This can be done two ways, dry hopping or hopping in the brewing process. You can also do both in the same batch, and this will make for a very strong hop flavor (think IPA, but much sweeter because of honey).

• Dry hopping means adding hops without boiling them to the honey water in the primary ferment. This will get you lots of hop aromas, but not much hop flavor in terms of the body of the mead. I like dry hopping with very fruity, light hops such as modern hazy IPA hops, or those used in light styles of beer like hefeweizen. Strong fruit forward hop notes play well.

• Modern Hop Varieties I’ve Liked: New Zealand Hop varieties, Azacca, Mosai, Willamette

• Euro (more period) Hop varieties: Hallertau Blanc, UK Goldings, Perle

• You can hop in the brewing process also. This will impart all of the flavors of dry hopping, but also more earth, spice and bitterness. When I do this with mead, I will treat my hops like a green tea, steeping them in water that is 175 degrees F for five minutes or so, to control the bitterness.

• In beer, you would boil these within the wort for as much as an hour, however I don’t recommend this. Honey can hold much, much higher temps in a boil and you can get a lot of bad bitterness from overboiling hops in it (I have done this and don’t recommend it, and I like the taste of Malort, so take that warning with context).

• I have only used Saaz hops for this method, and personally prefer milder varieties. You could use Tettanger, Hallertau Blanc, or another similar hop. The world is your oyster though, feel free to experiment.

• You can also use this method for period herbs and hop substitutes like juniper, meadowsweet, and bog myrtle. If you use these, especially foraged, I would steep them in the bulk of your brewing water and boil them, to avoid inoculation from bad molds or bacterias.

• For Juniper or spruce, use young growth like the spruce tips and new growth berries and branches if you can. Older growth works, it is just woodsier and stronger, as opposed to fruitier and lighter.

• Treat bog myrtle the way you would either type of hop. I like dual hopping (that is both dry hopping and brewing) bog myrtle. It makes for an herbal lemon taste in the mead.