Making Your Own Mead: 43 Recipes for Homemade Honey Wines (Fox Chapel Publishing) Basic Guide to Techniques, plus Recipes for Mead, Fruit Melomels, Grape Pyments, Spiced Metheglins, & Apple Cysers

by Bryan Acton, Peter Duncan

Fill your flagon with a drink fit for a king! Once the drink of choice for Viking marauders and medieval kings, mead is enjoying a renaissance in popularity! The "nectar of the gods" is easy to make at home using just honey, water and yeast. This practical guidebook will inspire you to take up the craft, with a basic guide to mead-making techniques, plus 43 recipes for brewing the world's oldest alcoholic beverage. Making Your Own Mead shows you how to produce an array of tasty mead variations, by blending honey with herbs, spices, fruits, berries, and more. Just because mead is made from honey doesn't mean it has to be sweet! Versatile mead can be dry as a bone or seductively sweet, sparkling or still, fruity or spicy. Discover how to make different types of mead like fruit-flavored melomels, grape-based pyments, spiced metheglins, and apple cysers. You'll also find recipes for mixing up your mead in classic drinks like a honey bishop or a twelfth night wassail.

Genres: Brewing, Nonfiction

64 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2013

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good recipes and interesting historical tidbits as well as solid advice in the making of tasty mead. As someone interested in the making of mead this is a good, easy to follow guide, and a good addition to my mead making book collection. I wish it was longer,check it out.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you already brew wine or beer, there’s probably enough info in this book to help you start with mead. If you’re new to it all, this book has some fun history and goes over various mead-like drinks, but I didn’t find it had enough detail for a true beginner.

[Nicholas Su · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty average book about mead's origins and some basic recipes to get started. Notes below:
- Enjoyed the history of mead, wish there were more stories shared about its origins
- Recipe wise, interesting it recommends very long primary and secondary fermentation periods, at least 3 months in secondary (or until the mead clears)
- Almost all the traditional recipes call for acid and tannin additions to balance flavor. Not sure how necessary this is unless you are going to be a stickler for specific flavor balance

[Michael Hercules · Rating 2 out of 5]

There has to be a better introductory book for mead making. I have made two batches and wanted to read more so I read this, and it is the most basic intro you could get to mead making. It’s nice because it is quick and to the point, but it does not explain anything about why to do the things you do. It says there isn’t room in the book to explain why to use Campden Tablets but it includes quotes from the text in large font to take up space on almost every other page.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mead is a wine made from honey going back thousands of years. This covers the process of making mead and includes 43 recipes. There are also numerous color photos. A great little book for the do it yourselfer.

[Jenny Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming little book that has provided me with plenty of reasons why my mead has not been turning out particularly well. I'm looking forward to trying some of these recipes!

[Daniel Rosehill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading just for the ridiculous descriptions of the debauched mead-drinking sessions in the Ancient World.

[Cristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever, funny, and fast reading. I finished in one sitting. Great explanations in a quick and concise form that made me laugh out loud at some of the recipes.