One of the easiest drinks to make for the beginner homebrewer is a basic mead.
But what is mead?
And where did it come from?
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Read on to find out more about this interesting drink, just in time for National Mead Day, a “lively celebration” of the drink that takes place on the first Saturday in August each year.
1. Mead has many names and varieties
“Mead, also known as mead, is one of the most incredible fermented beverages known to man,” Julia Hertz, executive director of the Colorado-based American Homebrewers Association, told Fox News Digital in an email.
While wine is made from fermented grapes, mead is made from fermented honey, hence the name “honey wine.”
Mead is an alcoholic drink made from fermented honey, and mead lovers celebrate the drink on the first Saturday in August every year. (iStock)
According to the American Homebrewers Association website, the ancient Greeks called mead “ambrosia” or “nectar.”
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Mead can also be mixed with other drinks.
According to the American Homebrewers Association, mead “mixed with beer or brewed with hops and malt” is called “braggot,” while mead with fruit is called “mellomel.”
“Hydromel is a watered-down version consumed in Spain and France,” the website says.
Mead can be mixed with different fruits and herbs to create a variety of flavors. (Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Hartz said the type of honey used to make the mead also plays a role.
“Mead can also be made by adding fruits, herbs and spices to the fermented honey for added sensory pleasure,” she says. “There are hundreds of different honey varieties, so the experimentation and possibilities are endless.”
2. Mead played a role in ancient religious traditions
The American Homebrewers Association says mead “was believed to be the drink of the gods, thought to fall as dew from the heavens and be collected by bees.”
“many European Culture They also believed that bees were messengers of the gods and preferred mead to wine during rituals and great ceremonies.”
According to Norse mythology, warriors who reach Valhalla are given a glass of mead. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
Kinsale Mead, an Irish mead brewery, notes on its website that mead was drunk by many ancient cultures, including the Egyptians, Celts, Greeks, Chinese and Vikings.
According to the American Homebrewers Association, mead was especially important in Viking and Norse mythology.
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It is said that warriors who reached Valhalla, the warrior’s heaven in Norse mythology, were promised a “cup of mead delivered by a holy maiden” as a reward.
According to the mead information website Got Mead?, a type of mead called “Tej” or “T’ej” is still the national drink of Ethiopia, and t’ej has been brewed in Ethiopia since the 4th century.
Tej, a mead brewed and consumed in Ethiopia, is the country’s national drink. (iStock)
3. Mead is the oldest form of alcohol.
According to a BBC report, traces of mead have been found on pottery in northern China dating back to 9000 BC, meaning that mead predates the wheel by thousands of years.
According to the BBC, the drink was first brewed in Europe between 2800 and 1800 BC.
Hartz said mead is “literally living liquid history in a glass.”
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Hartz said the oldest forms of mead were made from rainwater and a natural fermentation process.
“Since the days when beehives in tree trunks first diluted with rainwater and wild yeasts fermented it, this ‘wine’ has been making the world a better place,” she said.
Mead has been brewed for thousands of years, predating the invention of the wheel. (iStock)
Today, mead is still brewed using the same ingredients.
According to the American Homebrewers Association website, the main ingredients of traditional dry mead are just water, honey, and yeast.
4. Mead (probably) coined the term “honeymoon.”
After the wedding, it is very common for the newlyweds to go on a “honeymoon”.
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Dictionary.com claims that one of the reasons the trip is called a “honeymoon” has to do with mead.
The word “honeymoon” may have come from the mead-drinking tradition. (iStock)
According to Dictionary.com, the term “honeymoon” comes from the Old English “hony moone.”
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“There are several theories [about] “This is where the name comes from: it may have come from the old names for the full moon in June, ‘Mead Moon’ or ‘Honey Moon,'” it said.
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At the time, mead was thought to increase fertility and bring good fortune to couples, according to the website Batch Mead, so newlyweds would time their drinks to coincide with the full moon.
