How to Make Mock Mead in Just Two Weeks

We’re coming up on the holidays, and your summer mead’s not ready yet. Not even close. Brewing mead usually takes many months, and in some cases, years. Not to worry – we found a recipe that allows you to make a mock mead in two weeks – just in time for your epic feast.

What you’ll need:

  • 1 liter bottle of cheap white wine
  • 2 cups of honey
  • 1-2 cloves
  • a pinch each of other preferred spices (cinnamon and nutmeg are recommended, but feel free to be creative)

You’ll also need a saucepan and a funnel. You’ll be putting the drink back in the wine bottle.

Steps:

  1. Empty the wine into a pot. Heat until warm, add the honey, cloves, and pinches of spices. Do not boil – it’s important to keep the temperature low so the honey keeps its structure and the alcohol doesn’t boil away.
  2. Continually scrape the foam off the top as it builds. Stir and allow ingredients to infuse for several minutes.
  3. Using your funnel, pour the liquid back into the original wine bottle.
  4. Recork and store in a dark, cool place for two weeks.
  5. Enjoy! The longer the mead is in the bottle, the stronger it will become.

This recipe is extremely similar to ancient Roman conditum, which was made using this recipe:


Apicius, thought to be the world’s oldest cookbook

“Put six sextarii of honey into a bronze jar containing two sextarii of wine, so that the wine will be boiled off as you cook the honey.  Heat this over a slow fire of dry wood, stirring with a wooden rod as it boils.  If it boils over, add some cold wine. Take off the heat and allow to cool.  When it does cool, light another fire underneath it.  Do this a second and a third time and only then remove it from the brazier and skim it.  Next, add 4 ounces of pepper, 3 scruples of mastic, a dragma of bay leaf and saffron, 5 date stones and then the dates themselves.  Finally, add 18 sextarii of light wine.  Charcoal will correct any bitter taste.” – Apicius, 1.1

Not only will your mock mead be ready in time for the holidays, but you can also introduce friends to the flavor of mead to see if they like it before you roll out the aged stuff.

Recipe via Stormthecastle.com.

If you try this, please let us know!


1 comment

  • Dave

    This isn’t mead. This isn’t anywhere even close to mead. This is a sweetened wine, essentially a hippocras. And “the longer you store the wine the stronger it will become” is true only in terms of flavour, which you should be specific about. because most people will think that refers to ABV.

    This is really a garbage recipe.


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How to Make Mock Mead in Just Two Weeks