case juniper and pepper are added to honey. And for Pyatialtynnaya mead, sugar is replaced with malt and the fermentation time of the drink is reduced.

Preparing a soft drink

Not everyone, for one reason or another, can consume alcohol, but this is not a reason to refuse a delicious honey drink that has retained the benefits of its components.

Non-alcoholic mead is being prepared from the following products:

• 2500 g of cherries;
• 2000 g of flower honey;
• 1000 ml of drinking water.

Progress:

1. Boil honey diluted with water and boil for a quarter of an hour, not forgetting to remove the foam that appears on the surface of the liquid. Then cool the honey syrup to room temperature.
2. Wash and remove the seeds from the cherry berries, put them in an enamel saucepan and pour over the cooled honey broth. Cover the container with a towel and leave at room temperature for 2 - 3 days. During this time, the fermentation process will not have time to activate enough, so there will be no alcohol in the finished drink.
3. After aging, strain the drink, pour it into a clean glass container and put it in a cellar or refrigerator for at least three months.

Put honey - an old recipe for mead

Put honey is the oldest hoppy honey drink, the aging period of which ranged from 15 to 40 years. Mead prepared in the same way, but aged for 5 - 8 years, was called "young", "raw" or "bad". A drink was prepared from two parts of honey and one part of berry (raspberry, lingonberry, cherry) juice, without a drop of water.

In fact, the process of making put honey was similar to making quality wine, and it will be very difficult to repeat it at home.

But you can prepare honey according to a recipe close to the old technology, taking:

• 600 ml of water;
• 1000 g of honey;
• 3000 g of cherries.

Preparation:

1. Boil honey with water to a concentrated syrup without lumps.
2. Remove seeds from cherries and pour them with honey solution.
3. The resulting mass should be in a container with a wide neck (saucepan or basin), which should be covered with gauze on top and left warm until fermentation stops.
4. When the foam on the surface has almost completely disappeared (after 10 - 15 days), thoroughly filter the liquid, pour it into kegs or bottles, seal and stand in the basement for three to five months, periodically turning it over. The longer the aging process, the tastier the mead will be.

How to make soda mead

To make the drink carbonated, you need to start the process of secondary fermentation of the finished mead in order to saturate it with natural carbon dioxide.

For such hoppy honey you will need:

• 2000 ml of water;
• 300 g of bee honey;
• 5 g dry yeast.

For secondary fermentation, you additionally need to take 15 - 20 g of honey per 1 liter of the finished drink.

Preparation:

1. Add honey to boiling water and cook for a quarter of an hour, stirring and removing the foam. Then cool and add yeast to a warm base. So that the mead does not have the taste of mash, yeast for the drink should be taken from beer, wine or dry. But, of course, not for baking, but for making drinks.
2. Having installed a water seal on a container with mead, leave the drink to ferment warm for 7 days. After that, filter it through several layers of medical gauze.
3. Pour the finished drink into bottles, without adding 5 - 6 cm to the neck. Add honey, close the lids tightly and put in a dark place at a temperature of 20 degrees for a week and a half.
4. During a week and a half of ripening, you need to check the gas pressure in the bottles daily and bleed off the excess. Store the finished drink in the refrigerator.

Recipe without yeast and boiling

For this mead recipe, yeast is not required - raisins are the activators of the fermentation process. Also, the preparation technology does not imply boiling honey, which helps to preserve its benefits as much as possible in the finished drink.

The proportions of the components of the drink will be as follows:

• 1000 ml of boiled water;
• 50 g of honey;
• 50 g raisins.

How to cook:

1. First, honey should be dissolved in water. Next, raisins are placed in the resulting sweet liquid. Before laying it, it should be rinsed, but in no case should it be washed with hot water, so as not to destroy the microorganisms responsible for fermentation.
2. Covering the neck of the container with honey water with gauze, folded several times, leave it in a warm place for two days before the start of the fermentation process. If there is not enough heat, more time may be needed.
3. After that, filter the mead through 3 - 4 layers of gauze. Seal the container with the drink hermetically and put it in a cool place (refrigerator or basement) for three to four months.

Cranberry drink

From fresh or frozen cranberries, you can make a delicious mead by taking:

• 3500 ml of water;
• 1000 g cranberries;
• 1000 g of light honey;
• 60 g of compressed yeast.

