Old Walnut Mead Recipe

This walnut mead recipe is a surprising combination of, not walnuts, but walnut leaves and mead. Before it made it into Grandfather’s note book it was apparently in a cookery book from the 1700’s.

Walnut Mead RecipeIn essence it is the simple dry mead recipe with the addition of the walnut leaves so I’ve adapted that recipe to include them. I assume it refers to English Walnut.

Because this recipe is for a flavoured mead, go for a honey that isn’t too strongly flavoured so the walnut flavour isn’t overwhelmed. Ideally you would use soft rainwater, well boiled, or spring water. Ordinary tap water will often have chlorine flavour which will taint the mead.

Modern water filters like the Brita system remove that chlorine taint and can make all the difference to this walnut mead recipe’s final product.

Ingredients for Walnut Mead Recipe

  • 3½lb Honey
  • 24 Walnut Leaves
  • Water
  • Mead or wine yeast
  • Yeast nutrient

Method for Walnut Mead Recipe

  1. Start the yeast 2 days ahead. Take a sterilised jar and add a tablespoon of honey. Pour on a ¼ pint to ½ pint of boiling water and stir to mix. When cooled to 20°C or below, add the yeast and yeast nutrient. Keep covered but not airtight, a muslin cover affixed with a rubber band or string is ideal.
  2. Put the honey into a pan,  add water to take the liquor to 1 gallon and bring to the boil whilst stirring until the honey until dissolved.
  3. Put the walnut leaves into a fermenting bin or lidded wine bucket and pour on the boiling liquor. Leave to stand overnight and then remove the leaves.
  4. Add the previously prepared yeast starter.
  5. A fierce fermentation should begin quickly. After a few days to a week the rate will have slowed and  the must can be poured into a demijohn and topped up to the gallon with cooled boiled water prior to fitting the air-lock.
  6. Keep in a warm place until fermentation stops
  7. Move into a cool place and when ready to drink, rack off into bottles.

Mead improves with age and is best stored for at least a year prior to drinking. Some of the best meads mature for 7 years prior to drinking.

Posted in Mead & Honey Wine Recipes

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