Mead Recipe: Easy 5-Litre Homemade Honey Wine Guide
Mead is the world’s oldest alcoholic drink — a beautifully simple honey wine made by fermenting honey, water, and yeast. Whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced brewer looking to refine your technique, this mead recipe covers everything you need to make outstanding mead at home in Australia.
Below you’ll find our tried-and-tested 5-litre mead recipe with exact measurements, followed by in-depth sections on sanitisation, yeast selection, fermentation science, flavouring, troubleshooting, and bottling. We’ve been helping Australians brew mead for years, and this recipe reflects the techniques that produce the best results.
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Simple Mead Recipe — 5 Litre Batch
This beginner-friendly mead recipe makes approximately 5 litres (just over 1 gallon) of medium-sweet traditional mead. It’s a great starting point — once you’ve made this, you can scale up to our 19-litre batch or start experimenting with fruit and spice variations.
Ingredients
| AMOUNT | INGREDIENT |
|---|---|
| 2.1 kg | Raw, quality Australian honey (no off aromas or flavour) |
| 4 L | Good quality water (filtered or spring water preferred) |
| 2.5 g | Yeast nutrient |
| 1 x 10g sachet | Mangrove Jack’s M05 Mead Yeast (or EC-1118 for a drier mead) |
| Optional | Potassium Metabisulphite for no-heat sanitisation (0.5g per 3.8L) |
Scaling up? For a full 19-litre (5-gallon) batch, use 8 kg honey, 15.15 L water, 10 g yeast nutrient, and 2 sachets of M05 yeast. Target OG: 1.112–1.128.
Equipment You’ll Need
To make this mead recipe you’ll need a fermenter or glass demijohn (5L minimum), an airlock and bung, a large pot for heating water, a long-handled paddle, a hydrometer and test jar, a sanitiser (we recommend sodium percarbonate or no-rinse sanitiser), a racking cane or auto-siphon, and glass bottles for the finished mead.
Our Mead Making Kit includes a 5L glass demijohn, airlock, bung, yeast, nutrient, and sanitiser. For larger batches, the Mead Brewing Kit Large comes with a 15L fermenter and everything you need for 19-litre batches.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Clean and sanitise
Thoroughly clean and sanitise all equipment, your fermenter/demijohn, and your work area. Anything that touches the must or mead needs to be sanitised.
Step 2: Heat the water
Bring approximately 2 litres of water to the boil in a large pot for 10 minutes, then remove from heat. Add the yeast nutrient and stir to dissolve.
Step 3: Add the honey
Add your 2.1 kg of honey to the hot water and stir until fully combined and uniform in consistency. Do not add honey directly to boiling water on the heat — remove the pot from the heat source first.
Step 4: Sanitise the must
Choose your preferred sanitisation method (see our detailed section below). For beginners, we recommend the heating method (hold at 66–72°C for 20–25 minutes) or the sulphite method. Avoid boiling for this recipe, as it will strip the honey’s delicate flavour and aroma.
Step 5: Transfer and cool
Pour the must into your sanitised fermenter or demijohn. Add the remaining water (approximately 2L) to bring the total volume to about 5 litres. This will also cool the must down toward pitching temperature. Take an OG (Original Gravity) reading with your hydrometer — it should be between 1.112 and 1.128.
Step 6: Rehydrate the yeast
Rehydrate your yeast sachet in 250 ml of warm water (30–38°C) for 15 minutes. Do not use hot water — it will kill the yeast.
Step 7: Oxygenate and pitch
Vigorously stir the must for 5–10 minutes to dissolve oxygen into the liquid (yeast needs oxygen to multiply). Then pitch the rehydrated yeast. Seal the fermenter and attach the airlock.
Step 8: Primary fermentation
Keep the fermenter at 18–22°C (22°C is ideal). You should see airlock activity within 24–72 hours. Leave the mead to ferment for approximately 14 days.
Step 9: Rack to secondary
When fermentation activity starts to slow (around day 14), rack the mead into a clean, sanitised secondary fermenter using a racking cane or auto-siphon. Leave the sediment (trub) behind. Check the SG — it should be 1.030 or lower at this point.
Step 10: Condition and clear
Allow the mead to continue fermenting in the secondary until activity ceases completely. Confirm with your hydrometer (FG should be 1.010 or lower). Then let the mead sit for a further 14 days to clear naturally.
