Star and Garter Sacred Cider Mead

Ingredients:

  • 8 pounds honey
  • 2 cups corn sugar
  • 1 cup lemon juice
  • 1 gallon water (more or less)
  • 3 gallons sweet apple cider
  • 1 ounce hop pellets (optional)
  • 3 slices fresh ginger root (optional)
  • Champagne yeast
  • Fining (whatever kind you prefer)
  • Depectinizing enzyme (if natural cider)
  • Stabilizing tablets
  • Campden tablets

Directions

Bring the gallon of water to a boil. Put in the honey, corn sugar, and lemon juice. If you are using ginger, add it at the start to the boiling water. Bring it back to a boil, and boil the honey/water mixture for at least 30 minutes. If you are using hops, add them after you take it off the boil, and strain them out as you mix this with the cider.

While this is boiling, glap may form on the surface of the mixture. If so, you should skim away the glap with a tea strainer. Now is also an opportune time to remove any sticks, twigs, wax, bug parts, or other oddments that are occasionally found in the honey. If glap appears, keep boiling it until it is gone. However, bear in mind that a short boil will drive off less of the honey flavor.

Pour the 3 gallons of sweet cider into your primary fermentation vat. Add the boiled honey/water mixture. If you are using freshly pressed cider, add the depectinizing enzyme now. This may not be necessary if you are using reconstituted cider; but only churls use reconstituted cider.

Wait 24 hours for the depectinizing enzyme to work; and then, add the yeast.

Let this ferment in the primary for one week; then rack this into the secondary fermenter and keep it there until all fermentation stops and the water in the lock is level and still. Add the fining and wait in accordance with the directions for that; then siphon off into a large vat for bottling.

Then, add 1 Campden tablet per gallon or per the directions of the sulfite you are using; and stabilizer in accordance with the directions there. Bottle in sterilized wine bottles.

Alternatively: omit the Campden tablet and stabilizer at the end. Stir in 1 cup of light corn syrup into the fined and fermented mead; and bottle as you would beer or champagne, to make a sparkling cider-mead.

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