The history of making alcoholic honey drinks began immediately after the development of beekeeping, since honey stale over time, or large reserves of it appeared and, as an alternative, they began to make drinks from it.

Over the centuries, the technologies of preparation of spirits have changed slightly, and the taste of honey itself has undergone eco-qualitative changes.

Let's first recall the recipe for making mead from those times according to the recipe, without yeast and pasteurization. The result is not very strong (5-15%) mead obtained by fermentation, which includes water, hops, yeast and other ingredients.

It is not uncommon to find fortified mead that is prepared by another method, by adding high-quality honey to a pre-prepared alcoholic drink (vodka, purified moonshine or alcohol diluted with water).

The drink can be prepared with a pre-planned strength from 35 to 65 degrees, the favorite drink was prepared using baker's yeast, at home, from honey of all types and quality, diluting it with water. Subsequently, industrial production of mead was established in all CIS countries.

Homemade mead recipe

Components:

• honey - 300 grams
• dry yeast - 1 teaspoon, can be replaced with pressed 25 grams
• hop cones - 10 grams
• water - 2 liters
• nutmeg, cinnamon on the edge of a knife.

Recipe: Take honey that you can get, you need to take good quality flavored buckwheat or linden varieties. The taste of mead will depend on the quality of honey, so take it from people you trust.

Dissolve honey in water, for this fill a stainless or enamel container and bring to a boil. Then add honey to boiling water, stirring constantly to prevent burning, five minutes after the mixture boils, white foam will appear on the surface, you need to get rid of it by collecting it with a slotted spoon.

Boil over a low flame, and do not leave the mixture in the pan unattended. Now you can add the ingredients on the list to the boiling water, they will fill the drink with the necessary aroma and taste.

Stir well, turn off the heat, let it brew and cool to 25-30 ° C, this is the temperature of the mixture into which the dissolved yeast can already be added, in the case when the temperature of the mixture is higher, they will die.

Create conditions for fermentation, namely a dark, warm room from 18 to 30 degrees. Celsius. Monitor the temperature for the entire fermentation period, and also limit the ingress of midges into the container by wrapping the neck of the container with gauze.

After a couple of days, the liquid will ferment, this will be seen by the bubbles and foam on the surface, it's time to pour the wort into the fermentation tank with the lid installed.

It will take from 4 to 10 days and your mash will win back, instead of sugar content, a fortress appeared in the taste (it will stop emitting bubbles, and the mash will be ready for the next stage.

After a sediment settles on the bottom of the tank, the finished mead must be drained through a hose, and the sediment must be filtered through cheesecloth or in another way, let me remind you, we do this in order to separate solid particles.

Now we distribute the filtered drink into the existing prepared, clean container (stainless steel glass) storage place (refrigerator, basement, cellar). Within a few days of rest in a container, the mead will be ready for use.

Recipe for making mead without yeast and without boiling

In the old days, bread or alcohol yeast was not used in the production of alcoholic beverages, they simply did not exist, the alternative was sourdough, that is, homemade yeast made from natural berries.

Due to the presence of natural, live, wild yeast on them, the squeezed juice of the berries will ferment over time. It must be remembered that the cherries that you want to use for making yeast must be picked not after the rain, but at least 3 to three days after it, so that the washed-off tremors are restored on the surface of the berries.

Raisin sourdough recipe

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that it will take you a week to prepare, and to the fact that wild yeast mostly dies over 15% of the strength of the leaven.

Natural starter recipe:

• take 200 grams of dried raisins, do not wash, place in a glass jar,
• add 100 grams of honey,
• pour 800 ml of purified or boiled water. temperature of +24 degrees Celsius.

Mix everything, then cover the neck of the can with several layers of gauze, and secure it with an elastic band, pressing it around the neck, leave the container to infuse for up to 3 days. After the expiration date, the leaven is ready and can retain its beneficial properties for 10 days in a cool place.

We add this starter culture to water in a volume of 6 liters, with honey in a quantity of 3 kg. The mead will be ready in a couple of months after the mixture is overplayed, and its strength will not exceed 3%.

If your choice fell on cherries (strawberries or raspberries) as yeast, then it is advisable to purchase them from a private trader who does not process the berries with chemicals that neutralize the action of yeast.

To make mead, in another way, place in a glass jar,

• crushed and crushed pitted cherries 4 kg,
• purified or boiled water 1 liter, add 2 kg of honey, infuse at a temperature of +24 degrees Celsius. After fermentation for 10 days, the mixture must be carefully filtered into a tightly closed container and placed in a cool place for maturation for a couple of months. Get a low-alcohol carbonated drink similar to kvass or lemonade, with a slight sourness.

From the honey remaining on the wax lids, on the walls of the dishes, when melting old combs, wax cuts, a very sweet honey solution is obtained.

Optimum concentration of honey for fermentation in solution: peeled potatoes should be in suspension, that is, at some distance from the bottom.

For a can of 40 l - 1 kg of yeast. It wanders for 4-7 days at a temperature of 20-25C. During this time, do not close the can lid tightly. From 10 liters of mash, 1 liter of alcohol with a strength of 85 ° is obtained (1st portion); 1 l - 65-75 ° (2nd portion); 1 l - 40 ° (3rd portion). The 1st portion contains almost no fusel oils, the 3rd must be distilled.

To obtain alcohol of even finer purification, add the same amount of water to 3 liters of alcohol and distill again.

Honey alcohol is easy to drink, its strength is almost not felt.
For the cleaning: 50 g of birch charcoal per liter of alcohol. Shake the bottle 3-4 times a day for 3 weeks. Allow the 4th week to stand, strain. Dilute with water to the desired strength.

Then you can give the vodka the desired color.: blue vodka is infused on cornflowers, yellow - on saffron, red - on blueberries, purple - on sunflower seeds, brown - on pine nut shells.

One of the many advantages of mead (a low-alcohol honey drink with a strength of 1-16 degrees) is the possibility of its preparation at home.

Of course, we are not talking here about home production of honey mash in industrial volumes, but each of you can easily provide yourself with a dozen or so half-liters warming your soul in this way.

Monastic honey for drinking

Ingredients

1. Honey - 3.25 l
2. Water - 6.5 l
3. Fresh hops - 75 g
4. For tea essence: 1 tsp. tea leaves and 1 cup boiling water

Cooking method

1. For the preparation of honey, the best, purest honey is taken, without the slightest admixture of wax.
2. Take a well-aged iron or copper cauldron, pour honey and water into it, stir and put on the stove.
3. When it comes to a boil, simmer for 3 hours over even light heat. Then put the hops in honey, tied in a bag of loose fabric. Tie a sinker to the bag so that it lies at the bottom of the boiler.
4. It is necessary to cook with hops for 1 hour. Then add hot boiled water to the original volume (that is, add the boiled liquid), boil again, set aside and cover.
5. While the honey is still quite warm, strain it through a sparse linen or gauze into a wooden or glass dish, but so as to fill it 4/5, cover it with a cloth and put in a warm place (from 18 to 20 degrees), in winter by the stove, and in the summer in the sun. After 2 days, honey begins to foam.
6. If the honey is kept at a lower temperature, then it will not ferment, but will begin to mold. The warmer the place, the sooner the honey will be ready. This usually takes 3-5 weeks. After 3 weeks, you need to listen: if the honey makes a lot of noise, leave it still, if it has stopped hissing and the smell of honey and alcohol is already heard, then it is ready.
7. If you want to have stronger honey, you need to let it stand warm until it stops sizzling, and if you want to have honey weaker and sweeter, you can strain it while still sizzling.
8. Before you filter honey, you need to pour a glass of tea essence into it. Do not interfere with the honey liquid, but carefully drain it, filtering it through flannel or several layers of gauze, repeating this even several times, until the honey is completely clean and transparent. The honey filtered in this way is usable, but in six months it will be better, and in a year it will be excellent. The longer it is infused, the better it will be.

Straight mead

Ingredients

1. Water - 3 l
2. Vodka - 125 ml
3. Honey - 1 kg of honey
4. Yeast - 50 g yeast
5. Cloves - 4 grains
6. Ground cinnamon - 8 g
7. Violet and cardamom - 5 g each
8. Melissa - 3-5 g

Cooking method

1. Heat the water, add honey, stirring occasionally, boil over low heat until the consistency of molasses. Remove from heat and strain.
2. Pour the liquid into a wooden barrel, put in and stir the yeast.
3. Let the drink ferment, pour in the vodka and season in a cloth bag.
4. Leave to infuse for 1 month, then strain and pour into bottles for storage. Cork tightly, keep in a cool place.

Mead South

Ingredients

1. Water - 3 l
2. Honey - 1.5 kg
3. Light raisins - 200 g light raisins
4. Hops - 30 g
5. Brewer's yeast - 1/3 tsp

Cooking method

1. Place the hops in a cloth bag, put in water, put the dish with water on the fire and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to very low and evaporate liquid by a third, not letting it boil.
3. Remove the hops and transfer to a small amount of cold water, then squeeze well, add the squeezed liquid to hot water. Dissolve honey well in the same water.
4. Measure out the honey liquid, transfer to a large saucepan, pour in three times as much cold water as the honey. Let it boil, stirring without stopping, cook at a low boil for 40 minutes, strain while hot.
5. Wash the pot thoroughly, pour the honey liquid back into it and boil until the volume is reduced by a quarter. Remove from heat, cool, add brewer's yeast and raisins.
6. Pour the honey into a wooden barrel, let it ferment in a warm place (about 10 days) and put it in a cold place for 4 days.
7. Pour the finished drink into bottles, cork tightly, and stand before use for 90 days.

