Summers here in the PNW are dry and after a day of working in the apiary or in the gardens, a local Northwest Pale Ale has long been my go-to thirst quencher. But then, late last summer two things came together: (1) hops that we planted six years ago finally matured producing amazing cones and (2) I discovered a lightly sweet and very refreshing dry mead. Which brings me to this — why not combine the aroma and flavor of hops with a refreshing mead?
I soon discovered that hopped mead is actually not at all a new invention. In fact, hopped mead may even help answer the age-old question: Which came first– Mead or Beer? In either case and in honor of my Welsh roots (who likely swigged a fine braggot or two), I’ve brewed a couple batches of hopped mead using our own honey and hops. Even with only three hops plants here on our farm, there are so many combinations. I guess I’ll have to keep brewing (and sampling) hopped mead until the recipe is perfected. Meanwhile, I’m happy to share my basic recipe with you.
Centennial hops cones growing on the bine 
Hops adds color and texture to the landscape 
Our hops varieties – amazing harvest after 6 years 
Willamette hop harvest – 1 plant after 5 years 
Hops growing – lots of cones on each plant 
Just a little hops to make hopped mead 
Make a “tea” with the hops then follow the honey mead recipe
Did you know that 75% of the US Hops is grown in eastern Washington ? Both from a distance and up close at personal, hops growing at scale is an amazing sight! And, even when there are just a few hops plants, with their dark green wide leaves and light yellow-green cones, add so much texture to our landscape.
Hopped-up Honey Mead
An age-old beverage, hopped mead is a fun little craft to brew. The trick here is to really find the right hop(s) combination that you like–bitter or aroma? mild or strong? Enjoy.
- 3 lbs honey (especially for hopped mead, I like Amber or darker honey to help balance the flavor)
- ½ package champagne or wine yeast (Lalvin EC-118 or Lalvin ICV-D47 )
- 10 raisins
- ½ gallon non-chlorinated water (for hopped water)
- ½-1 cup fresh hop cones (Do you like bittering or aroma or a combination of hops?)
- ½ gallon non-chlorinated water (to top off jug)
Follow the instructions on this post — gather and sanitize equipment https://wildsprout.org/2021/01/30/honey-mead-recipe-1-gallon/
Add hops to ½ gallon of water and boil. Like tea, the longer you boil, the stronger the flavor. Currently I'm boiling 15 minutes.
Strain the spent hops from the tea.
Make the must and ferment following this recipe: https://wildsprout.org/2021/01/30/honey-mead-recipe-1-gallon/
Now the only difference is that generally the secondary ferment is twice as long for hopped mead to allow it to become more smooth. If you bottle too soon, the mead may taste grassy. If it's grassy, just wait some more – like 3 more months.
Good luck and have fun!
Our Hops
There are so many hops varieties from which to choose. We tend to prefer brown ale, porters, and lagers so I decided to choose a variety of hops most closely related to what we like. Here’s the hops varieties that we have:
- Mt Hood: Aroma. Typical beer styles = Lager, Pilsner, Bock, US Wheat, Alt, Munich Helles
- Centennial: Bittering. Typical beer styles = All US Ales, US Wheat
- Willamette: Bittering. Typical beer styles = All English-Style ales, US Pale, and Brown Ales
Tip! Before starting on this hopped mead recipe-journey, we hosted a fun little tasting party, where we sampled the “tea” made from our own hops plants. It was very fun to learn that each of us had different preferences.
wild sprout 