Hi. I'm Ben, the Lore-Nerd In Residence of Black Bear Kindred. I also brew mead which some folks think is passably drinkable.

These recipes are the ones that have worked out pretty well. This is not to say that they couldn't be improved -- indeed, I'm always tinkering with the recipes, and there's things about them that I will do differently if I brew them again. These aren't polished and repeatedly tested recipes guaranteed to produce a perfect product that everyone will love. Instead, I present them "warts and all", with my notes from the brewing process as it was happening. Follow them at your own risk.

This list does not include every mead I've ever tried to brew, just the ones that turned out well enough that a reasonable number of people liked them. (Though I might put up the infamous "Exploding Vidalia Onion Mead" recipe one of these days. . .)

A few general notes: I sanitize my equipment religiously, but I don't boil and rarely even heat my honey, preferring to knock back any microbes by adding a healthy and vigorous yeast starter. All of these recipes are for five-gallon batches, unless otherwise noted.

ELIXIR FROM SARKLAND (Apple-Date Mead)

• 5 lbs. dates (Honey Dates variety from China Ranch)
• 6 lbs. California desert wildflower honey
• 3 lbs. orange blossom honey
• 9 cracked cloves
• 4 oz. vanilla
• 1 gal. raw apple cider
• 2 gal. spring water
• pitchable cider yeast

• August 20, 2004 -- pitted 4 lbs. dates and blended with small amount of juice to yield very thick liquid date puree, which was frozen. Pitched yeast into remaining apple juice, added ~1 Tbsp yeast nutrient, and left overnight.
• August 21, 2004 -- heated 1 gallon water to boiling while pitting and adding remaining 1 lb. dates; allowed dates to stew ~5 min. Turned off heat and added 6 lbs. desert wildflower honey and 9 cloves; kept over 165 degrees F for ~30 minutes. Added chilled date puree and let steep 30 minutes, then cooled down by surrounding pot with cool tap water. Pitched yeast and cider into 3 gallon carboy, with much splashing for aeration; poured in must, added vanilla and topped up with spring water. Within two hours, fermentation had blown off the airlock and pushed out copious blobs of date sludge. Damn. I attached a blow-off tube.
• August 31, 2004 -- still actively fermenting, bubbling a bit less than once per second.
• September 3, 2004 -- racked to clean 3 gallon carboy, topping off with apple cider and orange blossom honey. Lot of problems with the racking, partly because the racking cane seems to be inefficient (resulting in much bubbling, etc.) and partly because the date paste was extremely viscous and not very easy to filter. In the future, I'll stew all the dates instead of making the puree. I ended up pouring out the sludge in the bottom and filtering it, then pouring the filtrate into the new carboy. Not my favorite way of working. I'm a little concerned now about oxidation and contamination, but am hoping the second ferment, which started right up after racking, will have some beneficial effect by consuming the oxygen.
• September 15, 2004 -- still burping once every few seconds.
• October 9, 2004 -- still burping about once every 15 seconds; lots of sludge on bottom.
• November 15, 2004 -- racked off the very copious sediment; topped up with cider. I'm worried about this one; it's still pretty Listerine-ish, and I suspect the oxidation is going to have a lasting bad effect.
• January 19, 2005 -- mostly clear, and completely still. I'll bottle this soon, if for no better reason than to free up the carboy. We'll see how it tastes.
• February 6, 2005 -- bottled. The taste at bottling was surprising: very sweet, thick mouthfeel, a little "hot" (probably to be expected) but no off-flavors, subtle spiciness and maybe nuttiness. Not much detectable date flavor, but I've read recently that dates contribute sugar but not much actual flavor of their own. Downside might be that there's very little acidity or tannin; this is a smooth, sweet mead that definitely goes with dessert. Maybe I should have added a little of one or the other before bottling. Oh well. Anyway, there don't appear to be any off flavors from oxidation. It'll be interesting to see how this stuff ages.

I'M OUT OF CUTE NAMES (Raspberry-Lemon Mead)

• 1 can (96 oz.) raspberry wine base
• 12 lbs. 12 oz. honey
• 2 qts. frozen peach puree
• 3 16 oz. bottles organic peach nectar
• 2 qts. organic raspberry lemonade
• 5 organically grown lemons
• 4 bags Raspberry Zinger tea
• 2 bags Earl Grey tea
• 2 packets Montrachet yeast in starter (honey, water, smidgen of yeast nutrient)
• Mountain Springs spring water