Birch honey

Ingredients

1. Birch sap - 3 l
2. Honey - 500 g of honey
3. Rye (black) bread - 1 slice
4. Liquid yeast - 20 g

Cooking method

1. Pour honey into birch sap, stir, bring to a boil over low heat.
2. Boil for an hour over low heat, then cool until warm.
3. Coat rye bread with yeast, put in syrup and leave in a warm place for 1 hour.
4. Add a little more yeast if the honey doesn't ferment.
5. From the moment the fermentation begins, remove the bread, cover the dishes with a cloth, keep in a warm room until the end of fermentation.
6. Pour the drink into bottles, cork and store in a cool place. Consume after 120-150 days.

Vanilla honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 5 liters of water
2. Honey - 1 kg
3. Sugar - 1 kg
4. Hops - 50 g
5. Yeast - 15 g
6. Vanilla sugar bag - 1pc.

Cooking method

1. Stir the yeast with 40-50 g of sugar, pour in a little water, grind thoroughly, leave to rise.
2. Pour cold water into a saucepan, add all the sugar, vanilla sugar, add honey and hops and put on fire.
3. Let it boil, boil for a few minutes and cool.
4. Mix with yeast, leave for fermentation in a warm place for 4-5 days (until hops rise to the surface).
5. When foam appears, strain the drink, pour into bottles, cork tightly and leave in a cool place for 14-15 days.

Cherry honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 500 ml
2. Honey - 1 kg
3. Cherries - 2 kg

Cooking method

1. Wash ripe berries, dry, carefully remove the seeds.
2. Heat the water, pour in honey, stir and cook, stirring and removing the foam from the surface.
3. Place the cherry berries in a bottle with a narrow neck, pour over the honey syrup and close the neck with a wet cloth.
4. Leave for 3 days in a fermentation room. Then close the bottle tightly, rearrange it in a cool, dark room.
5. Insist before use for at least 90 days.

Cherry honey alternative recipe

Ingredients

1. Water - 1 l
2. Cherry fresh - 1 l
3. Honey - 1 kg
4. Yeast - 50 g of yeast,
5. Raisins - 50 g raisins
6. Cloves and ground cinnamon - 10 g each

Cooking method

1. Pour water into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add honey, stir until completely dissolved, put back on fire and cook for 5 minutes. Remove foam.
2. Remove liquid from heat, cool to room temperature, pour in cherry juice and put spices in a bag (can be made from medical gauze). Also add raisins and yeast diluted in a little water.
3. Stir gently, ferment for 3 days (keep warm) and strain.
4. Pour into bottles, close tightly with corks, stand before use for 12-20 days in a cool place.

Ginger honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 4.5 l
2. Lemon - 2 pcs.
3. Light honey - 2 kg
4. Yeast - 25 g
5. Hop cones - 25 g
6. Ginger root - 14 g
7. Gelatin - 7 g

Cooking method

1. Wash the lemons, pour boiling water over, squeeze the juice.
2. Cut the peel of the lemons into small strips.
3. Boil water, dissolve honey and add hops, chopped ginger root, lemon juice and rind.
4. Cook over low heat for no more than 45 minutes, strain and pour into a wooden barrel or a dark glass bottle.
5. Add yeast to the warm liquid, stir gently and leave to ferment for 35 days.
6. Dissolve gelatin in 100 ml of water, pour into honey liquid, mix everything and seal the dishes tightly, leave for 175-180 days.
7. Pour the finished honey into bottles and close well with corks, tying the top with wire.

Raspberry honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 3 liters of water
2. Fresh raspberry juice - 180 ml
3. Honey - 500 g of honey
4. Hops - 15 g of hops
5. Yeast - 10 g
6. Dark raisins - 2 pcs. per bottle.

Cooking method

1. Boil water, dissolve honey, put on fire and bring to a boil.
2. Simmer for about 2 hours. Add half the amount of hops, simmer for another hour and strain the honey.
3. Mix the second part of the hops with the yeast, let rise, add the mixture to the slightly cooled liquid along with raspberry juice.
4. Let the drink ferment, strain, pour into a bottle and seal tightly. Keep the drink in a cool place for 12-14 days.
5. Strain gently, pour into bottles for storage, adding 2 raisins to each. Cork bottles, store in a cool dry place.

Mint honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 1.5 l
2. Honey - 1 kg
3. Treacle - 100 g
4. Fresh mint leaves (for example: peppermint) - 50 g
5. Yeast - 25 g yeast
6. Gelatin - 5 g

Cooking method

1. Melt the molasses in 500 ml of water, add the mint leaves, let it simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Heat the remaining water well, dissolve honey in it completely, put on fire and boil for several minutes.
3. Pour in a mixture of molasses and mint leaves, stir, let it boil once, remove from heat.
4. Cool to room temperature, strain, add yeast and leave to ferment for 3-4 days.
5. Then put the previously dissolved gelatin, keep in a cool place for 2 days, pour into bottles, close tightly.

Fruit honey

Ingredients

1. Fresh fruit juice - 3 l
2. Honey - 1 kg of honey
3. Yeast - 50 g

Cooking method

1. Pour the fruit juice into a saucepan and heat until it comes to a boil.
2. Remove from heat and immediately dissolve honey in it. Let the liquid cool well.
3. Dissolve the yeast separately in a little water or juice, then pour into the liquid and mix.
4. Leave at room temperature for 1-2 days, then pour into bottles and cork tightly.
5. Soak before use for 14-20 days in a cool place.

Berry honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 1 l
2. Honey - 2 kg
3. Pitted cherries - 1 kg
4. Strawberries - 1 kg of strawberries
5. Rye bread - 100 g rye bread
6. Brewer's yeast - 50 g

Cooking method

1. Ripe and high-quality berries, rinse, dry, remove the seeds.
2. Mix berries with honey and mash.
3. Pour in warm boiled water, put a slice of rye bread mixed with yeast.
4. Leave to ferment for 15-20 days, drain the liquid into another dish, put it back in a warm place for 7-12 days. Ready honey can be consumed immediately.

Strong honey

Ingredients

1. Water - 4 l
2. Honey - 600 g
3. Dry yeast - 5 g
4. Port wine or cognac - 40-60 ml

Cooking method

1. Boil 1 liter of water, dissolve honey well and mix with the remaining cold water.
2. Add yeast, stir, leave at room temperature for 14 days.
3. Add an alcoholic drink to taste, let stand for another 14-15 days.
4. Close the container tightly and leave in a cold place for at least 180 days.
5. Pour the finished drink into bottles for storage, keep in a cool place.

If you have a mead recipe that is not listed above, please share it with me via the feedback form. Let's put all the recipes together!

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Many have heard or read about mead, some have even tried it. This alcoholic drink is usually associated with something ancient, which came from the gray years of the history of our country, but this is not at all the case.

Mead, depending on the preparation, can be pleasantly sweet with a small degree (10-16) to very high (70), in the latter case it is used for external rather than internal use.

Nowadays, there are a huge number of mead recipes with which we can prepare it at home, there are "old" and recently created versions of this alcoholic drink. Do not forget that even though the degree of mead is relatively low, due to the peculiarity of honey, it is also very insidious, and while the head is clean, the legs will not go anywhere. Read about this and much more later in the article.

Description

Mead- an alcoholic drink made on the basis of honey, yeast and flavoring additives.

Mead is considered one of the most ancient drinks, it was often prepared in Russia. No celebration was complete without this alcoholic drink.

Honey was a medicinal product, therefore, a mead with known beneficial properties was prepared on its basis. Also, people were already familiar with the so-called "drunk honey" - this beekeeping product was obtained from the nectar of azalea, heather, rhododendron and other plants.

This name was given to honey due to the fact that it contained a poisonous substance - the glycoside andromedotoxin. Under the influence of this substance, a person became drunk, experienced dizziness, sometimes nausea or convulsions.

The popularity of mead, as well as other non-alcoholic honey drinks, is due to the fact that honey was a widespread product; at least a little of this beekeeping product could be found in every home.

Scientists even suggest that the technology for producing mead is much older than the technology of winemaking.

• The first mentions of mead are dated back to 7-6 thousand years BC. e.
• At this time, the production of a similar drink was established.
• The stages of obtaining mead are depicted on the walls of tombs in Egypt.
• The ancient Egyptians considered it to be a drink of divine origin.
• The Slavs believed that only gods and great ancestors were worthy of drinking a honey drink.

How the first mead was made

The very first mead in Russia was obtained by fermenting honey in barrels with berry juice. The recipe for this drink was discovered in the well-known "Domostroy" (880). The preparation process was quite complicated and also time-consuming. The fact is that initially mead was made without adding yeast, so the process was very slow. Fresh honey was mixed with sour berries and left to ferment.

For mead, honey was fermented for 15-20 years. Sometimes fermentation took up to half a century.

Such honey was called "staged" because it stood for a long time. For this, honey was closed in barrels, sometimes they were even buried in the ground. This was the recipe for making traditional mead. Since the process was very complicated and also costly, only representatives of the wealthy estates, princes or warriors could afford such a drink.

