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    Home » Recipes » All Recipes

    Blueberry Mead Recipe

    Published: Aug 24, 2020

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    Homemade Blueberry Mead

    A faceted wine glass full of blueberry mead, with fresh blueberries at the base of the glass.

    Mead - Wine made from honey - is easy to make, delicious, AND makes a great gift. This Homemade Blueberry Mead is a fantastic variation!

    Well, the Minnesota Renaissance Festival has been canceled for this year - FINALLY. It was really looking like they were going to try to recreate some of the less fun aspects of the period.

    What a weird lead in to a post about mead, right?

    The thing is, it was the response to the final cancellation of the event that got my mind on mead, and prompted me to write this post!

    SO many of my friends back in Minnesota are huge into fest, but all were relieved to see it canceled. I don’t blame them - many are performers and artisans there.

    ... but there was an interesting theme that carried across so many of the posts and comments about it - mentions of mead, that they were happy to be able to order mead outside of fest - from the fest vendor - etc.

    As I mentioned in my Savoury Alligator Pie recipe, fest food was 100% about the alligator sausage, to me. For many of my friends, though, it seems as though that mead was a huge deal.

    Anyway, in honour of my friends not being forced to re-live plague rat days... I'm posting my recipe for homemade blueberry mead!

    A faceted wine glass full of blueberry mead.

    A few things to mention, first:

    What is Mead?

    Mead is basically a wine, but instead of being made from fruit, it’s made from honey. Technically, this recipe is a melomel - a mead that’s been fermented with the addition of fruit - but “mead” is a much better-known term.

    How to Make Blueberry Mead

    If you haven't attempted making mead before, don't be intimidated! Check out our primer to home brewing:

    - Wine Making At Home, Part 1: Why?

    - Wine Making at Home, Part 2: Equipment to Get Started

    - Wine Making at Home, Part 3: The Brewing Process.

    - Wine Making at Home, Part 4: How to Stabilize and Back Sweeten Wine

    Just a small handful of entries, and you'll be good to go!

    A faceted wine glass full of blueberry mead, with fresh blueberries beside the glass.

    The Blueberries

    You can use fresh or frozen blueberries, there are just a few differences in how to use them, and things to keep in mind:

    Fresh Blueberries

    Using fresh, be sure to use ripe blueberries, picking through to remove anything that's not ripe, is moldy, etc. I like to chop the blueberries and let them sit in the honey for a couple hours before starting on the wine making, as it - maceration - draws the juices out of the berries

    Frozen Blueberries

    When using frozen blueberries, you can skip the maceration process. Freezing and thawing blueberries breaks them down in a way that ends up with a result similar to maceration.

    A faceted wine glass full of blueberry mead.

    Sweetness

    Unlike many of my fruit wines, this homemade blueberry mead works well either semi-dry or sweet. As with the rest of my wines, I prefer sweet ... but at least the blueberry flavour comes through a bit, even when dry.

    If your fermentation takes it a bit too dry for your liking, you can read my How to Stabilize and Back Sweeten Wine post for information on how to back sweeten it.

    Blueberry Mead Variations

    As with most wine or mead recipes, feel free to tinker with the flavours on this one, to suit your tastes. A few ideas:

    Clementines: My favourite variation on this recipe is to add the juice and peel of a few clementines in the heating step. I just find that they work SO well, not only with blueberries, but with mead in general. It’s a great combo!

    Wildflower Honey: While I usually like to use a fairly neutral honey - many of the other honey types compete with the blueberry flavour - wildflower honey works beautifully with the blueberry flavour of this mead.

    Ginger: Peel and slice up about 1" of ginger root, and toss it in with the heating step

    A faceted wine glass full of blueberry mead, with fresh blueberries behind the glass.

    More Homemade Wine Recipes

    While you've got your Blueberry Mead fermenting away, why not consider putting a batch of something else on, to occupy your wait time? Here are a few of my other wine, cider, and mead recipes:

    Hard Apple Cider
    Home Brew Hard Iced Tea
    Homemade Banana Wine Recipe
    Homemade Blackberry Wine Recipe
    Homemade Blueberry Wine Recipe
    Homemade Cherry Recipe
    Homemade Clementine Mead Recipe
    Homemade Cranberry Clementine Christmas Wine Recipe
    Homemade Cranberry Wine
    Homemade Faux Lingonberry Wine Recipe
    Homemade Mango Wine Recipe
    Homemade Mango Strawberry Wine Recipe
    Homemade Mint Wine Recipe
    Homemade Newfoundland Partridgeberry Wine Recipe
    Homemade Peach Wine Recipe
    Homemade Strawberry Wine Recipe
    Homemade Watermelon Wine Recipe
    Homemade Wildflower Mead Recipe
    How to Make Pumpkin Mead
    Lychee Wine Recipe
    Maple Hard Apple Cider Recipe

    A faceted wine glass full of blueberry mead.

    Share the Love!

    Before you drink up, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you Instagram it, be sure to tag me - @CelebrationGenerationCA - or post it to My Facebook Page - so I can cheer you on!

