Greetings and welcome to my new brewers column.   Wines, ales, and drinks of many sorts have been known to pass the lips of many an attendee at our gathers. Whilst I enjoy these other pleasures myself, my first love is mead. But what exactly is mead? And where does it come from? Answering these questions is my first job.  There are many historians and experts who believe that mead was the first alcoholic beverage made by man. The Egyptian and Greek empires were known to produce this as long ago as five thousand years. Fruits were not as widely grown in ancient times and thus were not used as early for winemaking. Cane sugar was completely unknown as well. This left honey as the primary sweetener for making wines. When honey is diluted with water and allowed to ferment mead is the result. When different ingredients are added to this basic recipe the mead is known by a different name. Following are some of the most common of these:

Melomel-          honey mixed with fruit juice and fermented. A few exceptions exist.

Cyser-              a mead formed from honey and apple juice. Obviously this is one of those exceptions.

Pyment-             grape wine with honey added.

Hippocras-       a mead made from honey, grape juice, and herbs. Named after the
                        Greek Hippocrates “the father of medicine”. He was known to make such meads.  

Metheglin-        mead with herbs and spices added. This is named after the Welsh word medclyglin or medicine.