Mead – make your own mead with mead kits and honey

Mead is one of the world's oldest alcoholic drinks, fermented from honey, water and yeast. Here you will find mead kits developed with the Norwegian meadery Mjøderiet, organic wildflower honey in 1, 3.3 and 20 kg, mead yeast, yeast nutrient and a mead hydrometer. The base mead kit makes 9 litres of mead at 15–17% ABV, which you can finish dry, semi-sweet or sweet.

The Mjøderiet mead kits

Every kit contains Mjøderiet wildflower honey, Mangrove Jack's M05 mead yeast, Mead Nutrient, Sorbistat and Campden for stabilising, Super-Kleer K.C. finings and step-by-step instructions.

Mead kit	Also contains	Result
Base mead, semi-sweet and sweet	4.3 kg honey for the mead and back-sweetening	9 litres base mead, OG 1.115, 15–17%
Raspberry mead	2 kg raspberry purée	Semi-sweet to sweet raspberry mead
Blueberry mead	Blueberries	Blueberry mead
Cherry mead (Viking blod)	Cherries	Cherry mead
Strawberry mead	Strawberries	Strawberry mead

The honey in the kits is the same organic wildflower honey from Zambia that Mjøderiet uses in its own award-winning mead. You can also buy it separately, for example 3.3 kg of wildflower honey, to make mead to your own recipe.

Yeast, nutrient and measuring

Mangrove Jack's M05 is a mead yeast that produces fresh, floral esters, especially when fermented cool. It has high alcohol tolerance, ferments well over a wide temperature range and suits all mead styles.
Mangrove Jack's Mead Nutrient is a DAP-free yeast nutrient for mead. Honey contains few nutrients, so adding nutrient gives a healthier, faster fermentation.
The mead hydrometer from Alla France has scales for SG 1.000–1.160, honey content 0–50 kg/hl and alcohol 0–21%.

The equipment you need

For the mead kits you need a fermenter of at least 15 litres with an airlock, a vessel or glass carboy for clearing, a stirring paddle, a siphon, sanitiser and a hydrometer that reads up to 1.115. You will find the rest under winemaking equipment.

What is mead?

In its simplest form, mead is honey, water and yeast. It can be anything from bone-dry and sparkling to sweet like a dessert wine, and can be flavoured with fruit, berries and spices or aged in barrels. What sets mead apart from wine and cider is that the fermented sugar comes from honey.

Frequently asked questions about mead

How much honey do I need for mead?

The Mjøderiet base mead kit uses 4.3 kg of honey for 9 litres of base mead plus back-sweetening, with an original gravity (OG) of 1.115. That gives 15–17% ABV before back-sweetening.

Which yeast is best for mead?

Use a yeast with high alcohol tolerance. Mangrove Jack's M05 is made for mead and suits all styles. The champagne yeast Lalvin EC-1118 from Lallemand is also widely used.

How do I make sweet mead?

Ferment the mead dry, stabilise it with Sorbistat and Campden so fermentation does not restart, then sweeten with honey. The Mjøderiet kits include honey for back-sweetening.