Mead

Swedish elderflower flavored mead.

Mead (/ˈmiːd/; archaic and dialectal "medd"; from Old English "medu",^[1]) is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops.^[2][3][4] The alcoholic content ranges from about 8% ABV^[5] to more than 20%. The defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the beverage's fermentable sugar is derived from honey.^[6] It may be still, carbonated, or naturally sparkling; dry, semi-sweet, or sweet.^[7]

Mead was produced in ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

Mead has played an important role in the beliefs and mythology of some peoples. One such example is the Mead of Poetry, a mead of Norse mythology crafted from the blood of the wise being Kvasir which turns the drinker into a poet or scholar.

The terms "mead" and "honey-wine" often are used synonymously.^[13][14] Some cultures, though, differentiate honey-wine from mead. For example, Hungarians hold that while mead is made of honey, water and beer-yeast (barm), honey-wine is watered honey fermented by recrement of grapes or other fruits.^[15]

History

In Asia, pottery vessels containing chemical signatures of a mixture of honey, rice and other fruits along with organic compounds of fermentation dating from 6500-7000 BC were found in Northern China.^[16] In Europe, it is first attested in residual samples found in the characteristic ceramics of the Bell Beaker Culture (c. 2800 – 1800 BC).^[17]

The earliest surviving description of mead is in the hymns of the Rigveda,^[18] 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.^[19] 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.^[20] The Hispanic-Roman naturalist Columella gave a recipe for mead in De re rustica, about AD 60.

Take rainwater kept for several years, and mix a sextarius^[21] of this water with a [Roman] pound^[22] of honey. For a weaker mead, mix a sextarius of water with nine ounces^[23] of honey. The whole is exposed to the sun for 40 days, and then left on a shelf near the fire. If you have no rain water, then boil spring water.^[24]

There is a poem attributed to the Brythonic-speaking bard Taliesin, who lived around AD 550, called the Kanu y med or "Song of Mead."^[25] The legendary drinking, feasting and boasting of warriors in the mead hall is echoed in the mead hall Din Eidyn (modern day Edinburgh) as depicted in the poem Y Gododdin, attributed to the poet Aneirin who would have been a contemporary of Taliesin. In the Old English epic poem Beowulf, the Danish warriors drank mead. In both Insular Celtic and Germanic cultures mead was the primary heroic drink in poetry.

Later, taxation and regulations governing the ingredients of alcoholic beverages led to commercial mead becoming a more obscure beverage until recently.^[26] 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, a well-known example being at Lindisfarne, where mead continues to be made to this day, albeit not in the monastery itself.

Etymology

The English word mead derives from the Old English meodu,^[1] from Proto-Germanic meduz, from Proto-Indo-European *médʰu (honey, fermented honey drink). Slavic med / miod , which means both "honey" and "mead", (Russian, Czech, Slovak, Serbian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Croatian: med vs. medovina, Polish 'miód' pronounce [mʲjut] - honey, mead) and Baltic medus "honey"/midus "mead", also derive from the same Proto-Indo-European root (cf. Welsh medd, Old Irish mid, Latin mel, Italian miele, Romanian miere, Sanskrit madhu, Sogdian [an Old Iranian language]: muð, Avestan [another Old Iranian language]: maðu, Classical Persian: مُل mul, Classical and New Persian: مِی mey).^[27]

Distribution

Bottles of industrially manufactured Lithuanian mead (Midus)

Mead was also popular in Eastern Europe and in the Baltic states. In the Polish language mead is called miód pitny ([ˈmʲjut ˈpitnɨ]), meaning "drinkable honey". In Russian it is called Medovukha Медовуха, which means the same thing as in Polish. Since the 19th century, in Russia, mead has remained popular in the drinks medovukha and sbiten long after its decline in the West. Sbiten is often mentioned in the works of 19th-century Russian writers, including Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. In Serbia and Montenegro, medovina has been considered a healthy elixir and mentioned often in folk literature.