• October 10, 2004 -- AM: Started yeast. PM: Heated about 1.5 gallons of spring water to below boiling, added raspberry wine base and 10 lbs. honey. Grated lemon peel and juiced the lemons; added juice and zest of five lemons to the must. Added peach puree and allowed to steep. Brewed about 1 qt. tea using four bags of Raspberry Zinger herbal tea and 2 bags of Earl Grey; added to mixture to boost tannin content. Cooled must and poured into carboy with splashing to aerate; mixed yeast in thoroughly, topped off with peach nectar. Within a couple of hours, raspberry-peach sludge had blown through the airlock. Damn. Attached blow-off tube.
• October 17, 2004 -- Replaced blow-off tube with airlock.
• November 14, 2004 -- Finally got around to racking into a clean 5-gallon carboy. There was both abundant sediment on the bottom and a still-floating cap of raspberry-lemon-peach stuff on top. Topped off with 2 bottles of organic raspberry lemonade, 1 lb. 6 oz. jar of honey, and about 1.5 pints spring water. Taste was a little raw, but not bad -- strong raspberry aroma and flavor, tart but not overly so, and still with some sweetness.
• December 4, 2004 -- Still bubbling about once every 15 seconds.
• December 13, 2004 -- Odd and unsightly yellowish scum has formed floating on top. I don't know why -- am guessing and hoping that this is just yeast and peach bits that have floated to the top. The aroma coming out of the airlock is still pretty good. I need to rack this soon, because whatever this stuff is, I don't really want it there. . .
• December 15, 2004 -- Racked; topped off with strong Raspberry Zinger tea (about 1 pint with six tea bags), one more bottle of peach nectar. The scum had a slight cheesy texture but almost no flavor. Wonder if it was pectin or something. Taste is quite dry, dominated by raspberry, but very good. The plan now is to let it sit a bit longer -- maybe another month -- and then bottle it sparkling if possible.
• January 19, 2005 -- The yellow scum returned -- I'm now assuming that this was a wild yeast that came in with the raspberries. But fermentation activity has stopped. Now I think I'm going to sulfite, stabilize, sweeten, and bottle still; if I let fermentation continue, I'll probably get more yellow scum, which would not be desirable in a bottle-carbonated mead.
• January 24-25 2005 -- Racked to another carboy. Taste still a little raw and pretty dry and tart, but not bad. Still cloudy. Added 5 Campden tablets and 2 tsp. sodium benzoate, waited 24 hrs., then topped off with 1 lb. 6 oz. honey in 1.5 qts. water to sweeten and balance the acid. Also added 2 tsp. pectic enzyme; we'll see if that fixes the cloudiness. (I have Sparkalloid in case this doesn't work.)
• February 7, 2005 -- Mead is throwing a lot of brownish sludgy sediment, but it's still opaque (though it might just be too dark to show translucence). Still, I'm going to try Sparkolloid soon.
• March 5, 2005 -- Added Sparkolloid. Plan is to bottle in a few days (might have to wait until after Spring Break trip; we'll see how fast the Sparkolloid settles out)
• March 10, 1005 -- Crystal clear, dark ruby red color; looks very nice.
• March 23, 2005 -- Bottled. Color is a medium red and absolutely clear. Taste is light, relatively dry -- this would be good chilled as a summer cooler, methinks. Still a little rough, with slight burning as it goes down. . .
• May 9, 2005: Given bottles to many people, and received many compliments. Roughness has apparently disappeared. And I'm running out of this stuff!

I-NEEDED-THE-GALLON-JUGS CYSER

• 5 gal. organic apple cider + extra to top off
• 1 lb. raisins
• 1 lb. brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. nutmeg
• 2 oz. vanilla extract
• 5 lbs. orange blossom honey
• 2 lbs. 14 oz. Arkansas wildflower honey
• 1 package English cider yeast, liquid pitchable culture
• 2 tsp. yeast nutrient
• 2 tsp. yeast energizer

• January 17, 2005 -- mixed everything up and pitched. In 12 hours this stuff was bubbling like a machine gun, about 3 times / second. Got a little must in the airlock, but not too serious. Overfilled the carboy a little, and had to pour some out.
• January 19, 2005 -- The brown sugar appears to have settled to the bottom and is now under the yeast layer -- tonight I'm going to stir this a little, before oxidation becomes a real problem.
• January 26, 2005 -- As it turned out, I didn't stir this. But the brown sugar layer has disappeared. Either the yeast on top consumed it all, or it just diffused away as sugar concentrations dropped in the must. Still bubbling away about once every five seconds.
• February 8, 2005 -- Bubbling down to once every twenty seconds. Racked to secondary and topped off with more cider (about 1/2 gallon, which will soon give me yet another gallon jug). As of 12 hours later (February 9, AM) bubbling had not resumed; by February 12 I was observing roughly one bubble every 15 seconds, but by February 20 bubbling seemed to have stopped. Taste: aside from being raw and yeasty, it's not too bad; more acid and less sweetness than the Sarkland Elixir date cyser that I just bottled.
• April 21, 2005 -- Taking its time to clear. . . Added 1 tsp. tannin dissolved in warm water. Probably Sparkalloid this in two weeks.
• April 25, 2005 -- Added a bit of Sparkalloid solution.
• April 28, 2005 -- Sparkalloid mostly settled, but a few clumps still hanging in the carboy neck. Sterilized a spoon handle and stirred; this settled it down.
• May 9, 2005 -- Crystal clear; nice reddish color in carboy. Bottled. Taste not overly sweet, spices noticeable; still pretty harsh and medicinal. Looking forward to trying this in a couple of months.
• June 4, 2005 -- word at Trothmoot was "not bad, but spices need several more months to mature."