Barrels of mead were given to young people for weddings, it was considered a very valuable gift. Such a drink made it possible to have fun at the wedding for a long time and not get very drunk. The strength of the mead was 8% -12%, and its taste was very delicate and sweet.

In order to simplify production, a technology for producing hop and boiled honey was invented. "Intoxicating honey" appeared 50 years later than the one set. In addition to adding juice, hops and spices were added to such a product so that the drink had a greater strength, as well as a pleasant taste.

• Intoxicated honey was prepared for a total of 3 years; it could stand for 5-8 years.
• Such a drink came to Russia from Scandinavia, here honey drinks were in high esteem since the days of paganism.
• It was believed that honey was sent to people by gods, it was food for warriors and poets.
• The drink had a slightly tart taste with a slight bitterness, but still tasted much better than beer.

"Boiled" honey

The next stage in the preparation of mead was the making of the so-called "boiled honey". The first mentions of him date back to the annals of 996. The production of this drink was no longer so difficult, any family could afford it. First, honey was dissolved in enough water to release sugar, then fermentation began.

Honey was left to ferment for 3-7 days, then poured into containers and kept in a dark place for a week or a month.

This method made it possible to significantly reduce the amount of waste in the beverage production process. The drink made from boiled honey tastes a bit like beer. It took only a few weeks to prepare it.

Over time, new principles of making honey drinks appeared, which were soon replaced by vodka and wine. The revival of these recipes began in the 19th century, by which time many traditions had been forgotten.

For example, a very honorable dish in Russia was "feed" - a sweet drink that was served at the end of the meal. It was from this time that the phrase "eat your fill" came into being, that is, eat everything, leaving room only for "satiety."

Honey in Russia

Honey has always been held in high esteem in Russia. It was considered a sacred product, at one time it was even used instead of wine for the sacrament. Before the meal, they used the so-called "sbiten", which is produced by boiling honey in water with the addition of juice and spices. There was also a digest - a mixture of beer and honey. Digestion was considered the lowest quality product that even the poorest people could afford.

• In Mordovia, the so-called “puré” was prepared, it was a drink, the production methods of which resembled the production of wine and beer. The main ingredient in pure was honey.
• Honey has also been added to fruit and berry wines. In Ethiopia, honey drinks were called tezh. This is a homemade drink. Its strength is 15% -30%. It has a sweet and spicy taste.

In the 19th century, new recipes for the preparation of honey drinks were invented. They were diluted with water, and also mixed with vodka or alcohol, beer. It was in the 19th century that the drink began to be called "mead", and before that it was called "drinking honey". The next stage in the development of mead was the arrival of the USSR. Mead was now understood as a drink of industrial production, only vaguely reminiscent of a primordially Russian product.

How was mead prepared in Russia?

At first, honey drink in Russia was called simply "honey", "honey pit", "intoxicated honey". It was prepared in a special way: for a long period (from 5 to 20 years) honey in oak barrels was buried in the ground, and after fermenting it turned from natural unsterilized honey into "put honey".

Later, from the 11th century, they began to use another method of making a honey drink - they began to brew it. Such a boiled-sterilized honey drink could be consumed within a month.

Gradually, the method of preparing honey drinks by the method of medical composition disappeared. And since the 17th century, they practically ceased to engage in honey brewing (wine replaced honey). Along with this, the ritual of eating honey before meals disappeared. It was only by the 19th century that old recipes began to be remembered again, and various drinks made from honey reappear.

Poured honey - an old recipe for mead

This honey drink was considered the most valuable and high quality one. True, it took a long time to prepare it.

Mead was prepared without boiling, using a special fermentation method.

• First, the honey was fermented.
• Any sour berries were good for his leaven: lingonberries, cherries, currants.
• Hops were added less frequently.

The honey-berry mixture fermented for some time at a temperature of 5 ° C. After the end of fermentation, the barrel was sealed, poured with tar and buried in the ground for a long time. The mead turned out to be noble and seasoned. The term of its production is at least five years. And sometimes it reached 40-50 years old.

The taste depended on the aging period. By the way, it was easy to spoil it with a small amount of tar, which could get into the barrel through loosely fitted boards when the barrel was blocked. Probably, this is where the expression "fly in the ointment in a barrel of honey" came from.

Boiled mead - hearty honey

The set honey, with all its advantages, had one big drawback - it took a very long time to wait for the aromatic drink to ripen. And it was not cheap. Apparently, therefore, already at the end of the 11th century, another old recipe for the preparation of mead, obtained as a result of boiling, sterilization and fermentation, appeared.

They began to brew the honey drink. And those who cooked it were called mead brewers. The drink prepared much faster (within a month) and cost less. This drink, of course, was much more affordable than the set honey and quickly gained popularity.

To prepare it, spices, herbs, fruits were added to honey dissolved in water.

• Then it was boiled, and after cooling, yeast was added to it for sourdough (by this time they had already been invented) and kept in the cold in a glacier until fermentation reached a certain stage.
• Then came the last stage in the preparation of Russian boiled mead - it was defended, clarified and kept for a short time.

Mead "downright"

The closer to our time, the simpler and more primitive the old recipe for mead became. The honey itself was no longer fermented. First, a mash was prepared from berries or fruits, spices, herbs, roots and honey were added to it.

This is where the "mead" actually appeared.

It was understood that this was the same old intoxicated drink, but of a lower quality, because as a result of such a simplified technology of its preparation, the soft and delicate taste of boiled and put honey was lost. Their pleasant scent was overpowered by the scent of yeast and fusel oils.

But it is this name, in fact, negative, since that time has been firmly associated with all ancient alcoholic beverages prepared on the basis of honey.

How many degrees is in the mead?

They differ in strength and production time: regular mead, young mead, set mead, strong mead. The strength of the mead depends on the infusion temperature, holding time, on the quality and type of accompanying components, conditions after filtration.

In the old classic recipes, which did not involve the use of yeast and chemical additives, the percentage of alcohol should have been minimal (5-6%). It goes without saying that using them, adding ready-made mash is already a deviation from the classic recipe.

However, mead can be not only alcoholic. There are also known recipes for a soft drink that looks more like honey kvass, which is produced by skipping the main fermentation stage. You can add honey and alcohol to the finished mead, if you wish.

How to make mead according to an old recipe?

There are a lot of old mead recipes and options for its preparation. Depending on the composition of the ingredients, it can be mead with juniper, with cinnamon and ginger, with pepper and horseradish, with raisins and cloves, with cherries and nutmeg, mint or rose hips.

Of course, many original Russian recipes have now been forgotten and lost. And those partially preserved, which we use, have been rethought by us from the point of view of a modern person. But this does not in the least prevent us from enjoying the delicious drink of our ancestors.

Many would like to try real staged honey, but for this, at least, you need to move to the times of Russian princes and be at one of their feasts.

• It will not be possible to repeat exactly the technology of making cold honey at home.
• We do not have oak barrels, glaciers, and not everyone has the patience to wait so many years for a ready drink.
• But you can use the second old way - to cook mead.

Recipe:

• Honey - 1 kg
• Water - 2.5-3 liters
• Spices (ginger, allspice, cardamom, cinnamon) - 10 g
• Hops - 5 g
• Zest of one lemon

To prepare boiled mead according to an old recipe, pour the honey with water, bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add spices, hops, lemon zest and boil again, removing the resulting foam.

After the broth is strained and cooled, you need to add 100 g of yeast (beer, wine, bread) to it and ferment in a warm place for 1-3 days. Bottled drink will ripen in a cool dark place.

How to drink mead?

• Mead experts advise drinking mead before meals. In any case, this is how our ancestors drank intoxicated honey in Russia.
• The drink is served chilled. It is not worth drinking or seizing it. But if you like to use it differently, there are no hard and fast rules.
• Mead is not a strong drink, but insidious. The drink is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream. Hence the surprising effect familiar to many: the head is sober, but the legs do not go. But if you drink a small amount of mead, the state of intoxication quickly disappears.

behoneybee.ru

The modern mead recipe appeared in the 18th century in Veliky Novgorod and became popular in the 20th century. During the Soviet era, the technology of collecting honey was very often violated, collecting it earlier than necessary. This unripe honey was poorly stored and was absolutely not suitable for sale. Therefore, a clever way of using the surplus was invented - the fermentation of this honey with baker's yeast. Suzdal and Veliky Novgorod were famous for their honey brewing. The strength of mead from Veliky Novgorod is from 5 to 16%. In Suzdal, you can find more than ten types of mead, which differ in strength and spices. Dried ginger root, juniper berries, cinnamon sticks, cloves, rose hips and hot peppers are often added to the mead.

Ripening period

In a standard recipe, the mead fermentation process takes five days. It looks like muddy champagne. Sometimes the mead is infused for three to six months.
It becomes less sparkling, but more aromatic, strong, fluid and dense. If you add berries to the mead, then over time it will become more useful - the berries will give the drink their useful substances. Depending on the recipe, the strength of the mead can range from two to ten degrees.

Fermentation process

During fermentation, a lot of gases are released, so you can't just take and seal a jar with a mead lid - it will surely explode.

You can close the bottle with a cloth, but it is better to make a special vent from the lid, in which a hole is made.

A thin hose must be inserted into this small hole. One side of the hose should be in the bottle on top of the liquid, and the other should be dipped into a bowl of water. This allows gases and fermentation products to escape safely from the drink.

