The Joy of Brewing Cider, Mead, and Herbal Wine ― How to Craft Seasonal Fast-brew Favorites at Home

You’re ready to try your hand at home brewing, but you want to try something unique—and you also have no idea where to start. This is the book for you. Broken into three sections—mead, cider, and herbal wine—you’ll learn what basic equipment you’ll need, what ingredients to have on hand, and author Nancy Koziol will walk you through each step of the process. Along the way, you’ll pick up some fun facts about ethical consumption, sustainable farming, and the science behind fermenting.

Whether you want to try a simple honey mead, a crisp apple or pear cider, or a wild wine with herbs foraged from your backyard, in these pages you’ll find the inspiration and instruction you need to follow through to the finished product. Many of these drinks are brewed in a matter of weeks rather than months, so you don’t even have to be particularly patient! Once you get the hang of the basics, try experimenting with the suggested seasonal additions, or whatever fruit, herb, or spice is ready for harvest (or on sale at the local market). Add some ginger to your cider, some blackberries to your wine, or some pumpkin to your mead for brews that are truly your own.

With a unique focus on local, seasonal produce and sustainable farming practices, this will appeal to seasoned brewers who are looking for something new as well as eco-conscious millennials ready to impress their friends on Instagram. Fascinating tidbits of trivia, information on health benefits, and a dash of humor make this book as entertaining as it is useful.

Nancy Koziol is a lover of all sorts of fermented drinks: wine, beer, cider. She began writing about wine for two emerging wine blogs: Winedom: The Wine Dominion and Wine Turtle. She has also traveled extensively through various wine-producing climates touring, tasting, and learning. She enjoys following the news from emerging regions (Chinese and Indian wine anyone?), has a particular interest in how climate change affects the wine world, and is fascinated by the politics of wine. While particularly fond of South American reds, her current favorite is Brooklyn Oenology’s Orange Gewuurztraminer. She works in Digital Marketing as chief content writer for a small firm and is working toward her first fiction publication. Nancy lives in Bennington, Vermont with her husband, two dogs, a cat, and a lot of beer.