PREPARATION AND EVALUATION OF MEAD

Mead is an alcoholic beverage which is obtained by fermentation of honey must, with the possible addition of various spices and hops having about 9% to 18% alcohol by volume. Honey itself contains many phenolic and flavonoids which are great source of antioxidants the content of which increases upon further fermentation of honey. Therefore, consumption of honey or mead has huge positive health impact. Honey consists of more than 70% sugar therefore the fermentation is carried out by dilution of honey by adding appropriate water. The fermentation of honey to produce mead was done using different honey and the quality of the mead was determined by alcohol content, antioxidant activity, total soluble solid and organoleptic quality of all the produced mead was analyzed. Four different honeys were collected out of which two were commercial honey and two were honey from local market. Twelve different blend of honey musts were prepared. The fermentation process was carried out by Saccharomyces cerevisiae standard culture for the production of alcohol. Standard wine yeast and bakers yeast were used as starter culture. The fermentation was carried out until constant total soluble solid was obtained. The alcohol content of the mead was in the range of 9% to 12%. The fermented mead also showed antioxidant activity, and had acceptable organoleptic characteristics.