California Farm Raw Honey Wine: Mead
The first pioneers settling in our mountain part of Northern California were beekeepers.
They brought italian bees and sold mountain flower honey, candles and wax. I buy my raw honey from that family to cook with and make Mead, a natural organic alcoholic beverage that is pure raw honey diluted with water and nothing else.
I make small batches. When it tastes good, I use one bottle of the fresh mead to make one large batch for the year, or keep making small batches till perfect.
When the mead fermentation process develops mold, I discard the batch.
California Farm Raw Honey Wine: Mead
The first pioneers settling in our mountain part of Northern California were beekeepers.
They brought italian bees and sold mountain flower honey, candles and wax. I buy my raw honey from that family to cook with and make Mead, a natural organic alcoholic beverage that is pure raw honey diluted with water and nothing else.
I make small batches. When it tastes good, I use one bottle of the fresh mead to make one large batch for the year, or keep making small batches till perfect.
When the mead fermentation process develops mold, I discard the batch.
Cooking Instructions
- 1
Start with 1 pound of raw unfiltered honey and 4 pints of water, in a small sterilized 2 gallon plastic pail with lid and airlock. By stirring vigorously till the honey is totally dissolved, with a hand mixer, the wild yeasts will activate the sugar and start bubbling. This batch started March 19, 2024. Stirring also prevents mold from forming. Keep lid and airlock locked till bubbling stops. Siphon into 4 pint bottles when the bubbling stops, leave one pint in the plastic pail on the bottom.
- 2
Pour remainder of mead from the small pail into the six gallon pail to make a larger batch. Add 5 pounds of honey and 20 pints of water. Stir vigorously till the solution starts bubbling. Put a lid with an airlock on top to keep vinegar bacteria out. The carbon dioxide generated by the fermentation of the glucose will push air out that can contaminate with vinegar bacteria. Let mead ferment till bubbling slows down, about ten days.
- 3
If the bubbling slows down before the ten days are up, add a pinch of brewers years, till all the glucose sugars have fermented. You now have a 7% alcoholic drink, stronger than beer. Taste. If you bottle now, the mead yeast will start turning fructose into alcohol when the glucose sugars are used up. The “ green” mead of 7% will turn slowly into mature aged mead of 20%, in their bottles. Good for decades.
- 4
Siphon “ green” mead into a sterilized plastic 6 gallon container with lid and airlock. Leave one pint of active mead in first pail to make a second batch of mead by adding 5 pounds honey and 20 pints cold water, stirring, put lid and airlock on top. Taste second batch when bubbling stops.
- 5
Drinking fresh “green” mead honey wine. Siphon mead into pint bottles with recloseable porcelain tops and fresh rubber rings. Leave residue on bottom of pail. Label with year of production. Drink while fresh. The bottom residue is called “lees” and I save it to flavor dark rye and rustic bread doughs.
- 6
Aging the honey wine. Mix the two batches. Label forty pint bottles with future year of maturity, four per year. Siphon mead wine into pint bottles with recloseable porcelain stopper and fresh rubber rings. This wine will slow ferment in the bottle for several more months and then age. Store in dark closet.
- 7
Repeat this production process once a year when the fresh raw wild flower honey becomes available. You can also make a new small batch every ten days from the old batch, called continuous fermentation. One pound of honey and four pints of water every two weeks. Taste one bottle, if exceptional, save other three bottles for ten year aging.
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