Mead

[snookie]

Anyone have a good, simple recipe for a basic mead that doesn't take a major in chemistry to make?

[G3farms]

Nothing from me, never made it.

G3

[BjornBee]

snookie,
I'm a meadmaker.

What type mead you like? Dry, sweet, fruit added?

I have one called "Fall Bounty Harvest" that uses apple cider as well as honey for the base. So now is the perfect time. It uses cinnamon, brown sugar, and raisins. Absolutely fantastic. But I'm not typing the thing out if you don't have the cider (4-5 gallons) or are looking for something else.

If you can find a book called "The compleat meadmaker" by Ken Schramm it is a good book. Has some recipes.
ISBN #0-937381-80-2

Costs about $20 new, so you may find one for less.

[snookie]

I prefer sweet. Just honey, water, type of yeast to use, and as few added indredients as possible. Just a simple, basic recipe.

[Bhodi]

There are two ways to keep the finished mead sweet. One is to ferment it dry, stabilize and backsweeten. The other is to add enough honey at the start that the yeast can't possibly ferment it all, starting with a gravity around 1.130. I've done both, but prefer the latter.

You can keep your recipe very simple using only water, honey, yeast, but I highly recommend using nutrients. honey has almost no nutrients for the yeast, and not using them could result in slow or stalled fermentations. It's just cheap insurance and will greatly improve your chance for success.

My new "standard" recipe is
#20+ honey
4 gallons spring water
D-47 yeast
DAP and Superfood for nutrients

Add the honey to your sanitized bucket, add water till 5.5 gallons, mix well. Aerate the must. Rehydrate yeast with Go-Ferm, add nutrients in 3 steps as the fermentation progresses and keep it around 60 degrees. I've started to degas the fermenting mead once or twice a day till I've added the last of the nutrients.

Here (http://home.comcast.net/~mzapx1/FAQ/BasicMead.pdf) is a basic recipe and a lot more info.

[snookie]

That's what I was looking for.
Thanks