In Finland, a sweet mead called sima (cognate with the root of zymurgy) is still an essential seasonal fermented product 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. However, the sugar used in modern practice is typically brown sugar, not honey.^[28]

Ethiopian mead (Tej)

Ethiopian mead is called tej (ጠጅ, [ˈtʼədʒ]) and is usually home-made. It is flavored with the powdered leaves and bark of gesho, a hop-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.

Mead known as iQhilika is traditionally prepared by the Xhosa of South Africa.

In the United States, mead is enjoying a resurgence, starting with small home meaderies and now with a number of small commercial meaderies.^[29] As mead becomes more widely available, it is seeing increased attention and exposure from the news media.^[30][31]

Fermentation process

Mead

The yeast used in mead making is often identical to that used in wine making. Many home mead makers choose to use wine yeasts (particularly those used in the preparation of white wines) to make their meads.^[32]

By measuring the specific gravity of the mead once before fermentation and throughout the fermentation process by means of a hydrometer or refractometer, mead makers can determine the proportion of alcohol by volume that will appear in the final product. This also serves another purpose. By measuring specific gravity throughout fermentation, a mead maker can quickly troubleshoot a "stuck" batch, the word "stuck" being used to describe a fermentation process that has halted prematurely.^[33]

Meads will often ferment well at the same temperatures in which wine is fermented.

After primary fermentation slows down significantly the mead is then racked into a second container. This is known as secondary fermentation. Some larger commercial fermenters are designed to allow both primary and secondary fermentation to happen inside of the same vessel. Racking is done for two reasons: it lets the mead sit away from the remains of the yeast cells (lees) that have died during the fermentation process. Second, this lets the mead have time to clear. If the mead maker wishes to backsweeten the product or prevent it from oxidizing, potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate are added. After the mead clears, it is bottled and distributed.

Varieties

Czech Medovina

Mead can have a wide range of flavors depending on the source of the honey, additives (also known as "adjuncts" or "gruit") including fruit and spices, the yeast employed during fermentation and the aging procedure.^[34] Some producers have marketed white wine sweetened and flavored with honey after fermentation as mead, sometimes spelling it "meade."^[34] This is closer in style to a Hypocras. Blended varieties of mead may be known by the style represented; for instance, a mead made with cinnamon and apples may be referred to as either a cinnamon cyser or an apple metheglin.

A mead that also contains spices (such as cloves, cinnamon or nutmeg), or herbs (such as meadowsweet, hops, or even lavender or chamomile), is called a metheglin /mᵻˈθɛɡlɪn/.^[35][36]

A mead that contains fruit (such as raspberry, blackberry or strawberry) is called a melomel,^[37] which was also used as a means of food preservation, keeping summer produce for the winter. A mead that is fermented with grape juice is called a pyment.^[37]

Mulled mead is a popular drink at Christmas time, where mead is flavored with spices (and sometimes various fruits) and warmed, traditionally by having a hot poker plunged into it.

Some meads retain some measure of the sweetness of the original honey, and some may even be considered as dessert wines. Drier meads are also available, and some producers offer sparkling meads.

There are faux-meads, which are actually wines with honey added after fermentation as a sweetener and flavoring.^[38]

Historically, meads were fermented with wild yeasts and bacteria (as noted in the recipe quoted above) residing on the skins of the fruit or within the honey itself. Wild yeasts can produce inconsistent results. Yeast companies have isolated strains of yeast which produce consistently appealing products. Brewers, winemakers and mead makers commonly use them for fermentation, including yeast strains identified specifically for mead fermentation. These are strains that have been selected because of their characteristic of preserving delicate honey flavors and aromas.

Mead can also be distilled to a brandy or liqueur strength. A version called "honey jack" can be made by partly freezing a quantity of mead and straining the ice out of the liquid (a process known as freeze distillation), in the same way that applejack is made from cider.

