At a glance
- Style
- Melomel
- Alcohol
- About 13.7% ABV
- Finish
- Off-dry
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Honey
- Wildflower or clover
- Yeast
- Lalvin K1-V1116
- Ready in
- 5 to 6 months
- Batch
- 1 gallon, scalable
Ingredients
Quantities are for one US gallon (3.8 liters). Pick a batch size and every amount updates; one packet of yeast covers up to six gallons. Not sure how much honey your own twist needs? Use the mead calculator.
- 2.75 lb Honey, wildflower or clover
- 3.5 lb Blackberries (fresh, wild or frozen) (in primary, in a straining bag)
- 0.75 gallons Spring water (to make 1 gallon of must with the honey)
- 1 packet Lalvin K1-V1116 wine yeast (5 g; one packet covers up to 6 gallons)
- 6 g Go-Ferm (yeast rehydration nutrient) (optional but recommended)
- 5 g Fermaid O yeast nutrient (split into 4 doses, see steps)
- 0.5 tsp Pectic enzyme
- 0.5 oz Oak cubes, medium toast (optional) (during bulk aging)
- 0.5 tsp Potassium sorbate
- 1 Campden tablet (potassium metabisulfite)
Swapping the fruit or changing the amount? Adding fruit to mead covers how much to use per gallon, when to add it and how long to leave it. The dose and timing of the enzyme are explained in how much pectic enzyme per gallon of mead. This recipe ferments dry and is sweetened at the end: how to backsweeten mead has the stabilizing doses and a honey chart for any batch size.
Equipment
- 2-gallon bucket with lid
- 1-gallon glass jug
- Airlock and drilled bung
- Hydrometer
- Large nylon straining bag
- Auto-siphon and tubing
- No-rinse sanitizer (Star San)
New to this? Our mead making kit checklist covers what each piece does and what you can skip.
Step-by-step method
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Freeze, thaw and split the berries
Freeze the blackberries for at least 24 hours (pick over wild ones and rinse first). Thaw them in the straining bag inside the sanitized bucket and squeeze gently by hand until they split. Do not use a blender: blackberry seeds are large and hard, and cracking them releases a bitter, woody flavor.
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Mix the must and let the enzyme work
Dissolve the honey in half the water, pour it over the bagged fruit and top up with the rest of the water. Stir in the pectic enzyme, cover, and wait about 12 hours before pitching: the enzyme works faster before there is alcohol in the must. The reading will start near 1.096 and rise toward 1.104 as the berries give up their juice.
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Pitch the yeast
Rehydrate the K1-V1116 with the Go-Ferm and pitch. Aim for 60 to 68°F (16 to 20°C). K1-V1116 copes with much warmer temperatures, but a cool ferment keeps the fruit fresher and less jammy.
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Feed and punch down
Add a quarter of the Fermaid O at 24, 48 and 72 hours and at the 1/3 sugar break (about 1.069) or on day 7. Push the fruit under two or three times a day. A dry cap of fruit is the most common route for vinegar bacteria and mold into a fruit mead.
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Pull the fruit on day 7
Lift the bag out and let it drain without squeezing. By day 7 the berries have given up most of their color and flavor; longer contact mainly extracts harsh seed tannin.
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Finish primary and rack
Let the mead ferment dry: the gravity should sit around 0.996 for three days running, usually in weeks 3 to 4. Rack it into the glass jug off the heavy fruit and yeast sediment and top up to reduce headspace.
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Bulk age (with optional oak)
Leave it 2 to 3 months to clear and settle. If you like a red-wine feel, add the oak cubes for 2 to 4 weeks, tasting weekly and pulling them before the oak is as strong as you want.
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Stabilize and sweeten
Add the crushed Campden tablet and sorbate, wait 48 hours, then sweeten 1 oz of honey at a time. About 7 oz takes it from 0.996 to 1.010. Blackberry has enough acid and tannin to carry that sweetness without tasting sugary.
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Bottle and age
Bottle and give it at least 2 months. This is the fruit mead in this collection that rewards patience most: the tannin softens and it keeps well for two years or more.