Mead preparation:

1. Crush the cranberries into gruel with a potato grinder or beat with a blender. Then filter the resulting mass through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth.
2. Set aside the cranberry juice for a while, and combine the cake with water and boil for 5 - 7 minutes. Then let the resulting liquid brew for about half an hour and filter.
3. Add honey to the cranberry broth and cook for two to three minutes, be sure to remove the foam so that the drink is transparent.
4. Remove the honey-cranberry broth from the heat, cool to room temperature, dissolve the yeast in it and pour in the cranberry juice obtained earlier.
5. Let the drink stand for two days in natural conditions, then bottle, filling by ¾. Soak the drink in a cool place for 14 days and the cranberry mead is ready.

Homemade spicy

The combination of spices (such as ginger and cinnamon) with honey has found wide application not only in confectionery (baked goods made from honey and ginger dough). It also allows, for example, to get drunk honey with a rich taste and aroma.

Prepare a spicy mead from:

• 20 liters of soft drinking water;
• 3 liters of honey;
• 200 g of pressed fresh yeast;
• 50 g hop cones (available at the pharmacy)
• 3 sticks of cinnamon;
• 5 carnation buds;
• 2 black peppercorns;
• 10 grams of ginger root.

Progress:

1. Dissolve honey in water and cook this mixture over low heat until it is halved in volume. On average, the boiling process will take about two hours. It is important to stir the contents of the pot from time to time and remove the foam from the surface.
2. After that, place the hot honey broth for evaporation in the oven, the temperature of which should be at 100 degrees. After a quarter of an hour or a little more, cool the mead to 40 degrees, add hops, yeast and spices to it.
3. Fermentation of the drink should take place at room temperature for about a week. Then it is filtered, bottled in dark glass and kept for up to six months.

In ancient times, drunk honey was kept in special wooden barrels, now glass containers have replaced this container. If among the kitchen utensils there are no dark glass bottles, you can use champagne bottles - they will fit perfectly.

Strong homemade mead

Hop honey is prepared very quickly according to this recipe. It has a honey aroma and a sweetish aftertaste, but the strength of the drink is not much inferior to vodka, so you need to use it carefully in order to prevent alcohol intoxication.

The proportions of ingredients for a strong homemade mead will be as follows:

• 2000 ml of water;
• 400 g of honey;
• 400 ml of high-quality vodka or medical alcohol, diluted to a strength of 50 degrees;
• seasonings and spices (nutmeg, cardamom, etc.) to taste.

How to make mead:

1. Prepare the mead base. To do this, boil honey diluted with water and boil the solution for five minutes, removing the resulting foam. At the same stage, you can add spices.
2. Next, cool the honey broth, filter to get rid of the seasonings, and dilute with vodka or alcohol. By increasing or decreasing the amount of this ingredient, you can adjust the strength of the finished product.

How many degrees is in the drink

Since mead is a "drunken" honey, it contains a certain amount of alcohol.

The degree level in the drink will depend on:

• the temperature at which it was infused;
• duration of exposure;
• and, of course, the recipes (the products included in its composition).

Usually mead is a low alcohol drink with an alcohol content of 5 to 16 degrees, but there is also a strong mead with the addition of vodka or alcohol. The strength of such a drink can reach up to 40 degrees. You can also find a non-alcoholic, slightly carbonated drink, more like honey kvass with an alcohol content of no more than 2%.

Homemade mead is no match for store products. Self-made drink, delicious, natural, without dangerous preservatives and dyes. Nevertheless, caution should be exercised with its use - the degree hidden behind the soft sweetness of honey is cunning and quite capable of knocking you off your feet.

Mead without yeast and boiling is the most useful and close to the old recipe for making this low-alcohol drink. So in ancient Russia, they prepared staged honey - seasoned, sweet and sour, more like honey wine, ceremonial alcohol. True, no water was added to it. Gradually, the recipe was forgotten due to the complex preparation technology, lost secrets and a long aging period (20-40 years). But in the modern world, the fashion for antiquity has come. Including mead, which tastes similar to that ancient honey. Although it is impossible to verify this, it requires a time machine. Of course, I would like to be transported on it to the royal feast and sip real drunken nutritious honey. But for now, let's restrict ourselves to mead.

