Mead

This article is about the alcoholic beverage. For other uses, see Mead (disambiguation).
Swedish elderflower flavored mead enjoyed on midsummer's eve.

Mead (/ˈmiːd/; archaic and dialectal "medd"; from Old English "meodu",[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" are often used synonymously.[13][14] Honey-wine is differentiated from mead in some cultures. 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 [mju:t] - 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 ([ˈmiut 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 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 USA, 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

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] The problem with this is that the honey-based mead does not have a sufficient quantity of nutrients to produce a wholesome mead.[33] To circumvent the nutrient issue, both commercial and homebrew mead makers add specific quantities of diammonium phosphate, vitamin B1, vitamin B12, vitamin B3, biotin, and other key minerals.[34] These are often added based on a staggered addition schedule in order to achieve a high-quality readily-drinkable mead.[35] In some cases, the mead prepared with a staggered nutrient addition can be consumed the moment it is bottled as opposed to waiting over one year for it to age.[36]

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.[37]

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

After primary fermentation slows down significantly — usually when specific gravity reaches 1.010 — 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.[38] Some producers have marketed white wine sweetened and flavored with honey after fermentation as mead, sometimes spelling it "meade."[38] 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/.[39][40]

A mead that contains fruit (such as raspberry, blackberry or strawberry) is called a melomel,[41] 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.[41]

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.[42]

