A Brief History Of Mead

From heritagedaily.com

Mead or “honey-wine” is a fermented honey drink with water that has been produced for thousands of years throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.

Mead – “fermented honey drink” – derives from the Old English meodu or medu, and Proto-Germanic, *meduz. The name has connections to Old Norse mjöðr, Middle Dutch mede, and Old High German metu, among others.

The earliest recorded evidence dates from 7000BC, where archaeologists discovered pottery vessels from the Neolithic village of Jiahu in Henan province, China that contained the chemical signatures of honey, rice and compounds normally associated with the process of fermentation.

Mead became present in Europe between 2800 to 1800BC during the European Bronze Age. Throughout this period, the Bell Beaker culture or short Beaker culture was producing the “All Over Ornamented (AOO)” and the “Maritime Type” beaker pottery. The beakers are suggested to have been produced primarily for alcohol consumption, with some examples of these pottery forms containing chemical signatures for mead production.

Bell Beakers from the Logabirumer Feld in Leer (East Frisia)

Credit : Hartmann Linge

During the Golden Age of Ancient Greece, mead “hydromeli” proceeded wine and was a stable beverage of Grecian culture. Hydromeli was even the preferred tipple of Aristotle, in which he discussed mead in his Meteorologica.

The German classical scholar, W. H. Roscher suggested that mead was even the nectar or ambrosia of the Gods. He compared ambrosia to honey, with their power of conferring immortality due to the supposed healing and cleansing powers of honey, which is in fact anti-septic, and because fermented honey (mead) preceded wine as an entheogen in the Aegean world; on some Minoan seals, goddesses were represented with bee faces (compare Merope and Melissa).

This is supported in the archaic versions of the stories of the gods. The Orphists preserve a tale about the cruel guile of Zeus who surprised his father Kronos when he was drunk on the honey of wild bees and castrated him.

Mead “aquamulsum” or just “mulsum” was also common during the Imperial Roman era and came in various forms. Mulsum was a freshly made mixture of wine and honey (called a pyment today) or simply honey left in water to ferment; and conditum was a mixture of wine, honey and spices made in advance and matured (arguably more a faux-mead).

The Hispanic-Roman naturalist Columella gave a recipe for mead in De re rustica, around 60 BCE.

“Take rainwater kept for several years, and mix a sextarius of this water with a [Roman] pound of honey. For a weaker mead, mix a sextarius of water with nine ounces 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 rainwater, then boil spring water.”

Alcoholic drinks made from honey would become very popular within the Early Middle Ages and Medieval Europe. This was especially so among the Native Brythonic cultures, Anglo-Saxons, Germans, and Scandinavians. However, wines remained the preferred beverage in warmer climates in what is now Italy, Spain and France.

Anglo-Saxon literature such as Mabinogion, Beowulf and the Brythonic writings of the Welsh poet Taliesin (who wrote the Kanu y med or “Song of Mead ) describe mead as the drink of Kings and Thanes. In the Old English epic poem Beowulf set in Scandinavia, Beowulf comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel.

In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales – The Miller’s Tale, mead is described as the draught of townfolk and used to court a fair lady. Chaucer also makes mention of spiking his claret with honey.

“He sent her sweetened wine and well-spiced ale
And waffles piping hot out of the fire,
And, she being town-bred, mead for her desire
For some are won by means of money spent
And some by tricks and some by long descent.”

Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales – Public Domain

 In later years, tax and regulation drove commercial mead out of popularity with beer and wine becoming the predominant alcoholic drinks. Some monasteries in England and Wales kept up the traditions of mead-making as a by-product of beekeeping but with the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century mead all but disappeared.

Finally, when West Indian sugar began to be imported in quantity (from the 17th century), there was less incentive to keep bees to sweeten foods and the essential honey to ferment mead became scarcer across Europe leading to its decline.

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/03/history-of-mead/126299 

 

 

 

First Meadery to Open in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania

 From ellwoodcity.org

If you want to partake in the drink of the Norse Gods, you might want to stop into Fitzgibbon Meadery at 536 Lawrence Avenue.

You also can stop in if you just enjoy a delicious mead or country wine in general.

The locally owned and sourced meadery will be opening its doors on November 28. There will something for every palate ranging from dry to sweet in a variety of flavors.

Owners Eric and Misa McAnallen look forward to introducing their community to their homemade meads.

“As Ellwood City’s only Meadery, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to introduce our corner of Western Pennsylvania to the wonderful beverage that is Mead,” Eric said.

The McAnallens discovered their love for Meads and each other while participating in another hobby— medieval reenactment. While on a battlefield at Cooper’s Lake Campground during the annual Pennsic War in 2005, Eric met Misa and the rest is history. Fast forward a little to when the happily married couple expanded their love for the middle ages into a mead making adventure. It began as a two-batch experiment made from local honey and wild grapes harvested from their back yard in Ellwood City. One batch— Alawicious—really took and became popular among friends who would often request it as a favorite at an annual gathering. Since then, Eric and Misa have combined forces and talents to turn their hobby into a business.

