Mead is one of the oldest beverages known to man, but it is often referred to as the “nectar of the gods”. Mead has also had strong ties to Norse Vikings, English kings and Celtic roustabouts. Mead is often spoken and written about in poetic, often lyrical verse. It was mentioned in works by Pliny, Plutarch, Homer, Chaucer, Pepys, Shakespeare, Rabelais and Washington Irving. That mead is not mentioned in the Bible may be attributed to its close association with pagan gods.
Mead is also one of the more natural and uncomplicated beverages known to man, a simple mixture of fermented honey and water. Despite its simplicity, however, it is intoxicatingly enjoyable and when well made, can rival the finest Champagnes in the world. Throughout the millennia, mead was believed to have curative, restorative and aphrodisiac powers.
To understand and appreciate mead is to understand and appreciate honey. Mead is, after all, a simple dilution of honey in water and fermented with yeast. Honey is highly fermentable because it is mostly sugar. Taken as a whole, pure and natural honey is a healthy potion containing a handful of minerals such as iron, potassium and phosphorus, and vitamins A, B, C and K.
Thousands of Different Kinds of Honey
It’s estimated that there are over a thousand different kinds of honey, each of different color and flavor. Most commercially produced honeys are blends of various types, which makes them rather homogenous. For meads with some taste complexity, pure varietal, or “single-source” honey is highly prized. Varietal honeys are defined as those that are derived primarily from a single blossom, such as Fireweed, Tupelo or Orange Blossom.
Commercial meads are not widely available, though they are slowly becoming more popular. Most American made meads are produced at wineries since the equipment and processes are nearly the same. A few, such as White Winter Winery in Iron River, Wisconsin, are strictly meaderies www.whitewinter.com
Meads are typically made and marketed according to their honey source (varietal blossom, etc.) and according to their sweetness level. Meads can range from cloyingly sweet to bone dry. Meads are typically bottled “still”, meaning un-carbonated, but some may be packaged “sparkling”, meaning they are carbonated. Standard alcohol contents in meads are almost identical to wine: 9 to 12 % alcohol by volume.
Just so you’re aware, mead can also be divided into sub-styles. Fermenting plain honey and water produces traditional mead, but by simply adding other flavorings and fermentable sugars, you can produce different styles of mead. Here’s a breakdown of mead sub-styles:
- Braggot is mead made with a portion of fermentables derived from malted grain (in other words, braggot is part beer).
- Cyser is mead to which apple juice is added (making cyser part cider)
- Hippocras is a spiced pyment (a mead made with grape juice and spices)
- Melomel (also called Mulsum) is mead to which fruit juices -other than apple or grape- are added.
- Metheglin is mead to which herbs and spices are added. Gruit is the common term used to refer to a mixture of herbs and spices used to flavor meads.
- Morat is mead to which mulberries are added.
- Pyment (also called Clarre) is mead to which grape juice is added.
One final fun fact on mead: it is believed that the concept of a honeymoon is derived from the ancient belief that drinking honey wine (mead) for one month (from full moon to full moon) was a way to increase fertility among newlyweds!
