Nectar of the Gods

April 18, 2016 6:04 PM

The Story of Mead A long, long time ago, before the invention of writing and polyester, a lucky human stumbled upon the contents of a beehive. The beehive had been left out in the rain, and the honey inside had fermented. Behold; MEAD!

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The Past, Present and Future of Mead

A Brief History of Mead

posted by Michele in California (28 comments total)

Is mead actually any good? What does it pair with?
posted by asockpuppet at 6:36 PM on April 18, 2016

God bless the first idiots that decided to eat whatever was laying on the ground.
posted by littlesq at 6:45 PM on April 18, 2016 [5 favorites]

Is there anything starvation can't make delicious?
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:56 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I tried making a batch, kinda tasted like catpiss. I decided to leave it to other people who knew what they were doing.
posted by peeedro at 6:59 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I may have mentioned this before, but years back, an old roommate of mine brought a bottle of mead back from a RenFest. It tasted so vile I actually gagged. And you're talking to some who happily drinks FourLoko.
posted by jonmc at 7:20 PM on April 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

Wow, you guys have had some bad mead. I had some years ago that some workmates made - they brewed it with chai spices, and omfg you could just drink the stuff until you puked. not that i did that.

okay, I totally prayed to the porcelain god after like 8 pints of the stuff, but it seriously was THAT good you had no idea you were drinking something that was above 10%abv.
posted by thebotanyofsouls at 7:25 PM on April 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

I think it's equally possible humans first understood "sweet liquid + time = rad liquid" then started applying said knowledge to every sweet liquid they could get their hands on, as well as some non-sweet but plenty starchy liquids.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:26 PM on April 18, 2016 [5 favorites]

Funny timing, I was just at my local brewing shop looking at carboys this morning. I've been trying to figure out where I can set up a small mead-brewing operation in my very small apartment. I had my first mead about a half a year ago, and it was delicious!
posted by lekvar at 7:34 PM on April 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I never really liked honey as a food but then I fermented it and discovered something even more disgusting. I made a few different kinds with fruit but they all had revolting undertones of nasty honey smell that made me gag. It was an expensive way to water my compost heap... I went on to winemaking and homebrewing and had much better alcoholic drinks after that.
posted by glip at 7:39 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Asking if it's any good is kind of like asking if beer is any good? I've had light, floral mead that tasted like a summer sipping drink (often mixed, shandy-style, with lemonade) and thick, heavy, knock you on your ass sugar bombs that have to be shotgunned.
posted by The Whelk at 7:54 PM on April 18, 2016 [6 favorites]

I made some sweet Mead with cherry last summer. Added an extra pound and a half to the recipe that was already for sweet sack. Basically doing nothing but wait made it very drinkable if you like sweet things. Patience and yeast nutrients are key.

I've also made a couple quick melomels (fruit meads). Maybe I've been lucky but I find them to be more consistently tasty than turbo cider. Its not the cheapest sugar source but it's a good way to keep carboys in use between beer batches. It takes maybe a half hour to get it ready for the yeast to do their magic.
posted by lownote at 8:18 PM on April 18, 2016

We made hydromel at a restaurant I used to work at. Really simple... 50/50 (or maybe 60/40?) honey/water, some champagne yeast, leave it alone for a month and vent off the fumes from time to time. Filtered, it was delicious.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:29 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you need to know how to make quick, simple, and delicious mead, this may help you.
posted by freakazoid at 8:36 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

We usually make a small mead every year for spring. Sweet, carbonated, flavored with ginger and orange peel. From a medieval recipe I found years back.

I once tried to make it from memory. I was away from home. I used WAY too much honey. I hopped it. I used champagne yeast. People got naked. Time was lost.

Recently we made some regular mead. Then we jacked it to about 25%. Then we back-sweetened with the same honey. Amazing stuff. Good for a few drinks and mixing with applejack. Too much and tomorrow is hell.

Mead can be an easy entry point into brewing.
posted by Seamus at 8:37 PM on April 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

One of the things about mead is that there's kind of an inverse bell curve to quality over time. Really young meads that are still a bit sweet are tasty, but then as they dry they develop a funk that can take 2-3 years to age out. After that they're good again, but there's kind of a gross intermediate stage.