Owners Eric and Misa McAnallen look forward to introducing their community to their homemade meads

 

“We really do complement one another,” Misa said.

Misa invents all the recipes. They make the mead together. Eric does the artwork and labels. Both have respective talents in IT and accounting. They are the perfect team.

Their love of everything medieval extends to every facet of their business—its theme, the meads and their names, and their storefront.

The McAnallens have turned their Lawrence Avenue location into a Mead Hall, which is as big of a part of Viking culture as the mead itself. They are hoping to appeal to local mead drinkers as well as to become a special destination for out of town visitors, especially those who attend the Pennsic War at Cooper’s Lake.

“We are hoping that our meadery will become a destination for these people,” Eric said.

They also hope that others will enjoy the Viking culture that will be an integral part of their meadery.

In addition to the Viking undertones, each experience with mead will be different when visiting Fitzgibbons.

“No two batches are ever going to be the same,” Misa said. “Flavors are specific to a batch. We can never be sure we will get the same thing twice. That’s mead for yah.”

The reason is honey. Mead is made with honey, and according to Misa and Eric, batches of honey can vary.

“Can’t make the bees do what you want them to do,” Misa said.

Misa uses all local honey sourced from Hickory, Pa. Fruits are also locally sourced if at all possible.

When Fitzgibbon Meadery opens on November 28, they will be offering six 1oz tastings. Because of COVID-19, there won’t be sit down options at this time. However, the McAnallens hope to offer flights, limited seating, and live entertainment in the future. They also hope to sell wine and mead related merchandise like cheese boards and coasters.

“We want it to be a relaxing place to be,” Eric said.

Most meads will cost between 15 and 20 dollars a bottle.

The meadery will be open Wednesday-Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. and Noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

To learn more about Fitzgibbon Meadery, how meads are made, where the name Fitzgibbon originated from, and the menu of flavors available, Click Here to visit their website.

You can also find them on Facebook.

https://ellwoodcity.org/2020/11/18/first-local-meadery-to-open-in-ellwood-city/ 

 

 

 

 

Washington DC: Hook Hall’s Outdoor “Viking Village” Is Open with Roaring Fires, Mead, and Turkey Legs

 From washingtonian.com 

Hook Hall's Viking Village. Photography by Fredde Lieberman

Huge indoor/outdoor Park View bar Hook Hall goes all-in on a new theme each season, and is just coming off a summery island oasis. For the first (and hopefully last) pandemic winter, owner Anna Valero is channeling something a little more fierce: a “viking village” decked out with wooden huts, roaring fire pits, pelts, and all the mead you can swill.

“Last year, we had a Swiss chalet theme—but we’re not exactly feeling apres ski,” says Hook Hall owner Anna Valero. “Primal is the best way to describe what we’re feeling right now.”

The outdoor setup is theatrically designed to accommodate a range of prices and small party sizes (max numbers are still limited to six seated guests per area). Patrons can book fire pit seats with blankets for $15, or go all-out and reserve themed huts for $125 that come with a bottle of Champagne, heaters, and retractable curtains. The groups can opt for special food and drink packages filled with items like warm Bavarian pretzels, beef stew, meats and cheeses, and Scandinavian beers. Those looking to stay inside can post up in the lofty interior, transformed into a viking hall.

Patrons can opt for special menus of beef stew and mead

In addition to immersive viking decor, the a la carte menu reads a little Nordic, a little Renaissance Festival. Behold: a giant smoked turkey leg, which you can wash down with Baltimore’s Charm City Mead in a massive horn-shaped cup. You’ll also find smoked seafood, cauldrons of mulled wine, forager-inspired salads, and three sizes of specialty drinking vessels that one can take home: a wooden tankard ($24), a viking mug ($36), and a drinking horn with a decorative stand ($42). And since we all know the seafaring Norse tribes were big on brunch, there’s that on weekends. 

Viking Village at Hook Hall. 3400 Georgia Ave., NW

https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/11/13/hook-halls-outdoor-viking-village-is-open-with-roaring-fires-mead-and-turkey-legs/ 

How this couple risked 'everything' to bring their world-famous mead business to Phoenix

 From eu.azcentral.com

When Jeff and Jen Herbert bought the historic Jim Ong’s Market building on Washington Street near downtown Phoenix, sunlight filtered inside through cracks in the red brick walls. 

The historic building was constructed in 1928 and once served as a grocery store for downtown Phoenix's Chinese community. Most recently, it was a dance studio before sitting empty for years.

Now, one of Prescott's most loved and sought after drinking spots has moved in.