Features of cooking mead without yeast and boiling

To make mead without yeast and boiling, you need to somehow cause the honey to ferment. Both in ancient times, and now, sweet and sour berries, fruits, raisins are used for this. Such mead is prepared without heating and boiling, which allows you to preserve the healing properties of all components. This makes the drink also a drug that traditional medicine recommends to use for the prevention and treatment of a number of diseases.

The peculiarity of making a honey drink in this way is that the berries that are added to the wort do not need to be washed. On their surface is a special film of fungi, which is called "wild" yeast. It is they who allow the mead to ferment without yeast. The quality of the water used in the technology of making a homemade drink from honey is very important. It should be soft, clean, unboiled. Optimally - spring. But bottled, prepared and filtered will do. We do not recommend using water from the water supply system due to the presence of a large amount of hardness, impurities and chlorine in its composition.

Honey for making mead should be taken with a pronounced aroma, for example, buckwheat or acacia. The quality of honey should not be in doubt. It is advisable to purchase it from trusted sellers or beekeepers, so as not to buy a fake or poor quality product.

Recipes and cooking instructions

There are several recipes for making mead without yeast at home. They are within the power of anyone who wants to taste an old drink. Ingredients are easy to find. In addition to honey, you may need another beekeeping product - bee bread. Stock up on it in advance. It is usually sold in the same place as honey. To make everything work out right, and the drink turns out to be worthy of the festive table, try to maintain proportions and follow the recipe. At home, mead without yeast turns out to be low-alcoholic, easy to drink, pleasantly consumed, and when consumed in moderation, benefits the body.

With sprouted wheat

The recipe for mead without boiling with wheat germ is for gourmets and supporters of healthy lifestyles. It is wheat in this case that initiates the fermentation of the drink. And sprouted grains are now recommended for food as a very useful product.

Ingredients

• Honey - 1kg;
• Water - 3 liters;
• Wheat grains - 200 g;
• Perga - 100 g.

How to cook

1. Germinate wheat grains ahead of time. Then grind them, the grind should be medium;
2. Dissolve honey in room temperature water until dissolved, add wheat and bee bread;
3. Leave the vessel to ferment under the lid for two weeks in a warm place. Periodically, the mixture must be stirred so that excess gases come out, and fermentation is more active;
4. When fermentation comes to naught, filter the drink, pour into suitable glass bottles. Place them in the cellar or refrigerate. Incubate for at least 2 months. The longer the aging, the tastier the mead.

Old recipe

In the old mead recipe, besides cherries and honey, hop cones are used. You can buy them at the pharmacy or grow them yourself in the garden.

Ingredients

• Honey - 1 kg;
• Hops - 50 g;
• Cherry juice (or from any berries) - 2 l;
• Spices - optional.

How to cook

1. Mix berry juice with honey, stir well until honey dissolves. Add hops;
2. Leave the mixture in a warm place to ferment for 14 days;
3. When the composition stops foaming and hissing (the stage of active fermentation is over), strain it and pour it into a tightly closed container for the final stabilization of the taste;
4. Soak the mead in a cool place for about 4 months. Then she will acquire all the shades of taste of an old drink.

Modern recipe

Modern life presupposes a fast pace in everything. Even in the preparation of homemade alcoholic beverages. Therefore, there are modern mead recipes, according to which the drink is not infused for so long. And the degree can be changed to your taste. But buy only good quality vodka, in reliable places where they can confirm its origin with the appropriate certificate. It is easy to get poisoned by a surrogate.

Ingredients

• Honey - 0.5 kg;
• Water - 2 l;
• Vodka - 0.5 l;
• Spices, herbs - to taste.

How to cook

1. Dissolve honey in warm water and keep on low heat, avoiding boiling, for about 10 minutes;
2. Remove honey syrup from heat and add spices to it. Close the lid and let the mixture cool;
3. Pour vodka into the cooled honey-spice mixture. Strain the liquid;
4. Pour into a convenient glass jar, close tightly and let the future mead stand for one to four months. It will turn out with a pleasant sweet taste and spicy notes.

Advice. Mead with vodka may not stand for too long. She is ready in a week. The strength of the drink can be adjusted by adding more or less alcohol component.

Perge recipe

We offer a simple recipe with a minimum of ingredients. But the taste of such mead turns out to be bright and very soft. Try to cook. Moreover, bee bread is no less useful than honey, and in some components even surpasses its healing properties.

