The lore and history of mead in germanic cultures owlcation. Margaret mead december 16, 1901 november 15, 1978 was an american cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and 1970s. Mead is not considered a style of beer, since the sugars in mead come from honey, not from the starch of a grain. Most people know that beer is an ageold drink brewed from fermented grains, and wine is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting fruit, but few have ever heard of mead, often referred to as nectar of the gods, made from fermented honey. The process for making mead is more similar to wine making than brewing beer.
However this is not one of these if you want to start brewing. The earliest surviving description of mead is possibly the soma mentioned in the hymns of the rigveda, one of the sacred books of the historical vedic religion and later hinduism dated around 17001100 bce. Our knowledge about brewing comes either from archaeological artifacts or written documents. Sparkling mead results from a second fermentation that retains dissolved carbon dioxide in the bottled product.
Nevertheless, recipes for mead can be found in books. From basic techniques to advanced concepts for making great tasting meads, ken schramm shepherds the prospective mead maker through the equipment, additives, popular honey varietals available, spices, fruits, recipes and even the proper manner of serving the traditional beverage at a mead tasting event. Best 6 books you should read and own if you want to make mead honey wine. The earliest surviving description of mead is possibly the soma. The libations, legends, and lore of historys oldest drink. Exploring the styles of mead mead, sometimes called honey wine, is a beverage rich with history, but often misunderstood. Beer is an especially important drink in countries such as belgium, germany, austria, ireland, the uk england, wales, and scotland, france, the scandinavian countries, poland, the czech republic, spain and others having strong and unique brewing traditions with their own history, characteristic brewing methods, and styles of beer. The history of mead brewing varieties of mead bjcp. One thing we do know is that mead has been around longer than people have been writing down history. On october 2, 20, he bbc released its article entitled the drink of kings makes a comebac k which highlights the growth in popularity of honey wine. Robert gayre traces the history of this ancient brew from its roots in mythology, as the liquor of greek gods, throughout europe.
Mead may be made in a range of styles from dry to offdry to fullon sweet, with some producers bringing fruit, herbs, and even spices into the meadmaking mix. May 18, 2018 make mead like a viking traditional techniques for brewing natural, wild fermented, honeybased wines and beers. How to make your own honey mead mnn mother nature network. Readers will be treated to discussions of yeast and special ingredients, as well as what equipment is. Mead served as president of the american association for the advancement of science.
Obviously, linguistics shows us that it is of welsh origin, but it is greatly. Mead was often given as a honeymoon gift for newlyweds. The best mead is aged as it certainly improves with time, she says. It is a great resource that includes history, how to brew, and a bunch of really lovely sounding simple mead recipes. It is very informative and includes beer history, specifics about brewing processes, different hop and barley varieties used, profiles of the different beer producing countries including regional variants, as well as beer styles, food pairings, glassware, barrel aging techniques, dry hopping, and bottle refermentation, just to name a few. Murder and death, cow mouth, gut rot, bitchy maidajudging from the recipe names, the beerdrinking public of cologne during the middle ages was a tough crowd. Some brewers say that its dry champagne or sweet, smooth, finewine taste is the best. Mar 06, 2015 within the world of mead, there are subgroup. Awardwinning mead maker steve piatz begins with a brief history of the fermented beverage. Archeological digs have turned up meadlike beverages in burial chambers such as the midas yes, that king midas, and as long as 8000 years ago. Brewing better beer strong and homebrew beyond the basics karnowski are allgrain only and brew with rodistilled water so both books have approaches to water chemistry that are ready to measure and dont require spreadsheets. Mead making books and books on mead are for sale online at adventures in homebrewing, a brewing supply shop with mead books, equipment and kits. Wild yeast brewing books about wild beer, wine, mead and more.