A brand new kitchen has been fitted and will soon serve grilled octopus, Greek sesame pretzels, celery root gnocchi and Ukrainian cabbage rolls. But perhaps the most important thing on the menu is the mead, and lots of it.

The Herberts own Superstition Meadery, an award winning producer of the ancient honey wine based in Prescott.

"When we took the first huge step opening our tasting room in Prescott, we entered this world of risk and we haven’t left it," Jeff said. "But COVID introduced a level of risk that we’ve never seen."

Now, their new downtown Phoenix tasting room and restaurant will celebrate its grand opening on Nov. 7.

What is Superstition Meadery?

Superstition Meadery started in 2009 with a gifted home brew kit in "the shadow of Superstition Mountain," Jeff says. He fell in love with creating both beer and mead and while finishing his career as a fire fighter, drew up a business plan to open a brewery. 

 

"Every home brewer dreams of one day having a brewery," Jeff says. "And we had tried mead once at the Renaissance Fair out in Apache Junction but we didn't know anything about it."

Jeff studied anthropology at Arizona State University and always had an interest in history, religion and mythology, he says, so the concept of mead being one of humankind's oldest alcoholic beverages drew him in.

Eventually, after much reading and research, the couple set their sights on ancient honey wine and started making flavoured creations at a Skull Valley winery. What started with 18 square feet of rented space and four barrels of mead in 2011 grew to a company producing 6,800 gallons in 2016 for a downtown Prescott tasting room, a dedicated production facility and a company that sells mead around the world. 

"We never really thought that it was going to take off the way that it did as fast as it did, it was like overnight," Jen says. "People were like we need more, and I was like we need more space, we are going to run out, we don’t have enough to sell. It was a frenzy so we had rapid expansion."

Now, the company is growing again, expanding from Prescott with a tasting room in Phoenix. The renovated space features two options for bar side seating, one at the wall of meads and another facing the open kitchen. A patio hugs the eastern side of the building and a merchandise room sits at the back filled with t-shirts and bottles of mead to take home.

Here's what's on the food and drink menus 

Unlike the original Prescott tasting room, the downtown Phoenix location of Superstition Meadery is also a full restaurant compete with food and mead pairings. 

The Herberts hired chef Adolfo Heredia, who previously led the kitchen at Tuck Shop in Phoenix's Coronado neighborhood. Heredia and the Herberts worked together to recreate dishes the couple remembers from years of travel, inspiring an international menu. 

A large portion of the menu is dedicated to board-plated samplers perfect for pairing with Superstition's best-selling mead flights. Boards include traditional cheese and charcuterie options along with "Boards from the Fire," which feature honey shrimp, tandoori pheasant and soy ginger scallops among other options cooked on the kitchen's custom wood fired grill.

Handheld options include tacos and a variety of sandwiches, and both warm and cold salads are on the menu as well. For those looking to stay for a full dinner, the international theme continues with spicy Asian skirt steak, Catatonian fire roasted lamb and spiced duck to name a few entrees. 

Drink options include 24 meads on tap and five ciders. Flights of 12 one-ounce pours feature a variety of ciders, drier meads, semi-sweet and sweet meads.  A specialty flight will also be available, showcasing some of the small batch and one-off options.

What to expect on grand opening day

Each dish on the menu has a suggested mead pairing that either compliments the dish or is intentionally contrasting to boost the flavours. And for those who have visited the Prescott tasting room or tried Superstition's meads before, there are plenty of new varieties coming out.

"On opening day we'll have at least five, maybe 10, brand new releases," Jeff says. "It's more new releases in a day than we’ve ever had before."

Some new releases available on opening day include:

• Pistachio Grand Cru Berry, a blend of blueberry, strawberry raspberry and blackberry meads with white chocolate and pistachio.
• Sunrise Snorkel, a blueberry coconut mead aged in French oak barrels that previously held a blackberry cherry mead.
• Aphrodisia 22 and 23, two new batches of the meadery's Aphrodesia series. Twenty Two is made with cabernet grapes and Arizona honey. Twenty Three uses syrah grapes and Arizona honey. The meads are then aged for 2 years and reach over 16% alcohol.
• Ninth Mandala, a mead made in collaboration with Moksa Brewing Company that features raspberries, vanilla, pistachios and caramelized honey. It is then aged in Blueberry White barrels.

• Black Rose, an Arizona mesquite honey mead aged in multiple Four Roses Bourbon barrels over three years.

   

  The Black Rose is the longest-aged product Superstition has ever released, Jeff says, and it comes in at 20% alcohol by volume.

  "It’s goosebumps, it’s insane. It’s so good," he says, excited for customers and "mead geeks" to try it.

  Superstition has also recently delved into the world of grape wine. On opening day, the Herbert's plan to release their new orange wine made with muscat and sauvignon blanc grapes.

