Why Mead?

Preserving the Harvest

The world’s oldest alcoholic drink, mead is nothing more than fermented honey and water and has a long salubrious history. But before I was a beekeeper, I had not even heard of it. And then, three years ago, faced with an alarmingly prolific honey harvest, I began looking for ways of preserving my gorgeous honey-harvest indefinitely. There is, after all, only so much honey-on-toast one can eat.

And so I found myself down a long and winding rabbit hole filled with ancient myths and writings about the world. Several twists and turns later I stumbled upon references to an alcoholic beverage that was drunk by both people and gods alike. If you have ever tried it, it is easy to understand why our ancestors thought mead had magical and sacred properties and would prolong life, bestow health, strength, and virility.

Mead was made by our ancestors by simply diluting honey with water in clay or wooden vessels, then leaving airborne yeasts and those found naturally in the honey to do the rest. I knew that the naturally occurring enzymes and beneficial properties of raw honey are left completely intact if not heated. The pollen in raw honey has been known to be beneficial to those suffering from allergies and the enzymes can help digest the foods you consume with the honey. What I did not know was that the fermentation of honey increases those benefits. 

I had found a way of not only preserving the harvest but also of making wine “super healthy”! And so it was that I found myself making my first Saskatoon Berry Mead on Christmas Day 2017. And the seed of obsession was planted.

Today commercial mead producers tend to produce it in a variety of sweetness levels: from bone dry to lusciously sweet and it can be still or sparkling.The current production and consumption of mead seems to be confined to beekeepers and the fraternity who indulge in historical re-enactments. Mead is well-known and the choice of drink at medieval tournaments, Viking society meetings, and the Society for Creative Anachronism events--which is where I ultimately began my mead-making journey.

Mead is one of the fastest growing segments of the alcohol beverage industry and with this Renaissance it is making its way out from the shadows and into the mainstream. And now I am part of that reawakening!