Simple Rhubarb Mead Recipe

Perfect For Beginners!

Homemade fruit mead is one of my personal favorite drinks to make. The end result is an alcoholic wine like drink made from fermenting honey, yeast and additives for flavor – like fruit. It’s so beginner friendly and relatively inexpensive if you compare it to the price of a regular bottle of wine. This recipe can be altered into a million different combinations by swapping out the rhubarb and replacing it with whatever fruit, herb or floral you wish! Rhubarb mead is one that I make frequently because of my rhubarb patch abundance each year. Plus, gifting the bottled product to friends and family is a perfect low budget option for the holidays or birthdays!

Getting Ready For Your Batch Of Mead – you’ll need a few essentials.

It may seem a little overwhelming but all of the following equipment can be used time and time again!

EQUIPMENT FOR MAKING THE RHUBARB MEAD

• Glass one gallon fermentation jug with air stop
• Large stainless steel pot
• Stainless steel spoon
• Large funnel
• Kitchen thermometer
• Sanitizer. My favorite one is One Step

EQUIPMENT FOR BOTTELING THE RHUBARB MEAD

• Any flip top bottles
• Bottling wand
• Siphon tubing
• Alternatively to flip top bottles, you can use old wine bottles and cork them.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups chopped rhubarb – fresh or frozen. I prefer fresh.
• Honey – 1-1.5 kg’s for a one gallon batch. You can do a 5 gallon batch but I recommend starting with 1!
• Brewing yeast
• Optional raisins – it acts as food for the yeast.

SANITIZE SANITIZE SANITIZE!!

It’s a pain in the butt, yes. But it’s essential. Use whichever sanitizer you have and sanitize all equipment according to the package instructions. Like the pot, spoon, fermentation jug, and airlock etc. Follow the direction on the sanitizer and you’re good to go. To be extra cautious, I like to sanitize my workspace with a water and bleach mixture a few hours prior to making my mead just to be careful – but that’s completely optional and probably overkill on my part.

When I first started making mead I used peroxide as my sanitation method. I would wash everything first and then spray the 3% peroxide in and on all of my equipment. It worked well enough but I wasn’t 100% confident that it was sanitizing everything well enough.

FIRST – MAKE THE ‘MUST’

Must is the term used for the water and honey mixture. They way that works best for me is to add a little over 1/2 a gallon of filtered water to the pot and heat it up very slowly – use the low heat setting. Once the water is warm but not boiling, go ahead and add the honey.

The amount of honey used will determine how dry or sweet the mead will turn out. Two pounds or less will result in a very dry mead, while 2.5 pounds and above (I use a little over 3) will give a much sweeter end result.

Stir the honey in until it dissolves. Once everything is dissolved, turn the heat off and lets move on!

Add in the fruit of choice, for this recipe we’ll use rhubarb. I used around 3 cups chopped & fresh! Following the rhubarb, add in a small handful of raisins. The raisins act as a natural food for the yeast.

Once the fruit and raisins are in the fermentation vessel, get ready to pour the honey water mixture into the jug. This can get very sticky if the mixture spills – so use a large as possible funnel, LOL! Once poured, top off the jug with cool filtered water leaving at least 2 inches between the honey mixture and the top of the jug.

Time to pitch the yeast. The water cannot be any warmer than 90 degrees F or it’ll affect the activity of the yeast. This is where you’ll use your thermometer. Others like to mix the yeast with a little water and pour that into the jug but I like to add the yeast right in once the temperature reaches 90 degrees. Add about 1/2 the packet for 1 gallon.

SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE

Lets hope the jug you have comes with a screw top lid because the mead needs to be shaken up for quite some time. If your jug doesn’t have a lid, you’ll have to improvise with the airlock stopper & cover the hole with your finger. Or I’m sure an old wine cork would work, too!

Once the yeast is pitched, secure the lid tight and shake that puppy. Mix and shake for 10 minutes. It’s pretty hard on the shoulders and arms so having someone around to switch with makes a huge difference.

ADD THE AIRLOCK AND WATCH THE MAGIC

After shaking, add the stopper and airlock to the jug. Make sure to fill the airlock with filtered water to the line. After awhile you should start to see fermentation happening. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t – it can take a 24-48 hours to start.

The first couple days of fermentation can get a little messy but don’t worry! If the bubbles rise up into the airlock, simply remove it, rinse it, add fresh water and place it back on. All the crazy bubbles and foam at the top just means that the fermentation is working!

Keep the jug somewhere dark and cook, and check on it now and then. Mead can take 4-6 weeks to fully ferment. If you’d like to wait longer before bottling to be safe, that is just fine. I have another blog post that acts a beginner guide to mead making if you want to check that out too! Once 6 weeks have passed and you don’t see anymore fermentation bubbles, you’re safe to bottle! You can drink it ‘green’ (right away) or you can let it age and develop a deeper flavor. I personally like to leave mine for 6-12 months before drinking – I just like the taste better.

Using your auto siphon and bottling wand – funnel the mead into washed and sanitized bottles. Try to leave behind the sediment and fruit!