The most delicious mead is obtained from high quality aromatic honey. Light varieties are best suited, the best choice is white acacia honey or lime honey. Mead with a pronounced taste is obtained from buckwheat honey - a brown aromatic drink with a slight bitterness.

• You can find hop cones for mead at any drugstore.
• The foam formed when boiling honey must be removed. Then the drink will turn out transparent.
• Before dissolving yeast in honey syrup, the drink must be cooled, since yeast does not live at temperatures above 50 degrees.

Be careful: hot honey starts to burn when it gets into the fire.

You can add additional spices to your taste to the classic mead recipe - oregano, dried basil and ginger, St. John's wort, coriander, nutmeg, different types of pepper.
You can also diversify the taste of mead with the help of rose hips, raisins and other dried fruits. This drink can be served both warm and cold. Sliced ​​lemon is perfect for mead.
kitchenmag.ru

Homemade mead recipes

Modern homemade mead Ingredients:

• honey - 300 grams;
• water - 2 liters;
• dry yeast - 1 teaspoon (or 25 grams of pressed);
• hop cones - 5 grams;
• cinnamon and nutmeg - 1 pinch

All ingredients are available, only hop cones can be difficult. They are sold in almost every pharmacy, so this is not a problem either. Any yeast can be taken, for example, for baking bread.

Mead preparation technology

1. Choosing honey.

One of the most important stages, on which the quality of the finished drink largely depends. Try to pick the most fragrant varieties. Buckwheat honey is great, but you can use another, such as lime honey.

In the spring, many beekeepers offer fresh liquid honey, but if you are not well versed in beekeeping, it is better to refuse to buy.

There is a risk that, instead of a natural product, businessmen will sell a sugar substitute or the honey itself will be of poor quality.

Such raw materials will never make delicious homemade mead.

2. Dissolving honey in water.

Pour water into an enamel pot and bring to a boil. Add honey to boiling water, stirring constantly with a spoon. After 4-5 minutes of boiling the honey mixture, a white foam will begin to appear on the surface, which must be carefully collected with a spoon.

Attention! Honey burns very quickly and can ignite, so the pan should not be left unattended for a minute.

3. Adding flavorings.

After the foam has been removed, add other ingredients to the mixture: cinnamon, nutmeg and hops, which will give the drink original flavor notes. After stirring thoroughly, remove the pan from heat.

4. Preparation for fermentation.

Cool the mixture to 25-30 ° C (very important) and add the diluted yeast. If you do this at a higher temperature, the yeast will die and fermentation will not start.

Transfer the pot with the honey solution to a dark place with a temperature of about 25 ° C. If there is no separate room, you can use an aquarium heater.

• To avoid the ingress of foreign substances and insects into the wort (in summer flies especially get out), I recommend tying the pan with gauze.
• After 1-2 days, signs of fermentation will appear: foam will begin to form on the surface of the mixture, a hissing will be heard.
• Pour the contents of the saucepan into a fermentation container by placing a medical glove with a hole in the finger or a water seal on the neck. The designs of these devices are shown in the photo.

5. Fermentation.

Typically, mead fermentation lasts 4-6 days. The end of the process is evidenced by a deflated glove or a prolonged absence of bubbles coming out through the water seal.

Another method of checking is to bring a burning match to the surface of the liquid, which should not go out. There is nothing to be afraid of, the strength of the drink is only 5-10 degrees, it will not catch fire.

6. Filtration and spillage.

The final stage of preparation. Carefully pour the mead into another container, leaving a sediment at the bottom, then strain through several layers of cheesecloth.

Pour the finished drink into bottles (glass or plastic), seal tightly and transfer to the refrigerator or basement. I am not a supporter of storing alcohol in a plastic container, but in this case it is harmless.

The strength of the mead is low, so the alcohol will not interact with the plastic. Beer is sold in such bottles. Mead can be drunk almost immediately after preparation, but I recommend insisting 3-5 days and only after that taste it.

How to make mead sparkling

1. Wash bottles (plastic or glass) well and wipe dry.
2. Add honey to the bottom of each container (one and a half teaspoons per 1 liter of drink). Thanks to honey, a slight secondary fermentation will appear, which will saturate the mead with natural carbon dioxide.
3. Pour the drink into bottles, leaving 5-6 cm of free space from the neck. Seal hermetically with plugs or lids.
4. Transfer containers for 7-10 days to a dark room with room temperature. Check the gas pressure once a day, bleed off excess pressure if necessary.
5. Place the soda honey in a cool place for at least 5 days to ripen.

Mead without yeast and boiling

An old recipe by which our ancestors made mead. They dispensed with yeast and diluted honey in cold water. I warn you that using this technology, preparation will take 3-4 months, besides, the strength of the drink will be much lower - 2-4 degrees.

The most difficult thing in this recipe is to find an adequate substitute for yeast, since honey alone will not ferment with water. There are two options: using cherries (raspberries, strawberries) or raisins as a catalyst. The historically correct choice would be cherries, but the safer raisins. Let's consider both cases.

Cooking technology

Dissolve honey in cold water. The amount of ingredients depends on the selected fermentation catalyst. In the case of raisins, the following are used: 1 liter of water, 80 grams of honey and 50 grams of raisins.

• If it is decided to support fermentation with cherries (raspberries, strawberries), then to make mead you will need: 1 liter of water, 4 kg of cherry berries and 2 kg of honey. First, remove the seeds from the cherries, then pour in the honey solution.

Attention! The raisins and cherries must not be washed before adding to the mead, otherwise the wild yeast responsible for fermentation can be accidentally washed off, and it will be difficult to predict the subsequent result.

• Tie the neck with gauze, then put the container in a warm place. Fermentation will start in 1-2 days. Since we have done without yeast (dry and baking), it takes more time than in the first case.
• When signs of fermentation appear (see point 4 of the first recipe), filter the liquid through several layers of gauze, pour into another container and close tightly. This method is used to prepare the so-called "put mead", which does not require a glove or a water seal.
• It remains to put the bottles in the refrigerator or cellar for maturation. After 3-4 months, you can try the finished drink. It will turn out to be carbonated with a slight sourness, alcohol is almost not felt, more like kvass.

P.S. Many people call the "right mead" recipe without yeast and boiling.

But this does not mean that the first option is not as tasty or healthy. I advise you to prepare mead using two methods, try each option, and only then draw conclusions.

alcofan.com

Basic Mead Recipe

To prepare the simplest version of mead, by the way, corresponding to the famous Suzdal canon, you will need the following ingredients: 4 liters of spring or artesian water, a pound of thick fragrant (say, linden or buckwheat) honey, a pound of granulated sugar and 100 grams of bread yeast.

Stir the water, sugar and half of the honey you have in an enamel saucepan and put on fire.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then keep it on fire for another quarter of an hour, constantly stirring and removing the foams that form on the surface (in this case, you should remember about constant and vigilant vigilance, since honey burns extremely easily and is no less flammable).

• Remove liquid from heat and cool to 25-30 ° C so that your yeast does not die from overheating. Add the diluted yeast to the pan, cover it with gauze and leave in a warm place for two days.
• Next, remove the resulting foam and pour the contents of the pan into a glass jar or bottle.

Close the glass container with a tight lid or pull a rubber medical glove or a special rubber stopper over its neck (in the first case, a small hole is made in the lid for the gas outlet tube, one end of which is inside the container, above the surface of the fermenting substance, and the other end is in a cup of water; in the second, a tiny hole is pierced in one of the fingers of the glove).

Fermentation and filtration

Place the container in a dark, warm place and wait 4-6 days. During this time, the fermentation period should come to an end. You will know about this due to the absence of bubbles coming out through the tube or a deflated glove. For safety net, you can bring a lighted match to the vessel with honey wash. If at the same time the flame does not brighten, then the yeast, indeed, has completed its work.

• Further, the future mead is filtered from the sediment, after which it should be kept in a dark, cold place for about a month (both a cellar and a refrigerator are suitable).
• After this period, the liquid is filtered again and after adding the remaining 250 grams of honey, followed by the final stirring, it is poured into glass or plastic bottles.
• The resulting nectar can be served immediately; but if you have at least a little patience, let the drink rest for a while.

Nine recipes for mead

The basic mead recipe would not be so if it did not involve the more or less arbitrary addition of various additional ingredients.

These may include various spices:

cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, cloves, ginger, cardamom; berries of middle latitudes: viburnum, blueberries, currants, strawberries, mountain ash, raspberries, cranberries, lingonberries, cherries and even rose hips; as well as other herbal ingredients: hops, linden blossom, mint, pine buds, sweet clover and, oddly enough, horseradish.

You can use the above herbs and spices in all of the recipes below.

The original mead recipe (set mead without yeast and boiling)

Based on a liter of water, we need: 2 kilograms of honey and 4 kilograms of red berries (cherries, strawberries or raspberries). First, put the berries in a glass jar (in the case of cherries, the seeds must be removed). At the same time, some folk craftsmen in every possible way discourage washing the berries so as not to harm the bacteria responsible for fermentation.

Then, the berries are poured with a water-honey solution, the throat of the vessel is tied with gauze, and the container itself is placed in a warm place for a couple of days.

When a characteristic foam appears on the surface of the drink, the gauze is removed, the foam is removed, and the liquid is filtered, poured into glass bottles and hermetically sealed. The drink obtained in this way is placed in the refrigerator or in the cellar for 4 months.

