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Mead is probably the oldest alcoholic beverage known to
Man. Just about every ancient culture
was known to make it, and prior to beer and wine, it was what everyone drank
with dinner. If you’ve heard of mead,
chances are it was while reading middle-English texts in college such as
Chaucer or Beowulf. But mead making has
come a long way since then, and a fresh crop of new mead makers want to change
the way you think about this ancient beverage.
Simply put, mead is made by fermenting honey with
yeast. The yeast eats the honey and
gives off carbon dioxide and alcohol.
It’s similar to how beer or wine is made, but the unique flavor profiles
of honey put this drink into a category of its own.
In the last decade the number of commercial
mead producers in the US
alone has jumped from under 10 to over 80.
Interest in this niche beverage is still under the radar, but a
confluence of trends – interest in wine, the blossoming of the micro-brew
industry and the general development of the American palate – has helped this
tiny market grow steadily over the last decade.
Interest in modern mead is also burgeoning in New Zealand, Germany, the
UK, Holland, Denmark and France (where it's called hydromiel). And mead never ceased to be popular in Ethiopia, where tej, homemade mead, is the "national drink."
Mead Styles
There are two distinct styles of mead making emerging out of
this new crop of modern meaderies. One
models their approach after the micro-brew beer industry. The other follows a wine making
approach. Each creates a unique product,
and there are some excellent examples of both.
Redstone
David Mayers of Redstone Meadery in Boulder is in the beer camp. After many years home brewing he turned his
attention to mead, founding Redstone five years ago. His meads are as easy to drink as any beer or
cider. He says, “mead is the oldest
drink no one knows about.” And yet,
Mayers is currently selling in 20 of the US states and has reached a level
of success most modern meaderies would be envious of.
Sky
River
Denise Engles of Sky
River in Washington first learned about mead as many
of us did, in English literature class in college. When she married into a beekeeping family,
she decided to try mead making. “The
Achilles heel of mead is that it’s considered sweet and syrupy,” she
explains. Engles’ goal was to make a
light and dry mead you could drink with food.
She uses light flavored honey, which she personally blends to create her
signature mead-making honey. Honeys,
even if they are from the same place and same flower, taste different during
different years. To produce a signature
taste, Engles blends the honeys to create a consistent product. Because mead is
not (yet) allowed to proclaim a vintage year, inconsistency can be a burden for
producers and consumers alike.
Currently, Sky
River makes three
meads: dry, semi-sweet and sweet.
Rabbit’s Foot
Mike Faul of Rabbit’s Foot Meadery in Sunnyvale, Calif. falls in the middle
ground of modern meaderies – borrowing ideas from both the beer and wine industries. He also started as a home brewer. But when his wife fell in love with mead
after a trip to his home in Ireland
he made it his mission to try and make it himself. The Rabbit’s Foot Meadery product line is
vast. There is something for everyone –
from dry mead, to cyser (old English word for apple-honey cider) on tap, to his
lovely and delicate Melia dessert mead.
Future of Mead
Jennifer Herz, organizer of the International Mead Festiva, held every February in Denver,
says, “Most people have never heard of mead, but once they try one of these
modern meads, they leave converted.” The
festival is doing its best to get mead recognized and consumed by more
people. Last year’s festival had 1,300
attendees. Slowly, the word is getting
out. But there is still time to be an early adopter....
Looking for mead?
Wine and liquor shops are slow to catch the mead wave. If you live in the US, a good resource is Honeywine.com
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