Mead

Mead is a honey wine made of Water, Honey and yeast. Basically you mix the honey in water and put in some yeast and let it ferment. Mead is believed to be the oldest alcohol drink known to man. Bees would hive in trees and make honey and the rain would sometimes mix in with the honey. The wild yeast in the air would then ferment the mixture in to "Mead". The Vikings used to believe that when a young man and woman was getting married they would spend a moon cycle celebrating and drinking mead. This is where the word "honeymoon" came from. It was believed that the mead would make a man more fertile and the couple would soon produce a male offspring.

Mead seems to get better with age so it takes some time to actually get to where you can drink the great beverage.  There are many varieties of mead with different ingredients used. A Traditional Mead is basically water, honey and yeast. where a  Metheglin is a Traditional Mead with spices added. A Melomel is a Traditional with fruit added and a Pyment is a Traditional with grapes or grape juice added. A Cyser is a Mead that has the honey added to Apple Juice insted of water and there is also Braggot which is a mead made which is more of a Beer/Traditional Mead combination.  And finally there is an open category mead which is a combination of the different styles - for example a Cinnamon Raspberry Mead where spice and fruit are put into the mead.

Some people boil the water and add the honey and continue the boil for a short time where others just heat water a little and add the honey while some people just mix the honey in tap water. You can try making your mead different ways to see which is the best way for you to develop your procedures.

Here is a site that tells how to go about making mead with pictures and info.

Making Mead

Any questions about mead can be answered by going to the mentor page and send your questions to one of the Meadmaking Mentors.

We hope to have a mead tasting sometime in 2007 so watch the main page for any details.