Ingredients

• Honey - 1kg;
• Water - 4 l;
• Perga - 200 g.

How to cook

1. Boil water, cool to room temperature;
2. Add honey to cooled water, mix well;
3. Put the mixture in a warm place for 2 days;
4. After two days, pour the honey syrup into jars, add bee bread to them;
5. Install a water seal on the cans. Let it ferment in a warm place for about 14 days;
6. When air bubbles stop coming out of the water seal tube, you need to strain and filter the finished mead. But it will still have to be kept in the cold for about six months before tasting. Only then will the drink have the necessary taste and aroma.

Cherry recipe

Cherries have been added to mead as a fermentation catalyst for a long time. In addition to her, in the old days, cranberries, lingonberries, blueberries, raspberries were added to honey. They give the drink a beautiful color and sweet and sour taste. If the berries are out of season, there are no fresh ones, you can use frozen ones, having previously thawed them. Remove the pits from the cherries. Berries from compote or jam are not suitable for making mead.

Ingredients

• Cherries - 4 kg;
• Honey - 2 kg;
• Water - 1 liter.

How to cook

1. Do not wash the cherries, but remove the seeds;
2. Mix honey, water, add cherries;
3. Place the mixture in a warm place and wait until fermentation begins. This will happen in 2-3 days;
4. Strain the liquid by squeezing the cherries into it through cheesecloth;
5. Pour into bottles;
6. Cap the bottles and place in the cold for 3-4 months.

On raisins

Raisins are added to mead not only for taste and aroma, but, like in kvass, to start fermentation. Try to choose darker raisins. They are less exposed to chemicals. You do not need to scald dried grapes for this recipe. Enough to sort out, removing possible small debris, you can rinse slightly with water.

Ingredients

• Water - 1 l;
• Raisins - 50 g;
• Honey - 50 g.

How to cook

1. Put honey and raisins in water cooled after boiling, stir well;
2. Place in a warm place to ferment;
3. Pour the strained mead into bottles and refrigerate until ripe. The timing is the same as in the previous recipe.

With apple juice

Putting mead on apple juice turns out to be interesting. It is made with and without yeast. Consider a recipe without yeast.

Advice. If there is a celebration ahead, where mead cooked without yeast will be served at the table, expect that it will take 2-4 months until it is ready. Make a drink in advance with this deadline in mind.

Ingredients

• Honey - 1 kg;
• Freshly squeezed apple juice - 1.5 liters;
• Water - 2 liters;
• Cinnamon, nutmeg (other spices) to taste.

How to cook

1. Dissolve honey in warm water;
2. Add apple juice and spices. Stir well;
3. Tie the dishes with the mixture with gauze, put to ferment in a warm place;
4. After 14 days, strain and filter the drink. Transfer to a cold place (cellar or refrigerator) for final fermentation and maturation for 2-3 months.

• The amount of each ingredient given in the recipes can be proportionally increased or decreased. It depends on the amount of mead you need to get.
• All components of future homemade alcohol must be of high quality. It is about your health and the health of loved ones.
• Whenever possible, try to avoid heating honey or honey solution to high temperatures. In this case, honey loses its beneficial properties, resulting in the formation of substances harmful to health.
• In ancient times, when honey was drunk on days of special celebrations, yeast did not exist yet. Therefore, if possible, you should avoid using them for making homemade mead even now.
• Despite the small degree of the set mead, it is impossible to abuse the amount of drunk. She drinks easily, but a hangover is likely.
• Consider the possible allergic reaction of some people to beekeeping products, you should not offer them mead either. The same goes for those with diabetes. Do not offer it to children. Pregnant and lactating women should also avoid drinking even the healthiest alcoholic beverages.
• Try to follow the technology of obtaining honey alcohol, described in the recipes. Use only clean dishes.
• Linden honey begins to ferment faster. This must be taken into account when preparing mead.
• To make mead, you can use not only fresh, liquid honey. Sugar will do. It just needs to be well dissolved in water or berry juice.
• If you are not in a hurry to taste the drink, you can bury the container with mead in the ground and keep it for at least a year. The drink will taste very good.
• Mead in hot weather is drunk chilled, and in winter it can be warmed up. It helps fight colds, improves digestion and metabolism, relieves seasonal depression.