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

Festivals

In literature

See also: Mead of poetry

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

References

  1. 1 2 "mead". The Oxford Universal Dictionary on Historical Principles (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. 1944. p. 1222.
  2. ↑ http://www.yourdictionary.com/mead
  3. ↑ Beer is produced by the fermentation of grain, but grain can be used in mead provided it is strained off immediately. As long as the primary substance fermented is still honey, the drink is still mead.Fitch, Edward (1990). Rites of Odin. St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Worldwide. p. 290. ISBN 9780875422244.
  4. ↑ Hops are better known as the bitter ingredient of beer. However, they have also been used in mead both ancient and in modern times. The Legend of Frithiof mentions hops: Mohnike, G.C.F. (September 1828 – January 1829). "Tegner's Legend of Frithiof". The Foreign Quarterly Review (London: Treuttel and Würtz, Treuttel, Jun and Richter) III. He next ... bids ... Halfdan recollect ... that to produce mead hops must be mingled with the honey; That this formula is still in use is shown by the recipe for "Real Monastery Mead" in Molokhovets, Elena (1998). Classic Russian Cooking. Joyce Stetson (trans.). Indiana University Press. p. 474. ISBN 0-253-21210-3.
  5. ↑ Lichine, Alexis. Alexis Lichine’s New Encyclopedia of Wines & Spirits (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), 328.
  6. ↑ Gayre, Robert (1986). Brewing Mead. Brewers Publications. p. 158. ISBN 0-937381-00-4. ...Therefore to our synopsis: Mead is the general name for all drinks made of honey.
  7. ↑ Rose, Anthony H. (1977). Alcoholic Beverages. Michigan: Academic Press. p. 413.
  8. ↑ Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat (Anthea Bell, tr.) The History of Food, 2nd ed. 2009:30.
  9. ↑ Hornsey, Ian (2003). A History of Beer and Brewing. Royal Society of Chemistry. p. 7. ISBN 0-85404-630-5. ...mead was known in Europe long before wine, although archaeological evidence of it is rather ambiguous. This is principally because the confirmed presence of beeswax or certain types of pollen ... is only indicative of the presence of honey (which could have been used for sweetening some other drink) - not necessarily of the production of mead.
  10. ↑ http://www.penn.museum/sites/biomoleculararchaeology/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/GrogGreeks.pdf
  11. ↑ http://www.penn.museum/sites/Midas/feastremains.shtml
  12. ↑ Lévi-Strauss, J. and D. Weightman, tr. From Honey to Ashes, London:Cape 1973 (Du miel aux cendres, Paris 1960)
  13. ↑ Morse, Roger (1992). Making Mead (Honey Wine). Wicwas Press. ISBN 978-1878075048.
  14. ↑ Schramm, Ken (2003). The Compleat Meadmaker: Home Production of Honey Wine From Your First Batch to Award-winning Fruit and Herb Variations. Brewers Publications. ISBN 978-0-937381-80-9.
  15. ↑ History of beer in Hungary - difference between mead and honey-wine (in Hungarian)
  16. ↑ McGovern, P. E.; Zhang, J; Tang, J; Zhang, Z; Hall, G. R.; Moreau, R. A.; Nuñez, A; Butrym, E. D.; et al. (December 6, 2004). "Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101 (51): 17593–8. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407921102. PMC 539767. PMID 15590771.
  17. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=V3sCCLcsJFkC&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&dq=archaeological+evidence+for+the+European+production+of+mead&source=bl&ots=m_pLTrmTgO&sig=isBbJMpYQIOWldDJ8cV_hIhPDPc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAmoVChMItvitqJizxwIVh3ySCh3BPwEN#v=onepage&q=archaeological%20evidence%20for%20the%20European%20production%20of%20mead&f=false
  18. ↑ Rigveda Book 5 v. 43:3–4, Book 8 v. 5:6, etc
  19. ↑ Kerenyi, Karl (1976). Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life. Princeton University Press. p. 35. ISBN 0-691-09863-8.
  20. ↑ Pliny the Elder. Natural History XIV. XII:85 etc.
  21. ↑ about half a liter
  22. ↑ about 1/3 kg
  23. ↑ about 1/4 kg
  24. ↑ Columella, AD 60 De re rustica
  25. ↑ Llyfr Taliesin XIX
  26. ↑ Buhner, Stephen Harrod (1998). Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers: The Secrets of Ancient Fermentation. Siris Books. ISBN 0-937381-66-7.
  27. ↑ Online Etymology Dictionary entry for 'mead'
  28. ↑ http://elisa.net/uutiset/ruoka/?id=4104
  29. ↑ Gittleson, Kim (2013-10-02). "The drink of kings makes a comeback". BBC News Online. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  30. ↑ Bender, Andrew. "Top 10 Food Trends". Forbes.
  31. ↑ "Mead, the honey-based brew producing a real buzz". CBS News. 2013-11-24.
  32. ↑ "Making Mead: the Art and the Science" (PDF). Beer Judge Certification Program. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  33. ↑ "Nutrients and Mead". Northern Brewer. 6 September 2011. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  34. ↑ "What Are Yeast Nutrients And How Are They Used?". "Brew Your Own" Magazine. December 2007. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  35. ↑ Colby, Chris (26 June 2013). "Staggered Nutrient Additions in Mead Making". Beer and Wine Journal. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  36. ↑ Stock, Curt. "Other Fruit Melomels — for Experienced Dummies" (PDF). Beer Judge Certification Program. p. 2. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  37. ↑ Schramm, Ken (2003). The Compleat Meadmaker. Brewers Publications. pp. 31, 37. ISBN 978-0-937381-80-9.
  38. 1 2 Eoghan Odinsson, Northern Lore, p. 160
  39. ↑ Tayleur, W.H.T.; Michael Spink (1973). The Penguin Book of Home Brewing and Wine-Making. Penguin. p. 292. ISBN 0-14-046190-6.
  40. ↑ Aylett, Mary (1953). Country Wines, Odhams Press. p. 79
  41. 1 2 Tayleur, p. 291.
  42. ↑ http://www.gotmead.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=1094
  43. ↑ "Russian Honey Drink". EnglishRussia.com. Accessed May 2010.
  44. ↑ "Mead". Saku Brewery. Retrieved 2015-02-17.
  45. ↑ Sack in the Oxford Companion to Wine
  46. ↑ 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
  47. ↑ .The Mazer Cup International official website
  48. ↑ Real Ale Festival official website
  49. ↑ Orcas Island Cider and Mead Festival official website

Further reading

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article mead.
Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, May 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.