Way back in the misty dawn of time, before human beings even had written language, they figured out how to get drunk. This was before people could cultivate grapes to make wine, and WAY before we knew how to grow grain and make beer. No, this was way back in either China or India when someone noticed that if honey got watered down, and wild yeast got in to it, then miraculously it would turn into booze.
This is just to say that humanity has been fascinated with mead for a long, LONG time - in Northern China, pottery vessels containing chemical signatures of a mixture of honey, rice, and other fruits, along with organic compounds of fermentation, were dated around 6,500 and 7,000 BC.
One would think that, both lacking a written language and now knowing how to be drunk most of the time, that ancient genius wouldn't be able to spread the word of their discovery. Instead mead has become a legend - ‘the drink of the gods’ - the ancestor of all fermented drinks associated with magic and mythologies in cultures from Sub-saharan Africa to Scandinavia to Central America to Micronesia.
Ancient Egyptians invented beekeeping in the mediterranean world, and saw them as sacred.Booze woven into human culture
Mead is everywhere in our culture and mythology. Greeks thought of bees as messengers of the heavens - possibly because they brought us honey to make mead. The drink called Ambrosia was said to be a mixture of honey and wine, and was served to the gods to make them immortal - leading to it's use in a variety of sacred rituals. In Norse mythology the Mead of Poetry was created by the god Odin, and was said to bestow great wisdom upon those who drank it.
In China, mead was known as Chang, and was considered a sacred drink that could confer health and long life upon those who drank it. In India, mead was called Soma, and was often used in religious ceremonies.
As mead production became popularized across the globe, it was drunk by the likes of Vikings, Mayans, and Egyptians, and the welsh made mead with herbs or spices called 'metheglin' which gave us the English word 'medicine.' Mead is even credited for the term “honeymoon,” as honey wine was historically served at weddings and gifted to newlyweds. The couple would drink it in excess a “moon" – or month – after their ceremony to enhance fertility.
The traditions of honey wine has also been referenced in literature throughout more modern history (you know, once we learned how to write) – from the epic poem Beowulf to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. More recently, mead is seen consumed by characters on Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, which might explain -at least in part – why it is seeing such a resurgence.
Simple, Elegant, really packs a punch
So what *is* mead, exactly? Mead is a wine made with honey instead of (or in addition to) grapes. The fermentation process for mead is the same as wine, and the alcohol content can range from about five percent all the way up to twenty. Mead can be still or sparkling, dry or sweet - it really just depends on how much sugar is left after fermentation.
The beauty of mead, aside from being delicious and giving one a nice buzz, is that the process of how we make it really hasn't changed much from all those people thousands of years ago. All you need is water, honey, yeast and time patience (oh god so much patience). If you want to get fancy you can add fruit or spices like we do in some of our brews - but that's really all there is to it - honey, water, and yeast.
So next time you're feeling particularly nerdy and mythology-esque, or just want to get drunk like our ancestors did, remember mead. The drink of the gods. Or goddesses. We hope you like our brew whoever you are. Cheers!