I have been making country wines for a few years but i dont come to mead making from beer so i tend to think like a wine maker and not like a brewer. Austin homebrew supply mead recipe kits are made from the highest quality honey and fruit. Bibliographies are updated as new sources are revealed. This is probably because nobody really knows the whole story of mead for certain. For centuries, mead has been the drink of european royalty. Informative, useful and clever, mead is a perfect gift for the person whos already mastered mixology or homebrewing beer. You can picture yourself back in the viking age, raising a drinking horn in celebration. A honey liqueur is made by adding extra honey to mead brandy. Variations have existed through the ages and range from the traditional to complex mixes of fruit juices and spices. Oct, 20 i have just started to get into mead making made a tupelo mead, traditional ethiopian tej, making a mead with a variety of hops and am about to make an orange blossom honey mead.
His first book, make mead like a viking, was published in 2015. The history channel had a program about this a while back. The defining characteristic of mead is that the majority of the beverages fermentable sugar is derived from honey. The first archaeological evidence of honey mead was around 7000 b. The norse of scandinavia had four main types of fermented beverage. With more than 100 color photos, the complete guide to making mead includes dozens of recipes for basic meads honey only, melomels honey and fruit, metheglins honey and spices, and braggots honey and malt. Fruit meads from our melomel recipes are some of the tastiest meads youll ever make. Our favorite story of mead goes something like this. A book that looks at how beer was brewed and consumed. Mead is a beverage as old as the hills and as new as a shiny penny. Mead, one of the worlds oldest alcoholic drinks, has been making a comeback on the back of the boom in craft beer sales of the honeybased drink have grown in supermarkets after winning a. More is a good book for novices starting to explore brewing mead. Indian, celtic, greek, roman, and nordic texts mention mead as a drink of great religious and cultural significance.
Mead dry, sweet or fruit meads are the perfect may to unwind. The initial surge in the mead industry was born from craft beer, explained webber. So now im on the hunt for a book about beer history, or history seen through the lens of beer. Distilleries popped up everywhere in the new england states, and rum was produced in and imported from the carribbean too. Robert gayre on the history and qualities of mead and its various subtypes. During the golden age of ancient greece, mead was said to be the preferred drink. What is sometimes labeled an overlystrong, overlysweet elixir for husky, hornedhelmeted men, is actually a family of styles that can boast. Jan 23, 2016 mary oriordan looks at the long history of honey wine aka mead.
Here is a hard cover, fullyillustrated reprint edition of one of the truly classic brewing books origin and history of beer and brewing. According to the history channel program, rum was the most popular alcoholic beverage in the colonies and later in the us until the distilling of whiskey outpaced it. These were all initially made and served by women and were brewed in the home until men involved themselves in the process and it became a commercial and, finally, religious endeavor once monks became brewers. Ancient drink of mead revived by new fanbase of younger. Other alcoholic beverages made from honey include braggot and mead brandy. Mary oriordan looks at the long history of honey wine aka mead. Wild yeast brewing books about wild beer, wine, mead and.
At some point, a clear genius married the qualities of mead and beer in a hybrid beverage known as braggot. Varieties of mead mead is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting a mixture of honey and water. The flavor, nutrition, and craft of liveculture foods. The history of mead dates back 20,000 to 40,000 years and has its origins on the african continent. My focus is on the history of mead including finding and redacting recipes, and making historical meads dating up to about 1750. Mead recipe kits mead is one of the worlds oldest fermented beverages. With fantastical narratives, homebrewing instructions, and original craft cocktail recipes, mead is the ultimate exploration of the resurgent alcoholic beverage that is nearly as old as time itself. He is a popular public speaker, presenting and holding workshops across the country on topics such as fermentation, natural and holistic homebrewing, modern homesteading, and sustainable living. And after virtually disappearing from common knowledge with the advent of affordable. There many other books about mead brewing in the market with easy instructions. Youd be hardpressed to characterize all braggots under one description, with its vast history and presence around the world. This book is a perfect balance of recipes, history, theory, technique. Mead is known from many sources of ancient history throughout europe, africa, and asia, although archaeological evidence of it is ambiguous. Beloved by figures as diverse as queen elizabeth and thor, the vikings and the greek gods, mead is one of historys most storied beverages.
In order to really understand the history of mead we need to go much further back in time. Archeological digs have turned up mead like beverages in burial chambers such as the midas yes, that king midas, and as long as 8000 years ago. May 06, 2015 hattie ellis, author of two books on bees and honey, sweetness and light and spoonfuls of honey agrees. The libations, legends, and lore of historys oldest.
