Mead! A short history

Often called "man's oldest brew", or the first alcoholic drink, usually both, mead is unanimously touted as a magical beverage. Admittedly it is not beer, but then again it is not wine - as so often it is called; honey wine. It is mead. And Upship! Brewing is making some! So, I thought I would share what I've learned about this mystical fluid.

As early as 7000BC folks have been brewing up mead (in China). These days I can't find the stuff anywhere! The standard ingredients are Honey (and lots of it too), Water, and yeast. From here you can take off in whatever direction you like. There are cysers (apple and honey), Braggot (honey and hops, or honey and barley, or all three? Very confusing), Capsicumel (with chili peppers!), Melomel - current Upship! preference (fruit added), Midus (made with berry juics, herbs, spices, and usually distilled down to a high proof "nectar"), and Great Mead (aged), to name a few - and only a few. The names of these brews alone bely the ancient legacy of this substance, and the few examples I just provided of it's branch off's should give you some idea of the endless possibilities provided by mead.

There is no shortage of myth and legend behind "the drink of the gods" often thought to be the same as the Ambrosia of the Greek Gods, most certainly the drink of legend from norse mythology, and slowly becoming a legend of its on in the brewing community. If you're looking for a recipe yourself, you could start with this basic formula:

-13 pounds of honey
- 3 or 4 Gallons of clear cold water
- Your chosen yeast; there are special strains for mead, or you can use high gravity, or champagne yeast
- You know what to do with it from here, the mead can take between 6 weeks and a year to fully ferment and mature - taste it as you go, and drink it when you like it.
For a little more detail on how I went about it - see the previous post about Y.U.M.!

And finally, a little about the honey and therefore the Bees! As with all brewing, your final product is completely correlated to the ingredients you start with and with mead that starts with the honey - which starts with the bees and the places they collect their nectar from. This is what defines the honey - clover honey comes from clovers, orange blossom from flowering orange trees, buckwheat from - yep you got it - buckwheat! Then there are different grades of honey - based mostly on moisture content (18.6% being the greatest percentage allowed for Grade A), taste (the absence of off flavors - Grade A = totally void), impurities (the visible sort), and clarity; HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH COLOR! Great honey can be anywhere from water white to dark amber - and color has nothing to do with taste either. One thing to note is that moisture content is important as higher moisture content can allow wild yeasts to be carried by the honey - which may throw off your fermentation (haven't heard of any specific examples though). In short, find some quality apiaries and do some research on what kind of honey you want to use!

Buzz Buzz Buzz,
Jack