Hops honey has been prepared in Russia since ancient times. It was served at feasts and festivals, but the process of its preparation was very long, so the old recipe was replaced by a more simplified version of a low-alcoholic drink on honey. The recipe for making mead at home is simple and exists in several interesting variations.

Classic mead - a home-made recipe

For a classic boiled hop honey, you need to take:

  • 2000 ml of water;
  • 300 g of honey;
  • 5 g of hop cones;
  • 7 g of dry yeast;
  • 3 g of cinnamon;
  • 3 g nutmeg.

Recipe step by step:

  1. Boil water in an enameled container, introduce honey into it and boil for 5 minutes. Collect foam from the surface, add spices, remove from heat and cover.
  2. When the honey cools down to 30 - 40 degrees, dilute the yeast in it and put in a warm place for a couple of days. Then pour into a container with a water seal and hold until the end of the fermentation process (the foam on the surface should disappear).
  3. Filter the drink, bottle it and stand it for two to three months in a cool dark place before use.

How to make a Suzdal mead

Suzdal and Vladimir are Russian cities that have long been famous for honeymaking. And now the mead is a gastronomic symbol of Suzdal. There it is manufactured on an industrial scale, including for export (Japan). And you can taste various types of this drink in the Tasting room.

Classic Suzdal mead prepared using the following ingredients:

  • 4000 ml of spring water;
  • 500 g of honey;
  • 500 g of sugar;
  • 100 g of yeast.

Production technology:

  1. Dilute half of the prescription amount of honey with sugar with water and boil this syrup over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, collecting foam from the surface.
  2. Cool boiled honey to 30 degrees, dilute the yeast in it and leave for fermentation for three days.
  3. After that, carefully filter the drink, pour it on the prepared container and keep it in a cool place for a month.
  4. Filter again, add honey and return to cool for four days. Mead is ready.

The other two popular types of Suzdal mead are Cossack and Pyatialtynnaya. They are prepared according to the same recipe, only in the first case juniper and pepper are added to honey. And for the Five Almine Mead, sugar is replaced with malt and the fermentation time of the drink is reduced.

Preparing a soft drink

Not everyone, for one reason or another, can consume alcohol, but this is not a reason to refuse a delicious honey drink that has retained the benefit of its components.

The non-alcoholic mead is prepared from the following products:

  • 2500 g of cherry berries;
  • 2000 g of flower honey;
  • 1000 ml of drinking water.

Working process:

  1. Boil the honey diluted with water and boil for a quarter of an hour, without forgetting, remove the foam that appears on the surface of the liquid. Then cool the honey syrup to room temperature.
  2. Wash and remove the seeds from the cherry berries, put them in an enameled pan and pour the cooled honey broth. Cover the container with a towel and leave at room temperature for 2 to 3 days. During this time, the fermentation process will not have time to be sufficiently activated, so there will be no alcohol in the finished drink.
  3. After aging, strain the drink, pour into a clean glass container and put away for at least three months in the cellar or refrigerator.

Delivered Honey - An Old-Time Mead Recipe

Delivered honey is the oldest hoppy honey drink, the exposure time of which ranged from 15 to 40 years. Mead prepared in the same way, but aged 5-8 years, was called "young", "raw" or "bad." A drink was prepared from two parts of honey and one part of berry (raspberry, lingonberry, cherry) juice, without a drop of water.

In fact, the process of preparing the set honey was similar to the preparation of quality wine, and it will be very difficult to repeat it at home.

But you can cook honey according to a recipe close to ancient technology, taking:

  • 600 ml of water;
  • 1000 g of honey;
  • 3000 g of cherry berries.

Cooking:

  1. Boil honey with water to a concentrated syrup without lumps.
  2. Remove the seeds from the cherry berries and fill them with honey solution.
  3. The resulting mass should be in a container with a wide throat (pot or basin), which should be covered with gauze on top and left so warm until the fermentation stops.
  4. When the foam on the surface almost completely disappears (after 10 - 15 days), carefully filter the liquid, pour into barrels or bottles, seal and keep in the basement for three to five months, periodically turning over. The longer the exposure, the tastier the mead.

How to make a carbonated mead

To make the drink carbonated, you need to start the secondary fermentation process of the finished mead to saturate it with natural carbon dioxide.

For such a hop honey you will need:

  • 2000 ml of water;
  • 300 g of bee honey;
  • 5 g of dry yeast.

For secondary fermentation, you also need to take 15 - 20 g of honey per 1 liter of the finished drink.

Cooking:

  1. Into boiling water, add honey and cook for a quarter of an hour, be sure to mix and remove the foam. Then cool and introduce yeast into a warm base. So that the mead does not have a taste of mash, yeast for the drink should be taken brewing, wine or dry. But, of course, not for baking, but for making drinks.
  2. Having installed a water lock on the container with the mead, leave the drink to ferment in heat for 7 days. After that, filter it through several layers of medical gauze.
  3. Pour the finished drink into bottles, without adding 5-6 cm to the neck. Add honey, close tightly with lids and put in a dark place at a temperature of 20 degrees for a week and a half.
  4. During one and a half weeks of ripening, you need to check the gas pressure in the bottles daily and bleed off its excess. Keep the finished drink in the refrigerator.

