Mead Making

People have been making mead for centuries. Mead is mentioned in Beowulf. Mead ranges from a dinner wine to a dessert wine - it would appear that it has always been sweet. Elizabethans appear to be the first to add spices to their mead.

Mead, unlike other intoxicants, is not a depressive.

My basic mead recipe is:
Put 5 pounds of honey in a container that you can shake and cork (like the square plastic bottles that you can get at wine making stores).
To this add warm water (105 - 115 F). To figure the proper quantity of water, fill up your 5 pound honey container(s) three times. This serves to measure the water and to clean out the jars!
Mix the honey and water well.
In one of the honey containers put about a cup of warm water and 1/2 ounce (2 packages) of bread yeast (and a little bit of sugar if you rinsed out the container too well!) Mix well and let rest to make sure that the yeast has activated. It will bubble, froth and grow when it is activated. Don't leave it alone too long or it will be all over the counter!
Add the yeast to the honey and water. Mix well and be sure to release the pressure often during the mixing.
Cork the container with a bubbler (allows air to vent out, but not other things to get in) that you can get at a winemaking store.
Store away from light and don't let it get cold.
Shake a several times a day for about a week. After that shake once a day for about a week.
At this point you can taste it to see how it is going. You can add a little sugar or water depending on how you want it to taste.
Shake every couple of days for the next 2 weeks. After this you can siphon off the mead from the dregs. I keep my mead in 1 or 2 larger bottles and only put it in the smaller serving bottles shortly before taking them to an event or giving them as gifts. I haven't had any bottles explode.

I have added Cinnamon sticks (don't add ground!) to one batch and whole Cloves (my favorite!) to another. Just strain them off before bottling.