Step 11: Bottle and age
Once clear, bottle the mead into sanitised glass bottles. Store in a cool, dark place with a stable temperature. Your mead will be drinkable after 3 months, but will improve significantly with 6–12 months of aging.
PRO TIP: Don’t rush the aging process. Mead that tastes sharp or “hot” at 3 months will often mellow into something beautiful at 6–12 months. Patience is the secret ingredient in every great mead recipe.
Mead Recipe — Visual Step-by-Step Guide
Download and print our quick-reference mead recipe infographic. It covers all 11 steps plus the full ingredients and equipment list — perfect to have next to you on brew day.
Understanding Mead Ingredients
Choosing the Right Honey
Honey is the soul of your mead. The type, quality, and quantity of honey you use will have the biggest impact on the finished flavour. Use raw, unprocessed honey wherever possible — mass-produced supermarket honey is often heat-treated and filtered, which strips the very characteristics that make great mead.
Australian beekeepers produce some excellent varietals for mead making. Yellow box, ironbark, and leatherwood honeys all produce distinctive, complex meads. Local wildflower honey is also excellent and widely available at farmers’ markets. As a general rule: if the honey tastes and smells good on its own, it will make good mead.
For a 5-litre batch, 2–2.5 kg of honey will produce a medium-strength mead around 12–14% ABV. Use less honey (1.5 kg) for a lighter session mead (hydromel), or more (3+ kg) for a stronger, sweeter sack mead.
Selecting and Preparing Your Yeast
Yeast choice has a huge influence on the final flavour and character of your mead. Most beer and winemaking yeasts will ferment mead successfully, but dedicated mead yeasts tend to produce the best results.
We recommend these yeasts for different mead styles:
| YEASTS | BEST FOR |
|---|---|
| Mangrove Jack’s M05 Mead Yeast | Our top pick. Clean, reliable fermentation with good attenuation. Produces a balanced mead that lets the honey character shine through. |
| EC-1118 (Champagne Yeast) | High alcohol tolerance (up to 18% ABV) with aggressive, reliable fermentation. Produces a dry, clean mead. Great for melomels and metheglins. |
| Danstar Nottingham (Beer Yeast) | Balanced fermentation with some fruity esters. Good option if you want a more complex flavour profile. |
| White Labs WLP720 (Sweet Mead) | Low attenuation yeast that leaves residual sweetness. Requires a yeast starter. Best for sweet traditional meads. |
Always rehydrate dry yeast before pitching. Sprinkle the yeast into 250 ml of warm water (30–38°C) and leave for 15 minutes. This allows the yeast cells to gradually wake up and acclimatise, dramatically reducing cell death during pitching compared to sprinkling dry yeast directly onto the must.
Liquid yeasts (like WLP720) need to be propagated via a yeast starter before pitching. This builds up the cell count to ensure healthy fermentation.
Water and Yeast Nutrient
Use good quality water — filtered, spring, or dechlorinated tap water. Chlorine and chloramine can create off-flavours in mead. If using tap water, let it sit uncovered for 24 hours or treat with a campden tablet to remove chlorine.
Unlike beer wort or grape must, honey is nutrient-poor. Yeast needs nitrogen, vitamins, and minerals to ferment healthily. Without adequate nutrients, fermentation can stall or produce off-flavours (hydrogen sulphide / rotten egg smell). Always add yeast nutrient as directed — it’s one of the most common mistakes beginners make when skipping it.
Sanitising Your Equipment and Must
Sanitisation is one of the most important steps in making mead. Wild yeast, bacteria, and other microorganisms present in honey, on equipment, and in the air can compete with your brewing yeast and produce off-flavours. A clean ferment means you have full control over the flavour of your mead.
First, clean and sanitise all equipment that will contact the must: fermenter, airlock, spoon, hydrometer, funnel, and anything else. We recommend a no-rinse sanitiser for convenience.
Next, sanitise the must itself. Honey naturally contains pollen, bee parts, cappings, debris, and wild yeast. While honey does have natural antibacterial properties, we recommend sanitising the must for the cleanest possible fermentation. There are three methods:
Method 1: Boiling (Traditional)
Heat water to near boiling, add the honey, and bring the must to a boil for approximately 5 minutes. Never add honey directly onto the heat source. Skim any coagulated proteins and wax from the surface. Cool the must before pitching yeast.
