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'Mead' () is a fermented alcoholic beverage made of honey, water, and yeast. Meadhing () is the practice of brewing honey. Mead is also colloquially known as "honey wine". A brewery that deals specifically in Mead is called either a meadery or a mazery.
A mead that also contains spices (like cloves, cinnamon or nutmeg) or herbs (such as oregano or even lavender or chamomile) is called 'metheglin' (). The English usage is derived from the Old English ''medu'', from Proto-Germanic ''meduz''. Slavic ''miod / med'', which means "honey" and Baltic
★ ''midus'', which means "mead", derive from the same Proto-Indo-European root (cf Welsh medd, Old Irish mid).
A mead that contains fruit (such as strawberry, blackcurrant or even rose hips) is called 'melomel' and was also used as a means of food preservation, keeping summer produce for the winter.
Mulled mead is a popular winter holiday drink, where mead is flavored with spices (and sometimes various fruits) and warmed, traditionally by having a hot poker plunged into it.

Contents

History

In literature

Varieties

Mead variants

Religious usage

Germanic neopaganism

Ethiopia

Festivals

See also

References

Further reading

External links

History

The first known description of mead is in the hymns of the Rigveda,^[1] one of the sacred books of the historical Vedic religion and (later) Hinduism dated around 1700–1100 BC. During the "Golden Age" of Ancient Greece, mead was said to be the preferred drink.^[2] Aristotle (384–322 BC) discussed mead in his ''Meteorologica'' and elsewhere, while Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79) called mead ''militites'' in his ''Naturalis Historia'' and differentiated wine sweetened with honey or "honey-wine" from mead.^[3]
Around AD 550, the Brythonic speaking bard Taliesin wrote the ''Kanu y med'' or "Song of Mead."^[4] The legendary drinking, feasting and boasting of warriors in the mead hall ''Heorot'' in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem ''Beowulf'' is echoed in the mead hall ''Dyn Eidyn'' now modern day Edinburgh in the epic poem ''Y Gododdin'', both dated around AD 700. Mead is still drunk by modern Celts, Welsh for mead is ''Medd'', and ''Leanne Meala'' in Scottish Gaelic.
Mead was the historical beverage ''par excellence'' and commonly brewed by the Germanic tribes in Northern Europe. However, heavy taxation and regulations on the ingredients of alcoholic beverages such as the Reinheitsgebot or ''Purity Laws'' led to commercially made mead becoming a more obscure beverage up until recently.^[5] Some monasteries kept up the old traditions of mead-making as a by-product of beekeeping, especially in areas where grapes could not be grown.
In many parts of Europe it was traditional to supply a newly married couple with enough mead for a month, ensuring happiness and fertility. From this practice we get ''honeymoon'' or, as the French say, ''lune de miel''^[6][7] However, this etymology is not accepted by linguists. ^[8]
Mead was also popular in Central Europe and in the Baltic states. In Polish mead is called ''miód pitny'' (pronounced ), meaning "drinkable honey". In Russia, mead remained popular as medovukha and sbiten long after its decline in popularity in the West. Sbiten is often mentioned in the works of 19th-century Russian writers, including Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.
In Finland, a sweet mead called ''Sima'' (cognate with zymurgy), is still an essential seasonal brew connected with the Finnish Vappu (May Day) festival. It is usually spiced by adding both the pulp and rind of a lemon. During secondary fermentation, raisins are added to control the amount of sugars and to act as an indicator of readiness for consumption; they will rise to the top of the bottle when the drink is ready.
Ethiopian mead is called ''tej'' and is usually home-made. It is flavored with the powdered leaves and bark of ''gesho'', a hops-like bittering agent which is a species of buckthorn. A sweeter, less-alcoholic version called ''berz'', aged for a shorter time, is also made. The traditional vessel for drinking ''tej'' is a rounded vase-shaped container called a ''berele''.

