Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Alcoholic drinks from Lithuania

Midus (Lithuanian mead)midus

Midus is Lithuanian mead. Honey is dissolved in water, flavoured with hops and herbs such as linden blossom and juniper, and fermented with beer yeast in wooden or enamelled vessels. Makers refill the vessel with fresh honey must several times over up to three months, then rack, blend and age the mead for months.

DocumentedAlcoholic drinks6 months – 9 monthsFamily: Mead (base flow)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceProportions from the industrial method in Lithuanian patent LT3022B (1994); it gives no honey-to-water ratio. Home makers vary them.
HoneyLiquid or crystallised honey, dissolved in water at 30–35 °C[lt3022b]
Citric acid, or fruit and berry juice2–3 g/LHoney holds little acid (up to 2 g/kg)[lt3022b]
Hops, juniper berries, linden blossomAdded as water extracts, boiled 15 min and filtered[lt3022b]
Brewer's yeast culture5–10 % of the volume[lt3022b]
Ammonium chloride or diammonium phosphate0.3–0.5 g/LHoney alone lacks the nitrogen yeast needs[lt3022b]
Starterdefined-culture (pure-culture beer yeast)

Total time across the recorded steps: 6 months – 9 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
30–35 °C

What changes: Honey dissolves into warm water to make the must

Step 1 of 5
Dissolve the honey in water
Time
Not documented
Temperature
30–35 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts

Wikipedia says old Lithuanian mead was made by simmering honey water with thyme, lemon, cinnamon, cherries, linden blossom, juniper and hops, then strain it. Output: honey must.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Midus is Lithuanian mead. Honey is dissolved in water, flavoured with hops and herbs such as linden blossom and juniper, and fermented with beer yeast in wooden or enamelled vessels. Makers refill the vessel with fresh honey must several times over up to three months, then rack, blend and age the mead for months. Made in 5 steps over 6 months – 9 months. The longest step, age in full vessels, takes 3–6 months (Semenienė V.-B 1994) and runs at 5–18 °C (Semenienė V.-B 1994). Brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), added as a pure culture does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3–6 monthsReported[lt3022b]Age in full vessels
Temperature5–18 °CReported[lt3022b]Age in full vessels

What makes this one different

Midus is flavoured with hops as well as herbs, and it is fermented with beer yeast by refilling the vessel with fresh must several times instead of in one batch.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Older home methodHoney, water and hops boiled until half the liquid is gone, fermented with yeast and bread crusts for 2 days, sweetened cranberry juice added, fermented 2–3 days more, then bottled and kept cold for 3–4 weeks.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

An older method the patent describes boiled honey, water and hops until half the liquid was gone, then fermented it with yeast and bread crusts. A Soviet-era industrial method boiled the honey must with hops and fermented it with beer yeast, refilling the vessel twice; a 1992 Lithuanian patent replaced boiling with dissolving at 30–35 °C to keep the honey's aroma.

  1. [lt3022b] Semenienė V.-B., Semenas V. 1994, Lietuviško midaus gamybos būdas (method of making Lithuanian mead), Lithuanian patent LT3022B, priority 15 September 1992spec
  2. [s2] Wikipedia, Midus (outline only)wiki