We were so lucky to have Jody Hankins, who hosted us and shared her recipe and techniques for mead making as our December 2022 HVNB meeting.

We got to taste several different batches of Jody’s home-made honey wine, which really brought the point home that different batches of honey from year to year yield a range of flavors for the mean they become. What a terrific treat!

If you want to watch the zoom meeting for the techniques, here’s the link.

And for the list of equipment and Jody’s recipe, read on. If you DO make some mead, please let us know how it turned out. We’d love to have a get together so we can all taste each other’s creations. Stay tuned to see if we can make that happen.

Essential equipment
Buckets/carboys/other vessel for mixing and storing
Hydrometer – for measuring potential alcohol
Yeast
Sodium metabisulfite or Campden tablets (for sanitizing)
Any additives for the mead recipe you plan to use
Fermentation airlock
Auto siphon with a pinch clamp for racking off and bottling

Optional equipment
Wine thief (for move liquid for ease in sampling)
Clear graduated cylinder or tall glass for taking hydrometer measurements (you will need at least 5-6 inches height of liquid in order to take a proper measurement with the hydrometer – it needs to float)

Jody’s Basic Mead Recipe

Note: It will take approximately 2-3 lbs of honey per gallon for the starting solution depending on the desired potential alcohol

For each gallon of honey/water at 11% potential alcohol, add to batch for fermentation:
1 tsp. yeast nutrient (I typically divide this and add half immediately, second half added 2 days after fermentation starts)
1 tsp acid blend
1 ½ tsp citric acid
¼ tsp tannin
Yeast (1 package of yeast is sufficient for up to 5 gallons, my favorite yeast is a wine yeast Lalvin brand D47)

Optional: Prior to bottling/storing add ½ tsp potassium sorbate per gallon to inhibit further fermentation

Yield: 1 gallon batch of mead will yield approximately 5 bottles of wine (750 mL is the standard wine bottle volume)

While we are very concerned about everyone’s health during this time of COVID-19, we tried to make the best of things by hosting our first ever virtual beekeepers meeting.

We were able to record the session.

Here is a link to the audio for the meeting.

We hope we will be able to get together in person soon, but until then, we will do our best to communicate digitally, as best as possible.

Stay healthy!