    Also, be sure to subscribe to my free monthly email newsletter, so you never miss out on any of my nonsense.

    Well, the published nonsense, anyway!

    A faceted wine glass full of blueberry mead, with fresh blueberries at the base of the glass.

    Close up photo of a glass of clear, light purple wine, with blueberries in the background
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Recipe Saved!
    4 from 5 votes

    Homemade Blueberry Mead

    Mead - Wine made from honey - is easy to make from home, delicious, AND makes a great gift. This Homemade Blueberry Mead is a fantastic variation!
    Prep Time2 hrs
    Cook Time40 mins
    Resting time365 d
    Total Time365 d 2 hrs 40 mins
    Course: Beverage
    Cuisine: British, Greek
    Servings: 1 Gallon
    Calories: 4407kcal
    Author: Marie Porter

    Equipment

    2 gallon fermenter bucket and lid
    1 air lock and stopper
    Siphon, siphon tubing.
    1 - 2 1 gallon glass carboys

    Ingredients

    • 1 lb Fresh or frozen Blueberries*
    • 3 lbs Honey
    • 1 Vanilla bean 1 is good for up to 3 gallons
    • 1 gallon Water
    • 1 teaspoon Yeast nutrient
    • ½ teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
    • ¼ teaspoon Acid blend
    • Yeast We used Lalvin EC-1118
    • Wine stabilizer of choice

    Instructions

    • If using fresh blueberries, rinse and pick through blueberries, removing any that are moldy, etc. Remove stems, chop them up.
    • Place in a large pot, along with the honey. Using a potato masher or VERY clean hands, stir and mash blueberries. Let sit for an hour.
    • Add vanilla bean and water, stir well. Heat to ALMOST boiling, then simmer gently for 30 minutes.
    • Stir in yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, and acid blend
    • Pour mixture into a freshly sanitized fermenting bucket. Cover with sanitized lid and air lock, allow to cool to room temperature (overnight).
    • The next morning, give the mixture a quick stir with a long, sanitized spoon, and – using sanitized equipment – take a gravity reading of the liquid (strain out any blueberries). Keep track of the number! (This is an optional step, but will allow you to calculate your final ABV %)
    • Sprinkle yeast into fermenter, cover with sanitized cover and air lock. Within 48 hours, you should notice fermentation activity – bubbles in the airlock, carbonation and /or swirling in the mead must. This means you’re good to go!
    • After a week or so, use your sanitized siphon setup to rack the must into a freshly sanitized carboy. Put the carboy somewhere cool (not cold!), and leave it alone for a month or so.
    • Using sanitized equipment, rack the mead off the sediment, into a clean, freshly sanitized carboy. Cap with sanitized airlock, leave it alone for another 2-3 months.
    • Rack one more time, leave it for another 3 months or so.
    • When your mead has been racked a few times and shows NO more fermenting activity for a month or so (no bubbles in the airlock, no more sediment being produced, you can move on to bottling. **
    • If stabilizing, follow the instructions on your selected type of wine stabilizer to stop fermentation. For potassium sorbate, this needs to be done 2-3 days before bottling.
    • Using sanitized equipment, take a gravity reading, then rack the mead into clean, sanitized bottles. Cork.

    Notes

    * If using frozen blueberries, allow them to thaw. Don't bother straining them - just skip the sorting/pitting step, and letting it sit in honey for an hour!
    Variation:
    Add the peels and juice from 5 clementines to the mix, as you’re heating up the blueberries and honey. The orange flavour is a fantastic addition to the blueberry / honey pairing!
    IMPORTANT:
    Software generates nutritional information based on the ingredients as they start, and is unable to account for the sugars consumed in the fermentation process. As such, the calories, sugars, and carbs are shown WAY higher than reality.
    Additionally, the listed value is for the entire recipe, NOT per serving.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 4407kcal | Carbohydrates: 1188g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 248mg | Potassium: 1057mg | Fiber: 14g | Sugar: 1163g | Vitamin A: 245IU | Vitamin C: 51mg | Calcium: 222mg | Iron: 7mg

    A faceted wine glass full of blueberry mead, with fresh blueberries at the base of the glass.

    Related posts:

    Banana Wine Recipe A close up view of a wine glass with with a deep red wine. There are cranberries and orange peels at the base of the glass, against a white background. Christmas Wine A glass of blueberry wine in front of a pint of fresh blueberries. Blueberry Wine Recipe [Fresh or Frozen] Close up view of a glass of Rose wine. Homemade Mango Strawberry Wine
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Jasmine Gilbert

      November 08, 2022 at 7:17 pm

      I just found you!! And I’ve been searching for a website like this for so long it seems! Lingonberry lol not too many recipes out there for these little things but I’m so excited to try your recipes…I’m starting with blueberry wine and blueberry mead! I’ll let u know how it goes….I just made a batch of mead and I might try this back end sweetening idea of yours

      Reply

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    Marie Porter


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