Typical wine and beer makers start out with a 5 or 6 gallon plastic pail when it comes to making their first batches of brew. I started doing this when I adventured into mead making but I have got to tell you that this can get pretty expensive. You probably can figure out that honey is not exactly cheap and it takes a lot of honey to make mead. Usually about three pounds of honey per gallon of mead. And this makes a medium mead. It can get to be quite a bit more if you want to make a sweet mead. And this is only one gallon! IF you are making five gallons you are looking at fifteen pounds of honey!

Ok, so what did I do?

One of the important things that I do is experiment. I experiment with different recipes and with different ways of making mead. And in order to make this cost effective I have chosen to make one gallon batches of mead, which is decent for what I am looking for. This quantity of mead gives me about four bottles and gives me enough mead to see exactly what my recipe yields - over time too.

A good example of how I am using the one gallon approach is the experiment I am doing with 12 gallons of mead. Every gallon is exactly the same except for the yeast. So what I have is a controlled experiment where I can get a handle on what yeast yields what.

Update on the Twelve Bottles of Mead: Here is a picture I spliced together of all twelve
of the gallon jugs of mead. It is interesting to see how they different yeast
are progressing at different rates. Read More

If you are in the stage where you are experimenting with flavors and recipes then the one gallon approach might be good for you. But I have an alternative suggestion that seems to be growing in popularity. How about making a three gallon batch of mead? This is almost the perfect solution. It is almost half the price of a five gallon batch, it is easier to handle, and it will still yield you about 12 bottles of mead which means you actually will be able to share your mead with others.

3 Gallon Glass Carboy for Beer or Wine Making

If you have never made mead and would like to give it a try very inexpensively this is a terrific setup. Very inexpensive and Prime shipping too. You get a gallon glass carboy an airlock and the rubber stopper. I love this setup. Fermenter including Rubber stopper and Airlock

You can have a batch of mead going the day this arrives.

Twin Bubble Airlock and Carboy Bung (Pack of 2)

Already have gallon jugs? You can keep the price of mead making down even further here by just buying a pair of airlocks and bungs.

HomeBrewStuff One Gallon Nano-Meadery Deluxe Mead Kit

Our premium nano-meadery Kit comes with all the equipment needed to make one gallon batches of mead. This kits comes with everything you will need to make your first batch. One gallon batches are a great way to perfect your mead making before stepping up to larger batches this Kit is also great for experienced mead makers who wish to make Test or pilot batches. Kit includes: 2 gallon primary fermentation bucket, 1 gallon glass carboy, mini Auto Siphon with 4' 5/16" x 7/16" tubing and hose clamp, triple scale hydrometer, stopper and 3 piece airlock, thermometer, 10 Pack camp den tablets, c-brute 2x, Instructions and Basic mead recipe (now improved and much more comprehensive), liquid isinglass 1oz, potassium sorbet 1/2 oz., light toasted Oak chips 4oz, 3 lbs. unprocessed honey and Pasteur red yeast 3x. homebrew stuff is the only authorized dealer of the Kit. Do not be fooled by other sellers. if you need a refill for your Kit please see our other listings for mead or Cider refill kits.