Advantages: Kills all bacteria and wild yeast. Removes protein compounds that cause haze. No chemicals required.
Disadvantages: Significantly reduces honey flavour and aromatics. May cause colour change. The finished mead will likely lack honey character. Not recommended for basic or traditional meads.
Method 2: Pasteurising / Heating (Recommended for Beginners)
Heat water to near boiling, add honey, and hold the temperature at 66–72°C for 20–25 minutes. The lower the temperature, the less impact on honey flavour. Cool the must before pitching yeast.
Advantages: Kills bacteria and wild yeast while preserving more honey character than boiling. Removes most contaminants. No chemicals.
Disadvantages: Some flavour and aromatic loss (less than boiling). Residual protein compounds may cause haze — finings may be needed.
Method 3: Sulphites / No-Heat (Best Flavour Preservation)
Add Potassium Metabisulphite (preferred), crushed Campden Tablets, or Sodium Metabisulphite to a warm must. Allow the must to sit for 24 hours before pitching yeast, to allow the sulphite to dissipate.
Dosage: 0.5 g per 3.8 L, or 1.65 g per 19 L.
Advantages: Complete sterilisation while fully preserving honey flavour and aromatics. No colour change. Excellent protection against spoilage.
Disadvantages: Adds a 24-hour wait before pitching yeast. Sodium Metabisulphite can impart a slightly salty characteristic. Protein haze may still occur. Some people are sensitive to sulphites.
The 4 Stages of Mead Fermentation
Many first-time mead makers stress about airlock activity — or the lack of it. Understanding what’s happening at each stage of fermentation will help you relax and know when to take action.
Stage 1: Lag Phase (0–72 Hours)
After pitching, the yeast takes time to acclimatise to its new environment. The cells absorb nutrients and oxygen, preparing to multiply. There will be no visible fermentation activity during this phase. Don’t panic — this is completely normal and can last 24 to 72 hours depending on the yeast strain, temperature, and how well you oxygenated the must.
Stage 2: Aerobic Phase (Growth)
The yeast cells begin multiplying rapidly, using the dissolved oxygen and nutrients in the must. They create new cell walls that will be permeable to the sugars they’ll soon start converting to alcohol. You may start to see some airlock activity toward the end of this phase.
Stage 3: Anaerobic Phase (Active Fermentation)
With available oxygen depleted, the yeast switches to converting sugars into alcohol and CO2. This is where the real magic happens — you’ll see vigorous airlock bubbling. The yeast continues to reproduce on a smaller scale until all fermentable sugars are consumed or the alcohol reaches the yeast’s tolerance limit.
Stage 4: Flocculation (Settling)
When sugars are exhausted, the yeast prepares to go dormant. The cells clump together into “flocs” and settle to the bottom of the fermenter, forming a layer of sediment called trub. A good mead yeast will attenuate fully and then settle into a compact layer, leaving clear mead above.
PRO TIP: Always verify fermentation is complete with hydrometer readings taken 2–3 days apart. If the specific gravity is stable and at or below your target FG, fermentation is done. Don’t rely on airlock activity alone — temperature changes can cause bubbling even after fermentation has finished.
Racking and Secondary Fermentation
When primary fermentation is nearing completion (around day 14), it’s time to rack — transfer the mead off the trub (dead yeast cells and fermentation by-products) into a clean, sanitised secondary fermenter. Leaving mead on trub for extended periods can cause off-flavours.
Use a racking cane or auto-siphon, starting from just below the surface of the liquid. Work gently to avoid disturbing the sediment and minimise oxygen exposure — oxidised mead develops a wet cardboard taste over time.
Some mead makers rack 3 to 4 times as they clear, flavour, and age their mead. Each racking leaves behind more sediment and produces a progressively clearer mead. Racking to secondary is also the ideal time to begin flavouring if you’re making a melomel or metheglin.
Flavouring Your Mead
One of the joys of this mead recipe is the endless flavour possibilities. Mead can be flavoured with stone fruits, berries, citrus, grape juice, herbs, spices, oak chips, and even hops. You can create unique mead recipe. Here are the main approaches:
Adding Fruit (Melomels)
There are two methods for fruit addition to the mead recipe. Adding fruit during primary fermentation means the sugars in the fruit will ferment out, often leaving less fruit flavour and sweetness than you might expect. Freeze or sanitise the fruit first to break down cell walls and kill wild yeast.