In this article, you will find information on how to prepare mead, a recipe for making it at home from natural honey. You will learn how you can cleanse, clarify, carbonate, store and use it.

Mead with natural honey is a healthy drink

About the benefits and dangers of mead

The benefits of mead depend on the products that make up it. Honey, bee bread, zabrus, hops, yeast, dried fruits, fresh fruits, berries, juices, spices complement each other.

Honey brings minerals to the drink - iron, calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, copper; vitamins A, E, C, H, group B; simple sugars. Bee bread and beading supply it with biologically active substances. Yeast adds B vitamins. Fruits - minerals, vitamins C, P, PP, simple carbohydrates.

Action on the body

When drinking a low-alcohol honey drink, metabolic processes in the body are improved. The appetite increases, the work of the gastrointestinal tract is stimulated. Simple carbohydrates - glucose and fructose - provide the body with energy.

Mead in small quantities is useful, it has a slight choleretic effect, cleanses from toxins. Normalizes kidney and bladder function. Eliminates swelling.

Benefits for men and women

Mead with different fillings

On a perge without boiling

If you make the drink without boiling, then most of the nutrients will be retained. Mead is prepared only on bee bread and honey, or lemon is added to them.

Ingredients:

• honey - 1 kg;
• water - 3 l;
• perga - 200-300 g.

Cooking instructions:

1. Grind the bee bread with honeycombs in a meat grinder.
2. Boil and cool water to 22-30 ° C.
3. Add honey, bee bread to the water, mix.
4. Place the lid with a water seal on the pan. Remove to a warm place at 22-27 ° C. Fermentation will begin in a week.
5. At the end of fermentation (when carbon dioxide bubbles stop escaping), strain the drink into a clean container and put it back in a cool place for ripening for 2 months. The drink is ready to drink.

Advice! Mead can be left in the cold for a longer period of time - from one year to several years.

Alcohol content 5-6%.

Sometimes lemon is added to the mead on bee bread

Blackthorn recipe

This recipe makes it easy to make a drink from wild plum - sloe.

Ingredients:

• sloe - 5 kg;
• sugar - 100 g;
• rosehip - 1 kg;
• honey - 6 kg;
• water - 12 liters.

Cooking instructions:

1. Crush the thorns with a crush until juice is released and a gruel is obtained.
2. Add sugar, stir. Leave for 2 days to ferment.
3. Boil the wort out of water and honey. Skim off the foam while cooking.
4. Cool the wort to room temperature. Pour some of the liquid into the thorn. Stir. If possible, remove the seeds, they add bitterness to the finished mead.
5. Place the rose hips and thorns in a glass bottle. Fill with wort, shake. Close the neck with a water seal or a surgical glove.
6. Ferment at 22-24 ° C for 14 days.
7. Use a hose to drain the drink into another container. The sediment and berries will remain in the bottle, and some of the pitted puree can be added to the mead.
8. Heat to continue fermentation. Determine the end of the process by a dropped glove or the cessation of gas formation.
9. Transfer to glass bottles and refrigerate for storage.

Advice! Thorns are best harvested after frost. It won't be too tart.

Strength of the drink 5-6%.

Raspberry mead

You can cook mead with the addition of yeast, as in this recipe.

Ingredients:

• raspberries - 2 kg;
• honey - 2 kg;
• water - 8 l;
• pressed yeast - 130 g.

Cooking instructions:

1. Chop the berries in a puree.
2. Boil water with honey, remove the foam, cook for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from heat, add berries, stir, cool.
4. Stir again, strain,
5. Dissolve the yeast in warm water, pour into the drink, close the dishes with a lid.
6. Leave to ferment at 22-24 ° C for 2 days.
7. Strain again, bottle, cap.
8. Place in a cool, dark place for 14-15 days.

Alcohol content 4-6%.

Watch a video on how you can make mead at home

Herb recipe

The herbal drink is made from plants that grow everywhere. You can add or replace them to your liking.