Although, it is worth noting that for the fullness of the true Old Russian effect, glass bottles should be replaced with oak barrels, and the aging period of the drink should be increased by 20 years, by the way, by 20. Those who want to try - our sincere respect.

Haste mead

Chop 3 lemons and put in a saucepan, add 100 grams of raisins and 400 grams of honey. Pour boiling water over and stir. Then let cool. Then add 30 grams of diluted yeast and a tablespoon of flour. We leave all this in a warm place for a day.

Old recipe for mead

Ingredients: honey - 1.25 kg, water - 8 liters, hops - 2 tablespoons, gelatin - half a teaspoon, cardamom, ginger - to taste.

To prepare mead according to this recipe, honey must be placed in an enamel bowl, then poured with boiling water. Soak for a day, then bring to a boil and cook for an hour.

• After adding hops, bring honey to a boil again, boil for an hour, then cool it. Repeat this procedure 4 - 5 times.
• Cool the honey, pour into a large barrel, add cardamom and diluted gelatin, close well.

• Withstand 2-3 weeks. If fermentation does not start or is slight, add yeast.
• After the end of the primary fermentation, pour the drink into bottles, while closing them tightly. Remove the finished alcohol in a cool place for 3 months (you can cover it with sand).

Cranberry mead

For 1 kg of honey you will need: 2.5 liters. water, 1 liter of cranberry juice, cinnamon and cloves to taste, 100 g of yeast.

Dissolve honey with water and boil. Remove the foam, pour the drink into a bottle, add juice, spices, yeast and put in a warm place for 2 days. After that, close the bottle well and put it in a cool place for 20 days.

Pink honey

Ingredients: 5 l. water, 2 kg. honey, 300 g of dried blueberries, 2 tablespoons of yeast, 10 g of gelatin, 4-5 drops of rose oil.

Dissolve honey in warm water and cook for 1 hour, removing the foam. Add infusion of dried blueberries, yeast and leave to ferment for a week. Then strain, add dissolved gelatin, rose oil, close tightly and leave for 2 months in a cold place.

Folk recipe for mead

Dilute honey 3: 1, boil for 30 minutes. removing the foam. When it cools down, add yeast (dry French or ours) for alcoholic fermentation. We put on a glove with a hole on the bottle and wait until it falls, remove the sediment with a tube and put it in a cold place.

After a month, as it brightens, we bottle it, if necessary, correct the taste (if sour - add a spoonful of honey, if sweet - add citric acid or sour apple juice).

Homemade mead

Ingredients: honey - 1.5 kg, water - 10 liters, hop cones (buy in a pharmacy) - 10 grams, yeast - 3 grams

Fill a saucepan with ten liters of water and put it on the stove to boil. Then, add honey to boiled water, mix well and boil for another three to five minutes, remembering to remove the foam from the surface. After the foam has ceased, add the hops to the pan, and cover it with a lid and remove from the heat.

In a separate bowl, dilute the yeast in sweetened water (one teaspoon). The yeast mass is ready when it swells.

For the preparation of mead, both ordinary yeast and brewer's yeast will do, but the French Saf-Levure yeast is still considered the best.

• After the contents have cooled to 50 * C, add the yeast mass to it and covered with a lid, put in a warm place for five days. In about this time, the content should ferment.
• After the fermentation process stops, we remove the hops from the pan, and filter the drink through cheesecloth and bottle it, put it in a cool place for storage. The homemade mead will be ready to eat in a week.

Old mead

Ingredients: 2 kg. honey, 1 liter of spring water, 4–5 kg of cherries.

Put honey in a saucepan, add water and boil the syrup. During cooking, you need to stir periodically and skim off the foam. Remove pits from well-washed cherries, put them in a bottle with a long neck and fill them with cooled honey syrup. Cover the neck of the bottle with a piece of raw cloth and put it in a warm place for fermentation for 3 days.

When the contents of the bottle ferment, close the neck with a cork from a rolled-up piece of canvas and leave for further ripening. After 3 months, the old mead will be ready for consumption. The flavor of the mead improves as the aging period increases.

The easiest mead recipe

Take an enamel pot and pour 2 liters of water, add 300 grams of honey. The mixture is thoroughly stirred over low heat. Remove the foam from time to time.

After boiling, boil for another five minutes. You can add a hop cone, but not too large (up to 5 grams), a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. We dilute a spoonful of yeast in water, leave for 1 hour and then add to the mixture. After that, homemade mead is fermented.

After 3 days, it can be poured into bottles, closed and removed for a month to infuse in the refrigerator.

Spicy mead

3 liters of water, 750 grams of honey, 10 grams of dry yeast, 1 egg white (put before boiling), 1 pinch of ginger, a teaspoon of nutmeg, 1 pinch of cinnamon and 2 cloves. Further all the steps from the basic recipe.
vzboltay.com

• Suzdal mead has been popular since ancient times. It is distinguished by its unusual taste and high strength. Now the drink is used not only for drinking, but also for treatment.
• The product has useful properties, it contains various enzymes, vitamins, amino acids, trace elements. Mead is obtained in the process of fermentation, it does not contain flavors, dyes, and various flavoring additives.

vzboltay.com

Suzdal mead

The difference between Suzdal mead and drinking honey

1. Honey is part of the product.
2. A drinking bee product is prepared in a special oak barrel.
3. Drinking honey is stored for a long time.
4. In order for the fermentation of the drinking product to be natural, the barrels must be filled with herbs, berries, honey, and water. Then the drink was used at celebrations.
5. The recipe for a Suzdal drink does not have such difficulties in preparation, it needs to be boiled, sterilized, hops added, wait for fermentation, the drink does not need to be infused for a long time, maximum one week.

Features of Suzdal mead

1. It can have different strengths.
2. The composition of the drink may include various components, spices, a particularly tasty drink, which is supplemented with cinnamon, rose hips, juniper, ginger, cayenne pepper.
3. They use mead for medicinal purposes Cossack, five-salty, oprichnaya, half-half, streletskaya.
4. It has a pleasant honey taste, aroma, is sweet, it contains glucose, fructose, a large amount of honey.

Types of Suzdal mead

The drink can be prepared in different ways:

• Using honey sterilization. In this case, the put mead is obtained by fermentation. Hearty mead is prepared first by fermentation, then the honey is sterilized by boiling.
• The difference in cooking. There are such types as with the addition of honey when the product is ready or without honey after cooking.
• Ethyl alcohol may or may not be added to the drink.
• The fortress, production time is taken into account, so you can distinguish a young, strong, regular and put mead.
• May differ in ingredients - spicy, intoxicated types of Suzdal drink are known.

Cooking technology of classic Suzdal mead

The recipe requires the following basic components:

1. Spring water - 4 liters.
2. Honey - 500 grams.
3. Sugar - 0.5 kg.
4. Yeast - 100 grams.

To prepare a classic mead, you need to mix some of the honey with sugar, add a little water, you should get a homogeneous mass that looks like a liquid yellow jelly.

Everything must be boiled thoroughly for up to 40 minutes, remove the foam.

Be sure to use only enamelled cooking utensils.

Then the drink should cool down to 30 degrees.

Prepare yeast, for this you need to dilute it in liquid, put it in a warm place, there it will begin to ferment. For this, it is best to use a barrel from a tree, you can use a jar, if you do not have such devices, you can use the dishes into which all the ingredients were originally put.

• After fermentation has stopped, most often it lasts no more than two days.
• It is not difficult to notice that it has stopped, note whether the mixture is giving off gas or not.
• Then the mead is filtered and poured into glass bottles, taken out into the cold.
• Wait until the drink is a month old, then add some more honey - 250 grams of honey.

The recipe is simple, making the drink is simple.

Recipes for different varieties of Suzdal mead

1. Recipe for Cossack Suzdal similar to the classic one, but it has a difference in that pepper, a little juniper are added to it. This drink is spicy.
2. The recipe for the five-salty Suzdal mead is not very strong, differs in amber color, honey aroma, has a slight wine flavor, the tasting room offers to try this variety, it is most often bought. The difference from the classics is that sugar is not used, it is replaced with malt. The low degree is explained by the fact that the five altynaya wanders for a small amount of time.
3. Suzdal Mead Recipe suitable for different feasts. A large amount of honey is placed in it. The drink is not only sweet but also strong.
4. Soft drink recipe suitable for those who do not drink alcoholic beverages, also for children. But pay attention, it contains a little alcohol - 1 turn. It is impossible to make a non-alcoholic Suzdal one on your own, only different enterprises can produce it.
5. Half a half recipe Suzdal mead uses hops, so the fortress increases, bitterness disappears. Most often, the recipe requires brewer's yeast. The drink contains a small amount of alcohol up to 8%, if you want to increase the strength, you need to extend the fermentation up to two weeks.

So, Suzdal mead is an old drink, distinguished by its healing properties. The drink belongs to the national, it is at the same level in sake, whiskey, tequila. Its main component is honey, so the drink is soft and tasty. Fermentation is a prerequisite for the preparation of the product.

The boiled type of Suzdal mead is prepared on the basis of heat treatment; cold mead is prepared using cold methods. Often hops, yeast, berries - cherries, raspberries, currants, blueberries, blackberries - could be added additionally. Mead made in Suzdal is distinguished by its strength; it was selected depending on the purpose for which the drink had to be used.

roypchel.ru

Mead recipes: how to make mead at home

Mead is made quite simply, you just need to know some of the subtleties of cooking.

