Mead is one of the simplest fermented drinks you can make at home, and one of the most satisfying. It's essentially honey wine — fermented honey and water — and it's been brewed for thousands of years for good reason. The ingredients are minimal, the equipment is straightforward, and the results can be genuinely excellent.
That said, mead does have a reputation for being temperamental, and it's not entirely undeserved. The most common problems — stalled fermentations, off-flavours, meads that won't clear — almost always come down to the same two things: inadequate yeast nutrition and impatience. Get those right and you're most of the way there.
This guide covers everything you need to brew your first gallon of traditional mead at home, using equipment and ingredients available from our Mead Making collection.
What You'll Need
Equipment
For a one-gallon (4.5 litre) batch — a sensible starting size — you'll need:
- A 1 Gallon Glass Demijohn or 4.5L PET Wide Neck Demijohn for fermentation
- A Bored Rubber Bung to fit your demijohn
- An airlock — the Bubbler Airlock or Junior Airlock both work well
- A Hydrometer to measure gravity and track fermentation
- A Long Spoon or Paddle for stirring
- A sanitiser — clean equipment is non-negotiable
That's genuinely all you need to get started. If you want to monitor fermentation without opening the vessel repeatedly, the Tilt Wireless Hydrometer is worth considering — it floats inside the demijohn and sends live gravity and temperature readings to your phone.
Ingredients
- Honey — approximately 1–1.25kg for a medium-strength mead of around 11–13% ABV. Use a good-quality, mild honey. Acacia or clover are good starting points. Avoid anything heavily processed or blended with syrups.
- Water — around 3.5–4 litres, topped up to the shoulder of your demijohn. Tap water is fine in most parts of the UK.
- Yeast — the Mangrove Jack's M05 Mead Yeast is our recommendation for a first mead. It's been developed specifically for honey fermentation and produces a clean, balanced result.
- Yeast nutrient — essential. The Mangrove Jack's Mead Yeast Nutrient is formulated for mead and is the simplest option. Tronozymol or Young's Yeast Nutrient also work well.
The Process, Step by Step
Step 1 — Sanitise everything
This applies to every piece of equipment that will touch your mead: the demijohn, bung, airlock, spoon, hydrometer. Use a no-rinse sanitiser and follow the instructions. Infections in mead are rare but they do happen, and they're almost always the result of skipping this step.
Step 2 — Dissolve the honey
Warm (not boil) about a litre of water to around 40–50°C and stir in your honey until fully dissolved. Many experienced meadmakers skip heating entirely — dissolving honey in room-temperature water takes longer but preserves more of the delicate aromatics. Either approach works. If you do heat, don't boil — you'll drive off the volatile compounds that give your honey its character.
Once dissolved, pour into your sanitised demijohn and top up with cool water to around the shoulder of the vessel. You want to leave some headspace at this stage.
Step 3 — Take a gravity reading
Before adding your yeast, take a hydrometer reading. This is your Original Gravity (OG). For a medium-strength mead using 1–1.25kg of honey in 4.5 litres, you'd typically expect an OG of around 1.080–1.100. Note it down — you'll need it later to calculate the finished ABV.
Step 4 — Pitch the yeast
Rehydrate the M05 yeast according to the packet instructions (usually in a small amount of warm water at around 35–40°C for 15–20 minutes), then add it to your must. Give everything a good stir to incorporate oxygen — yeast needs oxygen in the early stages of fermentation. Fit the bung and airlock, fill the airlock with a little water or sanitiser solution, and move the demijohn somewhere with a stable temperature between 18–24°C.
Step 5 — Add nutrients (staggered)
This is the step most beginners skip, and it's the one that makes the biggest difference. Rather than adding all your nutrient at once, split it into three or four additions over the first 72 hours of fermentation. A common approach:
- At pitching
- 24 hours after pitching
- 48 hours after pitching
- 72 hours after pitching (optional fourth addition)
Each time you add nutrients, give the must a gentle stir to degas it — CO₂ builds up in solution and can cause a vigorous foam-over if you're not careful, especially in the first few days. Follow the dosage on your chosen nutrient packet and don't exceed it.
Step 6 — Wait and monitor
Primary fermentation typically takes 2–4 weeks. You'll see bubbling through the airlock in the first day or two, which will gradually slow as fermentation progresses. Don't be alarmed if it seems slow — mead ferments more steadily than beer and that's normal.
Take a hydrometer reading after two weeks. If it's still dropping, leave it. Once the gravity has been stable for 3–4 days and is reading around 1.000 or below, primary fermentation is complete.
Step 7 — Rack and clear
Once fermentation is complete, rack your mead into a clean, sanitised demijohn, leaving the sediment (lees) behind. Top up to minimise headspace, refit the airlock, and move somewhere cool. Most meads will clear naturally over 4–8 weeks. If you want to speed things up, finings can help — you'll find suitable options in our Brewing Ingredients collection.
Step 8 — Taste, adjust, and bottle
Once your mead is clear and stable, taste it. A young mead can taste quite sharp or alcoholic — this is normal and will mellow with time. If it tastes too flat or thin, a small addition of acid can help. We stock Citric Acid, Malic Acid, and an Acid Blend — add in small increments and taste as you go.
When you're happy with it, bottle and leave it for at least another month before drinking. Mead genuinely improves with time. Many meadmakers find their batches are noticeably better at six months than at two.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Skipping nutrients. The single most common cause of stuck or off-flavoured meads. Honey is almost entirely sugar — yeast needs more than that to ferment cleanly.
- Using too much honey. A very high starting gravity (above 1.130 or so) is hard for yeast to ferment out fully and often results in a stuck fermentation. Start with a moderate gravity and build experience before attempting high-ABV meads.
- Bottling too early. If there's any residual fermentation activity when you bottle, you risk over-carbonation or worse. Always confirm with a stable hydrometer reading before bottling.
- Fermenting too warm. Temperatures above 24°C can stress the yeast and produce fusel alcohols that give a harsh, hot character. Keep it stable and on the cooler side of the range.
What to Try Next
Once you've made a traditional mead and understand the process, there's a lot of room to experiment. A melomel adds fruit — berries, cherries, and mango are all popular. A cyser replaces some of the water with apple juice. A metheglin adds herbs or spices. All of these styles can be made with the same basic equipment and a few additional ingredients.
Everything you need to get started is in our Mead Making collection, including yeasts, nutrients, vessels, and equipment. If you're not sure what to buy, feel free to get in touch — we're happy to help.