Mead-Making 101 with a Recipe for Blueberry-Peach Cyser

Reader Contribution by Blythe Pelham
Published on December 28, 2015
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Along with creating mustard and kraut-chi, making mead is the other fermenting that I have continued to do with gusto. Simply put, mead is water, honey, and yeast fermented into wine.

There are several apple trees in our garden, including one that gives me more apples than I can ever use each season. Because of this, most of my meads are cysers. A cyser is mead where the water is substituted with apple juice. I often add another fruit or fruits during the second fermentation that results in further shifting of the name to a cysermel. But, I’m getting ahead of myself…

My first exposure to mead was on a blessed little piece of heaven on earth in Pennsylvania. This sanctuary combines a spiritual home and an ecological greenscape. On this land, they make lovely meads. To find out more, visit Four Quarters Farm.

I loved what I tasted at the Farm, though I definitely preferred the semi-sweet to sweeter varieties. My friend John Vetromile shared just a hint of his knowledge about mead-making with me, but it settled deeply within the gotta-try-this-someday folds of my brain. I also remembered him noting that his all-time favorite creation included pluots (a cross between plums and apricots).

My adventures in brewing became more urgent as I reclaimed my garden and returned to using the fruits I had at hand. My first attempt was a hard cider. I researched on the internet, though not thoroughly enough, and started some cider. Mistakenly figuring it would take care of itself and get better with age, I left it to its own fermenting. A year later, at the urging of a new online brewing friend, I ventured down to take a peek. Much to my surprise, I’d created a marvelous apple cider vinegar with perfectly beautiful clarity.

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