Mead is a tasty, as well as healthy, low-alcohol drink based on a product donated by nature, like honey with the addition of hop, yeast, flavorings and other ingredients.
People began to prepare intoxicating drinks based on honey for a long time, several thousand years ago.
But in ancient Russia, the honeymoon couple presented a whole keg of honey for the honeymoon, for a happy life, as it was then thought, to be a sweet life.
From this honey, a variety of foods and drinks were prepared.
And the most excellent one - mead was considered to be a delicious and fragrant drink among other drinks.
Mead is made by fermenting honey. This mead includes only natural ingredients such as: honey, various herbs, spices and hops.
Of course, the technology of preparation of this drink is different, and each recipe for making mead is unique in its own way. Therefore, in order to prepare mead at home and on your own, among the many recipes by trial and error, choose the one that will meet all the taste characteristics of the so-called medovar.
General principles and features of making Mead at home
• For the preparation of mead it is necessary to select varieties of light honey, and best of all, a white product with an unsurpassed taste and aroma.
• Fermentation of mead occurs in 5 days. The result is a sparkling, foamy drink, fragrant, but with a cloudy appearance.
• Medovukha semi-annual exposure has a dense, viscous texture, unusual aroma, great strength and excellent taste.
• For the preparation of mead use water seal, medical rubber glove or just a piece of cloth.
• Usually a mead has a small fortress somewhere around 10 degrees. But this tasty and insidious drink is deceptive, quickly absorbed into the blood of mead - leaves the taster's head clear and sober, and deprives the legs of obedience, and they begin to stumble.
Recipe 1. Ordinary mead at home in a modern way
Ingredients:
• Honey - 300 gr.
• Water - 2000 ml.
• Yeast (dry) - 5 gr.
Preparation:
In boiling water you need to pour honey and boil it for 15 minutes. Honey is boiled on as quiet as possible with constant stirring to prevent honey from sticking.
Important! When cooking, constantly remove the accumulating and abundant incoming foam.
Next, the resulting texture should be removed from the heat, cool it to 30 degrees, and begin to gradually fall asleep dry yeast in honey. Then all the mixed components must be poured into a clean container, specially prepared for the fermentation of the future mead.
The container with the resulting consistency must be plugged by installing a water seal and put into a warm place to ferment the future drink for 7 days.
When the fermentation process is over, the mead should be neatly bottled and cleaned in a cool place gently without any sediment.
After a few days mead will be ready. After 30 days, she will pick up the fortress, and after 6 months it will make the most delicious dessert.
Recipe 2. “Monastic” mead at home
Ingredients:
• Water - 3 liters.
• Honey - 1.200 liters.
• Hop - 30 gr.
• Yeast - 15 gr.
Preparation:
In boiled water, it is necessary to dissolve the honey and continue to boil for 3 hours on low heat, constantly stirring, to avoid burning the consistency.
Foam coming from the surface must be constantly removed in a separate vessel.
Then you need to add the required amount of hops, and it is better to wrap a piece of hops in a rag, weight them and lower them in the brew.
Boil down all the components on a small fire need another about an hour. And with a decrease in consistency in volume, the evaporated liquid must be supplemented with hot water.
Now the resulting texture must be cooled to 30 degrees and add to it dry yeast, and better wine. All components should be drained into a fermentation container, sealed with a water seal, or with a rubber glove with a small hole on the neck and cleaned in a warm place.
After the fermentation process is over, add 200 ml of strong black tea to the mead and carefully strain the drink.
Ready mead is recommended for 2-3 days to clean in a cool place to insist. The shelf life of such a drink is not more than a month.
Recipe 3. “Lightweight” mead at home (without yeast according to an old recipe)
The drink prepared according to this recipe is light and not as strong as an ordinary mead. In addition, the process of making this drink takes a long time, about 90 days. And to improve the taste and fermentation process in such mead is recommended to add berries, for example, cherries or raisins.