Ingredients:

• honey - 1 kg;
• water - 3 l;
• hops - 5 g;
• yeast - 2 g;
• mint - 2 tsp;
• St. John's wort - 2 tsp;
• thyme - 1 tsp;
• coriander - 1 tsp

Cooking instructions:

1. Dissolve honey in boiling water, boil at a slow boil for 2-3 minutes. Skim off the foam.
2. Add hops, mint, St. John's wort, thyme, coriander to the liquid. Remove from heat. Cool to a temperature not exceeding 30 ° C. Strain.
3. Add yeast diluted in water, mix. Place in a dark place at 22-27 ° C for 5-7 days.
4. Strain, pour into bottles, leave in a cool place for a month.

Alcohol content 4-6%.

Pepper recipe

This recipe is used to make a strong drink that improves appetite.

Ingredients:

• hot pepper - 1-2 pods;
• honey - 150 g;
• vodka - 1 l;
• allspice - 3-4 pcs.;
• cloves - 1-2 pcs.

Cooking instructions:

1. Divide the hot pepper into 2 parts without removing the seeds. Top up with vodka.
2. Put honey in vodka, stir, add allspice and cloves.
3. Soak the drink for a week. Shake the contents several times a day.
4. Strain, bottle.

Fortress up to 40%.

This also applies to strong drinks. When using it, the degree rises significantly.

Watch the video on how to make a honey drink with pepper

Sweet mead

Mead turns out sweet if you put a lot of honey and do not let it ferment to the end. Honey slows down fermentation, so it is added when the drink is carbonated.

Ingredients:

• honey - 1 kg;
• honey for carbonation - from 120 g or more (to taste);
• water - 3 l;
• yeast - 3 g;
• hops - 5 g.

Cooking instructions:

1. Boil the syrup from water, hops and honey for 3-5 minutes. Remember to remove the foam.
2. Cool the liquid to 25-30 ° C.
3. Add yeast diluted in water.
4. Heat for a week to ferment.
5. Strain, pour into a bowl, add honey to taste, but not less than 30-40 g per 1 liter of drink. Put it back to ferment for 7-10 days.
6. Put it in the refrigerator.

Sweet mead goes well with sweet pastries, desserts, fruits.

Alcohol content 4-6%.

Sweet mead goes well with baked goods

Cinnamon mead

Making a drink according to this recipe takes up to six months. Cinnamon imparts a pleasantly spicy aroma.

Ingredients:

• honey - 400 g;
• water - 2 l;
• cinnamon - ½ tsp;
• nutmeg - ½ pcs.;
• hops - 5 g;
• yeast - 5 g.

Cooking instructions:

1. Heat honey and water in a bowl, boil, stirring and skimming for 5-7 minutes, add cinnamon, nutmeg, hops.
2. Remove from heat, cool to a temperature not exceeding 30 ° C.
3. Dissolve the yeast in warm water, leave to ferment for an hour.
4. Add yeast to honey wort, stir. Close the dishes with a lid with a water seal, leave to ferment for 7-10 days.
5. Strain the drink through the tube without touching any sediment.
6. Leave to continue fermentation and clarification for a month.
7. Remove again from the sediment, pour into bottles, seal with lids.
8. Store in a cool place for maturation for 1-6 months.

Alcohol content 4-6%.

Honey beverages are prepared with or without yeast. They differ in the cooking process, but to judge which tastes better - or with yeast, you can only try both.

Cinnamon gives the drink a pleasant, spicy aroma

Hot mead with ginger

Hot mead is called not because it has a high temperature, but because ginger warms up the body well.

At home, you can use the following recipe.

Ingredients:

• honey - 2 kg;
• ginger - 40-60 g;
• water - 6 l;
• wine yeast - 2 g;
• lemon - 1 pc;
• hops - 2 g.

Cooking instructions:

1. Combine honey with water, bring to a boil while stirring, cook for 5 minutes, removing the foam.
2. Put hops, chopped lemon, chopped ginger, yeast into a glass container. Pour with chilled honey syrup, stir.
3. Place a lid with a water seal or a surgical glove on the container.
4. Leave warm for 7 days. Strain without touching the sediment into a clean dish.
5. Close the lid with a water seal and store in a dark, warm place for 2 months.
6. Strain again, bottle, place in a cool place to ripen for 4 months.

Advice! Mead can be used to make a hot drink, such as mulled wine. For 130 g of the finished drink, you need to take 60 ml of mead, 40 ml of vodka, 20 g of cranberry syrup, 10 ml of lemon juice. Heat the mixture to 60 ° C and consume immediately.