Required to do:

• The foam formed when boiling honey must be removed
• Chill the hot honey syrup before adding yeast. The fact is that yeast dies at temperatures above 50 C

Choosing honey

The taste of a honey drink directly depends on the quality of the honey. It should be very aromatic. Light varieties of honey are considered the best, and white honey is completely elite. But this is more of a tradition. For example, buckwheat honey is very dark, at the same time very aromatic, with bitterness, and also has many admirers. By the way, it contains a lot of iron, in contrast to light, lime.

Advice: If they sell you liquid, unsweetened honey in the spring, don't take it. This is either a sugar surrogate or honey warmed up in a water bath, which is also not very healthy. Better to look for another seller.

How long does the mead need to stand?

Usually mead ferments in 5 days. The result is a frothy drink that looks like champagne, only cloudy. But sometimes the mead is aged for 3 to 6 months. It becomes less bubbly, denser, more fluid. And, of course, more aromatic. And the fortress is gaining a little. If you add berries to the drink, then over time the mead becomes more useful, while it is aged, the berries give it all the useful substances.

Fermentation

You can close the bottle with the future mead cloth, but it is better to make a gas outlet. To do this, a lid is put on the bottle or jar - it must be very tight, the container must be airtight. A hole is made in the lid, a thin hose is inserted into it, one end of it should be above the surface of the mead, and the other in a cup of water. Often a thick rubber glove is used instead of a cap, but watch how well it fits on the neck.

To determine whether the honey has fermented, you need to light a match and bring it to the liquid. If the fire does not flare up more strongly, then alcohol vapors from the mead are not coming and the fermentation is complete.

Mead fortress

Usually 5-6 degrees. Sometimes you can bring honey to a strength of 10 degrees. But don't let a small number of degrees relax you. Mead is an insidious drink. It is instantly absorbed into the bloodstream. An amazing effect is often observed, the head is completely sober and clear, and the legs are braided. But the drunken effect of the mead doesn't last very long. Unless, of course, you don't drink it in liters throughout the evening.

Attention! The heated honey must not come into contact with an open fire - it is highly flammable!

Intoxicated honey

• 2 l of water
• 300 g honey
• 5 g hop cones (available at the pharmacy)
• 1 tsp yeast
• Nutmeg and a pinch of cinnamon

Step 1. Boil water in an enamel saucepan.

Step 2... Pour honey gently, stirring constantly. Wait 5 minutes and remove the foam.

Step 3... Add hops, nutmeg and cinnamon. Remove from heat and cover.

Step 4... Cool the liquid to 50 C. Then put yeast in a saucepan.

Step 5. Put in a warm place. After a couple of days, pour into a glass jar with an air outlet, as described above. Wait until the end of fermentation.

Step 6. Pour the drink into clean plastic or glass bottles. Store in a cool place.

Cherry honey (old recipe)

• Mead for "Robin Hood" (recipe 2)
• Yeast free
• 2 kg of honey
• 1 liter of water
• 4-5 kg ​​cherries

Step 1... Put honey in an enamel pan, add water and boil the syrup, stirring occasionally and skimming off the foam.

Step 2. Pour cherries, clean and pitted, into a large glass dish with a narrow neck (a 10 liter bottle is suitable).

Step 3... Cool the syrup and pour over the cherries.

Step 4. Cover the dishes with a damp cloth, which must be periodically moistened, leave the bottle in a warm place for three days to ferment.

Step 5. When the honey ferments, take it to a cool place and close the neck with a tightly rolled canvas or towel. Wait three months.

Spicy mead

• 750 g honey
• 3 l of water
• 10 g dry yeast
• 1 egg white
• 2 pcs. carnation
• 1 pinch ground ginger
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 pinch of cinnamon

Step 1... Gently mix honey and protein until smooth. Cover with water and put on fire.

Step 2... Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Step 3... Add spices. Cook for another 50 minutes. Do not close with a lid. The mead should become transparent and boil down twice.

Step 4. Remove from heat, let cool, strain through a sieve and cheesecloth. Pour into a 3 liter jar and add yeast. Stir them well and cover with gauze.

Step 5. Put the jar in a warm place. After a day, close the lid and put it in a cool room for six months.

Step 6. Then bottle and refrigerate.

Cranberry honey (soft drink)

• 1 kg of cranberries
• 2 liters of water
• 300 g honey

Step 1. Sort the cranberries, rinse and dry. Mash and squeeze the juice.

Step 2. Put the juice in the refrigerator, and pour the cake with water and boil for 10 minutes.

Step 3. Pour cranberry juice into the broth, stirring occasionally.

Step 4... Add honey (the ratio should be 1: 10, that is, 100 g of honey per liter of liquid).

Step 5. You can drink cranberry honey right away, or you can let it sit for a week. This will improve the taste of the drink.

http://www.aif.ru/food/products/recepty_medovara_kak_prigotovit_medovuhu_v_domashnih_usloviyah

How to Make Strong Mead: Yeast Recipe

The quality of mead largely depends on the honey used in the preparation of the drink - a key ingredient that mainly affects the taste, aroma, and color of the honey drink.

Homemade mead recipe, I think, is very different from that produced in special wineries for the better.

The advantage of homemade mead, like many similar recipes, is that they are prepared from natural raw materials.

Ingredients for a yeast-free mead recipe

• honey - 750 g;
• yeast - 10 g;
• egg white - 1 pc .;
• cloves - 2 pcs.;
• ground ginger;
• nutmeg;
• cinnamon.

An old homemade mead recipe

1. Mix honey with protein and fill with 3 liters of water. We put on low heat and cook for 10 minutes without a lid.
2. Add a pinch of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg, cloves. Cook for another 50 minutes, also without a lid. The mixture should become transparent and boil down to a quarter of the original volume.
3. Remove the finished mixture from heat, cool and filter through a sieve.
4. Pour the future mead into a three-liter jar, add yeast, stir and cover with a clean napkin.
5. We put it in a warm place for a day for fermentation.
6. At the end of the day, close the jar tightly and put it in a cold place for six months.

When the mead is ready, you can bottle it and store it like homemade wine in the refrigerator or cellar.

Friends, write your mead recipes in the comments, our readers and the entire team of the Miracle Chef culinary site will be interested to learn new ways of making this popular drink!

http://chudo-povar.com/medovuxa.html

HONEY AT HOME

Making mead at home is as easy as shelling pears. And today we will tackle the simplest mead recipe with just 4 ingredients.

To make mead at home, prepare the foods on the list.

Mix water and honey in an enamel or stainless bowl, add hops and bring to a boil. Simmer the mixture over low heat for 2 hours. If the water boils away strongly, add it to the original volume.

Let the liquid cool to 40 degrees. Then strain it from the hops into a glass container, such as a jar or large bottle, and add the yeast. Close the neck with any elastic cap or rubber glove and let ferment at room temperature for 2.5-3 weeks.

After two weeks, the drink will already be quite intoxicated. In principle, you can already drink it, but in order for the taste to become more noble, it needs to "ripen". Strain the mead again into a clean bottle, close it with a regular stopper and put it in a cool place for at least another 3 weeks, or better for a month. Both a cellar and a refrigerator are suitable for "ripening".

Our homemade mead is ready! The strength of the resulting drink is 8-12%, and it tastes like dry white wine. Very tasty!

https: //www.iamcook.

Alcoholic drinks based on honey have been known for a long time and were found among most of the most ancient peoples of Europe - among the ancient Slavs, Scandinavians, Germans, Greeks, Lithuanians, Picts, Welsh and others.

In the first half of the 16th century, honey drinks began to be replaced by vodka; in subsequent centuries, their recipes, which were transmitted mainly orally, were also lost. In addition to the appearance of cheaper alcoholic beverages, a large role in the reduction of honey brewing was played by the duration of preparation of the drink, calculated for years, as well as huge losses of raw materials - up to 50% of the bookmark. Moreover, for the correct preparation of honey, large-sized bookmarks were needed, of the order of hundreds of kilograms.

Appearing later, in the 17th-18th centuries, "honey", "honey" and "mead" that have survived to this day, are prepared according to different recipes and have little in common with classic mead drinks. Now the recipes for making honey drinks have been restored.

How did you drink mead in Russia?

The very first mead in Russia was obtained by fermenting honey in barrels with berry juice. The recipe for this drink was discovered in the well-known "Domostroy" (880). The preparation process was quite complicated and also time-consuming. The fact is that initially mead was made without adding yeast, so the process was very slow. Fresh honey was mixed with sour berries and left to ferment.

For mead, honey was fermented for 15-20 years. Sometimes fermentation took up to half a century.

This honey was called " put"As it stood for a long time. For this, honey was closed in barrels, sometimes they were even buried in the ground. This was the recipe for making traditional mead. Since the process was very complicated and also costly, only representatives of the wealthy estates, princes or warriors could afford such a drink. Barrels of mead were given to young people for weddings, it was considered a very valuable gift. Such a drink made it possible to have fun at the wedding for a long time and not get very drunk. The strength of the mead was 8% -12%, and its taste was very delicate and sweet.

In order to simplify production, a technology for producing hop and boiled honey was invented. "Intoxicating honey" appeared 50 years later than the one set. In addition to adding juice, hops and spices were added to such a product so that the drink had a greater strength, as well as a pleasant taste. Intoxicated honey was prepared for a total of 3 years; it could stand for 5-8 years. Such a drink came to Russia from Scandinavia, here honey drinks were in high esteem since the days of paganism. It was believed that honey was sent to people by gods, it was food for warriors and poets. The drink had a slightly tart taste with a slight bitterness, but still tasted much better than beer.

