Mead: Honey Wine is Popular with Home-Brewers, Meaderies, and Wineries Too

I was greeted by a statue of Bacchus as I approached the entrance to Berrywine Plantations and Linganore Winecellars tasting room. I was searching for mead. The legendary wine of the gods has been gaining popularity in the United States for several years and I decided it was time to search for a winery and see how popular mead really is.

Honey Wine

The tasting room was large, airy and light; I was greeted by Brittany. I told her of my interest in mead and she ushered me to an area with many bottles of golden nectar produced on site and named Medieval Mead. She said the honey wine is very popular at the local Renaissance Fair but has also begun to be requested for the once popular honey wine that it is. (The ingredients are honey, water and yeast; it has a 6% residual sugar content.) A tasting verified that it is light, slightly sweet and has little aftertaste.

While leaning against the light oak tasting counter I mentioned that I had read about adding herbs and spices during the fermentation process. Brittany shared that she was fermenting some mead and infusing it with cranberry; her brother-in-law was fermenting mead and infusing it with coffee beans. Our conversation led to a tasting of Tej; mead produced in Ethiopia. Tej was a darker golden color with a heavier taste and a spicy aftertaste.

Legendary Wine

I told Brittany that I had tried mead once in Lompoc, CA in the late 1970s at a Viking themed restaurant. I enjoyed the flavor and thought it was fun just to drink a legendary beverage that had been mentioned in so many stories of ancient times. I had never seen mead offered before and it really hadn't entered my mind until recent articles and advertisements appeared and aroused my curiosity.

Brewing Mead

In Culinary Herbs and Condiments it states that "Formerly every farmhouse inn had a brewing plant and brew-house attached to the buildings, and all brewed their own beer till the large breweries were established and supplanted home-brewed beers." Home-brewing is becoming popular again. Not only are individuals currently brewing their own beers again but wines too. Mead is gaining popularity among home-brewers for several reasons: few ingredients, taste, commercial availability and uniqueness.

The number of meaderies, wineries which brew mead and commercially produced mead products has increased in the past few years both in the United States and around the world. Like the increase in home-brewed and specialty brews of beer which infuse spices, fruits and berries into the brew mead is also being made with these same types of infusions and new fermentation recipes. An online search will lead you to local wineries, meaderies, commercial products and a new way to look at mead.

Resources:

Culinary Herbs and Condiments by M. Grieve, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 383 Madison Avenue, New York 1934

Mead, drink of vikings, comes out of the Dark Ages The Sacramento Bee, AP Nat6ional Writer, Published Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010