Alcohol Content of Mead
Unlike beers and cider, meads, being wines, are drunk in small quantities. Therefore, we make them as strong as we can. The amount of alcohol we can make in meads is limited by the capacity of the yeast we add to withstand alcohol. And here it is important to understand that yeast cannot live in a solution containing more than 14% of alcohol by volume. This is the usual amount that will destroy the yeast. But under certain circumstances, and with suitable yeast the percentage might be as high as eighteen. On the whole an amateur is unlikely to produce more than 16%; this is because he is unlikely to be able to carry out his ferments under laboratory conditions with constantly favorable temperatures and a scientifically balanced must.
Therefore, it is always wise to presume that you will not make more than 14% by volume and work accordingly.
Now, honey is made up of approximately 70% sugar; the remainder is made up of some impurities - such as yeast and bacteria, water, albumen and ash. Our concern is the amount of sugar, for it is upon this that the amount of alcohol we make depends. The yeast and bacteria are also our concern, but these are dealt with under the Causes of Spoilage.
Recipes for mead follow, but here it is as well to point out that if you want to be sure of the amount of alcohol you make, then the same type of hydrometer as used for beer brewing becomes essential.
In the ordinary way, three to four pounds of honey are used to make one gallon of mead. And because the amount of sugar will vary slightly in the various honeys available, there is no guarantee when using recipes that the mead will turn out to precisely the fine degree of sweetness or dryness required. Use little honey and the wine will be dry, of course; use a lot of honey and the wine will be sweet. Whether too dry or too sweet or merely medium dry-sweet will depend on the amount of sugar the honey contains.
As will be seen in the recipes the honey is mixed with water, and in the ordinary way, no sugar is added because the honey contains enough.
If recipes are being followed, and if readers are satisfied with the results of using them, as most will be, then all well and good. But those who want to make their meads to fine degrees of sweetness or dryness will have to use the hydrometer, and in so doing, these operators will be able to calculate at the start, how much alcohol they will make in addition to knowing whether their mead will be dry, medium-dry, medium-sweet or sweet. The only way to do this is to mix the honey with water as given in a recipe using the smallest amount given. A sample is then put into the hydrometer sample flask and the hydrometer itself slipped into this. The flask is stood on a level surface and the reading taken where the sample cuts across the stem. This reading is compared with the Hydrometer and Alcohol Table for Meads. Let us say that the reading is 1.090. As will be seen from the table, this will make 11.9% of alcohol by volume, and the mead will be bone dry. Now, we can add more honey - or if this is in short supply, sugar - to increase the gravity to 1.100. If this is done, 13.4% of alcohol will be made, but the mead will still be dry. Not until you go above the figure of 1.110 will the mead begin to turn out sweet. This is because two and a half pounds of sugar will be used up in making 14.5% of alcohol by volume and this amount of sugar per gallon is represented by the reading of 1.100. Actually the exact amount of sugar for a reading of 1.110 is an unimportant fraction above two and a half pounds. Therefore, if a bone dry mead is required you should start off with a reading of 1.100 or 1.110 and end up with a dry mead of between 13.4% and 14.5% of alcohol by volume. Because this figure of 1.110 represents the maximum amount of sugar the yeast can use, it follows that if a higher gravity is used to start with (in other words, if more honey is used or sugar added), all sugar or honey in excess of 1.110 on the hydrometer, will be left unfermented to sweeten the mead. A reading of 1.120 will make mead just a little above dryness or medium-dry, while ten degrees above this will make for medium sweet and so on until sweet mead results. Now take a look at the table below and you will see just how all this works out in practice.
It may be that your first reading will be below the first figure on the table - this being 1.070. Do not let this confuse you, merely add sugar or honey until the reading you want is reached. On the other hand, it could be that the first reading quite by chance is above 1.100. In this case, if a bone-dry mead is wanted, a little more water will reduce the gravity reading, to the required 1.100.
Bear in mind that if one gallon has a reading of 1.100, two gallons with the same amount of honey in each will have the same reading. Three gallons with the same amount of honey in each will also have the same reading. It will be seen from this that no matter how much mead is being made the reading will be the same as if one gallon is being made. This is because each gallon contains the same amount of honey. For example, let us suppose three and a half pounds of honey made up to one gallon gives a reading of 1.100; seven pounds made up to two gallons will still give a reading of 1.100. Similarly, ten and a half pounds made up to three gallons will also give this reading, and so on up the scale no matter how much mead is being made.
Important. If you start with a gravity of 1.100 to make a dry mead - the most popular sort - and this turns out medium sweet or sweet, then it means that fermentation has stuck, in other words, it has stopped prematurely. See Sticking Ferments.
If it had not stuck, fermentation would have gone on to make the amount of alcohol required so that all the sugar in the honey had been fermented out, leaving a dry mead.