The preferred method is adding fruit to secondary after primary fermentation. First, dose with Potassium Sorbate (1.4 g per 3.8 L or 7 g per 19 L) to inhibit further yeast activity. Allow the mead to sit for 24 hours, then add the fruit. The alcohol present will inhibit bacterial activity, and you can remove the fruit when the desired flavour and colour are reached.
Adding Spices and Herbs (Metheglins)
Spiced meads — called metheglins — have a long history. Popular additions to the mead recipe include cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and lavender. Add spices to secondary to maintain better control over intensity. Start conservatively — you can always add more, but you can’t take it out.
Using Oak
Oak chips, spirals, or staves add complexity, tannin, and vanilla/toasty notes to mead recipe. Medium toast American or French oak are popular choices. Add to secondary and taste regularly — oak can overpower mead quickly, especially in small batches.
Bottling, Storage, and Aging Your Mead
Bottling is the final step before the long, rewarding wait. Before bottling your mead recipe, ensure fermentation has completely ceased.
When Is Mead Recipe Ready to Bottle?
Confirm fermentation has completely ceased with stable hydrometer readings over 2–3 days. The mead should be clear — either naturally or with the help of finings (bentonite, gelatin, or a cold crash). If you’ve back-sweetened with Potassium Sorbate, wait at least 24 hours after dosing before bottling.
Choosing Bottles
Use glass bottles wherever possible to store mead recipe. Wine bottles with corks or swing-top (Grolsch-style) bottles both work well. Avoid plastic for long-term storage as it’s slightly oxygen-permeable and can impart off-flavours over time.
If you want sparkling mead, dose each bottle with a small amount of dextrose to trigger a secondary fermentation in the bottle. Important: do not use Potassium Sorbate if you intend to carbonate, as it will prevent the yeast from refermentating. Use pressure-rated bottles (champagne or flip-top) for sparkling mead.
Storage and Aging
Store your bottled mead recipe upright in a cool, dark place with stable temperature. Mead is one of the few beverages that genuinely improves with extended aging. Your mead will be drinkable after 3 months, good at 6 months, and often excellent at 12 months or more. Higher-ABV meads and those made with quality honey tend to age the best.
Troubleshooting Common Mead Problems
Even the best mead recipe can hit a snag. Here’s how to fix common issues.
Fermentation Has Stalled or Stopped
Check the specific gravity over 2–3 days to confirm it’s actually stalled (not just slowed). Check the pH and adjust if too acidic (add Calcium Carbonate). Ensure the temperature is within the yeast’s range. If needed, pitch a fresh sachet of a high-tolerance yeast like EC-1118.
Mead Recipe Is Too Sweet
If still fermenting, check for a stall (see above). If fully fermented, the residual sweetness can be balanced by adding Malic, Tartaric, or Citric Acid in small increments until the sweetness and acidity are in harmony.
Mead Recipe Is Too Dry
Dose with Potassium Sorbate (to stop further fermentation), wait 24 hours, then back-sweeten by adding honey, sugar syrup, or fruit juice in small amounts, tasting as you go.
Mead Recipe Is Hazy
Haze is caused by suspended proteins and yeast. Options: give the mead recipe more time in secondary to clear naturally, cold crash (refrigerate for 48–72 hours) to drop particles out of suspension, or use a fining agent like bentonite, gelatin, or dual-fining (bentonite followed by gelatin).
Mead Recipe Styles and Variations
Once you’ve mastered the basic traditional mead recipe, there’s a whole world of styles to explore:
| STYLE | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| Traditional Mead | Honey, water, and yeast only. The purest expression of honey character. |
| Melomel | Mead made with fruit. Popular versions include blueberry, cherry, and raspberry. |
| Metheglin | Mead spiced with herbs and spices such as cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, or ginger. |
| Cyser | Mead made with apple juice or cider instead of (or in addition to) water. |
| Pyment | Mead made with grape juice. Essentially a honey-grape wine hybrid. |
| Braggot | A mead-beer hybrid made with malt and honey. |
| Hydromel | A lower-strength “session” mead, typically 3–8% ABV. |
Recommended Reading
Want to go deeper? Our book “The Complete Guide to Making Mead” covers 20+ recipes, advanced techniques, and the science behind great mead. Perfect for those who’ve caught the mead making bug.
American Homebrewers Association’s mead guide
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