Timeline
- Day 0Thaw fruit, mix must, pectic enzyme
- Day 1Pitch yeast
- Days 1 to 7Nutrients, punch down, pull fruit on day 7
- Weeks 3 to 4Ferments dry, rack off sediment
- Months 2 to 4Bulk age, oak if using
- Month 4Stabilize, backsweeten, bottle
- Month 6 and onDrink; keeps and improves for 2+ years
Why this recipe works
Most fruit belongs in secondary to protect its aroma, but blackberry is robust enough to survive primary, and primary is where alcohol and movement pull the most color, tannin and body from the skins. You give up a little fresh top note in exchange for a mead with the depth of a light red wine. The first variation adds it back.
Blackberries are only about 5% sugar, so 3.5 lb adds roughly 8 gravity points, taking 2.75 lb of honey from 1.096 to about 1.104. More than about 4 lb per gallon in primary tends to push the mead toward sharp and seedy rather than richer.
The seeds are the main pitfall. They are large, hard and bitter inside, which is why the fruit is split by hand rather than blended, kept in a bag, pulled after 7 days and never squeezed. If you have ever had a blackberry mead that tasted like chewing the seeds, one of those four steps was skipped.
K1-V1116 is a vigorous, competitive yeast that starts fast and ferments reliably over a wide temperature range. That matters with fresh or wild berries, which bring their own wild yeast and bacteria into the bucket. It ferments cleanly to dryness and does not soften malic acid, so the blackberry keeps its bright, tart backbone.
Variations
- Bramble: after racking off the primary fruit, add 1 lb of thawed blackberries in a bag for 5 to 7 days for a fresher top note on top of the deep base.
- Blackberry vanilla: add half a split vanilla bean for 1 to 2 weeks during bulk aging, instead of or alongside the oak.
- Blackberry bochet: caramelize the honey first (see our bochet recipe) for a dark toffee and blackberry-jam mead.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| It is harsh and bitter at three months | Young tannin, and sometimes seed bitterness. Give it more time before judging: blackberry mead often turns a corner between 6 and 12 months. Next time, pull the fruit sooner and never squeeze the bag. |
| It smells of vinegar or nail polish | Acetic bacteria from a fruit cap left dry. Mild cases can be halted with a Campden tablet and a full, topped-up jug; strong vinegar cannot be fixed. |
More mead recipes to try
- Raspberry mead recipe: Big berry flavor from 2.5 lb of fruit per gallon, added in secondary and balanced with a semi-sweet finish.
- Cherry mead recipe: Half tart, half dark sweet cherries in secondary, with an optional hint of almond.
- Bochet (caramelized honey mead) recipe: Honey cooked to dark caramel before it ferments. Toffee, marshmallow and dark fruit.
More fruit mead recipes: Strawberry mead, Blueberry mead, Cyser (apple mead), Peach mead, Mango mead (and pineapple mead), Joe's Ancient Orange Mead (JAOM), Pyment (grape mead), Elderberry mead, Banana mead, Pomegranate mead, Pumpkin mead, Cranberry mead, Apple pie mead.
Or browse all our mead recipes. If this is your first batch, start with the traditional mead recipe or the step-by-step guide to making honey wine.
Frequently asked questions
How many blackberries per gallon of mead?
About 3 to 4 lb per gallon. This recipe uses 3.5 lb in primary. Wild blackberries are usually more tart and seedier, so 3 lb is plenty.
Should blackberries go in primary or secondary?
Either works. Primary, as here, gives deeper color, more tannin and a wine-like body. Secondary gives a fresher, lighter, more obviously berry mead. Doing both (see the bramble variation) gets you some of each.
Can I use wild blackberries for mead?
Yes. Pick them ripe and fully black, rinse and pick out leaves and bugs, then freeze. There is no need to boil them (that sets pectin and cooks the flavor); the fast-starting yeast in this recipe outcompetes the wild microbes on the fruit.
Why is my blackberry mead bitter?
Usually crushed seeds, fruit left in too long, or a squeezed bag. Young blackberry mead is also naturally tannic and softens a lot with 6 to 12 months of aging.
How long does blackberry mead take?
About 4 months to bottle and 6 months to drink. It is at its best after a year.
How strong is blackberry mead?
This recipe is about 13.7% ABV, in the range of a red wine.