mead making

I attended a mead making and appreciation class at a brewshop in Los Altos on Saturday. Tip of the hat to Chef Bob for forwarding the invite. Turns out our host and guide is an award winning mead maker.

Mead is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey with yeast. It predates both beer and wine, dating back thousands of years BC. It is colloquially known as ‘honey wine.’

We began by tasting 6 different varieties of mead, including one based on a 4,000 year old Sumerian recipe found written on a clay tablet… Other varieties included a pyment (made with grapes) and a braggot (made with malt), a melomel (made with fruit other than apples or grapes - in this case, strawberries and bananas) and a metheglin (herbs & spices added). We then prepared 5 gallons of what will be “a nice dry, lightly spicy metheglin” - in about a year!

Yes, indeed, that is the catch to making mead: patience.

The variety of meads is amazing:

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…

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. ..

Mead can also be distilled to a brandy or liqueur strength. Krupnik is a sweet Polish liqueur made through just such a process.

Different types of mead include, but are not limited to:
Cyser - Cyser is a combination of honey and apple cider.
Pyment - Pyment blends honey and grapes.
Melomel - Melomel is made from honey and any fruit other than grapes or apples.
Metheglin - Metheglin starts with traditional mead but has herbs and spices added.
Hippocras - Hippocras is a combination of Pyment and spices.
Braggot - Braggot (also called bracket or brackett) marks the invention of Ale. Originally brewed with honey and hops, later with honey and malt - with or without hops added. - from the Mead Encylcopedia