In literature

''Forthcoming''

★ Norse mythology

★ Greek mythology

Varieties

Mead can have a wide range of flavors, depending on the source of the honey, additives called "adjuncts" or "gruit" (including fruit and spices), yeast employed during fermentation, and aging procedure. Mead can be difficult to find commercially, though some producers have been successful marketing it. Consumers must bear in mind that some producers have marketed white wine with added honey as mead, often spelling it "meade". Blended varieties of mead can be known by either style represented. For instance, a mead made with cinnamon and apples can be referred to as a cinnamon cyser or as an apple metheglin.
Some meads retain some measure of the sweetness of the original honey, and some can even be considered as dessert wines. Drier meads are also available, and some producers offer sparkling meads, which (like champagne) can make for a delightful celebratory toast. There are a number of faux-meads, which are actually cheap wines with large amounts of honey added, to produce a cloyingly sweet liqueur. It has been said that "a mead that tastes of honey is as good as a wine that still tastes of grape".
Historically, meads would have been fermented by wild yeasts and bacteria (as noted in the above quoted recipe) residing on the skins of the fruit or within the honey itself. Wild yeasts generally provide inconsistent results, and in modern times various brewing interests have isolated the strains now in use. Certain strains have gradually become associated with certain styles of mead. Mostly, these are strains that are also used in beer or wine production. Several commercial labs, such as White Labs, WYeast, Vierka, and others have gone so far as to develop strains specifically for mead.
Mead can also be distilled to a brandy or liqueur strength. Krupnik is a sweet Polish liqueur made through just such a process. A simple version of this called "honey jack" can be made by partly freezing a quantity of mead and pouring off the liquid without the ice crystals (a process known as freeze distillation), the same way applejack is made from cider.

Mead variants

★ 'Braggot' — Braggot (also called bracket or brackett). Originally brewed with honey and hops, later with honey and malt — with or without hops added.

★ 'Black mead' — A name sometimes given to the blend of honey and blackcurrants.

★ 'Capsicumel' is a mead flavored with chile peppers.

★ 'Chouchenn' is a kind of mead made in Brittany.

★ 'Cyser' — A blend of honey and apple juice fermented together; ''see also cider''.

★ 'Czwórniak' — A Polish mead, made using three units of water for each unit of honey

★ 'Dwójniak' — A Polish mead, made using equal amounts of water and honey

★ 'Great mead' — Any mead that is intended to be aged several years. The designation is meant to distinguish this type of mead from "short mead" (see below.)

★ 'Gverc' or 'Medovina' — Croatian mead prepared in Samobor and many other places. Word “gverc” or “gvirc” is from German "Gewürze" and it refers to different spices added to mead.

★ 'Hydromel' — Hydromel literally means "water-honey" in Greek. It is also the French name for mead. (Compare with the Spanish ''hidromiel'' and ''aquamiel'', Italian ''idromele'' and Portuguese ''hidromel''). It is also used as a name for a very light or low-alcohol mead.

★ 'Medica' — Slovenian variety of Mead.

★ 'Medovina' — Czech, Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian and Slovak for mead. Commercially available in Czech Republic, Slovakia and presumably other Central and Eastern European countries.

★ 'Medovukha' — Eastern Slavic variant (honey-based fermented drink)

★ 'Melomel' — Melomel is made from honey and any fruit. Depending on the fruit-base used, certain melomels may also be known by more specific names (see cyser, pyment, morat for examples)

★ 'Metheglin' — Metheglin starts with traditional mead but has herbs and spices added. Some of the most common metheglins are ginger, tea, orange peel, coriander, cinnamon, cloves or vanilla. Its name indicates that many metheglins were originally employed as folk medicines. The Welsh word for mead is ''medd'', and the word "metheglin" derives from ''meddyglyn'', a compound of ''meddyg'', "healing" + ''llyn'', "liquor".

★ 'Morat' — Morat blends honey and mulberries.

★ 'Mulsum' — Mulsum is not a true mead, but is unfermented honey blended with a high-alcohol wine.

★ 'Omphacomel' — A mediæval mead recipe that blends honey with verjuice; could therefore be considered a variety of pyment (''qv'').

★ 'Oxymel' — Another historical mead recipe, blending honey with wine vinegar.

★ 'Pitarrilla' — Mayan drink made from a fermented mixture of wild honey, balche tree bark and fresh water.