Recipe without yeast and boiling

Yeast is not required for this mead recipe - raisins act as an activator of the fermentation process. Also, the cooking technology does not involve boiling honey, which helps to maximize its benefit in the finished drink.

The proportions of the components of the drink will be as follows:

  • 1000 ml of boiled water;
  • 50 g of honey;
  • 50 g of raisins.

How to cook:

  1. First, honey should be dissolved in water. Next, raisins are put in the resulting sweet liquid. Before laying it should be rinsed, but in no case washed with hot water, so as not to destroy the microorganisms responsible for fermentation.
  2. Having covered the neck of the container with honey water with gauze folded several times, leave it in a warm place for two days before the fermentation process begins. If there is insufficient heat, then more time may be needed.
  3. After that, filter the mead through 3-4 layers of gauze. Seal the container with the drink tightly and put it in a cool place (refrigerator or cellar) for three to four months.

Cranberry Drink

From fresh or frozen cranberry berries, you can prepare a delicious mead by taking:

  • 3500 ml of water;
  • 1000 g cranberries;
  • 1000 g of light honey;
  • 60 g of pressed yeast.

Mead cooking:

  1. Crush the cranberry berries into the pulp using a potato masher or kill with a blender. Then the resulting mass is filtered through a fine mesh sieve or gauze.
  2. Set the cranberry juice aside for a while, and combine the cake with water and boil for 5-7 minutes. Then let the resulting liquid infuse for about half an hour and filter.
  3. Add honey to the cranberry broth and cook for two to three minutes, always removing foam to make the drink transparent.
  4. Remove the honey-cranberry broth from the fire, cool to room temperature, dissolve the yeast in it and pour in the cranberry juice obtained earlier.
  5. Allow the drink to stand for two days under natural conditions, then bottle it, filling it in ¾. Soak the drink in a cool place for 14 days and the cranberry mead is ready.

Homemade spicy

The combination of spices (such as ginger and cinnamon) with honey is widely used not only in the confectionery business (pastries from honey-ginger dough). It also allows, for example, to get drunk honey with a rich taste and aroma.

Prepare a spiced mead from:

  • 20 l of soft drinking water;
  • 3 liters of honey;
  • 200 g of pressed fresh yeast;
  • 50 g of hop cones (available at the pharmacy);
  • 3 sticks of cinnamon;
  • 5 buds of cloves;
  • 2 peas of black pepper;
  • 10 g of ginger root.

Working process:

  1. Dissolve honey in water and cook this mixture over low heat until it halves in volume. On average, the boiling process will take about two hours. It is important to mix the contents of the pan from time to time and remove foam from the surface.
  2. After that, put hot honey broth for evaporation in the oven, the temperature of which should be at the level of 100 degrees. After a quarter of an hour or a little more, mead should be cooled to 40 degrees, add hops, yeast and spices to it.
  3. Fermentation should take place at room temperature for about a week. Then it is filtered, bottled in dark glass and kept for up to six months.

In ancient times, drunk honey was kept in special wooden barrels, now glass containers have replaced this container. If among the kitchen utensils there were no bottles of dark glass, you can take bottles from champagne - they will fit perfectly.

Strong homemade mead

Hops honey is prepared according to this recipe very quickly. It has a honey aroma and a sweetish flavor, but the strength of the drink is not much inferior to vodka, so you need to use it carefully to prevent alcohol intoxication.

The proportions of the ingredients for a strong homemade mead will be as follows:

  • 2000 ml of water;
  • 400 g of honey;
  • 400 ml of high-quality vodka or medical alcohol diluted to a fortress of 50 degrees;
  • seasonings and spices (nutmeg, cardamom, etc.) to taste.

How to make a mead:

  1. Prepare the base of mead. To do this, boil honey diluted with water and boil the solution for five minutes, removing the resulting foam. At the same stage, you can add spices.
  2. Next, cool the honey broth, filter to get rid of seasonings, and dilute with vodka or alcohol. By increasing or decreasing the amount of this ingredient, you can adjust the degree of strength of the finished product.

How many degrees in a drink

Since mead is “drunk” honey, it contains a certain amount of alcohol.

The degree level in the drink will depend on:

  • the temperature at which he insisted;
  • exposure time;
  • and, of course, recipes (products included in its composition).

Usually mead is a low alcohol drink with an alcohol content of 5 to 16 degrees, but there is also a strong mead with the addition of vodka or alcohol. The strength of such a drink can reach up to 40 degrees. You can also find a non-alcoholic, slightly carbonated drink, more like honey kvass with an alcohol content of no more than 2%.

Home mead is not a couple of store products. A drink prepared independently, tasty, natural, without dangerous preservatives and dyes. Nevertheless, caution should be exercised with its use - the degree hidden behind the soft sweetness of honey is insidious and quite capable of knocking down.

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