The next stage in the preparation of mead was the production of the so-called " boiled honey". The first mentions of him date back to the annals of 996. The production of this drink was no longer so difficult, any family could afford it. First, honey was dissolved in enough water to release sugar, then fermentation began. Honey was left to ferment for 3-7 days, then poured into containers and kept in a dark place for a week or a month. This method made it possible to significantly reduce the amount of waste in the beverage production process. The drink made from boiled honey tastes a bit like beer. It took only a few weeks to prepare it.

Over time, new principles of making honey drinks appeared, which were soon replaced by vodka and wine. The revival of these recipes began in the 19th century, by which time many traditions had been forgotten. For example, a very honorable dish in Russia was “ to feed"- a sweet drink served at the end of the meal. It was from this time that the phrase "eat your fill" came into being, that is, eat everything, leaving room only for "satiety."

Honey has always been held in high esteem in Russia. It was considered a sacred product, at one time it was even used instead of wine for the sacrament. Before the meal, they used the so-called "sbiten", which is produced by boiling honey in water with the addition of juice and spices. Also existed digest- a mixture of beer and honey. Digestion was considered the lowest quality product that even the poorest people could afford.

In Mordovia, the so-called “ pure”, It was a drink whose production methods resembled the production of wine and beer. The main ingredient in pure was honey. Honey has also been added to fruit and berry wines. In Ethiopia, honey drinks were called “ tag". This is a homemade drink. Its strength is 15% -30%. It has a sweet and spicy taste.

In the 19th century, new recipes for the preparation of honey drinks were invented. They were diluted with water, and also mixed with vodka or alcohol, beer. It was in the 19th century that the drink began to be called "mead", and before that it was called "drinking honey". The next stage in the development of mead was the arrival of the USSR. Mead was now understood as a drink of industrial production, only vaguely reminiscent of a primordially Russian product.

Useful properties of mead

And of course, the health benefits of mead cannot be ignored. Here it is enough to take into account only one vitamin and mineral composition of honey. Vitamins of groups B, A, E, K, C, many metals necessary for various processes in the body - they are all contained in mead, although in lower concentrations than in honey.

However, during sterilization of honey and any heat treatment, some of its vitamins are destroyed, therefore, the put mead is considered the most useful and retains all the properties of its main component. The same additives as hops and various spices also add certain beneficial properties to the mead composition.

The only drawback of mead is alcohol. In terms of strength, it is not inferior to wine, and therefore, like other medium-alcoholic drinks, it has a certain negative effect on the nervous system and liver. But with careful use and compliance with the measure, these negative consequences should not appear.

Mead has the following beneficial properties:

• febrifuge
• warms and disinfects the nasopharynx with tonsillitis and tonsillitis
• an excellent hangover cure, as it increases urinary and sweating, which in turn cleanses the body
• enhances ventilation of the lungs, which is good for bronchitis, tracheitis, pneumonia and other diseases of the respiratory tract
• is a good remedy for the prevention of impotence, and non-alcoholic mead is useful for pregnant women (of course, in reasonable quantities)

Harm of mead and contraindications

The drink can harm the body with individual intolerance, as well as with excessive use. It is not recommended to use mead for people suffering from allergic reactions to honey.

Types of mead

There are the following types of this drink:

• Put mead is a traditional drink made according to old recipes.
• Nourishing or boiled mead - it is made by fermenting honey, which is additionally boiled.
• Hop mead is an alcoholic drink based on mead with the addition of hops.
• Counterfeit mead is an alcoholic drink with the addition of spices.

Depending on the fortress, there are:

• non-alcoholic mead;
• regular mead;
• strong mead.

Depending on the specifics of production, mead is distinguished with the addition of ethyl alcohol or without it. Also, honey may or may not be added after preparation of the drink.

Modern homemade mead

Ingredients:

• honey - 300 grams;
• water - 2 liters;
• dry yeast - 1 teaspoon (or 25 grams of pressed);
• hop cones - 5 grams;
• cinnamon and nutmeg - 1 pinch

All ingredients are available, only hop cones can be difficult. They are sold in almost every pharmacy, so this is not a problem either. Any yeast can be taken, for example, for baking bread.

Mead preparation technology

1. Choosing honey. One of the most important stages, on which the quality of the finished drink largely depends. Try to pick the most fragrant varieties. Buckwheat honey is great, but you can use another, such as lime honey.

In the spring, many beekeepers offer fresh liquid honey, but if you are not well versed in beekeeping, it is better to refuse to buy. There is a risk that, instead of a natural product, businessmen will sell a sugar substitute or the honey itself will be of poor quality. Such raw materials will never make delicious homemade mead.

1. Dissolving honey in water. Pour water into an enamel pot and bring to a boil. Add honey to boiling water, stirring constantly with a spoon. After 4-5 minutes of boiling the honey mixture, a white foam will begin to appear on the surface, which must be carefully collected with a spoon.

Attention! Honey burns very quickly and can ignite, so the pan should not be left unattended for a minute.

1. Adding flavorings. After the foam has been removed, add other ingredients to the mixture: cinnamon, nutmeg and hops, which will give the drink original flavor notes. After stirring thoroughly, remove the pan from heat.
2. Preparing for fermentation. Cool the mixture to 25-30 ° C (very important) and add the diluted yeast. If you do this at a higher temperature, the yeast will die and fermentation will not start.

Transfer the pot with the honey solution to a dark place with a temperature of about 25 ° C. If there is no separate room, you can use an aquarium heater. To avoid the ingress of foreign substances and insects into the wort (in summer flies especially get out), I recommend tying the pan with gauze.

After 1-2 days, signs of fermentation will appear: foam will begin to form on the surface of the mixture, a hissing will be heard. Pour the contents of the saucepan into a fermentation container by placing a medical glove with a hole in the finger or a water seal on the neck.

1. Fermentation. Typically, mead fermentation lasts 4-6 days. The end of the process is evidenced by a deflated glove or a prolonged absence of bubbles coming out through the water seal. Another method of checking is to bring a burning match to the surface of the liquid, which should not go out. There is nothing to be afraid of, the strength of the drink is only 5-10 degrees, it will not catch fire.
2. Filtration and spillage. The final stage of preparation. Carefully pour the mead into another container, leaving a sediment at the bottom, then strain through several layers of cheesecloth.

Pour the finished drink into bottles (glass or plastic), seal tightly and transfer to the refrigerator or basement. I am not a supporter of storing alcohol in a plastic container, but in this case it is harmless. The strength of the mead is low, so the alcohol will not interact with the plastic. Beer is sold in such bottles. Mead can be drunk almost immediately after preparation, but I recommend insisting 3-5 days and only after that taste it.

How to make mead sparkling?

1. Wash bottles (plastic or glass) well and wipe dry.
2. Add honey to the bottom of each container (one and a half teaspoons per 1 liter of drink). Thanks to honey, a slight secondary fermentation will appear, which will saturate the mead with natural carbon dioxide.
3. Pour the drink into bottles, leaving 5-6 cm of free space from the neck. Seal hermetically with plugs or lids.
4. Transfer containers for 7-10 days to a dark room with room temperature. Check the gas pressure once a day, bleed off excess pressure if necessary.
5. Place the soda honey in a cool place for at least 5 days to ripen.

Mead without yeast and boiling

An old recipe by which our ancestors made mead. They dispensed with yeast and diluted honey in cold water. I warn you that using this technology, preparation will take 3-4 months, besides, the strength of the drink will be much lower - 2-4 degrees.

The most difficult thing in this recipe is to find an adequate substitute for yeast, since honey alone will not ferment with water. There are two options: using cherries (raspberries, strawberries) or raisins as a catalyst. The historically correct choice would be cherries, but the safer raisins. Let's consider both cases.

Cooking technology

1. Dissolve honey in cold water. The amount of ingredients depends on the selected fermentation catalyst. In the case of raisins, the following are used: 1 liter of water, 80 grams of honey and 50 grams of raisins.

If it is decided to support fermentation with cherries (raspberries, strawberries), then to make mead you will need: 1 liter of water, 4 kg of cherry berries and 2 kg of honey. First, remove the seeds from the cherries, then pour in the honey solution.

Attention! The raisins and cherries must not be washed before adding to the mead, otherwise the wild yeast responsible for fermentation can be accidentally washed off, and it will be difficult to predict the subsequent result.

1. Tie the neck with gauze, then put the container in a warm place. Fermentation will start in 1-2 days. Since we have done without yeast (dry and baking), it takes more time than in the first case.
2. When signs of fermentation appear (see point 4 of the first recipe), filter the liquid through several layers of gauze, pour into another container and close tightly. This method is used to prepare the so-called "put mead", which does not require a glove or a water seal.
3. It remains to put the bottles in the refrigerator or cellar for maturation. After 3-4 months, you can try the finished drink. It will turn out to be carbonated with a slight sourness, alcohol is almost not felt, more like kvass.

P.S. Many people call the "right mead" recipe without yeast and boiling. But this does not mean that the first option is not as tasty or healthy. I advise you to prepare mead using two methods, try each option, and only then draw conclusions.

How to drink mead properly?