BLACK DEATH-EGLIN, a.k.a. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? MEAD

• 1 can (3.3 lbs.) Cooperšs dark malt syrup
• 11 lbs. 4 oz. Arkansas wildflower honey
• 1 can (96 oz.) cherry wine base
• 2 oz. Cascades hops (bittering)
• 1 oz. Saaz hops (flavoring)
• 1 oz. dried orange peel
• 3 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 cups black coffee
• 2 packages Montrachet yeast
• spring water (Mountain Valley brand from Hot Springs, AR)
• 2 qts. organic black cherry juice
• 4 oz. vanilla (added at bottling)
• 0.5 cup Arkansas wildflower honey (added at bottling)

The idea here was to do a sort of Frankenstein monster -- honey AND fruit AND malt AND spices. A sort of braggomelomethomel.

• December 7, 2004 -- Started the yeast in about 1 pt. spring water, 1 cup honey, 1 tsp. yeast nutrient, and 1 tsp. yeast energizer.
• December 8, 2004 -- Boiled malt syrup for 1 hr. in 1 gal. water; added 2 oz. Cascades at 60 min., coffee at 30 min., 1/2 oz. Saaz and orange peel at 15 minutes, 1/2 oz. Saaz at 5 minutes. Cooled in ice-filled sink. Meanwhile, mixed 1 gal. cold water, 7 lbs. honey, 2 tsp. nutrient, 2 tsp. energizer, 1 tsp. nutmeg, 1 tsp cinnamon in carboy, shaking well with much splashing. Strained and added wort. Topped off with chilled water to about 4 gallons, leaving plenty of headspace in the 5 gal. carboy. Pitched yeast and attached airlock. After 8 hours, airlock was bubbling once every three seconds; replaced airlock with blowoff tube, just in case. Must is a dark, almost black color -- looks just like Guinness. The idea is to let this ferment for about a week and then rack it right on to the cherry wine base.
• December 14, 2004 -- Bubbling was down to maybe once every 15 seconds or less. Racked onto cherry wine base. Sampled the honey-malt brew: the aroma is heavily on the honey side, but the taste is much like a stout -- it's beery, pretty roast-flavored, and therešs no sweetness in the taste. The taste is still rough and strong, but not too bad; it might work as a "honey stout" in its own right. No trace of cinnamon or nutmeg in the taste; I may add more at the next racking. I added another 1 lb. 6 oz. jar of honey and topped up with maybe 1 pint spring water. In 12 hours, fermentation had resumed, and bubbles were coming twice per second. By December 16, bubbles had slowed to once per second. Probably should rack this again in a month or so.
• January 15, 2005 -- Brew was quite still. Racked off the fruit and tasted: little honey taste this time, but still strong roasted malt taste. Topped up with two bottles organic black cherry juice, 2 lbs. 14 oz. honey, and 2 tsp. nutmeg. As of January 17, no fermentation activity at all. Probably bottle this in two months -- I may look into force carbonation. (Actually, I won't, because that turns out to be bloody expensive, especially bottling with forced carbonation.)
• January 26, 2005 -- Now itšs bubbling about once every six seconds, up from once every 20 seconds a few days ago. Guess the yeasts finally started finishing up the fermentation -- or else the honey I added sank to the bottom and is only now dissolving into the must. Shoulda dissolved it first.
• January 31, 2005 -- Bubbling once every three seconds; developed stout-like head of foam in the carboy. February 9, 2005: Bubbling slowed to about once every ten seconds. Think Išll let this sit for at least another month and then bottle and carbonate.
• April 17, 2005 -- Finally bottled, after two months of inactivity. Added 1/2 cup honey and 4 oz. vanilla at bottling. Taste: Interesting. . . hard to describe. Pretty much like cherry honey stout, really. Going to let this bottle-carbonate for at least a month before I pass judgment.
• May 1, 2005 -- A taste-test at May Day Moot was. . . interesting. Strong banana aftertaste (where the hell did that come from?) No real carbonation, and sweet taste; the yeast may be just too pooped out to carbonate.
• June 4, 2005 -- Tasters at Trothmoot were mixed; some hated it, one stout-lover really enjoyed it. The banana flavor is gone.