★ 'Pyment' — Pyment blends honey and red or white grapes. Pyment made with white grape juice is sometimes called "white mead."

★ 'Półtorak' — A Polish mead, made using two units of honey for each unit of water

★ 'Rhodomel' — Rhodomel is made from honey, rose hips, petals or rose attar and water.

★ 'Sack mead' — This refers to mead that is made with more copious amounts of honey than usual. The finished product retains an extremely high specific gravity and elevated levels of sweetness. It derives its name from the fortified dessert wine Sherry (which is sometimes sweetened after fermentation and in England once bore the nickname of "sack").

★ 'Short mead' — Also called "quick mead". A type of mead recipe that is meant to age quickly, for immediate consumption. Because of the techniques used in its creation, short mead shares some qualities found in cider (or even light ale): primarily that it is effervescent, and often has a cidery taste.

★ 'Show mead' — A term which has come to mean "plain" mead; that which has honey and water as a base, with no fruits, spices or extra flavorings. Since honey alone often does not provide enough nourishment for the yeast to carry on its life-cycle, a mead that is devoid of fruit, etc. will sometimes require a special yeast nutrient and other enzymes to produce an acceptable finished product. In most competitions (including all those using the BJCP style guidelines as well as the International Mead Fest) the term "traditional mead" is used for this variety.

★ 'Tej' — Tej is an Ethiopian mead, fermented with wild yeasts (and bacteria), and with the addition of ''gesho''. Recipes vary from family to family, with some recipes leaning towards ''braggot'' with the inclusion of grains.

★ 'Trójniak' — A Polish mead, made using two units of water for each unit of honey.

Religious usage

Germanic neopaganism

In direct relation to the ancient use of Germanic tribes of mead, Mead is now an integral ritual component in Ásatrú and in Germanic neopaganism. It is privately brewed by some adherents for drinking purposes as well as for religiously significant occasions such as blóts and Sumbel.

Ethiopia

Ethiopian mead is traditionally used in funerary rituals.

Festivals

★ 'International Mead Festival' — Sponsored by the International Mead Association, this festival is held every year on the weekend closest to Valentine's Day in or near Denver, Colorado. It claims to be the largest and most prestigious mead festival in the world. Both professional and home-brewed meads are judged.^[9]

★ 'Real Ale Festival' in Chicago, Illinois includes categories for Mead as well as Cider and Perry.^[10]

See also

★ History of alcohol

★ Honey

★ Mead hall

★ Meadher

References

1. Rigveda Book 5 v. 43:3–4, Book 8 v. 5:6, etc
2. Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, , Karl, Kerenyi, Princeton University Press, , ISBN 0-691-09863-8
3. Natural History XIV, , , Pliny the Elder, , ,
4. ''Llyfr Taliesin'' XIX
5. Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation, , Stephen Harrod, Buhner, Siris Books, , ISBN 0-937381-66-7
6. Wassail! In Mazers of Mead, , Robert, Gayre, Brewers Publications - Boulder, CO, , ISBN 0-937381-00-4 , p.22
7. Making Mead, , Bryan, Acton, The Amateur Winemaker, , SBN 900841-07-9 , p.14
8. Etymonline reference
9. International Mead Festival official website
10. Real Ale Festival official website

Further reading

★ The Compleat Meadmaker, , Ken, Schramm, Brewers Publications, , ISBN 0-937381-82-9

★ Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, , Karl, Kerenyi, Princeton University Press, , ISBN 0-691-09863-8

★ The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Kt Opened 1669, , Kenelm, Digby, Prospect Books, , ISBN 0-907325-76-9

★ Brewing Mead: Wassail! In Mazers of Mead, , Robert, Gayre, Brewers Publications, , ISBN 0-937381-00-4

External links

★ East Cowdry Bootleggers A short history and home-brewing recipes

★ Gotmead.com A large site with over 1200 pages of mead-related info

★ MeadWorks.ca A Canadian-based mead brewing club, resource and e-zine

★ RealBeer.com Mead resources

★ Mead Lovers Digest