Mead is a fermented drink made from honey, sometimes called honey wine. In it's simplest form it is just honey diluted with water and fermented by yeast.

Some believe that mead is the oldest fermented drink made by man, there is evidence of mead making as much as 5,000 years ago. Mead is found all through Viking mythology and is known to have been made by the ancient Celts, Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians.

Over time many different styles of mead evolved using different ingredients and flavorings. Some styles are:

• Traditional:   Simply honey, water, and yeast

• Pyment:   Mead made with grapes or grape juice

• Metheglin:   Mead with cloves, cinnamon, or other spices

• Hippocras:   Pyment with spices added

• Melomel:   Mead with fruit or fruit juices

• Cyser:   Mead with apples or apple juice added

• Morat:   Mead made with mulberries

• Braggot:   Mead with malt

• Sack:   Extra-honey meads that are sweet with high alcohol

This is not a complete list, but these are probably the most common types.

Today there seems to be a growing interest in mead and mead making. There is lots of information about mead available on the internet, and lots of people making and talking about mead at the locale home brew clubs. So if you need more information to fill in the gaps it shouldn't be hard to find. You can e-mail me with questions, comments, or if you have any suggestions for my web pages, I'll be glad to hear from you.

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!!! Happy Mead Making !!!

Site last updated November 07, 2009