Mead variants

A homebrewed melomel mead

An American rich dry black hopped mead made from black currants and wildflower honey

Off dry American botanical (Metheglin) mead with juniper, lavender, and marjoram infusions

Bottles of "medica" (r.meditsa) - a mead made in Međimurje County, northern Croatia

Trójniak — a Polish mead, made using two units of water for each unit of honey

• Acerglyn: A mead made with honey and maple syrup.
• Balche: A native Mexican version of mead.
• Bilbemel: A mead made with blueberries, blueberry juice, or sometimes used for a varietal mead that uses blueberry blossom honey.
• Black mead: A name sometimes given to the blend of honey and blackcurrants.
• Bochet: A mead where the honey is caramelized or burned separately before adding the water. Yields toffee, caramel, chocolate and toasted marshmallow flavors.
• Bochetomel: A Bochet style mead that also contains fruit such as elderberries, black raspberries and blackberries.
• Braggot: Also called bracket or brackett. Originally brewed with honey and hops, later with honey and malt—with or without hops added. Welsh origin (bragawd).
• Capsicumel: A mead flavored with chilli peppers, the peppers may be hot or mild.
• Chouchenn: A kind of mead made in Brittany.
• Cyser: A blend of honey and apple juice fermented together; see also cider.
• Czwórniak (TSG): A Polish mead, made using three units of water for each unit of honey.
• Dandaghare: A mead from Nepal, combines honey with Himalayan herbs and spices. It has been produced since 1972 in the city of Pokhara.
• Dwójniak (TSG): 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. The word "gverc" or "gvirc' is from the German "Gewürze" and refers to various spices added to mead.
• Hydromel: Name derived from the Greek ὑδρόμελι hydromeli, i.e. literally "water-honey" (see also μελίκρατον melikraton and ὑδρόμηλον hydromelon). It is also the French name for mead hydromel. (See also and compare with the Catalan hidromel and aiguamel, Galician aiguamel, Portuguese hidromel, Italian idromele and Spanish hidromiel and aguamiel). It is also used as a name for a light or low-alcohol mead.
• Medica/Medovica: Slovenian, Slovakian, variety of mead.
• Medovina: Czech, Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin, Bulgarian, Bosnian and Slovak for mead. Commercially available in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and presumably other Central and Eastern-European countries.
• Medovukha: Eastern Slavic variant (honey-based fermented drink).^[39]
• 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, and morat for examples). Possibly from the Greek μηλόμελι melomeli, literally "apple-honey" or "treefruit-honey" (see also μελίμηλον melimelon).
• Metheglin: Metheglin is traditional mead with herbs or spices added. Some of the most common metheglins are ginger, tea, orange peel, nutmeg, 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".
• Midus: Lithuanian for mead, made of natural bee honey and berry juice. Infused with carnation blossoms, acorns, poplar buds, juniper berries and other herbs, it is often made as a mead distillate or mead nectar, some of the varieties having as much as 75% of alcohol.
• Mõdu: An Estonian traditional fermented drink with a taste of honey and an alcohol content of 4.0% ^[40]
• Morat: Morat blends honey and mulberries.
• Mulsum: Mulsum is not a true mead, but is unfermented honey blended with a high-alcohol wine.
• Myod: Traditional Russian mead, historically available in three major varieties:
  • aged mead ("мёд ставленный"): a mixture of honey and water or berry juices, subject to a very slow (12–50 years) anaerobic fermentation in airtight vessels in a process similar to the traditional balsamic vinegar, creating a rich, complex and high-priced product.
  • drinking mead ("мёд питный"): a kind of honey wine made from diluted honey by traditional fermentation.
  • boiled mead ("мёд варёный"): a drink closer to beer, brewed from boiled wort of diluted honey and herbs, very similar to modern medovukha.
• Omphacomel: A mead recipe that blends honey with verjuice; could therefore be considered a variety of pyment (q.v.). From the Greek ὀμφακόμελι omphakomeli, literally "unripe-grape-honey".
• Oxymel: Another historical mead recipe, blending honey with wine vinegar. From the Greek ὀξύμελι oxymeli, literally "vinegar-honey" (also ὀξυμελίκρατον oxymelikraton).
• Pitarrilla: Mayan drink made from a fermented mixture of wild honey, balché-tree bark and fresh water. ^[41]
• Pyment: Pyment blends honey and red or white grapes. Pyment made with white grape juice is sometimes called "white mead".
• Półtorak (TSG): A Polish great mead, made using two units of honey for each unit of water.
• Red mead: A form of mead made with redcurrants.
• Rhodomel: Rhodomel is made from honey, rose hips, rose petals or rose attar, and water. From the Greek ῥοδόμελι rhodomeli, literally "rose-honey".
• Rubamel: A specific type of Melomel made with raspberries.
• Sack mead: This refers to mead that is made with more honey than is typically used. The finished product contains a higher-than-average ethanol concentration (meads at or above 14% ABV are generally considered to be of sack strength) and often retains a high specific gravity and elevated levels of sweetness, although dry sack meads (which have no residual sweetness) can be produced. According to one theory, the name derives from the fortified dessert wine, sherry (which is sometimes sweetened after fermentation) that, in England, once bore the nickname "sack").^[42] Another theory is that the term is a phonetic reduction of "sake" the name of a Japanese beverage that was introduced to the West by Spanish and Portuguese traders.^[43]
• 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. It can also be champagne-like.
• 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 that subscribe to the BJCP style guidelines, as well as the International Mead Fest, the term "traditional mead" refers to this variety (because mead is historically a variable product, these guidelines are a recent expedient, designed to provide a common language for competition judging; style guidelines per se do not apply to commercial or historical examples of this or any other type of mead).
• Sima: a quick-fermented low-alcoholic Finnish variety, seasoned with lemon and associated with the festival of vappu.
• Tej/Mes: Tej/Mes is an Ethiopian and Eritrean mead, fermented with wild yeasts and the addition of gesho. Recipes vary from family to family.
• Tella/Suwa: Tella is an Ethiopian and Eritrean style of beer; with the inclusion of honey some recipes are similar to braggot.
• Trójniak (TSG): A Polish mead, made using two units of water for each unit of honey.
• White mead: A mead that is colored white with herbs, fruit or, sometimes, egg whites.

