ABOUT MEAD
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Mead is an alcoholic beverage, which in it's most base form consists of honey, water and yeast.
When the yeast ferments the sugar from the honey it produces alcohol and you get a beverage that can resemble a wine, with honey as the primary contributor to flavour as opposed to grapes. Just like a wine - a mead can be sweet, semi-dry or dry. It can be sparkling or still, high in alcohol or "sessionable" - all depending on the meadmakers intention with the product. |
Different types of mead
Mead made only with honey can sometimes turn out a bit one-dimensional in flavor. Many meadmakers will therefore often incorporate different types of honey in a mead, or add additional flavors by using fruit, berries, spices or herbs to increase complexity in flavor and aroma.
As it is mostly the meadmaker's imagination which limits what kind of mead that can be made, there are loads of more or less obscure subcategories of mead. However, the most frequently made styles are mead with fruit or berries - melomel, and mead with spices and herbs - metheglin.
It is also definitely possible to mix mead with other alcoholic beverages such as beer, cider and wine. In these cases, you get even more complex drinks where honey from the mead is mixed with the flavors of the other beverages to compliment each other. A mead mixed or brewed with beer is called a braggot, while mead with cider or apple juice is called cyser. Mead and wine/grape juice combined is called pyment.
Mead, past and present
Some food historians claim that mead may be the oldest alcoholic beverage in the world.
For example, during the African monsoon period, bees in certain areas will make hives in hollow trees during the dry season. When the rain comes, these trees sometimes get flooded and the bees are driven away. The residual rain water will then make a natural "soup" of honey and water, where the hive once was. The diluted honey will then spontaneously ferment with wild yeast and bacteria, and the raw "mead" will be left inside the tree. The theory (and all this is theory, as archeological evidence from the early human period is rare) is that roaming bands of humans in the area could have found such trees and drunk from the sweet liquid. When the effects of the alcohol took place, the lucky finders surely would have been inclined to gather some of it to bring back to their tribe. From there on, the "divine nectar" would have been an established drink of intoxicating nature.
Up until the breakthrough of wine in the late middle ages as the preferred drink for the rich and powerful in Europe, mead was considered a luxury product. Particularly popular in non-grape cultivating areas, such as the middle and northern hemisphere of Europe, mead was the drink of kings and lords. However, different varieties of mead has been made in other continents and lands, such as Africa, India, China and parts of South America.
Norse mythology in particular is full of stories about the divine characteristics of mead, and its role as inspirational source for bards and poets.
In the late middle ages, mead lost its importance due to several reasons: First of all, the brewing of beer and wine, along with better techniques for storage and transportation, made progress. These drinks could now offer stronger competition in terms of flavor and durability than in earlier times. During this period, the elite shifted their favorite drinks to wine and eventually also to fine spirits. Mead was still expensive to make, and without its status as a beverage for the elites, the foundation for its production slowly dwindled away.
But mead was not completely extinct. Some parts of Europe, particularly in the East and Russia, but also in regions of France, Germany, England and the Balkan countries, retained a fragmented and small, but yet continual production of mead. In this context Poland sticks out, - mead is a "national beverage" in Poland and has managed to become a well-established cultural culinary item, where it is made in several traditional varieties by a number of commercial mead makers.
The last 10 years have seen the art of meadmaking resurface around the world, spurred by the resurrection of craft brewing and the growing interest of beverage diversity, local food and culinary traditions. The U.S. has a booming mead industry, and several countries such as England, Sweden and Denmark has seen the tradition of meadmaking come back through enthusiasts and a growing public interest, both an increasing number of home brewers trying their hands at mead as well as commercial mead makers.
We at Mjøderiet hope that mead once again can become an established part of the Norwegian cultural inheritance, and that people all over the world will open their eyes to the magic of honey, water and yeast.
Mead made only with honey can sometimes turn out a bit one-dimensional in flavor. Many meadmakers will therefore often incorporate different types of honey in a mead, or add additional flavors by using fruit, berries, spices or herbs to increase complexity in flavor and aroma.
As it is mostly the meadmaker's imagination which limits what kind of mead that can be made, there are loads of more or less obscure subcategories of mead. However, the most frequently made styles are mead with fruit or berries - melomel, and mead with spices and herbs - metheglin.
It is also definitely possible to mix mead with other alcoholic beverages such as beer, cider and wine. In these cases, you get even more complex drinks where honey from the mead is mixed with the flavors of the other beverages to compliment each other. A mead mixed or brewed with beer is called a braggot, while mead with cider or apple juice is called cyser. Mead and wine/grape juice combined is called pyment.
Mead, past and present
Some food historians claim that mead may be the oldest alcoholic beverage in the world.
For example, during the African monsoon period, bees in certain areas will make hives in hollow trees during the dry season. When the rain comes, these trees sometimes get flooded and the bees are driven away. The residual rain water will then make a natural "soup" of honey and water, where the hive once was. The diluted honey will then spontaneously ferment with wild yeast and bacteria, and the raw "mead" will be left inside the tree. The theory (and all this is theory, as archeological evidence from the early human period is rare) is that roaming bands of humans in the area could have found such trees and drunk from the sweet liquid. When the effects of the alcohol took place, the lucky finders surely would have been inclined to gather some of it to bring back to their tribe. From there on, the "divine nectar" would have been an established drink of intoxicating nature.
Up until the breakthrough of wine in the late middle ages as the preferred drink for the rich and powerful in Europe, mead was considered a luxury product. Particularly popular in non-grape cultivating areas, such as the middle and northern hemisphere of Europe, mead was the drink of kings and lords. However, different varieties of mead has been made in other continents and lands, such as Africa, India, China and parts of South America.
Norse mythology in particular is full of stories about the divine characteristics of mead, and its role as inspirational source for bards and poets.
In the late middle ages, mead lost its importance due to several reasons: First of all, the brewing of beer and wine, along with better techniques for storage and transportation, made progress. These drinks could now offer stronger competition in terms of flavor and durability than in earlier times. During this period, the elite shifted their favorite drinks to wine and eventually also to fine spirits. Mead was still expensive to make, and without its status as a beverage for the elites, the foundation for its production slowly dwindled away.
But mead was not completely extinct. Some parts of Europe, particularly in the East and Russia, but also in regions of France, Germany, England and the Balkan countries, retained a fragmented and small, but yet continual production of mead. In this context Poland sticks out, - mead is a "national beverage" in Poland and has managed to become a well-established cultural culinary item, where it is made in several traditional varieties by a number of commercial mead makers.
The last 10 years have seen the art of meadmaking resurface around the world, spurred by the resurrection of craft brewing and the growing interest of beverage diversity, local food and culinary traditions. The U.S. has a booming mead industry, and several countries such as England, Sweden and Denmark has seen the tradition of meadmaking come back through enthusiasts and a growing public interest, both an increasing number of home brewers trying their hands at mead as well as commercial mead makers.
We at Mjøderiet hope that mead once again can become an established part of the Norwegian cultural inheritance, and that people all over the world will open their eyes to the magic of honey, water and yeast.