Homemade Wildflower Mead

A close up photo of a glass of mead, with random wildflowers at the base of the glass.

5 from 1 vote

Mead - Wine made from honey - is easy to make from home, delicious, AND makes a great gift. This Homemade Wildflower mead is a unique, fun variation!

Prep Time2

Cook Time40

Resting time365

Total Time365 2 40

Course: Beverage

Cuisine: British, Greek

Servings: Gallon

Calories: 4149kcal

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 gallon Water
3 lbs Wildflower Honey
Edible wildflowers Optional - Read section in blog entry for details
1 Vanilla bean Optional - 1 is good for up to 3 gallons
1 teaspoon Yeast nutrient
½ teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
¼ teaspoon Acid blend
Yeast We used Lalvin EC-1118
Wine stabilizer of choice

Instructions

Measure out water and honey into a large pot, stir well. Add wild flowers and vanilla, if using.
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 flowers in the liquid you're measuring). 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

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