The secrets of ancient fermentation by stephen harrod buhner is a book i picked up because it was cited in wild fermentation. Make mead like a viking was one of the books that really got the mead movement back in action and you all know how much i love mead. Author and historian stanley wade baron traveled the country trolling countless archives and scouring wellburied resources to uncover beers colorful american history. Brewing mead provides stepbystep recipes for making this tantalising delight. Now you have the opportunity to make some yourself and see. There are even sections on developing recipes and troubleshooting problems with the brewing process. For example, if mead is mixed with beer or brewed with hops and malt, it becomes a hybrid style closer in taste to beer known as braggot. Beer brewing and kegging supplies serving homebrewers since 1999. Braggot, made with malted grain and honey, is part beer.
In the boozesoaked pages of history, mead is about to stage its glorious return. Mead making books homebrewing, beer brewing, wine making. An introduction to mead, the drink of the gods eater. Austin homebrew has a full line of education books ranging in topic from water, malt and yeast to expert recipe design by award winning brewers. Koninklijke brill nv, 2007 a recipe for imal alfuqqa malted barley a recipe for fuqqa made with khubz samidh a recipe for fuqqa alaruzz rice beer a recipe for fuqqa. Arnold set out to fill a void that existed in brewing literature. Charlie papazian shows exactly how ordinary homebrew equipment and ingredients can be used to brew several types of mouthwatering mead.
Awardwinning meadmaker steve piatz begins with a brief history of the fermented beverage. Aug 31, 2017 mead was a very popular drink during the 17th century and before, but fell out of favor by the 18th century due to the rise of beer and ale. The book details the history of mead among greeks, romans, vikings, russians, ethiopians, the english, the polish and americans, with accompanying recipes from those cultures. A nice book about the history of mead and its sources but not to the newbie who desires to start brewing mead. The result was origin and history of beer and brewing a global study of beer throughout history that has remained a cornerstone work for nearly a century. Trace the history and discover the smooth, subtle secrets of mead.
The surviving yeasts became ideal yeasts for wine and beer fermentation. Mead may be made in a range of styles from dry to offdry to fullon sweet, with some producers bringing fruit, herbs, and even spices into the mead making mix. The story of mead and its origins are plentiful, and speculation abounds. Mead was a very popular drink during the 17th century and before, but fell out of favor by the 18th century due to the rise of beer and ale. Home to this delicate golden ale, cologne koln in german enjoys one of the oldest brewing traditions around. Mead, a fermented beverage made from honey, is a drink of myth and mystery. Annals of the caliphs kitchens, the finnish oriental society, 60 helsinki, 1987. I have just started to get into mead making made a tupelo mead, traditional ethiopian tej, making a mead with a variety of hops and am about to make an orange blossom honey mead.
Where to buy the best mead, the historic drink gone hipster. Ancient origins articles related to mead in the sections of history, archaeology, human origins, unexplained, artifacts, ancient places and myths and legends. Brew beer like a yeti is along the same lines, with simple recipes for ales, gruits, and. And after virtually disappearing from common knowledge with the advent of affordable sugar after the mid 1600s, mead has made a comeback. What would you say are the three best books on mead making. The alcoholic content of mead may range from about 8% abv to 18%. Revised ambitious brew is the story of how beer became american.
In the midnineteenth century, a wave of german immigrants, dismayed by americans penchant for whiskey and drunkenness, recreated their beloved, oldworld bier culture. If you ve ever read any of fred minnicks prior books you know that this is well researched. Make mead like a viking traditional techniques for brewing natural, wild fermented, honeybased wines and beers. Make mead like a viking is a fun home brewing book. Theres no brewing boiling stage necessary in making mead. The author opens with the origins of mead and some history of the brew. Its not wine, its not beer, its mead the show goes on to explain. For typesstyles and beer history, consider tasting beer, 2e mosher or complete beer course bernstein. Similar to wine, some meads are built to age a bit and can end up with a port or sherrylike character.