Another tricky bit about mead is that straight honey and water can be very slow to ferment. Most honeys, especially if they've been filtered, don't have quite all the nutrients that yeast need. Brewers typically add a small amount of trace nutrients so that the yeast can take hold quickly and outcompete anything else. Even so it can take a very, very long time for mead to ferment to dryness, on the scale of months to years. More than one homebrewer has been surprised by mead that was bottled too early popping its cork or worse.
posted by jedicus at 8:41 PM on April 18, 2016 [7 favorites]

I've drunk sparkling apple cider from a vending machine accidentally fermented over the weekend on an office desk after a Friday homebrew tasting, so I salute our alcoholic forefathers and foremothers
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:00 PM on April 18, 2016 [4 favorites]

If you need to know how to make quick, simple, and delicious mead, this may help you.

I dunno about quick; I'm curious about the JAOM recipe as an entrypoint into meadmaking, but everything I've read about it suggests it needs a fair bit of age to get good. I've been thinking about making a gallon and forgetting it into the back of the closet for a year.

(I'm also curious about some of the short mead recipes in Speed Brewing which are mostly fruited lower-alcohol meads/melomels that claim to need a lot less time. An interesting book.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:39 PM on April 18, 2016

The fact that the word for "mead" is similar in all European languages is the testament to the age of this invention. I've never tried to make my own, but the varieties that are available in my country go from dry and light to very sweet and potent, with various floral undertones depending on the honey. It's been a while since I tasted mead but I never encountered a brand I'd despise. Perhaps as it's never been very popular, there is no easy money in it and no incentive to mess with the recipe.
posted by hat_eater at 2:24 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've made mead (methglyn actually, it had spices as well) with honey from my own hive. I've still got a few bottles that are now 6 or 7 years old and it is fantastic, it genuinely is very nice. It did have a pretty bad acetone nose on it for the first few years though.

The trick with any honey brewing, including in things like beer, is time, a lot more time than most home brewers want to invest.
posted by deadwax at 3:48 AM on April 19, 2016

Is mead actually any good? What does it pair with?
posted by asockpuppet


Some meads are fizzy and beery; I'm not fond of those.

But I finally found a dessert wine
style mead, like the one I had in the UK. It's wonderful.

It pairs best with itself, as an aperitif or after dinner drink.
posted by jb at 5:06 AM on April 19, 2016

I've been dabbling with making meads for a couple years now. The best tip I can offer is stay away from champagne yeast. It will brew pure, unpalatable rocket fuel. That, and the JAOM recipe, while an easy entry point, is substandard. If you're interested in giving it a serious try pick up a copy of Ken Schramm's The Compleat Meadmaker.
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 7:18 AM on April 19, 2016

Our small mead takes a month from start to finish. Two weeks if we force carbonate.
There is no bad flavor because the starting gravity is lower and the intent is not to ferment dry to show off the flavors in the honey.
The small mead pairs well with whatever the hell you eat on a warm day in spring in the backyard while playing drinking-rules croquet. It's bubbly and slightly sweet, like a spritzer or a light soda with about 5% alcohol.

Meads that start with a higher gravity and ferment dry definitely need time. Years are best.
Meads like that are best served by choosing the honey specifically for the recipe. If you go with a commercial blended honey you end up with muddy flavors. You go from a single hive or a single varietal and you have cleaner flavors (after you age it).

I agree with the admonition about champagne yeast. But that one time we did brew it, the hops and the sweetness made the rocket fuel a little less mind burning. Would not repeat.
posted by Seamus at 7:34 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Is mead actually any good?...
posted by asockpuppet at 9:36 PM on April 18 [+] [!]

No wonder you're incognito. /sarcasm

That said, mead is delicious, doubly so if it's home made, which is really easy to make, as I've said before.
posted by RolandOfEld at 8:51 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

I get the impression that a lot of new mead makers drink their mead way too soon. My experience is that mead really benefits from ageing. This is particularly true with dry meads but even the simple Joe's Ancient Orange mentioned up thread is better with a few years on it.
posted by maurice at 9:20 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

The Maine Mead Works produces a very nice, very sipper light aperitif style mead
posted by The Whelk at 9:49 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Metafilter: People got naked. Time was lost.


That should totes be our next T-shirt.
posted by Michele in California at 10:41 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

For those in the Michigan area who have not already had the pleasure, B. Nektar Meadery in Ferndale makes some pretty delicious stuff.
posted by tempestuoso at 11:56 AM on April 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

I get the impression that a lot of new mead makers drink their mead way too soon.

Rule of Brewing: Homebrew wine and beer, the former includes mead in my book, is generally ready about the time you finish drinking the last bottle.
posted by RolandOfEld at 1:20 PM on April 19, 2016 [5 favorites]