Meadmaking (For Brewers)

Maybe you’ve eyed the mead section of the homebrew shop with curiosity or flat-out suspicion. Could you become a meadmaker? Turns out, you already are; you just don’t know it yet. All you need are the ingredients and these crucial tips from

Could you become a meadmaker? Turns out, you already are. You just don’t know it yet.

ON THE ONE HAND, fermentation is fermentation. There’s no magic in it. Take a sugary liquid, add yeast, and voilà, an alcoholic beverage. Grain, grapes, honey, rice—whatever the source, the principle is more or less the same.

On the other hand, though, undeniable distinctions and subtleties make each beverage unique. Brewers already have an intuitive sense of how to ferment basically anything. What we lack is that key information about how to ferment it well.

What follows is a rundown of what you, as a brewer, already know about meadmaking, what you know but probably don’t need to know, and, finally, what you probably should pay more attention to. Homemade mead is something you’ll probably enjoy for all the same reasons you enjoy homebrewed beer. The good news is that you’re already most of the way to making it—and making it well.

The Basics

First, let me put in a plug for The Compleat Meadmaker by my friend, Ken Schramm.

Ken is the owner and head meadmaker at Schramm’s Mead in Ferndale, Michigan. If you haven’t tasted his meads, you’re missing some of the best drinking in the world. For more (“compleat,” you might say) information, grab a copy of his book. Here, I’ll just cover the basics.

Mead is made from water-diluted honey. Honey, as you probably know, comes in a range of varieties. These are akin to wine grapes: Each contributes subtle (or robust) flavors. The more honey you use, the higher your potential ABV, and meads can range from mid-single digits all the way up to the high teens.

Because honey is a bit nutrient-barren, you’ll need to add yeast nutrient so the yeast can properly ferment your honey into mead—yeast cannot live on sugar alone. Then (obviously) you’ll need yeast, and the commercial yeast providers offer strains engineered to produce quality mead—or you can even select a beer or wine strain.

After fermentation, you have some work to do: Most meads lack the balancing bitterness of hops or other ingredients or flavors that could provide a similar service. So, a common post-fermentation step is to adjust the flavor by adding acidity and/or tannins to prevent a cloying sweetness.

Finally, just as with beer, you can package mead in bottles or kegs (or cans, if you’re fancy) for conditioning. Carbonation—a little to a lot—is also an option, as meads can be either still, sparkling, or pétillant (a mildly effervescent “middle ground” between carbonated and still).

See what I mean about fermentation being fermentation? This seems simple enough (and truly, it doesn’t have to be complicated). You’ve got this! In fact, there are plenty of headaches in brewing that simply don’t factor much into modern meadmaking.

Don’t Sweat It

Several steps and considerations regarded as essential to beer are either absent or minimal in mead.

First, although we’re using water, don’t be too concerned about water chem