It would probably be completely wrong to strictly follow these rules today. Much time has passed, living conditions have changed, traditions have been partially lost. And, of course, modern drinking culture is fundamentally different from the old rules. But still, even today you can drink mead in such a way as to get the maximum benefit and pleasure from its use and not harm your health.

• Following ancient customs, you need to drink mead on an empty stomach. In this case, a low-alcohol drink acts as an aperitif (a drink with a low alcohol content, which is served before meals in order to induce appetite), stimulating digestion and improving metabolism.
• The drink should be served chilled, especially in summer and in hot weather (and the bottles should be opened with care, without shaking the contents).
• In winter, it is allowed to heat the mead (you should not bring the drink to a boil).
• To fully taste the taste of mead, you must drink it slowly, in small sips from small glasses.

Can you get drunk with mead? If you follow the manufacturing traditions, this drink always turns out to be low-alcoholic. And you can drink a lot of it (of course, within reasonable limits) and still feel normal, even the next morning.

There is even an opinion that drinking a glass of fortified and strongly chilled mead with lemon can get rid of a hangover. The method is very controversial. Doctors categorically do not recommend a hangover with any alcoholic beverages.

It is necessary to take into account the individual susceptibility to alcoholic beverages and the fact that modern mead brewers can prepare a fairly strong mead. And the consequences of its use can be completely different.

How and what to eat mead with?

Let's turn to history again and see what our ancestors drank mead with.

Classic snacks were pickled lingonberries, cloudberries, cranberries, pickled apples, salted watermelon. Pickled vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage with berries, mountain ash, turnips and rutabagas, onions) are the second most popular appetizer.

Sweet snacks like fresh apples and currants (black and red) complemented the sweet and sour taste of the honey drink perfectly. Also as a snack there were rye and oatmeal jelly, gingerbread and meat pie.

Now, as before, it is customary to serve mead before the main feast with a plentiful meal, with a lot of light snacks (savory and sweet) or fruits. A wide variety of products are used.

Pickled fruits and berries on the table are rare today. Pickled and pickled vegetables, all kinds of pickles are much more popular. Salted, jerky or smoked meat, sweet pastries with cottage cheese and raisins, cheesecakes and fresh fruit are often served along with mead.

Experts do not recommend eating mead with fish and seafood. It is believed that these products are not at all compatible with the drink and can spoil the taste experience. There is an opinion that there is no need to eat mead at all. It is based on the fact that this drink is tasty in itself and does not require any flavor enhancers by other products.

How and with what to drink mead, to have a snack or not - the decision is made individually. Now they drink it in different ways: before meals, and after, and during, sometimes snacking on what was found in the refrigerator.

The main thing here is not to harm yourself and your health. And this can happen if you abuse the drink and do not take into account the possibility of an allergic reaction in those who suffer from intolerance to honey or other product that is part of the drink.

Alcoholic drinks from honey began to be prepared several millennia ago, simultaneously with the advent of beekeeping. Over time, the production technology has undergone changes, but the unforgettable taste and intoxicating shade have remained the same. Next, I will tell you how to make mead at home. We will look at a modern version and a classic recipe without yeast and boiling, which was used in the past.

Mead Is a low-alcohol (5-10%) alcoholic beverage obtained by fermenting honey. Depending on the recipe, in addition to water, yeast, hops, flavors and other ingredients can also be added to the composition.

There is a strong mead, but it is not made by fermentation, but by adding the right amount of alcohol (vodka) to the finished product. This method allows you to achieve a predetermined strength of the drink up to 75 degrees.

In Russia, "drinking honey" was considered sacred and was an integral attribute of many holidays, but in the Middle Ages this wonderful drink was forgotten. The rebirth of mead fell on the first years of Soviet power, when beekeepers received a lot of honey that was not suitable for long-term storage and sale. For the sake of fast processing, beekeepers made mead with the addition of baker's yeast.

The new low-alcohol drink took root, it was prepared at home, using not only spoiled, but also very high-quality mature honey diluted with water. A few decades later, the industrial production of mead began. In this regard, the city of Suzdal, Vladimir region, became famous, where production has survived to this day.

Modern homemade mead

Ingredients:

• honey - 300 grams;
• water - 2 liters;
• dry yeast - 1 teaspoon (or 25 grams of pressed);
• hop cones - 5 grams;
• cinnamon and nutmeg - 1 pinch

All ingredients are available, only hop cones can be difficult. They are sold in almost every pharmacy, so this is not a problem either. Any yeast can be taken, for example, for baking bread.

Mead preparation technology

1. Choosing honey. One of the most important stages, on which the quality of the finished drink largely depends. Try to pick the most fragrant varieties. Buckwheat honey is great, but you can use another, such as lime honey.

In the spring, many beekeepers offer fresh liquid honey, but if you are not well versed in beekeeping, it is better to refuse to buy. There is a risk that, instead of a natural product, businessmen will sell a sugar substitute or the honey itself will be of poor quality. Such raw materials will never make delicious homemade mead.

2. Dissolving honey in water. Pour water into an enamel pot and bring to a boil. Add honey to boiling water, stirring constantly with a spoon. After 4-5 minutes of boiling the honey mixture, a white foam will begin to appear on the surface, which must be carefully collected with a spoon.

Attention! Honey burns very quickly and can ignite, so the pan should not be left unattended for a minute.

3. Adding flavorings. After the foam has been removed, add other ingredients to the mixture: cinnamon, nutmeg and hops, which will give the drink original flavor notes. After stirring thoroughly, remove the pan from heat.

4. Preparation for fermentation. Cool the mixture to 25-30 ° C (very important) and add the diluted yeast. If you do this at a higher temperature, the yeast will die and fermentation will not start.

Transfer the pot with the honey solution to a dark place with a temperature of about 25 ° C. If there is no separate room, you can use an aquarium heater. To avoid the ingress of foreign substances and insects into the wort (in summer flies especially get out), I recommend tying the pan with gauze.

After 1-2 days, signs of fermentation will appear: foam will begin to form on the surface of the mixture, a hissing will be heard. Pour the contents of the saucepan into a fermentation container by placing a medical glove with a hole in the finger or a water seal on the neck. The designs of these devices are shown in the photo.

5. Fermentation. Typically, mead fermentation lasts 4-6 days. The end of the process is evidenced by a deflated glove or a prolonged absence of bubbles coming out through the water seal. Another method of checking is to bring a burning match to the surface of the liquid, which should not go out. There is nothing to be afraid of, the strength of the drink is only 5-10 degrees, it will not catch fire.

6. Filtration and filling. The final stage of preparation. Carefully pour the mead into another container, leaving a sediment at the bottom, then strain through several layers of cheesecloth.

Pour the finished drink into bottles (glass or plastic), seal tightly and transfer to the refrigerator or basement. I am not a supporter of storing alcohol in a plastic container, but in this case it is harmless. The strength of the mead is low, so the alcohol will not interact with the plastic. Beer is sold in such bottles. Mead can be drunk almost immediately after preparation, but I recommend insisting 3-5 days and only after that taste it.

How to make mead sparkling

1. Wash bottles (plastic or glass) well and wipe dry.

2. Add honey to the bottom of each container (one and a half teaspoons per 1 liter of drink). Thanks to honey, a slight secondary fermentation will appear, which will saturate the mead with natural carbon dioxide.

3. Pour the drink into bottles, leaving 5-6 cm of free space from the neck. Seal hermetically with plugs or lids.

4. Transfer containers for 7-10 days to a dark room with room temperature. Check the gas pressure once a day, bleed off excess pressure if necessary.

5. Place the soda honey in a cool place for at least 5 days to ripen.

Mead without yeast and boiling

An old recipe by which our ancestors made mead. They dispensed with yeast and diluted honey in cold water. I warn you that using this technology, preparation will take 3-4 months, besides, the strength of the drink will be much lower - 2-4 degrees.

The most difficult thing in this recipe is to find an adequate substitute for yeast, since honey alone will not ferment with water. There are two options: using cherries (raspberries, strawberries) or raisins as a catalyst. The historically correct choice would be cherries, but the safer raisins. Let's consider both cases.

Cooking technology

1. Dissolve honey in cold water. The amount of ingredients depends on the selected fermentation catalyst. In the case of raisins, the following are used: 1 liter of water, 80 grams of honey and 50 grams of raisins.

If it is decided to support fermentation with cherries (raspberries, strawberries), then to make mead you will need: 1 liter of water, 4 kg of cherry berries and 2 kg of honey. First, remove the seeds from the cherries, then pour in the honey solution.

Attention! The raisins and cherries must not be washed before adding to the mead, otherwise the wild yeast responsible for fermentation can be accidentally washed off, and it will be difficult to predict the subsequent result.

2. Tie the neck with gauze, then put the container in a warm place. Fermentation will start in 1-2 days. Since we have done without yeast (dry and baking), it takes more time than in the first case.

3. When signs of fermentation appear (see point 4 of the first recipe), filter the liquid through several layers of gauze, pour into another container and close tightly. This method is used to prepare the so-called "put mead", which does not require a glove or a water seal.

4. It remains to put the bottles in the refrigerator or cellar for maturation. After 3-4 months, you can try the finished drink. It will turn out to be carbonated with a slight sourness, alcohol is almost not felt, more like kvass.

P.S. Many people call the "right mead" recipe without yeast and boiling. But this does not mean that the first option is not as tasty or healthy. I advise you to prepare mead using two methods, try each option, and only then draw conclusions.

The video shows a simple honey beer recipe.