At a glance
- Style
- Melomel
- Alcohol
- About 13.9% ABV
- Finish
- Off-dry
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Honey
- Blueberry blossom or wildflower
- Yeast
- Lalvin D47
- Ready in
- 4 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.
- 2.5 lb Honey, blueberry blossom or wildflower
- 2 lb Blueberries (fresh or frozen), crushed (in primary)
- 2 lb Blueberries (fresh or frozen), lightly crushed (added in secondary)
- 0.75 gallons Spring water (to make 1 gallon of must with the honey)
- 1 packet Lalvin D47 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 (half in primary, half in secondary)
- 0.5 tsp Acid blend (to taste before bottling; you may need less)
- 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
- Two nylon straining bags
- Potato masher
- 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
-
Freeze and crush the berries
Freeze all 4 lb for at least 24 hours, then thaw 2 lb inside a straining bag and crush them with a sanitized potato masher until every berry is split. Whole blueberries float and give almost nothing: the waxy skin keeps the juice and color locked in.
-
Mix the must over the fruit
Dissolve the honey in half the water, top up to 1 gallon (about 1.088 before fruit), then drop in the bag of crushed berries with 1/4 tsp pectic enzyme. The gravity reading will creep up to around 1.097 as the berries release their juice; take your real starting reading after a few hours and a good stir.
-
Pitch D47 and keep it cool
Rehydrate the D47 with the Go-Ferm and pitch. Keep the ferment at 60 to 65°F (16 to 18°C). D47 is known for producing harsh, hot fusel alcohols above about 68°F, and a fruit ferment runs a few degrees warmer than the room.
-
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 1.070) or on day 7. Push the fruit bag under twice a day: a dry fruit cap is where mold and vinegar bacteria start.
-
Pull the primary fruit on day 7
Lift the bag, let it drain and discard the fruit. By now the skins have given most of their color; leaving them longer mainly adds a stewed note and makes a mess of the lees.
-
Secondary on fresh berries
When the gravity drops below 1.005 (usually 3 to 4 weeks), thaw and lightly crush the second 2 lb in a fresh bag with the remaining pectic enzyme and rack the mead onto it. Leave it 7 to 10 days, pushing the bag under daily, then lift it out without squeezing.
-
Clear and stabilize
Rack into the glass jug, top up to reduce headspace and give it 6 weeks to clear. Once clear and stable, add the crushed Campden tablet and sorbate and wait 48 hours.
-
Adjust acid, then sweeten
Dissolve 1/4 tsp acid blend in a little of the mead, stir it in and taste. Add the second 1/4 tsp only if it still tastes flat. Then sweeten with honey 1 oz at a time: about 6 oz takes it from 0.998 to 1.010. Acid first, because sugar hides a lack of acid and you will overshoot.
-
Bottle and wait
Bottle into about five 750 ml bottles and give it at least 2 months. Blueberry mead is noticeably better at 6 to 12 months, when the skin tannin softens and the fruit comes forward.
Timeline
- Day 0Crush berries, mix, pitch yeast
- Days 1 to 7Nutrients, punch down twice daily
- Day 7Remove primary fruit
- Weeks 3 to 4Rack onto the second 2 lb of berries
- Weeks 5 to 11Remove fruit, clear, stabilize
- Weeks 11 to 12Adjust acid, backsweeten, bottle
- Month 5 and onDrink; peaks from about 6 to 12 months
Why this recipe works
The fruit is split for a reason. Blueberry color and body come from the skins, and they extract best during primary, when alcohol and movement work on the crushed skins. Blueberry aroma is faint to begin with and does not survive primary, so the second half goes in once the ferment has calmed. Blueberries are roughly 10% sugar, so 4 lb adds about 18 points; that is why 2.5 lb of honey ends up at 1.106.
Acid is the difference between a good blueberry mead and a flat one. Blueberries are low in acid for a berry and honey has very little, so the finished mead often tastes flabby. The acid goes in at the end, by taste, because you cannot judge balance until the sugar is gone, and dropping the pH early only makes life harder for the yeast.
D47 is a popular mead yeast known for a rounder mouthfeel, which suits a fruit that can taste thin. Unlike 71B, it is not known for softening malic acid, and blueberry has no acid to spare. The trade-off is temperature: it needs to stay under about 68°F or it turns hot and solventy.
Blueberry blossom honey (produced in places like Maine, Michigan and New Jersey) does not taste of blueberries, but it has a fruity, slightly tart character that sits well here. Wild lowbush blueberries carry more flavor per pound than cultivated highbush ones; if you use them, 3 lb in total is enough.
Variations
- Blueberry lemon: add the zest (no pith) of one lemon with the secondary fruit. It lifts the aroma and the lemon acid may mean you need no acid blend at all.
- Blueberry vanilla oak: add half a split vanilla bean and 0.5 oz of medium-toast oak cubes during clearing for 2 to 3 weeks, tasting weekly.
- Blueberry maple: swap 0.5 lb of the honey for dark maple syrup for a warmer, pancake-breakfast note (see our acerglyn recipe).
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| It tastes flat and watery | Low acid. Add acid blend 1/4 tsp at a time before you backsweeten, tasting after each addition. |
| The purple color turned brownish | Oxidation. Keep headspace small after racking, add the Campden tablet on schedule, and store it away from light and heat. |
| Purple foam through the airlock | Crushed berries in primary foam hard. Swap the airlock for a blowoff tube into a jar of sanitizer, and leave at least 30% headspace next time. |
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.
- Blackberry mead recipe: Fruit in primary for a deep purple, structured mead that drinks like a light red wine.
- Acerglyn (maple mead) recipe: Honey and dark maple syrup in primary, more maple to sweeten. Tastes of maple, not just sugar.
More fruit mead recipes: Strawberry mead, Cherry 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 blueberries per gallon of mead?
About 3 to 4 lb of cultivated blueberries per gallon, or 2.5 to 3 lb of wild ones. Blueberry is subtle, so it needs more fruit than raspberry or blackberry for the same impact.
Should blueberries go in primary or secondary?
Both, for the best result. Primary gives color and body, secondary gives aroma. If you only do one, secondary gives a fresher blueberry flavor but a paler mead.
Do you need to crush blueberries for mead?
Yes. Freeze them first, then crush or at least split every berry. The waxy skin keeps the juice in, and whole berries float and give almost nothing.
How long does blueberry mead take to make?
About 3 months of active work and at least 2 months in the bottle. It improves noticeably up to about a year.
What is the ABV of blueberry mead?
This recipe finishes around 13.9% ABV. Using less honey (2 lb) brings it closer to 10%.
Is blueberry mead the same as blueberry honey wine?
Yes. Honey wine is another name for mead, so a blueberry honey wine recipe and a blueberry mead recipe are the same thing: a blueberry melomel.