Herbal Wine (or Mead)

Step 1

Add about half a gallon of water to a stock pot and bring it to a boil on the stove. Add the sugar or honey and stir to dissolve. Allow the mixture to cool completely before proceeding. If you're hot infusing the herbs, add them once you've removed the pot from the heat. For a cold infusion, add them into the primary.

Step 2

If doing a cold infusion of herbs, add them into the primary fermenter and pour the cooled sugar water over the top of them.

Step 3

Add the remaining winemaking ingredients (except yeast), and stir to incorporate.

Step 4

Add cool water to the fermenter to nearly fill the container. Mead will require more water since there's no grape juice. Make sure the mixture is cooled, and no hotter than 90 degrees F, but ideally around room temperature.

Step 5

Once cool, dissolve the yeast packet in about 1/4 to 1/2 cup room temperature water and allow it to rehydrate for 10 minutes. Add the yeast water to the fermentation vessel.

Step 6

Fill with water (if necessary) to reach the neck of the fermentation vessel, and seal with a rubber stopper and water lock.

Step 7

Allow the wine to ferment for 10 to 14 days until fermentation slows (primary fermentation).

Step 8

Use a siphon to transfer the wine to a clean fermentation vessel, taking care to leave any sediment behind. Filter out the herbal material at this point, and switch to a narrow-neck fermenter if you've been using a wide-neck fermenter. Re-cap with a water lock. For wine, allow it to ferment in secondary for about 4 to 6 weeks. For mead, a minimum of 4 months.

Step 9

Bottle the wine or mead. Allow wine to bottle condition for at least 2 weeks, and wait at least 2 months for mead. Flip-top Grolsch style bottles will work for short-term storage, but wine bottles are better if stored for more than 2-3 months.