Alcohol content 4-6%.

Honey and lingonberry recipe

The drink turns out to be tasty and healthy if it is cooked with lingonberries.

Ingredients:

• flower honey - 1200 g;
• water - 8 l;
• fresh lingonberry berries - 600-1000 g;
• zest from 1 lemon;
• star anise - 3 pcs.;
• cinnamon - 1 stick;
• nutmeg - ½ pcs.;
• hops - 10 g;
• yeast - 10 g

Cooking instructions:

1. Pour 400 ml of water over the lingonberries, heat to a boil, boil for 5 minutes. Cool, squeeze out the juice.
2. Boil water, put cheesecloth with berry cake in a saucepan, boil for 20 minutes. Squeeze the cheesecloth into the broth (cool beforehand).
3. Put honey in boiling water, cook, removing the foam.
4. Chop star anise, nutmeg, grate lemon zest. Break up the cinnamon. Tie the spiced hops in a cheesecloth bag.
5. Dip the bag in honey syrup (when foaming stops). Cook for 20 minutes.
6. Remove the spices, cool the drink to 22-30 ° C. Add yeast. Leave to ferment under a waterlock for a week.
7. Remove from sediment, carbonate with honey. For 1 liter of mead, 20 g of honey.
8. Refrigerate for a month. (can be used earlier)

Alcohol content 4-6%.

Remember that the quality is no worse than a drink made from fresh honey. The main thing is to cook it correctly.

Oprichnina mead with spices

Such mead is prepared in Suzdal. But, you can put it at home, according to the following recipe.

Ingredients:

• honey - 1500 g;
• yeast - 20 g;
• water - 6 l;
• egg white - 2 pcs.;
• cloves - 6-8 pcs.;
• ginger - ⅔ tsp;
• cinnamon - ⅔ tsp

Cooking instructions:

1. Toss egg white and ½ honey with water. Heat to a boil, simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Stir constantly and skim off the foam.
2. At the end of cooking, add cloves, ginger and cinnamon.
3. Cool the liquid to 24-30 ° C. Add yeast diluted with warm water.
4. Move the container to a dark, warm place for 3-4 days.
5. Strain the drink and put it back to ferment for a month.
6. Strain again, add the remaining honey. Pour into bottles, refrigerate for 4 days.

Alcohol content 4-6%.

It is prized by long traditions and popular far beyond the borders of Suzdal.

You can watch another mead recipe in the video

Cleaning and clarifying mead at home

Before clarification, the drink is “removed” from the sediment. The tube is lowered into the container, without touching the thick, and the liquid is poured into another container.

Clarification is carried out with Lallzyme HC. It is added to the drink in accordance with the instructions. Put in the cold for 2-3 weeks. Then again "remove" from the sediment.

How to make mead sparkling

Any ready-made mead is used to make a carbonated drink. It doesn't matter if it was put on yeast or without it.

Put a tablespoon of honey in sterile glass bottles, pour mead, seal with lids, leave warm for a week. Check your drink daily and release excess gas.

Cap the bottles and leave in the refrigerator to mature for 7 days. The term can be increased up to 2-3 months.

A delicious carbonated drink is ready. It is also useful to know in order to fully experience its taste and appreciate it.

Watch a video on how to make organic mead

What mead is sold in stores

The assortment of honey drinks offered by the shops includes: mead, hop honey, honey beer, honey wine. See the assortment of mead in the photo below.

According to the manufacturers, the mead prepared industrially does not contain any preservatives or flavor enhancers. The composition indicated on the labels contains honey, water, yeast, additives in the form of hops, malt, spices, herbs.

Shop mead in assortment

Shelf life of mead

Store the finished drink correctly:

1. To store the drink, choose a room with an air temperature of no more than 5-10 ° C.
2. Avoid direct sunlight on dishes containing mead.
3. Use glass and wood containers. Do not pour beverage into metal containers. Use plastic bottles for short-term storage only.
4. The shelf life of mead, subject to all conditions, is 5 years or more.
5. Refrigerate opened mead bottles and use within a month.

Take note

To make the drink delight you and your guests with a pleasant taste and aroma, follow these simple rules:

• Drink in moderation. Excessive use of mead threatens to deteriorate health.
• Use secondary fermentation with simple sugars for a low alcohol carbonated drink.