  "It has notes of guava and slate, it’s nutty and oxidized, it’s tannic, it’s everything orange wine is supposed to be," Jeff says.

  "And it would be perfect with the duck," Jen notes. 

  Superstition's core products Blueberry Spaceship Box cider, Tahitian Honeymoon vanilla mead, berry flavored Marion Mead, bourbon barrel aged Lagrimas De Oro and Desert Monsoon prickly pear mead will also be on the menu.

  'To risk everything, everything is on the line'

  On top of renovating a historic building, bringing their business to a new city and creating a new restaurant, the Herbert's have also faced the added struggles of 2020 while working to open their new taproom. 

  "We did some real soul searching like everyone in the world, for lots of reasons," Jeff says. "But we never slowed down."

  Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Herberts were forced to downsize from 29 staff members to 10 over the course of three days in what Jeff says was, "one of the hardest things we ever had to do."

  But they pushed ahead with the new location knowing that it would allow them to create jobs once again.  

  During the time when bars and restaurants were mandated by the state to close, Superstition relied on online sales and to-go orders from the Prescott taproom. They offered discounts, created a mead club and launched cocktail kits with their products. Staff members interacted with customers over social media and hosted tastings online.

  COVID-19 posed a different set of challenges while the couple was opening the new location. Electricians were hard to come by. Green bar stools were even more difficult to find, Jen says. Employees at City Hall had transitioned to working remotely, which impacted the permitting process.

  "We really had to learn how to work in a new system," Jeff says. The delays set back the opening, originally planned for the summer. 

  But silver linings are abundant, Jeff and Jen agree. Now, the restaurant will open with good weather. There are plenty of skilled servers and bartenders to hire. And customers, at this point, know the masking and capacity rules and are comfortable following them, Jeff says.

  The new restaurant will open at half capacity and offer seating both inside and outside on a patio decorated with a canopy of string lights. After such a long process, the Herberts are ready to open their doors, they say.

"You could probably say we are crazy for trying to do the first thing of it’s kind in an up and coming area in the worst year that we’ve all ever remembered. It’s crazy. But I think you have to be crazy to be an entrepreneur," Jeff says. "To risk everything, everything is on the line for Superstition Meadery and Superstition Downtown."

The new business opens on Nov. 4 for a soft opening while final details of the menu are worked out. The soft opening will continue through the week and the restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. The Herberts plan to celebrate the grand opening on Nov. 7.

Superstition Downtown

Details: 1110 E. Washington Street, Phoenix. superstitionmeadery.com/superstition-downtown-phoenix.

https://eu.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/dining/beer/2020/11/04/supersition-meaderys-new-mead-tasting-room-open-downtown-phoenix/3681193001/ 

 

New limited edition from the Kinsale Mead Company

From irishtimes.com

Now you can enjoy three-year-old mead aged in Sauternes barrels for 12 months

The Kinsale Mead Company released a second Limited Edition Barrel Aged Mead earlier this month. Following on from Wild Red Mead, which was aged in a Merlot barrel, we can now enjoy a three-year-old mead aged in Sauternes barrels for 12 months. There is one more to come too, a White Port Dry Mead.

“Mead has always been barrel aged, because at one time everything was transported by barrel,” says Kate Dempsey of Kinsale Mead.

“In the US, where there are now 500 meaderies, a lot of them are playing around with bourbon barrels. Our barrels come from Wild Geese wineries in Bordeaux; they come in wet, the wine has just been tipped out, so we have to pour the mead in straight away.”

The barrels have a medium char and, through a gentle oxygenation, impart a rich smoothness to the mead, as well as subtle flavours. The meads are aged for two years in tank, before spending their final year in barrel. 

“The Merlot has gone down really well, partly because people are familiar with the name, but they also enjoy the taste. The Sauternes needed longer in barrel. One of the few advantages of lockdown was that it had plenty of time to mature,” she says a little ruefully. 

Online tastings

Kinsale Mead can no longer offer tours because of Covid restrictions. Instead it now operates online tutored tastings with virtual tours of the meadery on Zoom. “It’s a fun talk, interspersed with tastings. We include little score sheets for people to fill out,” Dempsey says.

I tasted both barrel-aged meads; the Merlot has bright blackcurrant and sour cherry fruits with subtle honey notes and a smooth off-dry finish. The Sauternes barrel is floral and scented with layers of honey, toasted nuts and citrus peel. Both were intriguing and delicious. Try the Merlot with charcuterie, and the Sauternes with strong cheeses – it would be great with blue cheese.

All three barrel-aged meads are available for €27.95 from specialist spirit stores. A set of three miniatures of their original meads is €18.95. See kinsalemeadco.ie.

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/drink/new-limited-edition-from-the-kinsale-mead-company-1.4383030