Sweet stuff

Last week in my article I mentioned that the Real Ale festival was February 12th, well, I was off by a few months, it is this Saturday, NOVEMBER 12th. That is what happens sometimes when you write an article at 3:00 in the morning.

This week I am going to take a detour from beer. No, I am not sick and it is not 3 A.M. But this Wednesday, NOVEMBER 9th from 6:00 to 8:00 we are going to have a couple of good friends of Papago from Boulder, Colorado stop in for a tasting of mead. David and Madoka Myers from Redstone Meadery will be pouring some of their delicious meads including some that are not available here in Arizona. David was a homebrewer who took the unusual step of instead of pursuing brewing beer as a profession started making mead commercially.

Mead has a long history. It may well be the oldest fermented beverage. King Midas drank mead as was discovered in an archeological dig. That was the basis for the Dogfish Head Midas Touch that we recently had on tap. There are indications that the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Celts, Scandinavians (Vikings), Incas and Aztecs used mead, both in festivals and as a religious drink. The term 'Honeymoon' comes from the common practice of drinking honey wine for a full cycle of the moon during medieval times. Mead was considered an aphrodisiac and the newly married couple were to drink mead for the first month of their marriage to ensure that the union would be fruitful one.

The reason that many people made mead is clear, to make alcohol you need sugar, and honey was natures own most readily available sugar source. Honey by itself will not ferment but if you dilute honey with water and add yeast you will produce alcohol. Many people assume that because mead is made with honey that it is sweet, well like wine, mead can be sweet or dry depending on what yeast is used.
Until the 1800's both meads and sparkling meads were highly popular beverages, especially in northern regions of Europe, where wine grapes could not easily be grown. As the importance of honey was displaced by less expensive sugars, mead was gradually displaced by less costly beers and ales and to a lesser degree by wines. Today, you can buy mead that is traditional (just honey, water and yeast) or what is most popular these days are meads made with fruits or spices added.
Mead making now is kind of a crossover between wine making and brewing. Many brewers (both professional and homebrewers) including myself regularly make mead at home. This past weekend there was a mead competition for homemade mead here in Phoenix and Uwe Boer of Sonora Brewing Tap House won best of show for his Rose Petal mead. I did win a gold medal for my own Pina Colada Mead.
This Wednesday, especially if you have friends who say they don't like beer I encourage you to bring them in and to introduce them to mead.
Prost, Ron