Maple Mead - Submitted by: Aylwin Wyllowe

Here's the procedure I used to make a 5 gallon batch of Maple Mead. I put this together using information from a variety of resources on mead in general and maple mead in particular. The resulting mead was pretty decent, but more of a starting point than anything. The recipe shows what I actually used, which in some cases isn't what I originally planned since I was too lazy to go to the store to buy more stuff!

Here's what I did:

1) Brew 5 bags black tea, let cool

2) Activate 2 packets Red Star wine yeast in warm water with part of a 2 oz packet of yeast nutrient.

3) Put 10 pounds honey into hot water (190 degrees), stir and keep hot for 20 minutes.

4) Add 3 quarts maple syrup, keep on heat for 10 more minutes.

5) Add 1 cup dark brown sugar, stir to dissolve.

6) Add tea, and juice of 3 lemons, stir, remove from heat and let cool.

7) Add to fermentation bucket, fill with water to 5 gallons, pitch yeast (should be showing signs of life), add remainiing yeast nutrient and aerate. Close, add airlock, let ferment.

About 2-3 months later, I decided it wasn't turning out as sweet or as maple flavored as I intended, so I dissolved 1.5 quarts of maple syrup into 1.5 quarts of water and mixed it in. After that, the mead fermented a little bit more and finally stopped.

I racked it into a clean bucket a couple more times with about a month between to get most of the sediment out and let it clear, and then bottled.

About 6 months to a year after it started fermentation, the flavors had come together reasonably well.