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Rhubarb has a sweet-tart flavor that comes through beautifully in homemade rhubarb mead. Though it’s technically a vegetable, the stalks contain both sugar and acid, which gives them a fruit-like flavor. That acidic sweetness makes them a good candidate for brewing.

This recipe is for a single quart of rhubarb mead using my small batch mead method. With just a cup of rhubarb and a cup of honey, you can have your own bottle of homemade rhubarb mead. This works out well if you’re not sure you’ll like it, or you just have a small rhubarb patch.

If you have a lot of rhubarb on hand, try a gallon batch of rhubarb wine. My rhubarb wine recipe uses sugar to extract the juice from the rhubarb, meaning that you’re using fresh rhubarb juice for your wine instead of water. That process takes a lot more than a handful of rhubarb and is best suited to gardeners with a bumper crop of rhubarb.

The first time we made rhubarb mead, we went with a traditional 5 gallon batch. I just pulled the last bottle of rhubarb mead out of the basement…7 years later. We love brewing, but who needs 20 bottles of any single mead?

That’s one of the reasons to make small batches. You can brew as many batches in a year as your heart desires, and you don’t have to kill your liver in the process. It allows for experimentation without the risk of huge amounts of waste.

Start with a one-quart mason jar and add 1 cup of honey. Toss in 1 cup of chopped rhubarb and a teaspoon of lemon juice for a bit of extra acid.

With a full cup of honey, this is going to be a sweet mead. If you’re hoping for a dry rhubarb mead, reduce the honey to as low as 2/3 cup for a one-quart batch.

I think rhubarb has a bit of tannic bite in the flavor, so I didn’t add a black tea bag to this batch. The tannins in black tea help to round out a mead, but I’ve found it unnecessary with rhubarb mead. If you’d like, add a few tablespoons of strongly brewed black tea.

With the fruit in this mead, it’s technically a melomel. For melomel, I don’t add any yeast nutrient or raisins to a batch because the fruit helps provide extra micronutrients for the yeast. I haven’t had any issues with this technique for melomels, but if yours don’t ferment well, try adding just a pinch of yeast nutrient or a few raisins.

I’d suggest using wine yeast rather than baking yeast for this recipe, as baking yeast can cause off-flavors.

Since this is such a small batch recipe, there’s no need to get a siphon for bottling. Simply pour the rhubarb mead through a fine-mesh strainer to remove any chunks of rhubarb. Be careful to pour slowly, and leave the yeast sediment at the bottom of the fermentation jar.

Filtering rhubarb mead — Filtering the rhubarb mead through a fine-mesh strainer to remove the chunks of rhubarb before bottling. Notice how all the color has been leached out of the rhubarb. It provides a beautiful pink hue to the finished rhubarb mead.

Once the rhubarb mead has been filtered, it’s time for bottling. If you weren’t careful during the filtering phase and you kicked up a good bit of yeast sediment into the brew, attach the airlock again and allow it to ferment for another 1-3 days so that the yeast sediment can settle out. Then try again, pouring the mead off slowly so that the yeast sediment stays behind.

To bottle, simply use a funnel to pour the mead into a flip-top Grolsch bottle. They’re much simpler to use than a full wine corking setup, especially for small batches that will be consumed quickly.

Bottling rhubarb mead using a simple funnel and Grolsch bottle.

Allow the rhubarb mead to mature in the bottle for at least 2 weeks before drinking, but preferably at least 2 months.

Enjoy!

4.42 from 17 votes

Servings: glasses (1 quart, about 1 bottles)

Rhubarb Mead (Honey Wine)

By Ashley Adamant

This sweet summer honey wine captures the flavor of rhubarb in a bottle. Since it’s a small batch, you can make this recipe with just a few handfuls of chopped rhubarb.

Prep: 30

Fermentation Time: 60

Total: 60 30

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Equipment

Quart Mason Jar (Wide Mouth) for a quart batch
Mason Jar Fermentation Lids (Silicone) for a quart batch
One Gallon Wide Mouth Carboy If making a one-gallon batch

Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

Instructions

**This recipe makes a micro batch (1 quart, or about 1 bottle). Quantities for a standard 1 gallon batch (4 bottles) are in the notes.
Add the honey and rhubarb into a quart mason jar. If you'd like, allow the honey to draw the juices out of the chopped rhubarb for 24 hours, but that's optional.
Add the lemon juice and water to the mason jar and stir to incorporate and dissolve the honey.
Dissolve 1/4 packet of wine yeast in a small amount of water. Allow it to bloom for at least 5 minutes before adding it into the mason jar. Top the jar with water if necessary to bring it to within an inch of the top.
Seal the quart mason jar with a mason jar fermentation kit and allow to ferment at room temperature for about 6 weeks.
Once fermentation has stopped, gently pour the mead into another container, leaving behind any sediment in the jar. Pour it through a fine-mesh strainer to remove any rhubarb hunks.
Bottle in a flip-top Grolsch bottle and let it age for at least 2 more weeks before drinking.

Notes

For wine yeast, my favorite yeast for mead is Lavin QA23. I’ve tried many types, and it gives the best results regardless of the mead type.

To make a standard 1-gallon batch, simply multiply the quantities by 4. You’ll need:

4 cups chopped rhubarb
4 cups honey (about 3 lbs)
12 cups water
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 packet wine yeast

The instructions are the same: simply use a fermentation bucket for the primary or a wide-mouth glass carboy.

You can also make a larger 3 or 5 gallon batch. Just multiply the recipe, except for the yeast. A single packet of yeast is sufficient for anywhere between 1 gallon and 5 gallons of wine or mead. For micro batches, a full packet is overkill, so just do a tiny bit from the packet (about 1/4 or so).

Nutrition

Calories: 264kcal, Carbohydrates: 71g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 0.1g, Saturated Fat: 0.01g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.03g, Monounsaturated Fat: 0.01g, Sodium: 13mg, Potassium: 133mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 70g, Vitamin A: 31IU, Vitamin C: 3mg, Calcium: 37mg, Iron: 0.4mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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Mead Recipes

Looking for more mead recipes? Try any of these:

Rhubarb Mead ~ Small Batch Honey Wine Recipe #mead #meadrecipe #homebrew #honeywine #fermentation #fermenteddrinks #rhubarb #rhubarbrecipes

4.42 from 17 votes (10 ratings without comment)

87 Comments

Michelle says:

September 18, 2026 at 8:54 pm

I’m always looking for new Rhubarb recipes. And my daughter had been looking for mead. So a perfect combination! Can’t wait to try.

One question. Would frozen Rhubarb work? Thawed first?
Thanks!

1. Ashley Adamant says:
  
  September 29, 2026 at 11:58 am
  
  So glad you found it! Yes, frozen rhubarb works great. Freezing actually breaks down the cell walls, so it releases its juice even more easily than fresh. You can thaw it first or just add it frozen and let it come to room temperature before you add the yeast. Either way, be sure to use any juice that comes out as it thaws. Enjoy!