Ingredients:
• Water - 1 l.
• Honey - 1/4 cup.
• Raisin - 1/4 cup.
Preparation:
Honey should be dissolved in cool water, cover the neck of the vessel with gauze and remove the resulting texture in a warm place.
The fermentation process in such conditions will begin in two days. As soon as the first indicators of the fermentation process appear, the liquid must be drained through several layers of gauze and drained into a clean vessel, which must then be placed in a cool place. Insisted such a mead, on natural ingredients for 90 days.
Recipe 4. Mead at home “Classical”
Ingredients:
• Water - 5 liters.
• Honey - 800 gr.
• Yeast - 15 gr.
• Hop - 60 gr.
• Wort (kvass type) - 1 cup.
• Chicory - 90 gr.
• Orange peel.
• Coriander - 30 gr.
Preparation:
Most of the honey must be dissolved in boiling water until completely dissolved. After you need to reduce the heat and boil honey for some time. It is necessary to remove the incoming foam from the surface all the time, and to mix the consistency in order to avoid the moment of burning. After that, add hops to the consistency and boil all the ingredients for another 30 minutes. Further, for the smell, namely, to obtain a delicate flavor in the future drink, you must add kvass wort, chicory of coriander and orange peels.
Then you need to remove the pan from the heat and strain the resulting texture into another container.
Purified wort should be put back on the fire to boil, turn off, close the lid and leave to cool.
Next, a small part of the wort needs to be poured into a glass, cooled to 35 degrees and added to the existing consistency of yeast.
Somewhere in 15 minutes the first signs of fermentation will begin to appear in the glass. Further, when the main part of the wort is cooled, it is necessary to pour the contents of the glass and mix all the components thoroughly.
After the existing consistency must be poured into the bottle, clog it with a water seal and put in a dark place for fermentation.
A week later, in the clean bottles (plastic) it is necessary to add the remaining honey dissolved and connected while boiling with water, add the main wort to it, pouring it very carefully from the bottle, without sediment.
Plastic bottles should be filled to 2/3 in volume. Next you need to squeeze the plastic bottles with your hands so that the liquid reaches the neck, and then close them with lids.
Thus obtained, the mead should ripen, being in a cool place, for another two weeks. After this time, fragrant and tasty drink will be ready for use.
Recipe 5. Mead at home with the addition of raspberries
Ingredients:
• Honey - 0.5 kg.
• Raspberry - 0.5 kg.
• Water - 2 liters.
• Yeast (dry) - 30 gr.
Preparation:
Honey must be poured into boiling water and boil it there for 5 minutes, over low heat, stirring constantly.
Further raspberries need to grind and add to the existing liquid. Next, the resulting texture should be cooled, and then add to it the pre-dissolved yeast. Then the honey syrup tank needs to be plugged and fermented for about 2 days. Next, the drink must be filtered. Bottle and leave for 2 weeks in a cool place to infuse. At the end of this time, the most delicious mead will be ready.
Cooking mead at home - small tricks and helpful tips
• The basis for the preparation of high-quality and delicious mead is the correctly selected honey, the desired variety and consistency. The right choice of honey is a component of the future drink with its unsurpassed aroma and taste.
• During the manufacture of mead, namely during the process of honey blooming and boiling it is necessary to keep an eye on the preparing consistency in order to avoid burning and burning of the product.
• In order that the appearance of the mead does not turn out to be cloudy, the foam coming from the boiling of the wort must be constantly removed.
• Eat mead better chilled.
• To get a rich taste in mead, you can add lemongrass, you get a real drink of the gods.
• It is more expedient to store mead in the refrigerator or cellar at a temperature of + 5 + 10 degrees. Also, the drink is better preserved spilled in barrels or glass containers, without direct sunlight.
• You can not freeze mead, otherwise the drink will lose its taste and all its useful and valuable qualities.
• Drink mead, especially if it is sweet to taste better than eating melon, pear or cheese of any kind, but of good quality.
