Traditional Finnish Lemon Mead (Sima)

Sima is a Finnish, lemon-flavored mead mostly consumed during the celebrations of the 1st of May. A glass of sima is traditionally accompanied by a funnel cake or sugar coated donut.
Ingredients
- 8 litres water
- 500 g brown sugar
- 500 g white sugar
- 2–3 lemons
- ¼ tsp yeast (ordinary baker's yeast, either fresh or dry)
- 1 handful of raisins
Steps
First day
- Sterilize equipment: wash bucket and bottles well. Rinse with boiling water right before use.
- Boil 4 litres water.
- Wash lemons. Peel zest, avoiding bitter white pith. Put zest in container.
- Slice lemons. Remove white pith from slices. Add slices to container.
- Add all sugar to container.
- Pour boiling water on top. Mix until sugar is mostly dissolved.
- Add 4 litres cold water until lukewarm, 35°C to 45°C. Check with thermometer if unsure.
- Add yeast at correct temperature. Dissolve in a small cup of the mixture, then stir back in, or drop in a crumb of fresh yeast.
- Stand overnight at room temperature.
Second day
- Add one spoonful sugar and a few raisins to each bottle. Pour in sima.
- Stand bottles at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, 2 more days. Raisins float to surface.
- Move bottles to refrigerator. Serve cold. Keeps at least a week refrigerated.
Notes from the original
- For a simpler process, just squeeze in the juice of 1–2 lemons instead of removing the pith.
- You may use 1 kg brown sugar instead of mixing white and brown to make a darker sima with a stronger brown sugar flavour.
- All the sugar may optionally be replaced with 1 kg honey.
- You can put the bottled sima into the refrigerator immediately instead of fermenting overnight at room temperature. This will cause the fermentation to be slower; the sima will be ready in approximately 5–7 days.
- Plastic soda bottles are recommended as pressure can build up in the bottles. An exploding plastic bottle is less dangerous than an exploding glass bottle.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Traditional Finnish Lemon Mead (Sima)” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-06-17, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Sima.jpg by Ville Koistinen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.