Festivals

• Mazer Cup International Mead Competition and Tasting Event -- Sponsored by Gotmead.com, this event is held every year in March in Boulder, Colorado. It is the largest mead event in the world, with over 300 home meads and over 200 commercial meads in competition. There is a Friday tasting event with the gold medal winning commercial meads from the previous year, plus feature meads from around the world.^[44]
• Real Ale Festival in Chicago, Illinois, includes categories for mead as well as cider and perry.^[45]
• Woodbridge International Mead Festival - Sponsored by local residents, it claims to be the only mead festival east of the Mississippi. While few types of mead are available, all are homemade and go through a rigorous judging process.
• Orcas Island Cider and Mead Festival - Sponsored by the Northwest Cider Association - Held each year on the second Saturday in May on Orcas Island in Washington State, includes cider and mead producers along the West Coast of the United States and Canada.^[46]

In literature

Mead is featured in many Germanic myths and folktales such as Beowulf, as well as in other popular works that draw on these myths. Notable examples include books by Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, T. H. White, and Neil Gaiman. It is often featured in books using a historical Germanic setting and in writings about the Viking age. Mead is mentioned many times in Neil Gaiman's 2001 novel, American Gods; it is referred to as the drink of the gods. In the Inheritance Cycle series by Christopher Paolini, the protagonist, Eragon, often drinks mead at feasts. It is also referenced in The Kingkiller Chronicle novel series by Patrick Rothfuss. The protagonist Kvothe is known to drink metheglin. The non-existent "Greysdale Mead" is also drunk, although it is merely water.

See also

• History of alcoholic beverages
• Kilju
• Sima
• Mead hall
• Kombucha

References

Further reading

• Schramm, Ken (2003). The Compleat Meadmaker. Brewers Publications. ISBN 0-937381-82-9. 
• Kerenyi, Karl (1976). Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09863-8. 
• Digby, Kenelm; Jane Stevenson; Peter Davidson (1997). The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Kt Opened 1669. Prospect Books. ISBN 0-907325-76-9. 
• Gayre, Robert; Papazian, Charlie (1986). Brewing Mead: Wassail! In Mazers of Mead. Brewers Publications. ISBN 0-937381-00-4. 

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article mead.

Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on Mead

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