Well, technically speaking it’s her husband Norman’s mead recipe, but since Milla first gave us a bottle to try, that’s what it’s known as in our house.
Mead is an alcoholic drink created by fermenting honey with water. You can also add various fruits, spices, hops or grains.
The quantities below make a gallon – should be plenty for quaffing, which as every Terry Pratchett devotee will tell you, “is like drinking, but you spill more”.
Milla’s mead
Home-made mead – what’s not to like?
Ingredients
- 4-5 lbs 1.8-2.2kg of clear honey (not set)
- 1 gallon 4l of spring water
- Zest & juice of one large orange
- 24 raisins
- Wine yeast
- Yeast nutrient
- You will also need:
- Two 1 gallon (4l) demijohns (plastic ones are fine)
- plastic tube for siphoning
- airlock bung and sterilising agent (Milton baby sterilising solution is good)
- large pan approx 1 gallon
- Some Campden tablets to stop fermentation when racking
- Spoon and funnel
- Patience!
Instructions
- Sterilise all your equipment and workspace.
- Mix a teaspoon of yeast and another of yeast nutrient in 250ml of warm water and leave to activate.
- Heat about 4 pints of the spring water to just below boiling then add all your honey, stir until it is all dissolved, cover and leave to cool to room temperature.
- Gently smoosh (technical home-brewing term!) the raisins between a couple of spoons to break them up a bit, they don’t need to be completely crushed.
- Pour the honey water into the demijohn and add the raisins, zest and orange juice.
- Cover the top of your demijohn and shake the hell out of it, the aim is to get as much air into the mixture as possible.
- Add your 250ml of activated yeast to the mix and swirl it around gently.
- Top up with remaining spring water to about 2 inches from the top of the demijohn and place bung and airlock firmly in place.
- Place in a warm dark place (16-20 ‘C) a corner of an airing cupboard is ideal.
- Now, be patient. After a few days you’ll see a foam forming on the top of the mead and your airlock will start bubbling away, this is good it means the yeast is happy and starting to turn the natural sugars into alcohol.
- After about 2 months the cloudy mead should start to clear naturally and the airlock will be bubbling slower, you’ll also see a layer of sediment (the leas) collecting in the bottom of the demijohn.
- After about 3 months the fermentation will have mostly finished. At this point sterilise your second demijohn, dissolve a Campden tablet in 250ml of warm water and add to the empty demijohn.
- Carefully siphon the mead from your first demijohn into the second taking care to disturb the leas at the bottom as little as possible, swirl gently to mix in the Campden tablet solution, firmly place the bung and airlock into the demijohn and place back in the warm dark place.
- After another week or so any remaining fermentation will have finished and you can transfer it to a final sterilised container, say, a container with a tap or some flip-top beer bottles (Grolsch type).
- Drinkable straight away, but, the longer you leave it the better it gets.
- Variations: the raisins, zest and orange juice are providing essential elements for the yeast to work with (honey alone is a sterilising agent and will kill the yeast). I like the slight orange flavour, but, you could substitute other fruits for the raisins and orange, e.g. Rosehips/grapefruit, strawberries/lemon.
Other recipes you may like:
• Dairy-free eggnog
• Easy gluten-free fruit cake
• Cherry & kirsch ice-cream