Raspberry Mead – Micro Batch Recipe (2024)

Every year I’m excited about fermenting up something tasty with raspberries. Raspberry wine, raspberry mead or even a light summery raspberry beer.

Just one problem…raspberries are wicked expensive. Do you know how many raspberries it takes to make even a gallon of raspberry wine?

For beer or mead, it takes about a quart in a one-gallon batch, or over a gallon of fresh fruit in a 5-gallon batch to really get the flavor to come through. Around these parts, even pick your own berries are pricey, and those from my own raspberry patch are gobbled before they hit the bowl.

So why not a micro-batch?

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There are a lot of greatreasons to make a micro-batch mead. For raspberry mead, a micro-batch is a great way to keep your costs down without sacrificing flavor. With just barely a handful of raspberries, you can make a quart batch of raspberry mead that is brimming with raspberry goodness.

It’s also a good way to see if a sweet and VERY fruity mead is your cup of tea.

All you need to start is a bit of honey, raspberries, a quart mason jar, and a mason jar fermentation kit. There are a number of brands to choose from. Try this one. Or this one.

I use a kit byFermentoolsthat looks a lot like a home brew setup, and if you choose to do bigger batches later you’ll need the rubber stopper and water lock that are included in the kit.

I’m hoping at some point to try out thesesilicone fermentation lidsfrom Mason Tops because they look super easy to clean.

Raspberry Mead – Micro Batch Recipe (2)

One quart batch of raspberry mead with a Fermentools fermentation kit (water lock).

Start by adding a bit of honey to the bottom of a quart mason jar. The basic instructions for a one-quart batch of mead have you add between 2/3 of a cup of honey and 1 cup of honey to get the right ratio of honey to water in your jar. With the added fruit sweetness, stick to 2/3 of a cup.

I’ve tried a full cup for this recipe, and it was cloyingly sweet and just a hair shy of cough syrup. Adding 2/3 of a cup is more than enough for a sweet dessert mead, and if you’re looking for something drier, go with 1/2 cup.

For raspberries, I had a half-pint (one cup) easily at hand. They were super fresh, about 10 minutes old from my patch. One cup is all I could keep from eating out of hand before I made it back to the kitchen, but it was plenty for this micro-batch.

Raspberry Mead – Micro Batch Recipe (3)

Quart mason jar with 2/3 cup honey and 1 cup raspberries for a micro-batch raspberry mead.

With honey and raspberries in the jar, getting your mead going is pretty effortless. Bring about 3 cups of water to a boil on the stove, then cool slightly for about 30 seconds before pouring it directly into the jar over the raspberries and honey.

Stir to dissolve the honey and incorporate the raspberries.

Once it’s cooled to room temperature, or at least cooled to 90 to 100 degrees so it won’t kill the yeast, add in a brewing yeast. For meads, I use packages of champagne yeast. One pack is enough to pitch a 5-gallon batch, so using the whole packet is overkill for a micro-batch.

I usually use about 1/4 of a yeast packet because it’s hard to actually extract less than that from a tiny packet. Dissolve it in room temperature chlorine-free water and pour it into your mason jar.

Related: How to Make One Quart of Mead (Micro Batch Method)

Raspberry Mead – Micro Batch Recipe (4)

Once it’s all said and done you should have 2/3 cup honey, 1 cup raspberries, a bit under 3 cups of water and about 1/4 of a packet ofchampagne yeast in your mason jar. Be sure to leave about an inch of headspace to allow for expansion and bubbling during fermentation.

Add on your mason jar fermentation kit and allow it to ferment at room temperature, out of direct sunlight for about 6 weeks.

The initial fermentation phase can be a bit intense, so after the first week if any fruit has made it into your water lock, pop it off and clean it out. Be sure to get it back on tight for the rest of your fermentation time.

When fermentation is complete, carefully pour off the mead into another jar, leaving the sediment behind.

I bottle mine, and allow it to age inGrolsch bottles for at least 2 weeks, preferably a bit longer.

Then, enjoy!

If you’re looking for more details on how to make a micro-batch mead, you can read an introduction to the micro-batch method here.

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Related

Raspberry Mead – Micro Batch Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How many raspberries for 1 gallon mead? ›

You'll need 3 pounds of honey and roughly 6 ounces of raspberries per gallon.

Can you make small batch mead? ›

If you want to make smaller batches, use the three pounds to a gallon ratio to calculate a convenient rate. Three pounds of honey means four cups of honey. A quart batch is ¼ the size of a gallon batch, which means for a quart batch of homemade mead, you need roughly a cup of honey. If you like your mead sweet that is.

Can you add raspberries to mead? ›

The first thing you need to do is add raspberries. to your vessel. Freezing your berries before can help add more flavor. Just make sure they are thought when you add them. After that, you're gonna add your honey.

How much honey is needed for a batch of mead? ›

How Much Honey Should I Use? In this recipe, you can choose exactly how sweet you'd like your wine to be. We'll go over it in further detail later, but we recommend using between two and three pounds of honey per gallon of mead — 2 pounds if you want it on the dryer side, and 3 pounds if you'd like it to be sweeter.

How long do you leave berries in mead? ›

Pour the fruit puree into the fermentation jar. Rack the mead from the carboy to the fermentation jar, taking care to leave as much lees as possible at the bottom of the carboy. Place the lid on the jar and refrigerate for 1 to 2 weeks.

Why does no one drink mead anymore? ›

Why did it fall out of favor? There were some new tax laws, as well as an increased availability of West Indian sugar in the 17th century that made honey harder and less necessary to obtain. But it was also the rise of other alcohols—namely beer and wine—that really did it in.

Why does no one sell mead? ›

Mead Distribution Problems

Because it doesn't really fit neatly into any current category of American alcohol, it's tough for many pubs and liqueur stores to obtain permission to sell it. That is, if they've ever even heard of it. One of the best things about mead's revival is that it comes straight from us.

Do smaller batches of mead ferment faster? ›

Keep in mind that a one-gallon batch will almost always ferment faster than a five-gallon batch, but there are a few techniques for speeding up both. To put it simply, mead has a lot of sugars.

Should I add lemon juice to mead? ›

Some people add lemon or other citrus juices to mead as a source of acid to help balance out the sweet flavor of the honey, but this is by no means mandatory. Adding sugar or honey will not actually neutralize the acid or change the pH; it will only help to balance the flavor as David had mentioned.

What is mead with berries called? ›

Melomel is a term for the combination of mead (a fermented solution of honey and water) with fruit. Within the broad category there are various other names for meads combined with specific fruits.

What is the best yeast for berry mead? ›

The 71B-1122 is a red wine yeast, great for cysers and other melomels especially ones using dark fruit like blackberries and cherries. Since it can metabolize maltic acid it produces a rounder, smoother, more aromatic mead that tends to mature more quickly than meads with the other yeasts.

Is raw honey OK for mead? ›

The best honey for mead is raw and local. If you have our Mead Making Kit & need honey to get started, try some of our favorite regional honey varieties: Clover & Midwest. The perfect bulk honey for mead, each bottle contains 40 oz (2.5 lb) - exactly what you need to ferment 1 gallon of mead.

What is the best honey for berry mead? ›

So, out of the 300 types, what is the best honey for mead? Meaderies, whether commercial or homebased, agree that honey harvested locally is the best kind. As for a specific kind of honey, orange blossom came out as a highly popular one because of its consistent flavor as well as citrusy taste.

How much mead will 5 lbs of honey make? ›

The short answer is that for every gallon of mead that one wishes to be made, you would need anywhere from a pound and a half to five pounds of honey, then enough water to make a combined gallon. This is the 'yes' part to question above.

How much fruit per gallon of mead? ›

A good starting point with most fruits is about 3 pounds of fruit per gallon of mead, though I have been known to use 5 or even 6 pounds of fruit. Fruit blends can produce some great-tasting meads.

How much is 4 cups of raspberries? ›

They estimate that an actual pound of raspberries is about four cups, or 135 average size raspberries. This many berries can be found in a one-quart container as well as a one-pound container. A one-pint container holds about half the volume of a one-quart container.

How much honey is needed for 1 gallon of mead? ›

The average mead recipe calls for 3 to 3.5 pounds of honey per gallon of finished mead, depending on the sugar content of the honey.

How many gallons of water do raspberries need? ›

A new planting in sandy loam soil requires 18 gallons per day per 100 feet of row. A mature planting in the same soil type requires 27 gallons per day per 100 feet of row. Increase the water rate for sandier soil, and decrease it for heavier soil.

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